ABSTRACT
Like many of the terms used by social scientists, public opinion has no precise, universally agreed-on definition.1 Lord Bryce said of public opinion, it is the “aggregate of views men hold . . . that affect the community,” whereas V. O. Key in Public Opinion and American Democracy specifically links the term to government, writing that public opinion is those “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.”2 Bernard Hennessy, on the other hand, writes that it is simply “the complex of preferences expressed by a significant number of persons on an issue of general importance.”3 Lane and Sears avoid the problem of definition altogether, assuming (presumably) that its meaning is obvious. So they write that “opinions have to be about something,”4 and the “something” they say public opinion is about is (1) the political system, (2) the choice of group loyalties and identifications (race, religion, region, and social class), (3) the choice of leaders, and (4) public policy preferences.5
