Abstract
Public opinion is an imprecise and often misused term. Who exactly is the “public”—the vocal minority, the silent majority, or both—and what is meant by “opinion”? Is opinion a stable attitude or simply a temporary view? If it is the latter, is this view based on imprecise information or sound reasoning? Is an opinion conditional? Is it temporary? Are opinions organized into coherent structures of attitude and belief, or are they jumbled and incoherent?
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Notes
Peter G. Peterson, Finding America’s Voice: A Strategy for Reinvigorating U.S. Public Diplomacy: Report of an Independent Task Force Sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations ( New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2003 ).
See, e.g., Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes, America against the World: How We Are Different and Why We Are Disliked ( New York: Times Books 2006 ).
In addition to the landmark works by Lippmann cited here, major works in the elitist tradition include Gabriel Almond, The American People and Foreign Policy (New York: Praeger, 1950); “Public Opinion and National Security,” Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 2 (1956), pp. 371–8
Thomas A. Bailey, The Man in the Street: The Impact of American Public Opinion on Foreign Policy ( New York: Macmillan, 1948 )
George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900–1950 ( Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951 )
Michael Crozier, Samuel P. Huntington, and Joji Watanuki, The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of the Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (New York: New York University Press, 1975 ).
Phillip E. Converse, “Attitudes and Non-Attitudes: Continuation of a Dialogue,” in Edward R. Tufte ed., Analysis of Social Problems ( Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1962 )
Converse, “The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics,” in David Apter ed., Ideology and Discontent ( New York: Wiley, 1964 ), pp. 206–61.
The classic study supporting the elitists’ conclusion that public opinion does not affect policy is by Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes, “Constituency Influence in Congress,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 57, No. 1 (March 1963), pp. 45–6. Also see
Michael Margolis and Gary Mauser (eds.), Manipulating Public Opinion: Essays on Public Opinion as a Dependent Variable ( Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1989 )
Benjamin Ginsberg, The Captive Public: How Mass Opinion Promotes State Power ( New York: Basic Books, 1986 ).
Major pluralist works include Sidney Verba, Richard A. Brody, Edwin B. Parker, Norman H. Nie, Nelson W. Polsby, Paul Ekman, and Gordon S. Black, “Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 61, pp. 317–33; John E. Mueller, War, Presidents and Public Opinion ( New York: Wiley, 1973 )
Ole R. Holsti, “Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: Challenges to the Almond–Lippmann Consensus,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4 (December 1992), pp. 440–5
Miroslav Nincic, “A Sensible Public: New Perspectives on Popular Opinion and Foreign Policy,” Journal ofConflict Resolution, Vol. 36, No. 4 (December 1992), pp. 772–89
Bruce W. Jentleson, “The Pretty Prudent Public: Post Post-Vietnam American Opinion on the Use of Military Force,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 1 (March 1992), pp. 49–74.
Benjamin I. Page and Robert Y. Shapiro, The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences ( Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1992 ).
Walter Lippmann, Public Opinion (New York: Macmillan, 1922); and The Phantom Public (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1925 ).
Miyatake Michiko, “Seron/Yoron Gainen no Seisei (The Birth of the Concept of Public Opinion),” in Tsuganesawa Toshihiro and Sato Takumi, eds., Koho, Kokoku, Puropaganda (Public Relations, Advertising, and Propaganda) (Kyoto: Minerva, 2003), pp. 56–74. Also see
Okada Naoyuki, Sato Takumi, Nishihira Shigeki, and Miyatake Michiko, Yoron Kenkyu to Seron Chosa (Opinion Research and Public Opinion Polls) ( Tokyo: Shinyosha, 2007 ).
Donald Hellmann, Japanese Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969 )
Chalmers Johnson, Japan: Who Governs? In The Rise of the Developmental State (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1995)
Glenn D. Hook, Militarisation and Demilitarisation in Contemporary Japan ( New York: Routledge, 1996 )
Sheldon Garon, Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997 ).
For more on the Koizumi administration, see Iijima Isao, Koizumi Kantei no Hiroku (A Secret History of Prime Minister Koizumi’s Office) ( Tokyo: Nihon Keizai Shimbunsha, 2006 )
Tomohito Shinoda, Koizumi Diplomacy: Japan’s Kantei Approach to Foreign and Defense Affairs ( Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007 ).
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© 2008 Robert D. Eldridge and Paul Midford
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Eldridge, R.D., Midford, P. (2008). Introduction. In: Eldridge, R.D., Midford, P. (eds) Japanese Public Opinion and the War on Terrorism. Palgrave Macmillan Series in International Political Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613836_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230613836_1
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