Exploring The Impact Of Public Opinion In The United States

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The United States is a country made up of 50 States located in North America. About an estimate of 318.9 million individuals populate it today in the year 2016. Individuals of different races and ethnicity. Individuals who are American citizens and who are not citizens. Over the years the number of people populating the U.S has grown and shifted dramatically. Impacting the nation in a grand way. The country has come so far from where it use to be in late eras. It has undergone many changes; but what changes has it forgone? Including, when demographically speaking how will the USA look demographically in 2040 and lastly what is and does the impact of public opinion have if any in our Nation’s Public Policy? In the past few years, individuals …show more content…

Public Opinion is defined as the views prevalent among the general public. How much impact does it have, how much does the impact increase as the salience of issues increases, and to what point the impact of Public Opinion may be neglected by interest groups and political parties? Some Americans believe that Public Opinion does not have at all an impact on public policy, but the true is the impact Public Opinion has is significant. Salience on issues heightens the impact of Public Opinion and Public Opinion remains strong in responsiveness. Responsiveness has not changed drastically over time. Public Opinion is strong in Public Policy. The impact increases as the salience of issues increases. Salience of issues have been viewed as key elements of responsiveness. The impact of silence effects not only particular issues, but also the overall responsiveness of the Government. Only a few issues stay silent to the public. When responsiveness and salience are both high. Then responsiveness tends to be high on only a few selected issues. Public Policy is kept secure so it will not draft too far from Public Opinion on low salience issues. When salience issues are low mainly it is because elected official’s come to the realization. That their salience might increase at some future date. Furthermore, exactly at what point does the impact of public opinion get neglected by interest groups and political parties. In an article called The Impact of Public Opinion on Public Policy it states that “Most studies of public opinion and policy focus on issues that researchers find especially important and of interest to them personally. Almost never considered is how the choice of issues affects our ability to generalize about the impact of opinion on policy. Even important issues are neglected perhaps even more critically, issues that