The Nature of Public Opinion - Article Example

The nature of public opinion Patterson Thomas ed the article, ‘The nature of public opinion,’ in which he defines public opinion as to the open expression of privately held political opinion on an issue in the society. Such expressions further qualify as public opinion if ordinary people make them and not special parties such as politicians or expert policymakers. Governance by public opinion, according to the author, remains a challenge because of the limitations that public opinion faces.

One of the limitations is that people hold different opinions on an issue at a given time and this compels the government to support and implement opinions from a side but reject opinions from another side. Opinions may also be contradictory such as those on needs for high-quality social services and lower tax is an example. Public opinions may call for a better quality of care but oppose tax increment that is necessary for the improvements. Misinformation is another limitation to governance by public opinion.

People either lack facts on issues or moderate facts to suit their values and beliefs and these misinform opinions. Another factor in misinformation is the lack of attention to the available information.