Public Opinion Measurement In USA And Its Problems

Public opinion is measured by conducting a survey where individuals are selected randomly and asked various questions about a certain political issue. The most common form of interview in this case is phone., face-to-face, or email interview. Questionnaires can also distributed to gather public opinion. This is the most formal method of gathering public opinion. Others include protesting, forming rebel group, voting, airing view via newspaper or radios or televisions. Public opinion can highly influence the government policies. Public opinion influences the change of law to provide human rights to Americans. For instance, the civil right protest contributed a lot in informing the government that the only way they will be at peace with  black people’s civil right movements is by granting them equal rights. This resulted to enactment of equal rights. In addition, the constant protest of homosexuality against their discrimination resulted to its inclusion to form of forbidden discriminations. However, opinion polls normally have very low contribution to development of government policy (Burstein, 2003).