Decision Maker, Manager and Practitioner Perspectives on Public Opinion and Governance

Abstract

Bennett presents the results of a small sample study of elites involved in public opinion usage in governance. The sample draws on practitioners such as market and public opinion researchers, public managers and public decision makers from four countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The results are presented in order to test the previously described general hypotheses about elites. Bennett finds that elites do believe that it is important to use public opinion in governance, but they are more neutral about how well it is being used at present. There is a sense that public opinion studies are well used in assessing citizen satisfaction with services, but that their use in designing and assessing government communication is becoming more complex. Elites think it is important to disseminate the results of studies, particularly to legislators, but they are not clear on how well this is actually being done.

Elites have interesting and complex views about how the use of information is evolving and about the role of partisanship in using public opinion and information.