The Rising Hegemony of Mass Opinion

In: Journal of policy history: JPH, Band 10, Heft 1, S. 19-50

Abstract

The Founding Fathers warned about the dangers of an "excess of democracy" and designed the Constitution in large part with a view toward preventing it. Judging from most commentary on American politics, with respect to most of the intervening two hundred years, they need't have worried: The mass public has only occasionally been a dominant force in national policy making. Elites, although often responding to broad public concerns, have usually defined the specific directions of policy change.