> I would add that there is little evidence that general
> public opinion (usually rather passive even if intense or emotional)
> necessarily has much impact on government action.
Then why do politicians study opinion polls on a minute-to-minute basis, in the most minute, excruciating detail, and spend millions of dollars on them?
At the same time, I don't think anyone in the world believes public opinion "necessarily" has a lot of impact on what the government does. If you did a poll, for example, asking whether the central bank should in increase or decrease the collateral requirements on its open-market purchases of asset-backed securities, I doubt the results of the poll would ever have the slightest effect on what the Fed did.
SA