GEORGE GALLUP AND THE RHETORIC OF SCIENTIFIC DEMOCRACY

Throughout his career, George Gallup, the ''father'' of modern polling , crusaded tirelessly to establish polling's scientific and cultural l egitimacy. In public speeches, several books, and more than a hundred articles in journals and popular magazines, Gallup mythologized pollin g's history of ''progress,'' deflected doubts about the polls' accurac y and technical procedures with a rhetoric of scientific mystification , and celebrated the collective wisdom of ''the people.'' Gallup's ''r hetoric of scientific democracy'' sustained polling's cultural legitim acy, yet it also diverted attention from its most perplexing sources o f error and stifled debate over its deleterious effects on the democra tic process.