BRINGING THE PUBLIC BACK IN - SHOULD SOCIOLOGISTS CONSIDER THE IMPACTOF PUBLIC-OPINION ON PUBLIC-POLICY

The struggle for democracy, central to Western politics for hundreds o f years, is predicated upon the belief that democratic institutions gi ve citizens considerable power over their government. Whether this bel ief is correct is a key question in the study of democratic politics. This article argues that this question is neglected by sociologists wh o examine the determinants of public policy; they neither address theo ries of democratic responsiveness nor assess the impact of public opin ion on public policy. This neglect is problematic for two reasons: the re is much evidence that public opinion strongly influences public pol icy, and there is reason to believe that adding public opinion to soci ologists' empirical analyses of policy change would undermine some of their conclusions about the influence of other factors. Two ways of re sponding to these findings are presented.