How Does Public Opinion Influence Policy Making Politics Essay

How Does Public Opinion Influence Policy Making Politics Essay Public opinion is the summation of individual attitudes, sentiments or views held by grown-up people. Public opinions can be swayed by public associations and political media. Mass media uses a broad range of advertising techniques to get their message out and change the peoples opinions. By assessing the opinions at the personal level and combining them, the percentage of the population with particular views and preferences can be established. Public opinions affect policy both positively and negatively depending on the overall general public view on the policy. Governments have in many occasions devised the use of public opinions for guiding their public information and helping in the making of government policies. The fundamental representation of democracy is the provision of a method through which public opinion and public policy are dependably and frequently interacted. Robert and Gerald (1993) claims that there should be on one hand preferences for the policy and on the other hand public responsiveness to the policy. Political representation has become a major subject in todays politics, and in highly developed democracies there has been increased dissatisfaction with the governments with many people claiming that governments dont represent their interest when formulating policies. According to Holti (1996) the Meech Lake Accord, which was a policy advocating for the Canadian elite accommodation, was met with extensive cries for transparency and public discussion. Many policy planners in addition included public opinion and organized interest groups as important parts in their policy formulation process. Besides public opinion, organized interest groups also participate as a nongovernmental political determinant of the public policy. Public opinion may influence policy positive or negatively. How public opinion influences policy Representation largely depends on a reactive public which watches and responds to what the government is doing. Little advantages are gained on policies where the public is not attentive and uninformed on their preference. Public opinion on policies is very important to representation democratic system as a part of representation itself. A public that is quick to respond behaves like a thermostat as it adjusts its preferences for more or less policy depending on what policy makers do. State governments should develop policy outputs that replicate the concerns of the public and organized interests. Interest groups can also participate various roles standing-in as public or clients representatives as a broker of political information or as policy experts. Public opinion should hold larger weight on policy- making when a mood of the public is successfully communicated by use of interest group activities. The interest group serves as a representative of the mood of the people with their own policy goals. Population based approximations have been used but their effects have been difficult to ensnare from the split effects of socioeconomic conditions According to Daniel (2005) in the last fifteen years, new measures of state public opinion supported on group disaggregated nationwide surveys had revealed a good linkage between the state policy, open-mindedness, and public opinion. Interest groups and general public play an important role in influencing bureaucratic decision making. In USA, both the state public views and those done by interest groups support the addition of non- governmental forces in manipulating policy outcomes. For example, by examining the effect of public opinion of environmental, health and education policies, the conservatives will prefer a free market situation whereas the liberals will pursue a government centered regulation to address these problems in aforementioned areas. By using interest groups, the more groups that are organized around a particular policy area, the more authority that advocacy community has on public policy outputs. By increasing the numbers of advocacy communities, they are able to communicate their ideas to policymakers more frequently and urgently. Public interests group serve as representative by including an interaction between the public and the organized interests. The environmental groups serve to represent a broader public as compared to health and education. The governments political situations such as party control of countrys legislature and governorship, together with party competition with the state, is also a policy determinants. Party competition within the state as a government political condition affects public policy and thus affects public opinion. A party competitiveness will create a positive public policy and public opinion. External State conditions are also determinants of public policy, which may include population indicators, economic, and geographic conditions. For example, richer states usually have more capital to spend on environmental programs and are more likely respond to a higher increase in taxation since their higher incomes exceeds the threshold to satisfy more basic needs. Higher incomes levels have an encouraging relationship on environmental policy. The mass public opinion concerning American foreign policy has been expressed inconsistently and rationality and on incoherence on the other side. In general, the American public do not support the foreign policy due to lack of their involvement in the policy making process. According to Witt Kopf (1990) this is because the American people are ill informed and not interested about foreign policy with equivalent weakness to demonstrate that unstable foreign policies are liable to manipulation by political elites. Poverty rates affect both health and education policys negatively. Contrasting to access to health care the burden of education expenditure for impoverished population is in general manifested in increased states spending compared to local expenditures because small income base of regions with larger poor people. The proportion of locally raised education income is a good indicator of how states fund their education system. Some states preserve a high level of control over their schools systems and thus provide the bulk of the required funding. According to Courtney and David (2005) increases in educational attainment improve both verbal and writing skills and results to higher income and greater professional prestige, enhancing social capital and improved understanding of political processes, which in turn leads to greater political participation. Views of those who are more learned have a greater influence than views of those with less learned. The possibility of comparative pressure depends on which policies are chosen as outcomes variables. The suggestion follows from the contingent model of public opinions weight on policy which affirms that the degree to which a policy is affected by judgment is related to the salience of the subject to the public. The underlying principle for saliencys effect on policy awareness is that people are more politically active when matters are important to them. For example, the effects of public views on civilian rights policies in US. Civil rights mattes are possibly more salient issues to blacks than whites and as a result attitudes of blacks may carry more weight with politicians than attitudes of whites. The Federal government and both state and local governments have in many times hiked cigarette excise taxes in the current years from 24cents per pack to 34 cents per pack with a total of 19 states complying with the increase. The two effects of the reputation of cigarette excise taxes can be predicted in that one is to create revenue from smokers who continue to smoke and also to persuade minor smokers to quite. The problem that is being addressed is the extent to which tobacco control policies affect the public opinion towards smoking. Tobacco management policies can be used to change inexperienced assumptions on fitness risks caused by smoking and can serve as an alternative for health teaching. The execution of tobacco taxes can eventually change public opinions towards smoking. Several alternatives for public opinion have been developed towards smoking and have been scrutinized with relationship between alternatives and the changes in policy on cigarettes. Smokers who prepare to stop smoking obviously ridicule smoking more than the smokers who dont want to stop. The health behaviors of those who are affluent calculated by the attainment of education may serve as an important pointer for public reaction towards smoking. For that reason, the dominance of smoking by intention to stop and education achievement arguably serve as better alternatives for attitude towards smoking than the rate of smoking alone. The proxy for the public response towards smoking is related to the explicit support of tobacco control policies and succeeding change in tobacco control laws. The prevalence of educate smokers who dont want to stop is the best proxy for public reaction towards smoking and accordingly changes in cigarette demand. There is always depressing relationship between excise taxes hikes and the predominance smoking which is primarily driven by the predominance educated smokers who dont want to stop. Public reaction towards smoking is a central feature to what exten t tobacco policies are implemented. If tobacco control rules such as cigarette excise taxes and smoking bans are related with public reactions towards smoking, then it follows that smoking sentiments influence future demand than the tobacco control policies. The decline in cigarette smoking and the hike in tax reflect to some extent the public reaction towards smoking. Tobacco control policies and public sentiments together help in reducing the rate of smoking. How public opinion does not influence policy Policy makers in many times are forced to make an assumption that public views are a reliable guide to making public policy whereas they should not. Public opinion polling often assesses the wishes and liking of respondents but doesnt reflect the costs or threat associated with the policy. Public opinions conveyed in polls cannot tell the policy choice which needs consideration to tradeoffs among values to second-best potential and to unexpected risks. Opinion polls are not likely to get better enough to help the policy choices. Enhancements make the polls results more expensive or too difficult to get from worn out respondents. Therefore, we should not expect in future that polling will replace the use of reasoned policy choices by chosen spokespersons of the people. Despite all the numerical fancy in modern days polling, the dug out advice should not direct public policy. Although public requirements for more government intercession to help are real in that people honestly crave the promised improvement, the cries for state action fail to meet even the highest minimal standard of legitimate guidance. Modern day polls are seducing those who respondent and dont offer them hard choices like the ones faced by policy analysts or legislatures. Polls do not offer wide-reaching advice about policy but they only measure wishes for worlds of advantages with no costs. Opinion polling has crossed the line between mechanically footage popular attitudes and becoming a political player. Contemporary polls are not excellent guides to policy making and we dont have the reason to believe they can be improved to stand in place of policy analysis. A triumphant battle against facile entreatment must deal with the way polls are used not the surveys themselves. Abstract craving for public bounty should only be regarded as interesting curiosities and under no conditions should they notify policymakers or determine policy choices. The capacity of political system to act in response to the likings of its citizens is innermost to democratic presumption and practice. Where assessed, public opinion expresses a reasoned mood or view on a meticulous policy of a problem in a manner that is identifiable by political influential and it is more likely than not that the progress of the policy will be in the path of public opinion. Two parameters which must be followed are within a broad of constraints established by public views. Politicians and policy entrepreneurs often have considera ble room to plot policy in detailed ways that are not noticeable to the public. According to Kennamer (1992) there are different ways to transform welfare, evade spread of communism in underdeveloped countries, fight crime, and address shortage of energy. Secondly whereas the public opinion clearly places important limits on policymaking, the amalgamation of contradictory public views on majority vital policy issues and the capability of political elites to contour or direct views considerably reduce the independent informal impact of public sentiments. Policy questions are intrinsically many sided and is often the reason that strategy and political entrepreneurs can draw upon particular issues structured and abroad ideological underpinnings that have accepted support to endorse meticulous policy schedule. Conclusion It is the external demands of public views that hold and influence policy-making decisions and not the widely known formal apparatus of government. The power of the public opinion in relation to party of the legislature does not essentially underrate the power of the government officials and institutions. According to Norris (1997) the American State governments are responsive to the views of general public and to organized publics. State governments function just as representative democracies with policy out puts very much reflecting the state and external political conditions. Public opinions at the same time tend to have a steady effect across policy areas while the governments tend to be operating in a representative manner, with policy principally the wills of its citizens. Party platforms and electoral fortunes serve as expansions of outer determinants connecting needs and wants with policies and programs. In addition, the impacts of non-governmental political situations on pol icy can vary across problem areas. Organized interest are not massive persuaders of public policy and different groups across problem areas have varying effects as they search for to push forward their own specific goals. Even within the same problem, groups can have varying goals and impact across specific agendas and policies. Public opinion tends to have consistent effect across policy areas.

Harvard Business School Essay

August 8, 1995 had taken an unexpected turn for Netscape Communications Corporation’s board of directors. Earlier that morning, the day before the company’s scheduled initial public offering (IPO), Netscape’s lead underwriters proposed to the board a 100% increase in the original offering price from $14 to $28 per share. This recommendation came in response to the remarkable oversubscription for Netscape’s shares, which had already prompted the underwriters to increase the number of shares to be offered from 3.5 million to 5 million. Under the current proposal, a company with a net book value of just over $16 million that had yet to turn a profit, was suddenly valued at over $1 billion. The Board faced a pricing dilemma within the context of an extremely unpredictable industry. While its members wanted to be responsive to Wall Street’s current zeal, they also wanted to make sure that the fundamentals of Netscape justified such a dramatic increase in valuation. Netscape Communications Founded in April 1994, Netscape Communications Corporation provided a comprehensive line of client, server, and integrated applications software  for communications and commerce on the Internet and private Internet Protocol (IP) networks. These products enabled the growing network of servers on the World Wide Web to communicate through multimedia, including graphics, video and sound. Designed with enhanced security code, these software products provided the confidentiality required to execute financial transactions and to sell advertisements on the Internet and private IP networks. The company’s most popular product, Netscape Navigator, was the leading client software program that allowed individual personal computer (PC) users to exchange information and conduct commerce on the Internet. Navigator featured a click-and-point graphical user interface that enabled users to navigate the Internet by manipulating icons and windows rather than by using text commands. With the user-friendly interface as a guide, Navigator offered a variety of Internet functions including Web browsing, file transfers, news group communications, and e-mail. Initially shipped in December 1994, Netscape Navigator generated 49% and 65% of total revenues for the quarters ended March 31, 1995, and June 30, 1995, respectively. Netscape’s server software provided enterprises with the basic capabilities necessary for creating and operating Web server â€Å"sites,† or places on the Web which browsers could visit. Research Associate Kendall H. Backstrand wrote this case under the supervision of Professor W. Carl Kester as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  © 1996 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685 or write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. Incorporating both browser and server functions, the company’s integrated applications software programs were designed to provide enterprises with the capability to manage large-scale commercial sites on the Internet. Such applications enabled these enterprises to conduct full-scale electronic commerce through a seamless system. Together, server and integrated applications software accounted for 36% of total revenues in the first quarter of 1995, and 28% of total revenues in the second. Of these revenues, the majority were generated by one of Netscape’s three server products, Netscape Commerce Server .1 Revenues from Netscape’s server and integrated applications products were expected to increase as a percentage of overall revenues in the future. In addition to product revenues, Netscape generated service revenues, which were attributable to fees from consulting, maintenance, and support services. These revenues amounted to approximately 5% and 7% of total revenues for the quarters ended March 31, 1995 and June 30, 1995, respectively. Financial Performance Netscape had incurred total losses of $4.3 million on total revenues of $16.6 million for its first two operating quarters ended June 30, 1995. The company expected to continue to operate at a loss for the foreseeable future. Exhibits 1 and 2 provide Netscape’s financial statements since its incorporation in April 1994. Operating activities for the six months ended June 30, 1995 had generated $7.3 million in cash. Cash flows from financing activities of $20.5 million were primarily attributable to the net proceeds of $17.3 million from the issuance of Series C Preferred Stock and borrowings of $2.2 million under a debt facility agreement. Cash used in investment activities of $22.1 million related to $16.6 in short-term investments and $5 million in capital expenditures. At the end of the second quarter of 1995, Netscape’s principal sources of liquidity were $8.9 million in cash and the $16.6 million in shortterm investments. The company expected total capital expenditures for 1995 of approximately $12 million. Industry Background The demand for Netscape’s products had evolved out of the development of the Internet in the late 1960s. The Internet was a global network designed to facilitate communication between some 35,000 computer networks using the enabling code termed Internet Protocol. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), in mid-1995 there were approximately 57 million Internet users. Of those 57 million users, IDC estimated that approximately 8 million were accessing information on the World Wide Web. Engineered in the early 1990s, the Web was a technology that linked one bit of information on the Internet with another so that users could share â€Å"webs† of ideas. The Web consisted of a network of Web servers that posted information in a common format described by the Hypertext Markup Language (â€Å"HTML†). Internet users were able to access information on the Web by implementing the appropriate Hypertext Transfer Protocol (â€Å"HTTP†). Because it necessitated complex coding, the Web had remained largely undiscovered by nontechnical users who simply wanted to browse, a popular pastime which came to be dubbed â€Å"surfing the Net.† 1Bundled packages of Netscape Navigator and Netscape Commerce Server accounted for about 10% of total revenues in the first quarter, while its contribution in the second quarter was immaterial. 2 Netscape’s Initial Public Offering Netscape’s Entrance Meanwhile at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a group of computer science students working at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) developed the graphical software program that gave rise to the notion of â€Å"surfing.† Named NCSA Mosaic, the software program enabled nontechnical users to access and retrieve information on the Web. The Mosaic code organized Web information into neat collections of graphical electronic menus on which users could simply click-and-point to browse their contents. In April 1993, the founders of Mosaic, under the leadership of then senior Marc Andreessen, began distributing the software for free to anyone who had the technical means to fetch it electronically. The superb results of this strategy—two million Mosaic users within one year—made for more than cocktail conversation among high-tech gurus in California’s Silicon Valley. Jim Clark, the founder of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (known for its workstations that turned data into 3-D computer images), was among those who were impressed not only by Mosaic itself but by the broader vision of its creator, Andreessen. After hearing that Andreessen had moved to Silicon Valley in early 1994, Clark sent him an email asking if they might meet to discuss the future of  Mosaic. This exchange and subsequent discussions formed the launching pad for Mosaic Communications, which was shortly renamed Netscape Communications Corporation. In addition to dropping the Mosaic name, Netscape paid Spyglass (the company that had engaged in an exclusive licensing arrangement with the University of Illinois) a one-time $2.4 million fee for the rights to certain Mosaic code. With the original code, Clark’s management experience and $3 million in seed money, and Andreessen’s vision and technical expertise, Netscape made its entrance into the highly dynamic Internet market.

Healthcare Management

The speedy shifts in the healthcare system, the opportunities to advance or develop my career, and a wide-ranging business edification which is helpful in facing the â€Å"real-world healthcare industry† are only some of the major reasons why I extremely want to earn a masters degree on Healthcare Management (World Wide Learn, 2008).Explaining further, the fast-changing system in healthcare industry makes me feel obliged to educate myself on â€Å"health care organizations, finance, infrastructure, strategic management, quality management, database management, etc† and learn more about trends, develops, tendencies, etc (World Wide Learn, 2008).In addition to that, the development of my career also lies in the accomplishment of this Master Degree since it entails market-relevant courses that will enhance the managerial skills that I possess into productive leadership and executive powers (World Wide Learn, 2008).Also, a Masters Degree in Healthcare Management will help m e achieve familiarity, comprehension, expertise needed to recognize, scrutinize, as well as, work out multi-faceted dilemmas in relation to management (World Wide Learn, 2008).Meanwhile, the qualities that would make me a successful candidate for this distance learning program include the following:First of all, I am self-motivated and driven to attain my personal goals and objectives. I do not really need to be reminded of doing something and so I am confident that I can make it in the world of distance learning.Second, I am not a â€Å"tardy type of person†. In fact, I am disciplined enough to accomplish my to-do-list on time. This is why even if distance learning entails studying at your own pace, I am very sure that I won’t be behind in the tasks assigned to students like me.Last but not least, I am a reader. I understand that distance learning entails reading a lot since there would be less face-to-face classes, if not none at all, and so lessons will be mailed/em ailed, thus, excessive reading is really required in this endeavor.ReferenceWorld Wide Learn. (2008). Health Care Management. Retrieved January 15, 2008 fromhttp://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-master/health-care-management-2.htm

Essay on The Root Causes and Solutions to Poverty - 676 Words

The same common question comes to us all at one point,†Why are people poor?† Whether you are liberal, conservative, or have had previous experiences that pull us to believe more strongly in certain things, all of our ideas on poverty fall on the same path. Unfortunately, as reality points out, is that inside the walls of the White House, where it is commonly believed that actual progress is happening, ideas on poverty revolve around stock exchange, whose ideas only benefit those who get elected. Subsequently, these elected officials lead a group or campaign in a worthless round of unethical ideas that instead of helping poverty, increases U.S. debt. It is also commonly misinterpreted that the articles on poverty from the many†¦show more content†¦Splitting the money into fifths of 24%, 22%, 20%, 18%, and 16% will still result in inequality, but would decrease the chances of someone becoming poor. (4) This leads me into the idea of socialism. Many socialists believe that competition for money will allow the rich to stay rich and the poor and middle class to fight for the and deficit increases, U.S. income will slowly diminish, and the competition will increase. Equalizing the amount of income will not only help the poor gain more money, but still keep the rich where they are. The socialists also believe that the help of the rich donating money to the poor would also help poverty. We can accomplish this by gaining the likes of the rich.(In which case we would convince them that higher taxes on them would give them a feeling of power, shared pain, gratitude, incentives, and time.) (3) Another root problem is giving everyone basic education. It isn’t hard to give every kid in America a right to education. Now a days, if someone were to apply for a job, the applicant with the best education would probably get the job. Thus, with basic understanding of some simple concepts, someone can easily perform a simple job like a babysitter. The simpler causes, what the conservatives and liberals believe, such as racism and poor motivation, are also some causes of poverty. â€Å"Blacks are more likely than whites to live in poor, segregated areas†(1). â€Å"Unexpected problems can lead to homelessness:Show MoreRelatedTheological Reflection on the Root Causes of Poverty Essay641 Words   |  3 Pagessuch as poverty that causes numinous members of the society to look for solutions to these issues. A common way that the people of today’s society use as a solution to solve the problem of poverty is to give money to those individuals who are subjected to this way of life. The problem with this solution is that many of these people do not see the logical flaw that is bottled up in this answer to the problem. They do not see that they are not attacking the root causes of what caused poverty. 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Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is losi ng a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom† (The World Bank, 2009). People are deemed poor if their incomes are insufficient to obtain the