The Illusion of Public Opinion: Fact and Artifact in American Public Opinion Polls

Extract

The Illusion of Public Opinion: Fact and Artifact in American Public Opinion Polls. By George F. Bishop. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004. 223p. $80.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

With another campaign season behind us, it is not hard to make the case that opinion polls pervade politics. Even casual observers of politics are inundated with polling results from media and academic organizations. But just because surveys are ubiquitous does not mean they are useful. In his book, George Bishop makes the provocative argument that just about every bit of evidence that academics, journalists, and policymakers draw from opinion polls is erroneous. This argument will be controversial—indeed this book is clearly intended to provoke controversy—but the force of evidence that Bishop presents demands to be taken seriously by even the staunchest defenders of opinion polls.