Public opinion, an aggregate of the individual views, attitudes, and beliefs about a particular topic, expressed by a significant proportion of a community. Some scholars treat the aggregate as a synthesis of the views of all or a certain segment of society; others regard it as a collection of many differing or opposing views. Writing in 1918, the American sociologist Charles Horton Cooley emphasized public opinion as a process of interaction and mutual influence rather than a state of broad agreement. The American political scientist V.O. Key defined public opinion in 1961 as “opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.” Subsequent advances in statistical and demographic analysis led by the 1990s to an understanding of public opinion as the collective view of a defined population, such as a particular demographic or ethnic group.

The influence of public opinion is not restricted to politics and elections. It is a powerful force in many other spheres, such as culture, fashion, literature and the arts, consumer spending, and marketing and public relations.
Theoretical And Practical Conceptions
In his eponymous treatise on public opinion published in 1922, the American editorialist Walter Lippmann qualified his observation that democracies tend to make a mystery out of public opinion with the declaration that “there have been skilled organizers of opinion who understood the mystery well enough to create majorities on election day.” Although the reality of public opinion is now almost universally accepted, there is much variation in the way it is defined, reflecting in large measure the different perspectives from which scholars have approached the subject. Contrasting understandings of public opinion have taken shape over the centuries, especially as new methods of measuring public opinion have been applied to politics, commerce, religion, and social activism.
Political scientists and some historians have tended to emphasize the role of public opinion in government and politics, paying particular attention to its influence on the development of government policy. Indeed, some political scientists have regarded public opinion as equivalent to the national will. In such a limited sense, however, there can be only one public opinion on an issue at any given time.
Sociologists, in contrast, usually conceive of public opinion as a product of social interaction and communication. According to this view, there can be no public opinion on an issue unless members of the public communicate with each other. Even if their individual opinions are quite similar to begin with, their beliefs will not constitute a public opinion until they are conveyed to others in some form, whether through print media, radio, television, the Internet, or telephone or face-to-face conversation. Sociologists also point to the possibility of there being many different public opinions on a given issue at the same time. Although one body of opinion may dominate or reflect government policy, for example, this does not preclude the existence of other organized bodies of opinion on political topics. The sociological approach also recognizes the importance of public opinion in areas that have little or nothing to do with government. The very nature of public opinion, according to the American researcher Irving Crespi, is to be interactive, multidimensional, and continuously changing. Thus, fads and fashions are appropriate subject matter for students of public opinion, as are public attitudes toward celebrities or corporations.
Nearly all scholars of public opinion, regardless of the way they may define it, agree that, in order for a phenomenon to count as public opinion, at least four conditions must be satisfied: (1) there must be an issue, (2) there must be a significant number of individuals who express opinions on the issue, (3) there must be some kind of a consensus among at least some of these opinions, and (4) this consensus must directly or indirectly exert influence.
In contrast to scholars, those who aim to influence public opinion are less concerned with theoretical issues than with the practical problem of shaping the opinions of specified “publics,” such as employees, stockholders, neighbourhood associations, or any other group whose actions may affect the fortunes of a client or stakeholder. Politicians and publicists, for example, seek ways to influence voting and purchasing decisions, respectively—hence their wish to determine any attitudes and opinions that may affect the desired behaviour.
It is often the case that opinions expressed in public differ from those expressed in private. Some views—even though widely shared—may not be expressed at all. Thus, in a totalitarian state, a great many people may be opposed to the government but may fear to express their attitudes even to their families and friends. In such cases, an antigovernment public opinion necessarily fails to develop.
Historical Background
Antiquity
Although the term public opinion was not used until the 18th century, phenomena that closely resemble public opinion seem to have occurred in many historical epochs. The ancient histories of Babylonia and Assyria, for example, contain references to popular attitudes, including the legend of a caliph who would disguise himself and mingle with the people to hear what they said about his governance. The prophets of ancient Israel sometimes justified the policies of the government to the people and sometimes appealed to the people to oppose the government. In both cases, they were concerned with swaying the opinion of the crowd. And in the classical democracy of Athens, it was commonly observed that everything depended on the people, and the people were dependent on the word. Wealth, fame, and respect—all could be given or taken away by persuading the populace. By contrast Plato found little of value in public opinion, since he believed that society should be governed by philosopher-kings whose wisdom far exceeded the knowledge and intellectual capabilities of the general population. And while Aristotle stated that “he who loses the support of the people is a king no longer,” the public he had in mind was a very select group; in the Athens of his time, the voting population was limited to about one-third of free adult male citizens.

The Middle Ages to the early modern period
In the traditional rural European societies of the Middle Ages, most people’s activities and attitudes were dictated by their social stations. Phenomena much like public opinion, however, could still be observed among the religious, intellectual, and political elite. Religious disputations, the struggles between popes and the Holy Roman Empire, and the dynastic ambitions of princes all involved efforts to persuade, to create a following, and to line up the opinions of those who counted. In 1191 the English statesman William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, was attacked by his political opponents for hiring troubadours to extol his merits in public places, so that “people spoke of him as though his equal did not exist on earth.” The propaganda battles between emperors and popes were waged largely through sermons, but handwritten literature also played a part.
From the end of the 13th century, the ranks of those who could be drawn into controversy regarding current affairs grew steadily. The general level of education of the lay population gradually increased. The rise of humanism in Italy led to the emergence of a group of writers whose services were eagerly sought by princes striving to consolidate their domains. Some of these writers served as advisers and diplomats; others were employed as publicists because of their rhetorical skills. The 16th-century Italian writer Pietro Aretino—of whom it was said that he knew how to defame, to threaten, and to flatter better than all others—was sought by both Charles V of Spain and Francis I of France. The Italian political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, a contemporary of Aretino, wrote that princes should not ignore popular opinion, particularly in regard to such matters as the distribution of offices.
The invention of printing from movable type in the 15th century and the Protestant Reformation in the 16th further increased the numbers of people able to hold and express informed opinions on contemporary issues. The German priest and scholar Martin Luther broke with the humanists by abandoning the use of Classical Latin, which was intelligible only to the educated, and turned directly to the masses. “I will gladly leave to others the honour of doing great things,” he wrote, “and will not be ashamed of preaching and writing in German for the unschooled layman.” Although Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, which were distributed throughout Europe despite being printed against his will, were of a theological nature, he also wrote on such subjects as the war against the Turks, the Peasants’ Revolt, and the evils of usury. His vituperative style and the criticism he received from his many opponents, both lay and clerical, contributed to the formation of larger and larger groups holding opinions on important matters of the day.
During the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), extensive attempts were made to create and influence public opinion, including the use of tracts illustrated with woodcuts. Opinions were also swayed by means of speeches, sermons, and face-to-face discussions. Not surprisingly, some civil and religious authorities attempted to control the dissemination of unwelcome ideas through increasingly strict censorship. The first Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“Index of Forbidden Books”) was published during the reign of Pope Paul IV in 1559. Charles IX of France decreed in 1563 that nothing could be printed without the special permission of the king. The origin of the word propaganda is linked to the Roman Catholic Church’s missionary organization Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith), which was founded in 1622.
More quietly but more significantly, other means of distributing information were becoming a common part of life. Regular postal services, started in France in 1464 and in the Austrian Empire in 1490, facilitated the spread of information enormously. Rudimentary private news services had been maintained by political authorities and wealthy merchants since Classical times, but they were not available to the general public. Regularly printed newspapers first appeared about 1600 and multiplied rapidly thereafter, though they were frequently bedeviled by censorship regulations.
The great European news centres began to develop during the 17th century, especially in cities that were establishing sophisticated financial exchanges, such as Antwerp, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London, and Lyons. With the introduction of a paid civil service and the employment of paid soldiers in the place of vassals, princes found it necessary to borrow money. The bankers, in turn, had to know a great deal about the credit of the princes, the state of their political fortunes, and their reputations with their subjects. All kinds of political and economic information flowed to the money-lending centres, and this information gave rise to generally held opinions in the banking community; the ditta di borsa (“opinion on the bourse”) is often referred to in documents of the period.

Great.

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