Polling Matters

June 21, 2004
Between now and the November election, public opinion polls will be all but unavoidable. Those who question their value may find this plainspoken defense by the editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll illuminating. Newport is an effective communicator who clarifies the process that distills from the opinions of a mere 1,000 interviewees an accurate reflection of the opinions of tens of millions of Americans. Newport believes that polls reflect the country's collective wisdom, a wisdom politicians should heed not merely to court votes but to reap the benefits of the diverse and complex American experience. The author tackles each of the common criticisms of polls, such as that politicians who pay too much attention to polls fail to lead; that citizens are too uneducated to offer useful opinions; and that basing policies on polls would result in a "tyranny of the majority." Jackson's defense is mostly convincing. His most glaring failure is to adequately address the effect on opinions of false advertising, political propaganda and other sources of misinformation. Newport's description of how polls work is filled with professional argot that gives his explanations an aura of scientific respectability and credibility. Readers will come away understanding why and how polls work, but some will not be as convinced as Newport of their value as a policy tool.

July 1, 2004
Poll-driven is one of our stronger political epithets today, but Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, argues that the term should instead be considered a laurel. "Representatives," he says, "must and should pay more, rather than less, attention to the collective wisdom of the people, and polling provides them with the means to do so." Taking on critics like columnist Arianna Huffington and political scientist James Fishkin, Newport offers an accessible introduction to the methods of scientific public-opinion polling and makes a strong argument for the value of polls. Early in the age of polling, Newport's predecessor, George Gallup, said many of the same things in The Pulse of Democracy (1940), so this book, a historical echo, will be interesting to research libraries while useful to undergraduate collections and public libraries alike. It's an optional purchase only because there are so many other good books on polling, e.g., Jeff Manza's scholarly Navigating Public Opinion and Michael Traugott's more general The Voter's Guide to Election Polls.-Robert Nardini, Chichester, NH

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