Question

Is public opinion generally clear, providing broad signals to elected leaders about what needs to be done? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Public opinion may  be clear or may not be clear either but if its a social issue then it seems that public must have a clear vision on it and then they react according to it if we take a small example of The United States then people during Presidents tweet on the social media regarding the issue in The USA,people had a different opinion on the problem of unregistered citizens of the country or the people staying illegally

James Druckman, a political scientist from Northwestern University, looked with his colleagues at the comparative effect of substantive information and party endorsement on what to do with undocumented Americans who had arrived in the country as children.Substantive information changed both Democrats’ and Republicans’ opinions on the issue some to more and some to less sympathetic positions as long as they did not know their party leadership’s opinion. Once told this, partisans on both sides adopted the party position and became unmoved by information presented to them.

So if we see the polls and such things public polling is a good option to help reach the public opinion to the elected leaders.So people do follow the norms and then tend to polls against or for some issue regarding the country.

Public opinion if taken into account then can help in technological advancements and also give good opinion about the laws that should be introduced for example against rape cases etc.

It has even been claimed that public opinion has the ability to change the course of history.More than 7 in 10 Americans say the nation would be better off "if the leaders of our nation followed the views of the public more closely," and more than 6 in 10 agree that the nation would be better off if leaders "followed the views of public opinion polls more closely."

Americans -- perhaps not surprisingly -- have great faith in themselves as a guiding force in a democracy. As a result, they think the nation would be better off if their elected representatives paid more, rather than less, attention to the views of the people, including those views as measured in public opinion polls.