yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Why policy decisions may not reflect perceived public opinion


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

What we're going to do in this video is describe how our perceptions of public opinion may or may not affect policy decisions. So, what I have here is an excerpt from an article on Politico that was published at the end of February, shortly after the shootings in Florida.

It says support for stricter gun laws has spiked in polls conducted after the fatal South Florida school shooting, hitting its highest level in at least a quarter century. Roughly two in three Americans now say gun control laws should be made more strict in the wake of the murder of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to a number of polls, including a new Politico Morning Consult poll that shows support for stricter gun laws among registered voters at 68 percent, compared with just 25 percent who oppose stricter gun laws.

So, if there was just a direct connection between what we're seeing in the polls and policy, well, then you might expect stricter gun laws. You could imagine there are many policymakers who are already in support of stricter gun laws who would use this data to further their argument why, say, Congress should pass more legislation to make stricter gun laws.

But an interesting question is why this still might be an uphill battle in terms of making stricter gun laws. Well, you could imagine there are other policymakers, members of Congress, who—one, they may or may not trust the poll data here; maybe they don't view it as a truly representative sample. Others might say, "Hey, this is a temporary trend that's driven by the graphic nature of the news surrounding these polls." Others might say, "Hey, look, this might be the national numbers. I believe this poll, and it might not even be a temporary trend." But they say this is representative of the entire country; the polling numbers in my district might be different.

Now, another reason why a policymaker, despite this type of national poll, may not want to vote in favor of stricter gun laws is that their political calculus might not favor it. For example, even if their constituents support stricter gun laws, most of their constituents might not be so activated about that. They might care more about things like the economy, and they might have a smaller subset, say the 25 percent who oppose stricter gun laws, who are willing to vote on that issue. It might do more harm to your political chances to upset that group on this issue than to try to appeal to the majority on the issue.

And the last reason why a policymaker may not be in support of it, even though public opinion seems to be, is that they view the issue as being more subtle and more nuanced than maybe they think that the broader public might appreciate. That yes, when you see something horrific like this, you want to regulate it more; you want to pass laws. But there could be policymakers who believe that those laws won't be effective or they might not have the intended consequences.

But it's an interesting question when public opinion affects policy decisions and when it doesn't.

More Articles

View All
Let Us Not Talk Falsely Now
Great! Welcome everyone. The format here is pretty simple. I’m just gonna bring people up, you get to ask a question, and then I’m gonna bounce you back to the audience, and then I’ll discuss that question. Unfortunately, I’ve found that other formats jus…
Don't make the investor your customer.
These conformists are also now invading the startup world, and I agree with you. Right? The highest status job in the early-stage startup world is investor. Right? It’s the one everyone wants to meet, everyone’s talked to, everyone seeks approval from, an…
Canada Is Run By Idiots
Enter Kevin O’Leary. “I’ve been a big fan of Mr. Leary’s over many years. He doesn’t know me, but I followed his career with intrigue, because Kevin was very, very close to maybe being a prime minister in Canada. I mean, the conservative party leader the…
The SECRET To Living A MILLIONAIRE LIFESTYLE Explained!|Kevin O'Leary
Welcome to another episode of Ask Mr. Wonderful! As always, it starts with a question, or sometimes questions. This week, I mean, I love this! This is from Cindy Rose. “Hi Mr. Wonderful! I got into your channel recently and I’ve watched the last seven ep…
Recognizing quadratic factor methods
We have other videos on individual techniques for factoring quadratics, but what I would like to do in this video is get some practice figuring out which technique to use. So, I’m going to write a bunch of quadratics, and I encourage you to pause the vide…
Time Is But a Stubborn Illusion - Sneak Peek | Genius
What is time? A deceptively simple question, yet it is the key to understanding relativity. It is sort of the reason my hair is going gray. [laughter] When we describe motion, we do so as a function of time: 10 meters per second, 100 miles per hour. But t…