The Impact of Public Opinion and Advocacy on Public Policy

This paper addresses a longstanding controversy about democratic politics–whether democratic governments are more responsive to the public, or to the activities of interest groups, social movement organizations, and other organizations (altogether, advocacy). As it turns out, neither side is correct. A review synthesis of articles estimating the impact of both opinion and advocacy on policy published in 68 political science and sociology journals, 2000-2020, shows that most often, neither influences policy. Is this plausible? It is hard to say, because the articles show almost no interest in generalization; we have no idea whether the findings reflect the democratic policy process generally. The paper then considers two ways to improve future work. The first–improving the conceptualization and measurement and public opinion, advocacy, and policy–might show public opinion and advocacy having substantial impact. The second–making greater efforts at generalization–might buttress findings showing that public opinion and advocacy have little impact.