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4 - Bias in the Way Officials Process Constituents’ Opinions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2014

Daniel M. Butler
Daniel M. Butler
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
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Summary

Imagine yourself as an elected official in a city that is considering the issue of school vouchers. As part of that debate you receive the following letter advocating for the use of vouchers.

Dear Mayor,

I have lived in the community for about 10 years, working as an attorney. I am writing to ask that you support any attempt to move to a school vouchers system. Vouchers would improve the quality of education in our schools system.

Thank you for your consideration,

Best regards,

Ron Smith

Do you think the person who wrote this letter understands the complexities of the issues surrounding the use of school vouchers? Do you think the person who wrote this letter holds his position strongly? Would your answers to these questions change if the writer had been a janitor instead of an attorney?

Elected officials gather information about their constituents’ opinions and preferences during visits to their district, through opinion polls, and through the letters they receive. As officials gather this information they must decide how to weigh different constituents’ opinions. If officials feel that some groups’ opinions are less likely to be based on thorough research and/or do not represent deeply held convictions, these groups will have less influence on elected officials’ actions.

Type
Chapter
Information
Representing the Advantaged
How Politicians Reinforce Inequality
 , pp. 43 - 61
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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