Does public opinion influence your decisions as a judge?
Stephen Gerald Breyer is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
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| 1. How does Justice Breyer characterize the relationship between public opinion and court decisions? Is this relationship what the framers of the Constitution intended? Why or why not? |
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| 2. Are the justice’s hopes regarding public opinion and its influence on judicial decision making realistic? If not, why not? Use examples from the chapter in your analysis. |
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The possibility of political reform in China
Mark Leonard is Executive Director of the first pan-European think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations. It was launched in late 2007 with backing from the Soros Foundations Network, Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE), the Communitas Foundation, the Sigrid Rausing Trust, and the Unicredit Group.
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| 3. According to Leonard, what role does public opinion play in Chinese politics? How does that compare with the role of public opinion in the United States? What might explain the recent interest in public opinion among Chinese government officials? |
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| 4. Do you think this new emphasis on public opinion signals the advent of meaningful democratic reforms in China? Why? What are possible alternate explanations for the growing interest in public opinion? |
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Why does polling matter?
Andrew Kohut is the president of the Pew Research Center. He also acts as director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press (formerly the Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press) and the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
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| 5. Why does Kohut think polling is valuable? Explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches to studying public opinion? What is the value of “quantifying” public opinion? |
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| 6. What problems might plague the different approaches to public opinion research? What are the goals of polling agencies like Pew and Gallup beyond making accurate predictions? |
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