Original scientific paper
The Rationality of Discourse vs. Discursive Surveillance Controversies between Two Conceptualizations of Public Opinion in Theory and in Empirical Research
Slavko Splichal
Abstract
A nationwide telephone survey of 435 adult Slovenes examined the impact
of alternative sets of predicting variables on individuals’ willingness to speak
in public and their actual public conduct. The design of empirical study
proceeds from a theoretical discussion of whether the model of “public opinion
as social control,” such as the spiral of silence, may indeed compensate for the
conceptual and explanatory “deficiencies of rational public opinion,” in which
several arguments against a simplistic surveillance model of public opinion are
presented. As a result, a set of seven predicting variables was used to measure
the importance of different sources of variation in the dependent variables. The
study reveals significant differences between the respondents’ hypothetical
willingness to speak and the actual public expression of their own opinions in
terms of predicting variables, and between alternative explanations of both dependent
variables. On the whole, the survey results support the theoretical
arguments against the exclusion of the “rational” component from (empirical)
public opinion studies.
Keywords
public oppinion; rationality; surveillance; spiral of silence; political process
Hrčak ID:
23321
URI
Publication date:
10.6.2003.
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