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public opinion. Public opinion: deciphering the concept

Everyone thinks about him - both the poorest and most dependent, and those who climbed to the heights of power (they, perhaps, in the first place). Sometimes it does not allow us to show individuality, and sometimes it keeps us from crime.

Public opinion. Such a familiar, but if you think about it, such a vague concept! Everyone, pronouncing it, puts some meaning into these words. The only exception, probably, are professionals - psychologists and sociologists, who can accurately name all the stages of the formation of public opinion with ease, tell you how mass consciousness and public opinion are similar and how they differ, and most importantly - explain how it is possible to influence the thoughts of millions of people.

Agree, the study of public opinion is both interesting and useful. Let's try to understand the essence of this contradictory phenomenon. To do this, we will have to turn not to psychology, as usual, but to another science. Still, public opinion is a topic developed more in sociology than in any other field of knowledge.

What it is

And where do you begin to understand it, this essence of public opinion? Of course, with a definition. There are three similar terms: mass consciousness, public opinion and public consciousness.

Mass consciousness is a complex of views, assessments and ideas shared by representatives of large social communities. Mass consciousness is dynamic and heterogeneous. It is made up of the minds of people who are as different from each other as possible, who come together largely due to a random coincidence of circumstances, and not a stable belonging to some social community.

The social consciousness is wider than the mass one, and is not just a collection of many individual consciousnesses. This is a complex structure built from different levels (say, theoretical, ideological, everyday) and forms (legal, scientific, religious) of consciousness.

And finally, our third term. The concept of public opinion is interpreted by different researchers in different ways, let's focus on the most common definition. This is a state (other sources say - a form) of mass consciousness, where the attitude of human communities to situations and processes that concern their interests is manifested explicitly or implicitly.

The structure of public opinion is quite simple.

The rational component is knowledge about the problem.
Emotional - feelings and experiences that the problem awakens; tastes, predilections that affect its perception.
Volitional (or behavioral) - actions to resolve the problem.

The formation of public opinion on one issue takes a few days, on another - years. But, one way or another, there are certain stages that must go through in order for this process to take place. It can even be compared with human life: birth, existence, death. Judge for yourself.

Then the opinion functions - it becomes able to resist the authorities or organizations or assist them in solving a particular problem. At the stage of recession, the problem loses its relevance: either it has been solved, or it is impossible to do something with it, or something has appeared that currently occupies society more. The last stage is death. As public opinion, the position really dies and turns into disparate assessments of individual groups.

Why is it of interest

Studies of this phenomenon are especially relevant in the era in which we all now live. Why?

Firstly, the rapid development of a market economy proclaiming competition, and hence the struggle for consumers. And for a successful struggle, methods of studying demand and creating effective advertising are very important. Secondly, the preferences of society play a big role for politicians as well. Most developed countries now have an elected government, and therefore it is also important for representatives of different parties, as well as individual candidates, to know what the voter wants.

Finally, the media and the Internet play a special role in the modern world. For them, the opinion of readers, viewers, users is especially valuable. The tastes of the target audience are the first thing that editors take into account when a future issue of a program or issue of a magazine is being formed. The situation can also be viewed from the other side. Not only newspapers, radio and television adapt to the tastes of their audience.

There is also a reverse trend: the influence of the media on public opinion - we all know this - is enormous. And it must be admitted that the fact that everyone has long known about the possibilities of manipulation does not make this influence less significant. Therefore, including, probably, the manipulation of public opinion with the help of magazine pages and computer screens is perhaps the most popular area of research by sociologists, whose scientific interests are turned to the views and ideas of mass populations of people.

The methodology of sociological research on this topic includes well-known and long-used methods of study in many sciences: experiment, observation, survey, analysis of documents ... Special sociometric methods are also used.

What role does it play in society

The functions of public opinion can be distinguished on different grounds. For example, they talk about explicit and hidden functions, functions depending on the direction and method of influencing the social system. Here is the most common and, perhaps, the easiest to understand system of functions attributed to public opinion.

1. The essence of the regulatory role of public opinion is that thanks to it, rules of conduct are developed, and it also helps to monitor their implementation in relations of different scales. Whether it's two individuals, a person and a group, a group and society.

2. The educational function stems from the previous one. All of us (some more, some less) always compare our actions with accepted standards, thus cultivating a sense of responsibility in ourselves. In this sense, dependence on public opinion is not at all bad, on the contrary.

3. An important, but not always working, function is an advisory one. Judgments formed in society can serve as a consultation, advice to a particular social institution and help it solve existing problems.

4. The evaluation function is obvious. Public opinion, as its concept clearly testifies, expresses the attitude of the masses to this or that fact of reality.

5. The function of control lies in the fact that the position of society works (at least it should work) as a control mechanism for social organizations, institutions, individuals endowed with power, forcing them to carry out their activities taking into account public views.

In some sources, this list may look slightly different, but in general, there should not be very many differences. Author: Evgeniya Bessonova

Essence and distinctive features of public opinion

Public opinion is the main partner of the state, the media and other political actors interested in expanding their political support.

From a social point of view, this is the main source of information about the interests of citizens, a mechanism for expressing their attitude to power and its specific actions. For example, public opinion polls serve as the most important tool for identifying the political preferences of the population (represented in the form of ratings of leaders or parties), their attitude to government actions in times of crisis, etc.
The importance of public opinion as the most important counterpart of power was manifested in antiquity. So, Protagoras spoke of the "public opinion" of the whole society, which is able to distinguish truth from falsehood. Because of this, he saw in the civil community not only a source of moral and legal forces, but also the possibility of establishing a social measure. Socrates, who also attached great importance to the opinion of society, emphasized the opinion of the wise, which is truer than the opinion of the majority. Plato adhered to the same position, considering the aristocracy as the main subject of society's opinion. Hegel associated public opinion with the "compatibility" of individual judgments, which, due to the presence in society of "formal subjective freedom", could give appropriate advice to the authorities. In the XII century. English writer and statesman D. Salisbury introduced the special term public opinion, which characterized the moral support of the parliament by the population.

A relatively conceptualized theory of public opinion took shape by the 1950s and 1960s. However, despite the constant desire for a detailed description of the interaction of public opinion with various political institutions, scientists have not come to a consensus regarding this phenomenon. In theory, its understanding prevails either as a socio-psychological state of society, or as a set of moral and ethical parameters, or as an evaluation structure. The question of the subject of public opinion is also interpreted ambiguously.

Thus, J. Habermas understands by public opinion the totality of the positions of people who are educated and own property, whose group opinion claims the universal significance of political positions. N. Luhmann believes that public opinion does not have special subjects, and the expressed points of view fix the leading theme that attracts the attention of people whose views may be very different. The German researcher E. Noel-Neumann considers public opinion as a set of assessments, including the views of people who not only support governments, but also those who do not speak out due to either passivity or opposition, or unwillingness to be isolated (the so-called spiral of silence).

To understand the essence and nature of public opinion, it should be taken into account that in the MICS, some of the messages disseminated by the authorities do not need to be approved by public opinion. As already mentioned, power can form one-way communications without feedback. But along with this, there are also attempts to establish contact with public opinion and with society as a whole. So, summarizing the approaches that have developed in science and taking into account the inconstant need of the authorities for the judgments of citizens, we can say that public opinion is a set of judgments and assessments that characterize the state of the mass (group) consciousness, which affects the content and nature of various political processes (changes in the sphere of government authority).

From this point of view, it is an element of representing the interests of the population by the center of power, a mechanism for presenting the most acute and significant problems for citizens. From a substantive point of view, this is not the entire mass consciousness, but only its top, a set of assessments and ideas that unites a particular group (including the majority) of people. Forming the spiritual climate, influencing the political atmosphere in society, these assessments inevitably acquire political meaning and significance for those in power.

Public opinion as a stable political mechanism for the presentation of social interests arose as a result of the development of democracy and civil society institutions. In the structure of public opinion, both mass and local points of view are formed. Their occurrence and correlation depends on the level of competitiveness in society, the presence of political presentation mechanisms in it, claims made by people for the universality of their own position.

Any facts and phenomena of social life (including the statements of individual politicians, whose assessment causes a politically significant reaction of the population) can act as an object of public opinion. Thus, public opinion is always concentrated around certain ideas and phenomena. At the same time, people can repeatedly change their views and judgments, positions and conclusions, interpret the same phenomena. The assessments expressed by public opinion do not always adequately reflect the events taking place in society (W. Lippman). The role of prejudices, stereotypes, misconceptions is great in public opinion. Due to its largely emotional nature, it is sometimes very one-sided, biased. Therefore, along with a positive impact on the government, the desire to force the state to listen to the voice of citizens, public opinion is often dangerous due to its incompetence.

Structure and functions of public opinion
The structure of public opinion, as a rule, includes mass (group) moods, emotions, feelings, as well as formalized assessments and judgments. Within this framework, there is a certain dynamics of its development from abstract ideas, unclear and undecided emotions to more rigorous and rational concepts and assessments. Under the conditions of a crisis, such dynamics are characterized by extreme inconsistency, a repeated return from more or less formulated assessments to unclear forebodings.

For each of these forms of political images dominating in society, there are special channels of communication with the authorities.

Thus, sensual opinions are expressed at rallies, spontaneous gatherings, meetings. Formalized assessments are usually broadcast with the help of speeches by independent experts speaking on behalf of the public - leaders, in the form of newspaper articles, comments, etc.

The most significant functions of public opinion include: representation of the current policy in the eyes of the public; providing feedback in the public administration system, which implies a correction of the course pursued by the regime; increasing the degree of legitimacy of the ruling regime; socialization of citizens included in the sphere of political relations.

Public opinion does not have an unequivocal focus on transforming reality. When making decisions, the authorities can either take into account (in whole or in part) the positions and assessments expressed by the public, or not take them into account. However, they must respond to public opinion and fix their attitude towards it.

The realities of the political struggle show that the government itself sometimes assumes the functions of expressing public opinion. In particular, using the media close to the regime, the ruling circles nominate their "leaders of public opinion", distribute materials about the events, comment on them in a certain way in order to create the necessary mood in society. Public assessments of what happened on behalf of certain groups are given, to which the authorities subsequently react based on their own interests.

Political practice provides examples of diverse types of public opinion that have their own parameters. Thus, the opinions of the public can be distinguished by the nature of their influence on the authorities; the degree of illusory nature, reflecting the delusions and prejudices prevailing in them; the level of constructiveness; degree of directiveness in relation to power. Specialists also distinguish homogeneous (where ideas and positions rigidly cement public opinion) and inhomogeneous (in which various assessments and positions compete). Depending on the form of expression and the degree of closeness to the positions of the authorities, public opinion may be of an official or unofficial nature. For example, in the former USSR, forms of "unanimous" (caused both by the work of party bodies and the passivity of the population) support by the population of any political actions of the authorities (colloquially - "approved") have become widespread.

The universal, constantly manifesting properties of public opinion include: internal inconsistency and imbalance, creating the possibility of reorienting i public opinion from one point of view to another; situationality, dependence on the dynamics of political changes; the relative stability of the formulated positions, which makes it possible to replicate and distribute them faster than they change meanings; simplification and superficiality of assessments.

Formation of public opinion

The mechanisms of formation of public opinion are very diverse and significantly depend on the ways in which civil society communicates with the government, the level of institutionalization of democracy, and the organization of the public. In the most general form, emotional, spontaneous and rational-conscious ways of its formation are distinguished.

Emotional, sensual ways and mechanisms are formed, as a rule, on the basis of interpersonal communication. However, it will take a long time for group positions, and even more so for mass opinion, to crystallize through such channels. Here the role of the mechanisms of psychological suggestion, infection is great.

Spontaneous methods of formation are most often based on the opinion of the leader and media reports. In the first case, the positions expressed by an authoritative leader shape the implicitly existing opinions of citizens. People join them, thereby amplifying their sound and expanding their political opportunities.

Within the framework of this method of concentrating the public around certain phenomena and ideas, the media seek to get rid of the inconsistency in the depiction of events, to achieve certainty in understanding what is happening. Certain relationships, emotional states, patterns and stereotypes are cultivated here. In this context, methods of subconscious stimulation are often used: standardized and simplified representations are introduced into the news flow, containing certain evaluative associations, stereotypes or standards, which causes an automatic positive or negative public reaction to a particular event. Such associations fixed at the subconscious level, for example, include ethnic or social prejudices that provoke a value attitude to the problem of “friend or foe”.

With this method of forming a public position, the role of not only opinion leaders, but also the intellectual elite is high. However, there are no guarantees that the authorities in this case will specifically respond to the opinions and assessments expressed.

Public opinion is also formed as a result of the action of special structures, parties, movements, analytical structures, which at the professional level are engaged in the development and broadcast of certain assessments on behalf of the public. Such professionalization is inextricably linked with the strengthening of rational procedures for the preparation of public positions, the formation of channels, tracking the methods of disseminating information and bringing it to power structures.

The phrase "public opinion" appeared in England in the second half of the 12th century. It was first used by the English politician and writer John Salisbury. In the 18th century, this concept began to be widely used in other countries. The power of public opinion, its active influence on the activities of the subjects of the historical process have become undeniable.

Public opinion is a specific manifestation of mass consciousness. This is a complex spiritual formation that contains judgments, ideas, ideas, assessments, and reflects the attitude (hidden and explicit) of social groups to current events, facts, phenomena and problems of society. Public opinion reflects the interests, moods, feelings of classes and social groups of society in a given historical period of time. In fact, public opinion is an indicator of how social groups and society as a whole reflect and perceive ongoing social processes.

In modern sociological literature (foreign and domestic) one can find many different definitions of public opinion. Public opinion includes a wide range of concepts. First, there are attitudes of the mind that accept statements as true, or reject them. Secondly, it is a point of view, a position, ideas about social reality. Thirdly, public opinion is seen as a value judgment or judgment about some object.

Researchers identify several approaches to determining the nature of this social phenomenon. Briefly they can be described as follows:

1) public opinion does not include all points of view on a particular problem that individual individuals have, but only those that are associated with an assessment of the situation in relation to which a given set of individuals acts as a community;

2) public opinion cannot be abstract, that is, it exists on a specific issue and arises in a specific situation;

3) public opinion is always publicly expressed, brought to the attention of society or any social group; otherwise, it will be the individual point of view of individuals;

3) public opinion appears when it reflects the attitude to the problems that interest a particular society or a particular community of people;

4) public opinion is formed only if the public has access to information about the problem of interest. It must be remembered that it can arise both on the basis of information that reflects the real state of things, and distort reality;

5) public opinion persists for a certain period of time, quite definitely, which allows us to consider it as a social phenomenon.

We can give the following definition of this phenomenon.

Public opinion is a specific manifestation of public consciousness, a complex spiritual formation, expressed in assessments and characterizing an explicit or hidden attitude to actual problems of reality, inherent in individual groups, social communities or society as a whole.

Public opinion always reflects the collective position and arises on issues of public interest.

At its core, public opinion is a combination of theoretical ideas, provisions of "common sense" and even delusions. It manifests itself first in emotions and judgments, and then in actions. In addition, researchers believe that public opinion is the most important mechanism of social interaction between people, since the functioning of any social group is impossible without the development of common ideas, judgments about common affairs, without collective assessments of events, without determining ways to solve pressing problems.

In the structure of public opinion, an object and a subject are distinguished.

The object of public opinion are specific phenomena, topics, problems on which judgments and points of view are expressed, that is, what public opinion is formed about. Thus, all the diversity of social life gives rise to the diversity of human judgments. Public opinion in its content is as complex as the processes taking place in society. The object of public opinion covers material production and political life, the state of ecology and health care, spiritual needs and socio-psychological well-being of people, and much more.

According to the sociologist B.A. Grushin, the object of public opinion must be studied, paying attention, firstly, to the analysis of the general ability of public opinion judgments to reflect reality; secondly, to highlight the criteria by virtue of which the phenomena of life become the object of public opinion

The subject and spokesman of public opinion are people who express judgments or give assessments to a particular problem that arises in society.

The subject of public opinion has a complex structure. The elements of this structure are classes, social communities, strata and groups of society. The inclusion of a particular group in the subject of public opinion depends on the significance of the problem under discussion, its importance for this group.

The diversity of opinions is due to the specifics of the perception of ongoing events, differences in the interests and social experience of people, which often leads to their clash, polarization and harmonization.

When does public opinion appear? What conditions affect its appearance and functioning? The most important condition is the social interests of people. Public opinion appears when a problem that arises in any sphere of public life (economic, political, spiritual, social) has practical significance and affects the interests of people. Most researchers consider this the first condition for the emergence of public opinion.

The second condition is related to the presence of debatability, that is, the problem or question under discussion must be debatable: social groups must have differences in assessments and judgments.

The third condition is the level of competence of people (they must have the knowledge to discuss a particular issue).

The mechanism of formation of public opinion has not been sufficiently studied by modern sociology. The complexity of this process lies in the fact that a common opinion is developed on the basis of individual judgments that "come into conflict with each other", agree or disagree. A common opinion arises in the assessment and discussion of topical, generally significant problems. Thus, a collective, group judgment is formed, and then an intergroup one.

Researchers say that there are two main sources that generate public opinion. The first source is associated with direct observation and assessment of the surrounding reality. This is the approval or condemnation by the population, social groups of certain actions, decisions of authorities or statements. Such public opinion is formed spontaneously. It is not amenable to targeted regulation.

The second source of public opinion is the mass media (newspapers, radio, television). Using these information channels, the population comprehends the expressed judgments, opinions, and assessments more rationally and logically. The mass media act as powerful levers for the formation and expression of public opinion.

What is the essence and what is the content of public opinion?

Most researchers note the following points:

public opinion is a specific conclusion (collective judgment) on any problem;

public interests and needs contribute to the formation of public opinion;

people's judgments have varying degrees of truth; public opinion that is not based on a scientific foundation can be erroneous; in case of lack of objective information, people use rumors or rely on their intuition;

public opinion becomes the driving force that regulates the behavior of social groups; at the same time, it reflects not only a certain level of knowledge of people on any issue, but also the attitude towards the object of opinion;

Public opinion is the result of the combination and interaction of people's opinions. It must be remembered that one opinion may become general, others will not be taken into account at all; the formed public opinion is integrative in nature;

public opinion exists in the minds of people and is always expressed publicly.

Social assessments are the main, but not the only element in the structure of public opinion. Other elements that assessments rely on are theoretical and practical knowledge, as well as feelings and emotions. Social attitudes and will play an important role in shaping public opinion.

Consequently, public opinion is a unity of rational, emotional and volitional aspects. It has qualitative and quantitative characteristics, can have a positive and negative orientation, or be indifferent. For a long time, public opinion remains stable. Moreover, it can be enshrined in norms and values.

Public opinion researchers concluded that public opinion has areas of social and regional distribution. Public opinion is strengthened in the minds of individuals, in the minds of groups or classes, i.e. has a social

spreading. It functions within the framework of the region, region, district, country as a whole (regional distribution).

In what areas can public opinion manifest itself?

These are all spheres of public life - economics and politics, morality and culture, science and education, religion and law. Most often, public opinion manifests itself in the sphere of politics: people evaluate the activities of the legislative authorities, the parties and deputies elected by them. Closely related to political assessments are legal assessments of people's actions. Moral assessments measure the behavior of people with generally accepted norms and principles. At the same time, they can act as an element of social control.

Examples of public opinion are the assessments and judgments of various social groups in Russian society about the problems of social and economic development of Russian society. These may be the development of the country's housing and communal complex, the adoption of a new law on education, the quality and cost of healthcare services, infill development of cities and the preservation of historical monuments, and much more. As a specific example, one can cite the results of a public opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Socio-Political Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2009. The task of the study was to determine the phenomena that, in the opinion of the Russians, it is necessary to fight in the first place. The survey involved representatives of the population in various regions of the Russian Federation aged 18 years and older. The data are presented in table 1.

Table 1.

The opinions of Russians about the phenomena of public life, which must be dealt with in the first place, in %

Note: the sum of the answers is more than 100%, since the respondents could mark several items.

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Interpretation of the concept

Such a unique phenomenon as "public opinion" is one of the social phenomena that have attracted the attention of thinkers since ancient times.

In recent years, the ever-increasing level of participation of representatives of the world community in the political sphere is evident. In many respects, this circumstance also explains the ever-increasing attention of researchers from around the world to problems in the context of their consideration through the prism of such a phenomenon as “public opinion”.

Public opinion is one of the phenomena that with great difficulty lend themselves to comprehensive analysis and strict definition. Currently, you can find hundreds of definitions of public opinion.

The concept of "public opinion" in philosophical thought

The origin of ideas about public opinion dates back to the era of Antiquity, however, even in the texts of ancient Chinese philosophy, it was discussed the importance of studying people's public opinion in order to adequately use it in management. In particular, in Taoism it was believed that of the four reasons for the death of the state, one is when the feelings and moods of the people are not used by the rulers in the management.

In the future, other definitions began to spread. R. A. Safarov, agreeing with B. A. Grushin that public opinion is a phenomenon of a mass nature, located in the sphere of public consciousness, at the same time, believed that it should be active. The activity of the subjects of public opinion in the view of R. A. Safarov indicates that this is really “public”, and no other opinion. Therefore, it is expressed not only in judgments, but also in practical actions. Hence - public opinion is a value judgment of social communities that is distinguished by relative prevalence, intensity and stability on issues of interest to them.

In the 1980s, some, however, not very significant adjustments were made to the interpretation of the concept of "public opinion". V. S. Korobeinikov noted that it is plural, that is, it reflects a variety of points of view related to a large number of communities and, in the aggregate, is a kind of "opinion pyramid" .

VN Anikeev gave a historical and philosophical analysis of the concept of "public opinion". He made a conclusion about the relationship between the level of democracy in society and the development of the institution of public opinion.

Also of interest is the work of V. M. Gerasimov, published already in the 1990s, who attempted to develop an interdisciplinary concept of public opinion from the standpoint of political psychology and acmeology. Considering public opinion in a political context, he concludes that there is a close relationship between power and public opinion and it is impossible to neglect it.

It is also important to name a number of works authored by a researcher from St. Petersburg D. P. Gavra, who compared public opinion with the air that is necessary for the breathing of democracy: when it exists, it is not noticed, but its absence can lead to the death of the whole organism . In addition, D. P. Gavra introduced the concept of “modes of interaction between power and public opinion”, which, in particular, means “a generalized description of the measure of the real involvement of public opinion in political decision-making, managing the affairs of the state and society and the opportunities for functioning provided by government institutions." At the same time, D.P. Gavra, on the basis of the system of criteria developed by him, identifies the following “modes of interaction between the authorities and public opinion”: 1. The mode of suppression of public opinion by the authorities. 2. Mode of ignoring public opinion. 3. Regime of paternalism of power in relation to public opinion. 4. Mode of cooperation (mutual implementation). 5. Mode of pressure of public opinion on the authorities. 6. Regime of the dictatorship of public opinion.

E. Egorova-Gantman and K. Pleshakov, speaking about the subjects of public opinion, suggested using the “three strata” method. In this case, we are talking about the three main, in their opinion, carriers of public opinion: firstly, the leadership of the country, represented by official leaders, secondly, the elite, and thirdly, the masses.

Marxist-Leninist concept of public opinion

Public opinion from the point of view of Marxism-Leninism is reflected in the Third Edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, published by the Soviet Encyclopedia publishing house in 1969-1978.

With the exception of certain points that reflect the approaches that existed in Russian science in the Soviet period, in the era of the dominance of the ideology of Marxism-Leninism, the material presented in this article fully reflects the features of the process of formation and functioning of public opinion at the present stage.

Story

Antiquity

The term "public opinion" came into use relatively recently, only a few centuries ago, however, the phenomenon itself was observed in almost all historical eras. This can be evidenced by studies of the mechanisms of formation of public opinion among primitive peoples, which was carried out by the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead. She noted the effectiveness of public opinion in regulating the life of the tribes: "Public opinion is effective if someone acts as a transgressor of the commandments, or in case of conflict, or if it is necessary to decide on future actions."

In one of the written sources dating back to the era of Ancient Egypt, “A conversation with your soul, a person who is tired of living” mentions events that apparently deeply shocked public opinion:

Who will I talk to today?
Everyone is greedy...
Nobility has no more place
People laugh at crimes
There are no honest people
The earth fell into the power of villains

The mass media (media) play an important role in shaping public opinion, in particular: television, radio broadcasting, print publications (press). In recent years, in the context of the development of the information society, the influence of electronic media concentrated on the Internet - numerous social networks, blogs, forums, Twitter, Youtube - has significantly increased.
Public opinion is influenced by the opinions of people recognized by society as authoritative and competent, and by people's personal experience.

The instruments of influencing public opinion on the part of the state are propaganda and censorship.

Expression of public opinion

In modern society, the usual channels (and forms) for expressing public opinion are: elections of government bodies, participation of the population in legislative and executive activities, the media, meetings, rallies, demonstrations, pickets, etc. Along with this, statements caused by political, economic, social, cultural, as well as research interest and taking the form of referendums and plebiscites, mass discussions of any problems, meetings of specialists, sample surveys of the population, etc. and so on.

According to the legislation, in the Russian Federation, public opinion can be expressed at an advisory level, for example, at the stage of making decisions regarding the construction of various facilities. Thus, in 2004 St. Petersburg adopted a law “On the participation of citizens and their associations in the discussion and decision-making in the field of urban planning activities in St. Petersburg”. According to this law, any citizen has the right to express his opinion and, if there is evidence of a violation of the law, to prevent the construction of the facility.

Measurement of public opinion

Opinion polls are conducted to quantify public opinion.

Literature

Uledov A.K. Public opinion of the Soviet society. - M.: Sotsekgiz, 1963.
Grushin B. A. Opinion about the world and the world of opinions: Problems of methodology and research of public opinion. - M.: Politizdat, 1967.
Safarov R. Ya. Public opinion in the system of Soviet democracy. - M.: Knowledge, 1982.
Korobeinikov V. S. Pyramid of Opinions (Public Opinion: Nature and Functions). - M.: Thought, 1981.
Taker A. A. Formation and study of public opinion. - M.: Knowledge, 1987.
Gorshkov M.K. Public opinion. History and modernity. - M.: Politizdat, 1988.
Anikeev V. I. Public opinion as a historical concept. - Rostov-on-Don, 1982.
Gerasimov V. M. Public opinion in the mirror of political psychology. - M.: Luch, 1995.
Gavra D. P. Public opinion as a sociological category and as a social institution. - SPb., 1995.
Gavra D. P. Public opinion and power: regimes and mechanisms of interaction // Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology, 1998. Vol. 1. Issue. 4.

Founding works

Bryce, James. American Republic: At 3 o'clock. Ch. 1-3 / Per. from English. - M.: K. T. Soldatenkov, 1889-1890.
Tarde, Gabrielle. Personality and crowd: Essays on social psychology / Per. from fr. - M.: Publishing house of t-va type. A. I. Mamontova, 1902.
Holzendorf, Franz von. Public opinion / Per. with him. - St. Petersburg: Ya. Orovich, 1895.
Bourdieu P. Public opinion does not exist // Bourdieu P. Sociology of politics: Per. from fr. G. A. Cherednichenko / Comp., total. ed. and foreword. N. A. Shmatko. - M.: Socio-Logos, 1993. - S. 159-177.
Kara-Murza S. G. Manipulation of consciousness. - M.: Eksmo Publishing House, 2000.
Yadov V. A. Strategy of sociological research. - M.: OMEGA-L, 2005.

History of the study of public opinion in the XX century

Doctorov B.Z. Pioneers of the world of opinions: from Gallup to Grushin. - M .: Institute of the Fund "Public Opinion", 2005.
Doctorov B.Z. Advertising and public opinion polls in the USA: the history of the origin, the fate of the creators. - M .: Center for Social Forecasting, 2008.
Doctorov B.Z. George Gallup. Biography and fate. - M .: Publishing house of LLC "Polygraph - Inform". 2011
Doctorov B.Z. Modern Russian Sociology: Historical and Biographical Searches. In 3 volumes. - M .: Center for social. forecasting, 2012.

Mutual influence of foreign policy and public opinion

American public opinion and politics / Ed. ed. Zamoshkin Yu.A., Auth. coll. Zamoshkin Yu.A., Ivanyan E.A., Petrovskaya M.M. and others - M .: Nauka, 1978.
War and society in the XX century: In 3 books. / Hand. project and comp. O.A. Rzheshevsky. – M.: Nauka, 2008.
Zamoshkin Yu.A. Challenges of civilization and US experience: history, psychology, politics. – M.: Nauka, 1991.
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