The term public opinion may be defined as a collective opinion of people regarding any issue of national importance. In democratic set ups, majority rules and the importance of public opinion increases manifold not only in the formation of a government but also to run the affairs of the state. It would not be wrong to assert that democracy without public opinion is nothing more than autocracy.
Though the history of freedom of opinion is too long and can be traced back in the early 5th or late 6th century BC in Athens but the concept of freedom of speech was documented in England’s Bill of Rights in 1689. John Lock expressed the idea of public opinion in his writing “Concerning Human Understanding” in 17th Century. Later the idea developed in a broader perspective. In 19th and 20th century, human element became so important in all public and private organizations that the ignorance of public opinion manifested itself in the form of rebellion and agitation. In the midst of rebellion, an intellectual movement “Romanticism” originated in Europe giving more value to personal expression in the wake of Industrial revolution.
In civilized societies, people’s voice replaced suppression in the framework of freedom of expression and the article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 categorically stated “The right to freedom of opinion and expression”. In 21st century, “man on the road” became more important than the man sitting on the throne. There was a literary as well as political movement to highlight the value and role of common man. Even the common man became the hero of modern literature instead of prince.
Since necessity is the mother of invention. The rise of public opinion helped in devising various tools to understand public opinion on all matters of public or national importance. Few of them are research and survey method, polls and Questionnaire. All the methods have their own importance and are used according to the demography, age, sex, literacy level and other factors influencing the population qualitatively and quantitatively. The first example of opinion poll was local straw poll by The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian in 1894 showing Andrew Jackson more popular for the candidate of US president.
Polls are held when research is conducted on much bigger level and people know what they are going to opine about. The polls held in Britain for Brexit is suitable example to state. Questionnaire is used when population is educated and understand the matter to answer the questions. The survey method is considered more reliable, easy and approachable. In survey method, a sample is chosen that is representative of population of a certain area and their opinion is gathered through questionnaire, polling or interview.
With the development of modernization and specialization, different organizations established to conduct survey and research programmes in different parts of the world to gauge public opinion especially on political matters. IRI is one of the authentic organizations doing this task since 1998 in some of the world’s most challenging environments like Soviet Union, Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s manifesto states,” it is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, promoting freedom and democracy worldwide by helping political parties to become more issue-based and responsive, assisting citizens to participate in government planning, and working to increase the role of marginalized groups in the political process — including women and youth.” President Ronald Reagan once said. “The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.”
In Pakistan it has been conducting surveys since 2002. The main goal of these surveys is to inform political parties of public opinion with a mission to improve democratic values and increase public participation in Government decision making process. IRI has conducted so far surveys in Pakistan on the issues of economy, Terrorism, Foreign Policy, Political party’s ratings and leadership ratings.
The recent survey conducted by IRI in Pakistan in November, 2016 produced the results out of blue. Amid Panama Hangama, its result was socking and unexpected for some while pleasing for others. The government publicized the survey results vigorously and enthusiastically. After all it is its right to honour the results of the survey that declared its leader as most popular in the country. Not all the opponents but few rejected this survey calling it fake and few of them declared it generated. A survey was conducted by same organization in 2012 before general elections and the second one in 2013 after the formation of government by PML-N. Survey-2013 showed a marked improvement in the popularity of PML-N while showed the popularity of PTI at a decreased level.
IRI survey 2016 produced more promising results than expressed by people in general elections -2013. The parties that did not respect the mandate of elections 2013, moved towards dharna politics and agitation and instead of bringing any change as per their motto, they cause only social disruption. PTI leadership miscalculated and misunderstood the mood of Public. People wanted solution of their problems but the political chaos added to their confusion. It is quite true that enchanting slogans without actions prove mere uproar in the noise and they are defeating and demoralizing.
It is pertinent to say if not perfect that actions speak much louder than words and in this era of public awareness, political parties need to be responsive to the needs of people because leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.
The writer is a freelance contributor and can be reached at [email protected]