PUBLIC OPINION IN AMERICAN STATECRAFT.

The paper focuses on the influence of social and technological changes since 1787 upon the role of public opinion in the U.S. and undertakes to appraise the role of public opinion today in the light of these changes. The history of the "degree of uniformity" is the history of an important and neglected idea in American politics. The role assigned to public opinion by various departments in the federal government is something vastly different from the part given to it by founding fathers. The American Revolution was an open manifestation of a desire for a responsible government, and implicit in this idea of responsible government was the idea of responsibility to influential public opinion. The new significance of public opinion is that public information can keep pace with the facts-and along with this transformation there has followed a broadening of the base of the political pyramid. The importance which has been attached to the power to control opinion within the past few years is a result of the increased number of persons whose opinion is politically consequential.