Our basic orientation is to consider the phenomenon of public opinion as a politico-social process. Hence power and value are our terms of reference for thinking about public opinion.
It may be safely said that most of public opinion researches have been taken up either in terms of on opinion polling or a social-psychological theory of attitude. These two approaches have their own advantages and make for the theorybuilding of public opinion.
On the other hand, it must be also admitted that these approaches fatally make little of the dynamic social process in which the phenomenon of public opinion occurs. Situated in the social process, public opinion will be advantageously analyzed by exploring its two dimensions, that is, a value-orientation and a power-orientation of public opinion.
By a value-orientation we mean a goal-direction of public opinion as a social movement. We regard public opinion as “ideological” if its function in the process is to maintain the existing social structure ; as “utopian” if it is oriented to reorganize or transform the social order.
Viewed in this light, it naturally follows that the value-orientation of public opinion is closely related to its power-orientation. Because if public opinion is intrinsically value-oriented it must seek the most effective means to realize the goal. It is a commonplace that the means to achieve social values are geared with the institutional system that decides their legitimacy. In other words, if public opinion seeks to become a social force it has to rely on the institutionalized procedures.
In this context, we can speak of legitimate or illegitimate means of action. Public opinion will be referred to as taking legitimate means of action if it operates within the existing cultural and social structure. With a view to securing an intended value, if public opinion defies the institutionalized means and adopts the “technical or efficiency” means, it will be called illegitimate as far as its power-orientation is concerned.
To sum up, we have suggested implicily four types of public opinion, based upon the phenomenon's relation to the basic value system of the society, and accordingly involving the access to legitimate channels of action. The four types are schematicaly set out below.
We have been so far concerned with the conceptual framework within which the phenomenon of public opinion will be effectively analyzed. Since public opinion takes as a power phenomenon, it is of utmost importance to take notice of the group relations in the making of public opinion.
It must be really said that public opinion cannot give an impact to the socalled decision-making group until it is politically organized by means of the interaction among competing groups. The nuclear group which plays its remarkable part in the formation of public opinion will be called a carrier group. The carrier group of public opinion will try to attain its own interests and for that purpose look for help to other groups which have somewhat a community of interest. Needless to say, in coaleseing among groups, those groups which politically occupy a vantage point tend to be a carrier group of public opinion.
In consequence, the effective analysis of public opinion will first of all grapple with a carrier group of public opinion that emerges out of a controversial issue and then go on to clarify both value-orientation and power-orientation of the carrier group. In so doing, we can truly understand what “Public Opinion Makes History” means.
