Do politicians listen to the public? When? How often? Or are the views of the public manipulated and used strategically by elites? In this text, leading scholars of American politics assess and debate the impact of public opinion on policy making.

A valuable synthesis of the many strands of research focused on the social mechanisms that connect public opinion and public policy . The breadth and quality of chapters compiled in Navigating Public Opinion is likely to earn the volume a familiar place on the public opinion researcher's shelf.

"A valuable synthesis of the many strands of research focused on the social mechanisms that connect public opinion and public policy . The breadth and quality of chapters compiled in Navigating Public Opinion is likely to earn the volume a familiar place on the public opinion researcher's shelf."-- Public Opinion Quarterly "A valuable synthesis of the many strands of research focused on the social mechanisms that connect public opinion and public policy . The breadth and quality of chapters compiled in Navigating Public Opinion is likely to earn the volume a familiar place on the public opinion researcher's shelf."-- Public Opinion Quarterly

Jeff Manza is Associate Professor of Sociology and a Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Policy Research at Northwestern University. He is the coauthor of Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions (OUP) and Locking Up the Vote: Felon Disenfranchisement and American Democracy (forthcoming from OUP). Fay Lomax Cook is Director of the Institute for Policy Research and Professor of Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She is the author or coauthor of several books, including Who Should Be Helped? Public Support for Social Services and Support for the American Welfare State: The Views of Congress and the Public. Benjamin I. Page is Gordon Scott Fulcher Professor of Decision Making in the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the author or coauthor of eight books, including Who Gets What from Government, Who Deliberates, The Rational Public, and What Government Can Do.