Use of Public Opinion Data in Public Administration

Health Care Polls

Bibliographic Data

ID6364455
AuthorsDavid A Rochefort (0000-0001-7004-535X), Carol A Boyer
Year1988
Volume48
Issue2
Pages649-649
Publication date1988-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePublic Administration Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-3352 • E-ISSN: 1540-6210
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/975767
PMID11650791
OpenAlexW2022479446
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

Conduct of citizen surveys by public administrators has been the subject of considerable discussion.' By contrast, relatively little attention has been given to the utility for public managers of published opinion polls. The purpose of this article is threefold: to review arguments in favor of administrative use of public opinion information; to demonstrate insights to be gained by administrators from a synthesis and critical examination of existing poll data; and to consider methodological weaknesses of such data and some strategies to counter them. The focus is poll data on contemporary health care issues, a good area of illustration for several reasons. First, delivery of high-quality health services at an affordable cost is a shared goal of federal, state, and local governments, and it is an activity in which many public administrators are engaged. Although a breakdown of administrative versus nonadministrative personnel is not available, a total of 1.65 million public employees worked in the health and hospitals area in 1985, up from 1.45 million ten years earlier.2 Second, published opinion data on this topic are abundant. Finally, this is an area where the character of public opinion is complex and multidimensional, thereby posing a challenge to interpretation and application

Health care · Interpretation (philosophy · Opinion poll · Political science · Politics · Public health · Public opinion · Public relations · Quality (philosophy · Strengths and weaknesses · Computer Science · Healthcare Policy and Management · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Policy Transfer and Learning · Psychology · Public Administration · Social Psychology

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