The basic distinction between the modem and earlier States lies in the influence and effect of public opinion and the part which propaganda plays today. In all States of the past public opinion was unknown, but the modern State is at once a master and a servant of public opinion and propaganda. A democracy is a government by public opinion.
Nature of Public Opinion:
What is an Opinion? In order to understand public opinion, we must first know what an individual opinion is, for in some way or another public opinion is a resultant of individual opinions. An individual opinion may be defined as the expressed idea or attitude of an individual on an issue confronting the group of which he or she is a member. Expression is necessary, for an unexpressed idea or attitude cannot be an opinion. But here arises the first problem about opinion formation.
On certain occasions even unexpressed or silent opinions can have great affect of public opinion. Moreover, individual opinion may be positive or negative, for or against the issue in question. Further, an individual’s opinion is likely to change over time, when his or her experience, knowledge, or age environment changes. What is more, the opinions of no two individuals are absolutely alike, because the environment, experience, and knowledge of no two individuals are the same, even if they live under the one and the same roof. Lastly, though not in the least, an individual’s opinion may be at first vague and indefinite. But it may become more precise, definite and stable after some time, long or short, when he or she is pressed by the urgency of the situation or problem, and/or by the alertness of his or her mind, experience or knowledge.
Now the problem is: How do the opinions of many individuals, sometimes millions of -people change or are transformed into public opinion? This question has occupied the attention, and even baffled the minds of innumerable thinkers, philosophers, sociologists, political scientists, Statesmen and researchers for more than two centuries. The question is at once important but difficult. It may be said, and rightly, that public opinion is the sum of individual opinions on an issue. But, then, it is noted that it is more than merely sum of individual opinions, because sometimes it acquires a force and vitality unconnected with any specific individual. For example, the word “Pakistan” was only an idea, an opinion, of an unknown student, Ch. Rahmat Ali, in 1937.
But in a matter of ten years, it became a tremendous popular force, now called “Pakistan Movement.” The well-known German sociologist, Ferdinand Tonnies, said, “Whatever may come to be considered a public opinion, it confronts the individual with an opinion which is in part an extraneous power.” Another author has explained it as a crystallization process, which is, as he says, “the transformation of individual attitudes into a collectivity can exert influence”. Sometimes this transformation is so dramatic and revolutionary that we may characterise it as “the genie in the bottle effect”. As the children’s story-book tells us, there was a genie that was kept by his master in a bottle. But when his master let him out of the bottle it loomed so large over him that he was frightened.
The same thing happens in history and politics at certain times. The observation of the crowd behaviour seems to confirm the existence of some psychic entity that may seize hold of many individuals at once and lead them to behave in ways that no one of them would have behaved under other circumstances. In some situations, this kind of collective behaviour of public opinion sweep way powerful governments or dictators, as for example the overthrow of Ayyub Khan’s government in 1969 or of Mr. Bhutto’s government in 1977 in Pakistan, or of General No Win in 1988 after he had ruled Burma for more than a quarter of century. Public opinion also manifests itself in more peaceful but effective manner, as for example the overthrow of Winston Churchill’s government in the general elections of 1946 in Great Britain, although he was the saviour of his country in the ‘World War II (1939-45). Hence it is asked, why there are sudden and radical shifts in public opinion and therefore in the governments and their policies and how to avoid them, I especially in a democracy? To put it differently, how to organise public opinion so as to avoid sudden shifts and changes in it. This question is particularly important for the new nations or developing countries, which are sometimes bedevilled by them.
Public opinion grows out of a great variety and diversity of the views, beliefs, ideas and prejudices of the myriads of individuals or citizens of a State, when they think and want to do something in common. In their everyday life, they think, feel and act differently, and diversely, even divergently. But when required to think and act in common under the influence of a leader or an event, they may create a unity or uniformity of belief, opinion and behaviour. This is the Public Opinion.