But often, these minds are burdened with intricate social, economic, political, and identity issues due to democratic expansions, relatively freer societies, and the growth of mass and social media. But in the end, the result generally is some chaos, lack of cohesion, and disturbance of some kind. In the early 20th century, Walter Lippmann dismissed public opinion as useless and argued that public opinion is erratic, volatile, incoherent, and hardly has any genuine relevance on its face value, in apex level policy formulation. He maintained that policy decisions should not be contingent to public opinion. It seems that some kind of mediation between the general perceptions of the public and the intricacies of the wider society and the world is necessary to make public opinion more informed, concise, stable, and relevant.

Source: Dhaka Tribune August 28, 2020 10:30 UTC