Letter From the Author

This site was developed when my book Polling Matters was published. We hope you will find out more about the book, buy it, and read it.

But there is more to it than just that. The central message of Polling Matters is that the leaders and decision-makers in our society should pay more attention to the wisdom of the people -- as measured by polls.

I hope that you will take the time to think a little bit about the broad concept of how polls can be used to better society today. We need a revolution in how we think about government today. We need more reliance, rather than less, on the views of the people. The tide needs to shift to more and more reliance on the wisdom of the people, and less and less reliance on the isolated views of a few elites in government.

Remember, leaders and decision-makers have to make choices based on some criteria. Decision-makers don't operate in a vacuum. Left to their own devices, leaders often fall back and depend on lobbyists, special interests, party bosses, or their own often-imperfect judgment. The major missing ingredient in decision-making is often the wisdom of the people themselves. In today's society, polling is the only effective way to gather this input in a systematic way.

We thus need to elevate the use of polling in society today. We need more pollsters, more systematic analysis of public opinion data, and more discussion of exactly what it is that the people -- in their collective wisdom -- think should be done.

That's the central message of the Polling Matters movement.

Thanks, and remember: Polling matters!

Sincerely,

Frank Newport, PhD
Editor in Chief
The Gallup Poll