Political public opinion capital

Abstract

‘‘Public opinion’’ is much more commonly used in political marketing discourse, not with any great precision but nearly always with pragmatic connotations. Nevertheless, public opinion has been defined with rationality or the sureties of empiricism, and it has been studied extensively in political disciplines. Lippmann’s (2004) lengthy defense of affective factors that so frequently distort and determine perception has served as a point of departure to the study of ‘‘opinion’’ in the broadly sociological sense normally deployed in political science, communication, marketing, and media studies. In the political marketing context discussed here, the term political public opinion capital is further distinguishable from two closely connected practices: one, a practice of primary media production of perceptions and, two, systematic public opinion surveys. However, this special issue pays more attention to the mechanisms of transition in the realm of political marketing. As such, it examines the rise of political consumerism, with more and more changes being introduced by political organizations to maximize the ‘‘capital’’ of public opinion, aiming at the positive relationship between branches of the political apparatus and the citizens=consumers.