THE SOURCES OF PUBLIC-OPINION FOR AMERICAN FOREIGN-POLICY OFFICIALS

Public opinion is increasingly being considered an important factor in foreign policy decisions. This article thus examines what sources of information foreign policy officials actually use to represent public opinion. A linkage model is hypothesized with communications between government and the public following five paths: elites, interest groups, the news media, elected officials, and the mass, or general, public. The data show that the elite and interest group paths are least used, paths based on the news media and elected officials are most used, with mass opinion sources of moderate importance. Further data show that the use of any one path depends to some extent upon the types of issues with which officials deal, and the institutional position and ideology of individual officials. Foreign policy officials are often skeptical about public opinion polls; however, in using their own alternative ''operational'' sources, such officials may be more receptive to public input than previously thought. The results of this study are compared with Bernard Cohen's The Public's Impact a Foreign Policy (1973). This comparison finds a significantly diminished use of elite sources to represent public opinion, most likely a result of officials' sense of the ''lessons'' of Vietnam.