"This is a major work, arguably the most important in the study of public opinion since John Zaller's The Nature of Public Opinion. For many years distinguished scholars have suggested that, although citizens often are ill-informed and erratic in their judgments about politics, their errors and biases tend to cancel out. A comforting thought, if true. Althaus, however, provides the most compelling demonstration to date that it is false." Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Illusions of Aggregation: 2. The power of noise; 3. Who speaks for the people?; Part II. Information Effects in Collective Preferences: 4. The impact of information effects; 5. The structure and causes of information effects; 6. The temporal dynamics of information effects; Part III. Opinion Surveys and Democratic Politics: 7. Opinion surveys and the will of the people; 8. What surveys can tell us about public opinion.

"This is a major work, arguably the most important in the study of public opinion since John Zaller's The Nature of Public Opinion. For many years distinguished scholars have suggested that, although citizens often are ill-informed and erratic in their judgments about politics, their errors and biases tend to cancel out. A comforting thought, if true. Althaus, however, provides the most compelling demonstration to date that it is false." Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Illusions of Aggregation: 2. The power of noise; 3. Who speaks for the people?; Part II. Information Effects in Collective Preferences: 4. The impact of information effects; 5. The structure and causes of information effects; 6. The temporal dynamics of information effects; Part III. Opinion Surveys and Democratic Politics: 7. Opinion surveys and the will of the people; 8. What surveys can tell us about public opinion.

"This is a major work, arguably the most important in the study of public opinion since John Zaller's The Nature of Public Opinion. For many years distinguished scholars have suggested that, although citizens often are ill-informed and erratic in their judgments about politics, their errors and biases tend to cancel out. A comforting thought, if true. Althaus, however, provides the most compelling demonstration to date that it is false." Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Illusions of Aggregation: 2. The power of noise; 3. Who speaks for the people?; Part II. Information Effects in Collective Preferences: 4. The impact of information effects; 5. The structure and causes of information effects; 6. The temporal dynamics of information effects; Part III. Opinion Surveys and Democratic Politics: 7. Opinion surveys and the will of the people; 8. What surveys can tell us about public opinion.