In the age of democracy Public Opinion Research (POR) has become a universal phenomenon. It derives its root and inspiration
from Rousseau’s popular dictum “Vox populi vox dei “(voice of the people is the voice of god).After the fall of the ‘Berlin wall’ in 1989 and the subsequent collapse of the authoritarian and totalitarian systems like ‘Communist Bloc’, undertaking this POR has become almost a trend and fashion everywhere. Even the authoritarian regimes now opt to legitimize their rule by
conducting POR. However the POR in that case becomes manipulative and politically conservative in favour of the ruling establishment. That is not the sole objective of conducting the POR. It is aimed at exploring the truth about participatory democracy and development; and it wishes to convey the wishes of the people and ground realities to the
government. It wishes to influence public policies in tune of its findings. Sometimes the findings and conclusions of these PORs may bring and cause embarrassment to the government and the governing elites. Therefore in most of the third world democracies the governments are quite skeptical about the PORs. However the true test of democracies lies in how far they allow and encourage the conduct of PORs in its true spirit. In a developed democracy like the US, nourishing the PORs form a part of government working process and there has been government funding towards that end. India is not lagging behind. Ours is the largest democracy. We are gradually moving towards a tolerant system. Right to Information has become a law. Now with the financial help received from external sources several organizations (NGOs) are conducting PORs. However, these are found to be limited, methodologically naïve and culturally inauthentic. What the PORs in India have succeeded today are getting mostly ‘do not know’ responses. A lot more they have to contemplate on exploring the ground realities from the alienating and apathetic public of India. With the genuine conclusions derived by them and their acceptance by the government in a positive spirit may consolidate democracy. Otherwise democracy will remain as Winston Churchill said, “the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time”.