Mediating Effect of Public Opinion on Public Policy, The

Exploring the Realm of Health Care

Examines how public opinion has influenced health care policy.

INTRODUCTION In the preceding chapters, the premise was that in order to
understand pol- icy change, it is necessary to understand the environment in
which policy de- velops. However, as Lippmann (1965) noted, this environment is
at times, “too complex” (p. 11). Others such as Kingdon (1984), Baumgartner and
Jones (1993), and Skocpol (1993) echo Lippman's sentiment. The difficulty, and
in- deed the challenge, for most of us is to understand the complexity of the policy
system ...