Lionel Jospin, thanks to his performance in the presidential election, has gotten the party moving again and reconfirming its role as a force for structuring the left and as a party to alternate in power. Along with the presidential election and partly linked to it, the key innovation is the growing importance of public opinion polls - an average of two are published every day, without taking into account the confidential polls carried out for the State, the presidential candidates, members of parliament, local elected officials and political parties. The polls are often disparaged by politicians, for less than honourable reasons when the tide is running against them and fairly enough when polls are misused to support claims that have not been rigorously demonstrated. They contribute to increasing the proportion of direct democracy to representative democracy, even if the latter necessarily remains the dominant force. It is tempting to oppose the myth of the statesman, oddly enough gauged by his unpopularity, and the myth of the demagogue, defined rather unrealistically as being sure to succeed by flattering the people.
Reality is more complex.
Public opinion polls express the state of the citizens' opinions, more or less structured depending on the context and what is at stake, but they are never more than one of the elements in political decision-making, one element among many which include the dearth of available resources, external constraints, the pressure of organized interests, the necessary support of backers, allies who must be humoured, critical situations which must be managed, ideals which must be upheld, etc. Political responsibility cannot be shared. Still, in a system of government of the people, by the people and for the people, nothing is more dangerous for the political elites than to cut themselves off from the people by putting their own words into the mouths of the citizens. Livre de poche. They may organize and carry on their activities freely.