Does Policy Debate Reduce Information Effects in Public Opinion? Analyzing the Evolution of Public Opinion on Health Care

Because most citizens fall short of the normative ideal of being politically knowledgeable, it is important to assess the nature of information effects in public opinion. This paper identifies policy debate as a means by which information effects may be reduced. To test this notion, we analyze public opinion on health care before, during, and after the heated policy debate of the 1990s. The results show that information effects in public opinion were exacerbated during the time of greatest public discourse, which provides little to reassure those who are concerned about citizens' low and uneven levels of political information. Policy debate does not appear to compensate for political ignorance and enable the uninformed to behave “as if” they were better informed.