Plebian's Guide to Polls

The Plebeian's Guide to Polls is the first series in Student Redux's Perspectives on Polling. Future series will include: The Press Guide to Polls, The Pol's Guide to Polls, and The Propaganda Guide to Polls.

The Plebeian's Guide seeks to help readers understand the nature and history of polling. It will explore statistical methodologies from a layman’s perspective. The Plebian's Guide explains what polls do, how they work, and why they aren’t always accurate.

New chapters will appear every Wednesday morning.

The Plebian's Guide to Polls - A Brief History of Polls

Submitted by Student Redux on Wed, 10/15/2008 - 10:42

Politicians and the public have an historically uneasy relationship, governed by two competing paradigms: (1) politicians ask the public what it wants, or (2) politicians tell the public what it wants.

For those of us who grew up in democratic societies, it’s easy to forget that the weight of historical precedent falls squarely on the second paradigm.  Popular sovereignty isn’t a new invention – the Greeks and Romans toyed with it millennia ago – but history shows us far fewer democracies than dictatorships.

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The Plebian's Guide to Polls - The Four Polls

Submitted by Student Redux on Wed, 10/29/2008 - 00:52

Welcome back to The Plebian's Guide to Polls.  In last week's issue, "Why We Poll", we discussed how polling provides a stable estimation for public opinion.  Today's issue, "The Four Polls", will address key distinctions among the types of polls that are conducted.

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The Plebian's Guide to Polls - Margin of Error

Submitted by Student Redux on Wed, 11/12/2008 - 04:15

Welcome back to The Plebian's Guide to Polls.  In last week's issue, "The Four Polls", we addressed key distinctions among the types of polls that are conducted.  Today's issue, "Margin of Error", will be the first in a number of entries looking at the mechanics of polls and what they really mean.

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The Plebian's Guide to Polls - From Sentiment to Substance

Submitted by Student Redux on Wed, 11/19/2008 - 12:53

 Welcome back to The Plebeian’s Guide to Polls.

 
This week proves that you should never leave your project outline on someone else's computer.  In last week's issue, "Margin of Error", we discussed how polling provides a stable estimation for public opinion.  Today's issue, "From Sentiment to Substance", actually should have been LAST WEEK'S issue.  Oh well.  I'll fix it in the archive.  Anyway, today's issue will give a layman's view of how polls go from idea to implementation, how they are actually conducted.
 
 
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The Plebian's Guide to Polls - The Good Stuff

Submitted by Student Redux on Wed, 12/03/2008 - 12:20

Welcome back to The Plebian's Guide to Polls. So where were we?  Let's review for a moment.

We've discussed how opinion polling came about.  We've put forward some of the reasons for polling.  We've differentiated four different types of polls that get used.  We've looked at how polling methodology can affect the results we see.  And we've talked about the meaning of the margin of error (MoE).

Today's issue, "The Good Stuff", begins our exploration of the sort of information we can get from a poll.  But be forewarned, if you want to get to the good stuff, sometimes you have to dig a little.

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