Citizens are willing to make hard choices.

• Author: Tanaka, Susan

Ad with all major democracies, the U.S. government is a representative, not a direct, democracy. Elected officials govern according to their perceptions of what their constituents want. Among other factors, politicians rely on public opinion polls to determine the popular will.

However, opinion polls often send conflicting signals. Polls on the Federal budget, for example, transmit a mixed message. The same surveys that indicate public concern about deficits identify apparent opposition to the types of policy changes necessary to deal with budget problems. Until the polls reflect otherwise, it is hard to believe that politicians will make major progress in tackling the serious long-ten-n budget issues associated with the aging of the baby boom generation. Many politicians look at the polling results, conclude that the public is unwilling to make tough choices, and decide that "lip service," rather than real action, is required.

Nevertheless, I suggest that opinion polls lead to an underestimation of the public's ability to par-ticipate in the discussion and resolution of complex policy issues such as the Federal deficit. Given sufficient unbiased information, the public can understand the issues, listen to different viewpoints, evaluate alternative solutions, and, ultimately, make hard choices.

This optimism is buoyed by a series of public meetings called the Exercise in Hard Choices, created in 1982 by the nonprofit, bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. It is based on a questionnaire used by then-house Budget Committee chair Jim Jones to poll his committee members. Unlike the original questionnaire, the Exercise was designed to be completed in groups. Similar budget decision-making games since have been developed elsewhere. Some, like those issued by the National Economic Commission in 1988 and the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlements in 1994, were one-time efforts. Others, like the Concord Coalition's Debt Busters, are conducted on a regular basis.

Experience with these sessions, attended by self-selected members of the public willing spend most of a day, thinking about budget balancing, indicates that it is possible, through public education, to create a more informed electorate. This, in turn, will promote a political environment in which policymakers can tackle die long-term budget and other seemingly intractable issues and still survive as politicians.

By design, most polls survey public opinion rather than public...