Public Opinion: Notion, Peculiarities and Role in the Law-making Process.

Abstract

The article deals with the theoretical and practical issues of public opinion formation and development in the process of progressive changes of Ukrainian society and state. The article underlines that the public opinion plays an important role in the law-making process. It is pointed out that the public opinion is an evaluative component of public consciousness, which is reflected in different forms of manifestation by means of sentiment, feelings, emotions, judgments concerning an object of knowledge and reflects a certain level of knowledge concerning certain phenomena, processes, facts, etc. The research characterizes the features of public opinion: public opinion is the evaluative side of social consciousness; directed to a certain object of cognition; it is reflected in certain forms of manifestation; characterized by information saturation; has certain spheres of influence; it is characterized by inherent spatial and temporal features; it has the ability to influence the consciousness and practical activities of various actors, to determine their social behavior; it has a certain structure, emotional, cognitive and strong-willed components, and preference is given to those that are dominant in nature and induce to the action. The author underlines that most scholars tend to separate the rational, emotional, and strong-willed manifestation of public opinion. The structural components of public opinion are defined and characterized, namely: subjects, object, content. It is noted that the object of public opinion is events, actions, facts, phenomena of public life, which are directed by the public opinion. The subjects of public opinion are members of society, a certain community, a group, etc., endowed with consciousness and will, able to show their attitude to the object of cognition. It is also pointed out that the content aspect of public opinion is those feelings, emotions, judgments, actions that facilitate of the realization of interests and needs of public opinion subjects. It states that in the public opinion`s mechanism of actions the interests and needs are important, which are constantly changing. The article emphasizes that the external and internal factors affect the substantive and essential nature of public opinion. The functional focus of the public opinion is defined and it provides the opportunity to determine and characterize such basic functions of public opinion as: expressive, control, directive, cognitive, informational, prognostic, etc.