Any leader who is quickly and easily influenced by shifts in popular opinion will accomplish little.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In

It is popularly believed that any leader who is easily impacted by shifts in popular opinion will accomplish little. although this claim has many proponents who point on populists governments which were unsuccessful, I disagree with it due to the fact that we live in democratic society and therefore our leaders ought to be sensitive to public mood; moreover, by using shifts in popular opinion leaders may accomplish a lot in a short period of time.

To begin with, I assume that majority of us live in democratic societies which leaders and members of government are elected; consequently, all of them are deeply connected with their voters. A leader who proposes laws and projects which are popular among people will be likely endorsed by elected officials because the officials wants to be reelected and therefore try to act with agreement with public opinion. For example, Poland has recently endorsed the law which strictly restricts procedure of immigration. This law was accepted in response on people's opinion. People of Poland require from government to act in order to protect them from danger of terror and officials managed to pass the law much faster than usual. In other words, if actions of democratic government are in agreement with public mood, those actions will be endorsed more swiftly.

Furthermore, many leaders intentionally use shifts in public opinion in order to promote their laws. Perhaps the best example of such situation we may find in the recent history of the USA when after the terroristic attack in September 2001, many laws were approved which expend power of secret services such as CIA and FBR and well as created new programs. The former president Mr. Bush and his government managed to approve programs which surreptitiously collect data about the citizens of the USA. All of those laws were passed shortly after the terroristic attack took place, when people demanded to stop terrorists. This example illustrates that leaders who use shifts in popular opinion may accomplish much.

Of course, someone may ask but what about populist governments which failed to achieve any considerable results in their work. For instance, today's Greece government consists mainly of elected officials who use public desire to relinquish policy of austerity in order to be elected. Although this government has promised to follow public mood, in reality, it has failed to accomplish what they promised. Perhaps, the problem of Greece's government is rooted in their attempt to be guided by public opinion which often does not base on real situation. The point is to listen to public mood, to know it but do not obey it blindly. This is a secret of successful democratic societies.

In conclusion, although it is popularly believed that if government is quickly affected by changings in popular opinion it cannot accomplish much, we have demonstrate that in democratic societies elected government ought to have connection with the public and leader whose actions in accordance with public’s opinion will accomplish much, moreover, some leaders may even use shift in popular opinion to speed up legislation as well.