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 and fast impacted by alterations in public's opinion will accomplish little. Although this idea has many proponents, I disagree with it due to the reasons which will be discussed in details below.

Firstly, perhaps, the base of people's belief is created by the fact that a leader who blindly follows public's whims cannot sustain power and therefore one cannot be considered as an efficient leader. To illustrate this idea we may imagine a populist politician who tries to please his or her voters. Perhaps, many of us want to reduce and even cancel levying taxes. In case, our governor is guided by the public's caprice, one may abolish taxes but this step will inevitably cause dramatic changes in the state. Without a steady flow of tax-payers' money the state will not be able to fund social services such as police, military, fire fighters and other services financed by government. People may demand to maintain those services on previous level but without tax money, it is literally impossible. As a result, public will be discontent and the politician will lose the power. Although this example exaggerates the reality, in fact, it points that public desires often cannot be satisfied because they may be in conflict with each other or/and be disconnected with real possibilities etc. Consequently, a leader who is guided by public whims cannot be successful.

However, a politician who tends to ignore people's opinion cannot accomplish much as well. In fact, when we have a deal with democratic societies, an elected official represents his or her voters and if one's actions do not match people's expectations, the leader may be easily substituted via impeachment. Perhaps, the best example of such situation we may find in recent history of Russian Federation. Its first president Boris Yeltsin promised during elections to improve people's life and invest heavily in public sector, however, after he was reelected his actions were not connected with public opinion and his reforms were widely unpopular as well as harmful, for instance, because of his policy hospitals and schools in many towns and cities were deprived of electricity and central heating because of government’s debt to electric companies; as a result he was forced to relinquish power before his term was ended.

You may ask: so, what ought to do an effective leader? The answer is simple, one has to pay attention to public mood but one should not be guided by it. In other words, a connection between voters and government is highly important in today's societies. Contemporary technologies such as conducting of researches and studies may give government understanding of public’s attitudes. Consequently, government may take this knowledge into consideration to do its work the best way possible. Perhaps, the best example of such situation we may find in the USA. In fact, the state has many ways to collect data about public mood and opinion and this information is used to govern the state, for example, we may take a look at the second Iraqi campaign which was seized by Mr. Obama partly because of public pressure. In fact, only by paying attention to public mood a leader may do his or her work well.

In conclusion, although it is believed that leader who pays attention to shifts in public mood cannot be effective. I strongly believe that it is not true because an elected leader should serve his or her people and therefore has to take people's attitude into consideration.____