Some people believe that in order to be effective political leaders must yield to public opinion and abandon principle for the sake of compromise Others believe that the most essential quality of an effective leader is the ability to remain consistently

In democratic society, government officials are often held responsible for their decisions related to their office duty. If they failed to perform their duties and satisfy their constituencies, they may lose the next election. Therefore, some people believe that government officials should make their decisions according to the will of the people instead of making their own judgments over different issues. In my opinion, government officials should always consult the public opinions when formulating important policies. Nevertheless, it is not reasonable to carry people’s will unquestioningly because over important issues people are often divided and poorly informed. Therefore, government officials should do their jobs by taking into account various factors and let the people decide if they did a satisfactory job overall in the next election.

To begin with, I strongly believe that government officials should consult the public frequently and systematically before introducing important policies. For one thing, the government officials should always take into account the people’s opinions when developing relevant policies in order to better meet the needs of the people. For example, before the Hong Kong government decides to tighten the ban on smoking in public space, it has run a public consultation for over 3 months to collect people’s opinions on this issue. A better understanding of what people think about the issue can inform the policy-making process. In addition, hearing people’s voices on the proposed policy will further legitimize the policy and make it easy for the government to later enforce the policy. The ban of smoking, for example, would be much easier if the society has reached a
consensus about the issue.

Nevertheless, it is unrealistic to expect the government officials to follow people’s will blindly because people are often divided over important social issues. For example, gay and lesbian marriage has been a hot issue in the United States in recent years. While more and more Americans have become tolerant of homosexual couples, there are still a significant group of conservatives who oppose fiercely the idea of gay and lesbian marriage. Given the deep disputes over the issue, it is not possible for the government to “carry out people’s will” because there is no consensus in the society on this issue. The government will always be against certain people’s will no matter what it does. Ultimately, the government officials have to make their own judgments taking into the account the public opinions, the laws as well as the overall public interests.

Another reason why the government officials should not make decisions solely based on People’s will is that the members of the public are often notoriously ill-informed on some important issues, especially when it comes to science and technology. For example, despite the advance of genetic engineering in the past decades, the public has harbored a general fear of genetically modified food. If policies are to be made according to people’s opinions, no GM food would be allowed in the market in order to please the people who are ignorant of the science behind GM food. But GM food is arguably one of the most important inventions in late 20th century, which has the potential to address many problems such as environmental pollution, food crisis in the developing world and energy crisis. Prohibiting GM food would be a grave mistake of any governments despite the public skepticism and misgivings.

In conclusion, while the government officials should always take into account public opinions when making decisions, they should not carry out people’s will unquestioningly because the public is often divided and ill-informed over different issues. The government officials should ultimately rely on their own judgments when developing the policies and let the public to decide if they have done a good overall job in the next election.