Founding Principles Chapter 6: Public Opinion from Bowdoin College on Vimeo.

How important was public opinion to the framers of the US Constitution? How do we know what the public really wants? And how qualified is the general public to answer questions about US government?

These are some of the issues raised by Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government Andrew Rudalevige in the Washington Post political science blog The Monkey Cage. Every week over the summer The Monkey Cage is publishing an episode of Founding Principles, a series of short videos presented by Rudalevige explaining how American government works. The latest episode—the sixth of fifteen—explains how American government rests on what Alexander Hamilton called a “due dependence on the people.”