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Professor Robert Worcester
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''An important phenomenon has accompanied the evolution of democracy and the growth of the market economy over the last three decades. I am referring to the rapid development of a novel industry - opinion research. For much of human history the governing elite of most societies probably paid little heed to the opinions of those outside the inner circle except perhaps when revolutionary upheavals were feared. Opinion acted, as an economist might put it, as a loose constraint on behaviour rather than as any kind of objective to be courted or pursued. A world in which one grows rich by persuading others voluntarily to part with their money, and in which one grows politically influential by persuading others to use their votes in your favour makes it advantageous to find out what people are thinking. As a result, firms constantly investigate ways better to serve the precise tastes and requirements of customers, while, in the political arena, the fate of Presidents seems to hang precariously on samples of (among other things) public opinion and the movement of so called 'approval ratings'. |
Robert Worcester
received his DSc honoris causa in March 1998. The text which
follows is taken from the formal address given at the graduation
ceremony.
Robert Worcester has made an enormous contribution to the development of opinion research. Born and educated in the United States he graduated from the University of Kansas and entered the world of consultancy, working for a time at McKinsey and Company in the early 1960s. In 1965 he became Controller and Assistant to the Chairman at Opinion Research Corporation going on in 1969 to the post of Managing Director at MORI (Market and Opinion Research International). Since its founding in 1969 MORI has grown into one of the leading private sector research agencies in the United Kingdom and has extended its interests overseas by establishing a network of associated companies.
Robert Worcester is not only a successful innovator and entrepreneur in opinion research however. He has also shown a keen interest in the academic foundations of his company's business. Finding out what people really think is not always, or even usually, a very straightforward undertaking. Designing the experiments and refining the statistical techniques are important areas in which Robert Worcester has played an active role by editing books, contributing to academic journals and writing on the history and methodology of political opinion polling. He has received Visiting Professorships at City University, the London School of Economics and Strathclyde University. His interest in British and American politics has led to frequent broadcasts and a flow of contributions to newspapers and magazines.
Opinion polling has become an everyday part of the political
process. The long run effects are still being debated. Is public
opinion erratic and unstable, subject to swings of mood like
speculative bubbles on financial markets? Or are there deep and
very slowly moving underlying currents to which politicians should
respond? Edmund Burke, in his Reflections on the French Revolution,
likened British opinion to a herd of cattle calmly (and silently)
grazing whilst the field rang to the chink of the importunate
crickets. Are the pollsters measuring the noise of the moment, or
have they given a voice to the otherwise silent inhabitants of the
field? Robert Worcester's work has contributed enormously to our
understanding of these questions.''