Mass Publics 203Evidence from the United States suggests that elites do care about the preferences
of the public, although they do not always directly incorporate those attitudes into
policy decisions. Presidents care about their popularity because it affects their ability
to work; a president’s popularity is enhanced if he or she follows the general mood of
the masses or fights for generally popu lar policies. Such popularity gives the president
more leeway to set a national agenda, but mass attitudes may not always be directly
translated into policy.
Occasionally, and quite extraordinarily, the masses may vote directly on an issue
with foreign policy significance. For example, many issues related to the Eu ro pean
Union have been put to public referendum, including the Maastricht Treaty, the
EU Constitution, and the Lisbon Treaty, as we will discuss in Chapter 7. In 2002, the
Swiss people voted in a referendum to join the United Nations. In 2017, Britain will
vote on whether, and under what conditions, the state will remain in the EU. These
are rather rare instances of direct public input on a foreign policy decision.
Mass actions and the role of elites
The third possibility is that the masses, uncontrolled by formal institutions, may occa-
sionally act in ways that have a profound impact on international relations, regardless
of anything that the elites do. At times, the masses, essentially appearing leaderless,
take collective actions that have significant effects on the course of world politics.
Individual acts of thousands fleeing East Germany led to the construction of the Ber-
lin Wall in 1961. Twenty- eight years later, the spontaneous exodus of thousands of
East Germans through Hungary and Austria led to the tearing down of the wall in
- The spontaneous movement of “boat people” fleeing Vietnam and the ragged
ships leaving Cuba and Haiti for the U.S. coast resulted in changes in U.S. immigra-
tion policy. Currently, the spontaneous movement of Syrians and Iraqis fleeing their
war- torn countries in masses has led to the refugee crisis in Eu rope. Several months
of public demonstrations in Guatemala ultimately brought down that government in
2015, the people seeking an end to widespread corruption; but the relationship
between the masses and leaders is not always so clear.
At other times, a small elite may have acted behind the scenes or even or ga nized
mass protests, as illustrated by the “ people’s putsch” during October 2000 against the
Yugo slavian leader Slobodan Milošević. After 13 years of his rule, people from all walks
of Serbian life joined 7,000 striking miners, crippled the economic system, blocked
transportation routes, and descended on Belgrade, the capital. Aided by the new tech-
nology of the time— the cell phone— they were able to mobilize citizens from all over
the country, driving tractors into the city, attacking the Parliament, and disrupting
Milošević ’s radio and TV stations. But the opposition elite was behind the scenes, aiding
in the mobilization of the masses for policy change, and as Time reported, “the Serbs