Abstract
In certain respects, the discussion about the nature of public opinion and its research have the features of scholarly dilemmas. One of these dilemmas is the question of whether public opinion appeared only with the advent of modern society, or whether is is a phenomenon already encountered in other, earlier types of societies.
The French sociologist Gabriel Trade connected the development of public opinion with two factors, both of which he traces back to the 18th century; other authors, however, argue that public opinion represented an important factor of power in nearly all countries at almost all times. The German author Wilhelm Bauer takes this standpoint, claiming that although the French term 'opinion publique' appeared only in the 18th century, the phenomenon itself is much older, but had different names at different times.
We encounter a similar problem in the begginings of the investigation of public opinion. Certain comparable practices were known in earlier times.
Even before public opinion was studied under the auspices of sociological research, in a number of European countries particularly the police organs had displayed an early interest in the matter. In this respect, then, the beginning of the investigation of public opinion in the Czech lands could be dated back to the eighteenth century, to the era when news about the uprising in Paris in 1789 began to spread across Europe.
At that time, and on the initiative of the court in Vienna, an official survey was conducted of the mood among the Czech rural population. Another such survey was carried out on police orders in the Czech regions in 1794.
Similar police investigations were carried out under different regimes during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. But sociological research on public opinion in the true meaning of the word has a somewhat different history in Czech lands, beginning only fter World War II.