现代民主社会,民意往往是重要决策合法性的基础。因此,民意的走向似乎紧密关系着死刑存废的命运。但是,民意本身难以被掌握,民意测验的结果往往不可靠,而且民意是变化着的,从本质上说民意是情感而非理性。民意的这些特性表明,民意不能作为保留死刑的根据。相反,民意是可以而且应该得到正确的引导。 In modern democratic society, public opinion is often the basis of the legitimacy of important decisions. Therefore, the trend of public opinion seems to be closely related to the fate of the death penalty. However, public opinion itself can hardly be mastered. The result of opinion polls is often unreliable, and public opinion is changing. In essence, popular opinion is emotion rather than rationality. These characteristics of public opinion show that public opinion can not serve as the basis for preserving the death penalty. On the contrary, public opinion can and should be properly guided.