In recent years, a number of new techniques have been developed—including deliberative polls and educational surveys—that attempt to gather measures of public opinion that is of higher quality (i.e. better informed or more deliberative) than that recorded in typical mass opinion surveys. This paper addresses several general sets of questions. What is meant by ‘quality’ in public opinion? What criteria can be enumerated by which the quality of public opinion can be assessed? In grappling with these questions, the paper argues that conceptions of quality in public opinion are inextricably bound to broader conceptions of quality in democratic decision making, a complex process involving multiple phases and collective participants. In addition, a number of important contradictions and ambiguities underlie conceptions of quality in public opinion.