Could you elaborate a bit more what you try to investigate? What do you exactly mean by elite opinion and public choice theory and what is the context of your research question?

As to my opinion, the answer to this question may differ depending on the country profile and the cultural structure of the public. 'Public choice', being not sure, is a terminology that usually represents the subjective and irrational choices of people whose attitudes are mostly modified by the political and pointless speeches of politicians. Most notably, it is pretty difficult for such illiterated people to change their idefixes after being exposed to these kind of messages mixed with religious and nationalist speeches of politicians on power.