Public Opinion Final

Wlezien Theory

Public acts like a thermostat - Gov does too much or too little on a policy, public reacts to push for a correction

Wlezein Methods

Thermostat model & Time series regression analysis (Tracks change over time)

Gilens & Page Theory

Who really has the power in making U.S. gov policies - regular people, rich, or interest groups

Gilens & Page Methods

Studied 1,800 policies & compared it to what average, rich people, and interest groups wanted and see who’s opinions matched final policies

Levendusky Theory

Why ordinary Americans have become more politically polarized (More divided by party)

Levendusky Methods

People read different political messages, then the researcher saw how it changed their views and party alignment

Levendusky Results

When people saw strong party message, they become more supportive of their party and more politically polarized - they followed the lead of party leaders

Lyengar et al Theory

Americans are becoming more emotionally divided, disliking members of the other party - called affective polarization

Druckman Theory

Most studies overstate how much Americans dislike the other political party because survey questions don’t reflect real-life situations

Druckman Methods

Compared traditional survey questions with more relaistic, behavior-based experiemen’s

Druckman Results

Some dislike but less intense in day-to-day situations, surveys make Americans look more hostile

Barnes & Cassese Theory

Wether gender differences in political views are due just to party differences (R v. D), or if gender still matters within parties

Barnes & Cassese Methods

Looked at different policy areas used statistical models to see if gender mattered in each party

Barnes & Cassese Results

Within the republican party, women are more moderate than men

Wlezien & Soroka Theory

Public Policy should reflect public opinion

Wlezien & Soroka Methods

review existing studies on relationship between public opinion and public polciy

Wlezien & Soroka Results

Governemtns do respond to public opinion especially over time

Caughey & Warshaw Theory

Public opinion drives policy change over time, gradually adjusting to public preferences

Caughey & Warshaw Methods

Collected date, looked at how economic and social influenced state policies

Caughey & Warshaw Results

Public Opinion aligns with policy change, its gradual

Soss & Schram Theory

Public policies can shape public opinion and politicla behavior

Soss & Schram Methods

Quantitive case study to asses the impact of welfare reform on public opinion

Soss & Schram Results

The welfare reform produced few changes in mass opinion

Lerman & McCabe Theory

personal experience with gov programs can change peoples political opinions

Lerman & McCLeabe Methods

Used a regression discontinuity design to see the effect of getting gov health coverage

Lerman & McCabe Results

personal experience does matter

Mooney & Lee Theory

Morality policies (death penalty) are shaped by public values and political pressure

Mooney & Lee Methods

Looked at past death penalty changes in the U.S, see what influenced states

Mooney & Lee Results

It differed over years sometimes went with public opinion and others went with party values

Lax & Phillips Theory

Public opinion matters in shaping state policies

Lax & Phillips results

They usually follow public opinion

Egan & Mulin Theory

Climate change opinions int he U.S. are stable but polarized

Egan & Mulin Methods

Based off of science

Marlon et al Theory

Climate change opinions evolve over time by personal experiences

Aggregate-level public opinion

How American as a whole feel about political issues

Mass Polarization

extent to which everyone population prefrences and attitudes are divided along partisan lines

Elite Polarization

extent to which political leaders prefrences and attitudes are divided along partian lines

Ideological

Differences between policy positions of members of different political groups

Affective

An emotional dislike and distrust of political out groups

Gender Gap

Difference between men and women in political realms including party affiliation, vote choice, and public opinion

Representation

the agreement between representatives and constituents on policy matters

Morality Policy

Speaks to fundamental understandings of right and wrong and is opposed to economic considerations