Linkage Institutions and Polling Methods in Politics

Linkage institutions

Institutions that connect citizens to government. The mass media, interest groups, and political parties are the three main linkage institutions.

Benchmark Poll

Initial poll on a candidate and issues on which campaign strategy is based and against which later polls are compared.

Tracking polls

Continuous surveys that enable a campaign or news organization to chart a candidate's daily rise or fall in support.

Entrance Polls

Voters asked about which candidate they are going to vote for and why before walking into a caucus.

Exit polls

Polls based on interviews conducted on Election Day as voters are leaving their voting precinct.

Focus group

A small group of individuals who are led in discussion by a professional consultant in order to gather opinions on and responses to candidates and issues.

Mass survey

A way to measure public opinion by interviewing a large sample of the population.

Opinion polls

A method of systematically questioning a small, selected sample of respondents who are deemed representative of the total population.

Public opinion

The distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.

Sampling error

The level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results.

Sampling techniques

The method used to select people from the population.

Scientific poll

Precise polls that accurately measure a cross-section of the American population to make extrapolations about the entire population.

Platform

A series of statements expressing the party's principles, beliefs, and positions on election issues.

Federal Reserve

The central banking system of the United States.

Fiscal policy

Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling taxing and spending.

Keynesian economics

Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.

Monetary policy

Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling the money supply and thus interest rates.

Socialism

A system in which society, usually in the form of the government, owns and controls the means of production.

Supply-side economics

An economic philosophy that holds the sharply cutting taxes will increase the incentive people have to work, save, and invest. Greater investments will lead to more jobs, a more productive economy, and more tax revenues for the government.