AP Gov Chapter 6 Vocab

Public Opinion

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

Demography

the science of population changes.

Census

a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes. The constitution requires that the government conduct an "actual enumeration" of the population every ten years.

Melting Pot

the mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples that has changed the American nation. The US, with its history of immigration, has often been called this.

Minority Majority

the emergence of a non-caucasian majority, as compared with a white, generally anglo-saxon majority.

Political Culture

an overall set of values widely shared within a society.

Reapportionmant

the process of reallocating seats in the HOR every ten years on the basis of results of the census.

Political Socialization

according to Richard Dawson, "the process through which an individual acquires his/her particular political orientations-his/her knowledge, feelings, and evaluations regarding his/her political world."

Sample

a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole.

Random Sampling

the key technique employed by sophisticated survey researchers, which operates on the principal that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.

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.

Random-Digit Dialing

a technique used by pollstres to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.

Exit Poll

public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision.

Political Ideology

a coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose. It helps give meaning to political events, personalities, and politics.

Gender Gap

a term that refers to the regular pattern by which women are more likely to support democratic canidates. Women tend to be significantly less conservative than men and are more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.

Political Participation

all the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common but not the only means of political participation in a democracy is voting.

Protest

a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.

Civil Disobedience

a form of political participation that reflects a concious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences.