Unit 2: Political Culture, Ideologies, Socialization, and Voting

Political socialization

experiences and factors that shape a person's political values, attitudes, and behavior

Forces of political socialization

family, school, media, religion, race, gender, age, location, recent events

Generational effect

impact of historical events experienced by a generation upon their political views

Life-cycle effect

impact of a person's age and stage in life in their political views

Globalization

the increasing interconnectedness of people, businesses, and countries throughout the world

Free enterprise/laissez-faire

economic system in which private business operates in competition and largely free of state control

American democratic values

majority rule, minority rights, equality, private property, individual freedom, compromise, limited government

Liberal trends of groups

Jews, Muslims, women, more educated, African Americans, Latinos (slightly) younger, urban

Conservative trends of groups

evangelical christians (the most), men, whites, Asian (slightly), older, southern/rural

Political ideology

one's coherent set of beliefs about government and politics

Liberal

less gov in social and more gov in economic, supports abortion rights, higher taxes on the rich, expanded help for the poor/minorities/women

Libertarian

less gov. in social and economic, moderate political belief

Populist

person who holds beliefs that they think are disregarded by elitist groups, looks out for the 'little guy'

Conservative

more gov in social and less gov in economic, supports expansion of military, free market, lower taxes

Partisan

person who is very committed to their political party

Polling

record the opinion or vote of

Random sampling

sampling that gives everyone in a population the opportunity to be chosen

Accurate polling components

phrasing of questions (unbiased), random sampling, stratified sampling, contacting of respondents (reflects proportions of population)

Stratified sampling

random sampling of people in a subpopulation to gather data on that specific group (age, race, religion, etc)

Quota sampling

that are found in a non-probable way that relies on the non-random selection; uses a predetermined number or proportion within each subgroup

Public opinion poll

poll that represents a population's opinion by asking smaller, random samples specific questions

Uses of public opinion polling

• elected officials use it to shape policies based on what citizens want,

• others use it to measure Americans' viewpoints

Push poll

'fake' polls, meant to damage another candidate's chances by suggesting a hurtful idea about them (Ex: "If you knew that Candidate Smith was being investigated for corruption, would you be more likely to vote for him or less likely?")

Tracking poll

survey determining the level of support for a candidate or an issue throughout a campaign

Exit poll

survey conducted outside a polling place in which people are asked who or what they just voted for and why

Straw poll

non-scientific, survey based on public participation to see what the majority opinion is

George Gallup

predicted 1936 election correctly, founder of modern polling, company 'Gallup' is still one of the biggest polling firms

Literary Digest poll

poll of the 1936 United States presidential election substantially missed the final result, predicting Landon would be FDR 57 to 43 (was actually FDR 62% and Landon 36%)

Steps of scientific polling

select random and representative samples, carefully word questions, interpret results

Problems with polling

unrepresentative samples, timing, self selection, margin of error, limited respondent options/intensity, lack of respondent knowledge of questions

Margin of error

+ or - % points that show inherent accuracy of polling (-3.00 to +3.00 and can never be 0)

Suffrage

the right to vote, or a vote itself

15th amendment

elimination of race disqualifications in voting

17th amendment

allowed for direct election of senators

23rd amendment

DC can vote in Presidential elections

24th amendment

prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax

26th amendment

lowers voting age to 18 in federal elections

Political efficacy

citizens' trust in their ability to change the government and belief that they can understand and influence political affairs

More likely to vote

highly educated, older, high income, whites, women, religious, married, union members, residents of politically competitive states, strong party affiliation

Less likely to vote

less educated, younger, low income, minorities, men, not religious, not married, non-union members, residents of a party dominated state, weak party affiliation