AP GOPO Ch. 6 Public Opinion Terms

All Definitions for Chapter 6 of AP US Government and Politics

Public Opinion

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

Demography

The science of population changes.

Census

An “actual enumeration” of the population, which the Constitution requires that the government conduct every 10 years. This is a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes.

Melting Pot and US Immigration

US always a nation of immigrants. All Americans except Native Americans descend from immigrants or are immigrants themselves. Federal law allows 1 mil. new immigrants a year, and 50,000 illegal immigrants a year have entered US. First restrictions imposed 1875, limited criminals and prostitutes from staying in US, and soon lunatics and people with serious diseases also banned. 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. 1924 Johnson-Reed Immigration Act. Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished these. One of these is a term often used to characterize the US, with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples.

Minority Majority

The situation, likely beginning in the mid-twenty-first century, in which the non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the US population and minority groups together will represent a majority.

Political Culture

An overall set of values widely shared within a society.

Reapportionment

The process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the Census.

The Graying Of America

Aging population has enormous implications for Social Security. They lay claims to trillions of dollars.

Political Socialization

The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on input from family, schools, the media, and others.

Family

This role in socialization central because of its monopoly of 2 resources in early years: time and emotional commitments. Children often pick political leanings from parents. Genetics is an influence.

Mass Media

Average grade schoolers spend more time watching TV than at school, and displaces parents as key source of info. But this generation watches less TV.

School

Governments use these to promote national loyalty and support basic values. American children long educated on virtues of free enterprise and Democracy. Textbooks chosen by local and state boards. Better educated citizens vote more often, exhibit more knowledge on politics and public policy, and more tolerant of opposing opinions.

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 by survey researchers, which operates on the principle 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.

Literary Digest

1936 this poll underestimated the vote for President FDR by 19%, erroneously predicted victory for Republican Alf Landon. They soon went out of business. They drew names from biggest lists, but because of the Great Depression, all people selected were above average income.

Random-Digit Dialing

A technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted number when conducting a survey.

George Gallup

His 1932 polls for his mother-in-law in Iowa created a big business. He hoped polling could contribute to the political process.

Exit Polls

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

Why Polls Matter

Those help political candidates detect public preferences. Some say it is a tool for democracy. If results shift, government officials can make corrections. Some say it makes politicians more concerned with following than leading. They also may distort the electoral process by focusing on who is ahead more than on what people think about public policy questions.

What Polls Tell Us

Level of public knowledge about politics low. Less than ½ of public can name their representative in the House. Some blame schools for this. Americans don’t remember much of what they are exposed to through media.

Political Ideology

A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events.

Conservative

This ideology supports a less active scope of government that gives freer rein to the private sector.

Liberal

This ideology supports a wide scope for the central government, often involving policies that aim to promote equality.

Gender Gap

The regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.

Political Participation

All the activities used by citizens to influence selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common means of this in a democracy is voting; other means include protest and civil disobedience.

Conventional Participation

Includes many widely accepted modes of influencing government- voting, trying to persuade others, ringing doorbells for a petition, running for office, and so on.

Unconventional Participation

Includes activities that are often dramatic, such as protesting, civil disobedience, and even violence.

Protest

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

Civil Disobedience

A form of political participation based on a conscious decision to break a law believed to be unjust and to suffer the consequences.