POLISCI EXAM #3

Public Opinion

Citizen’s attitudes about political issues, personalities, institutions, and events. 

Condorcet’s Jury Theorem

The majority of a jury would more likely reach the right decision in a trial than would a single individual who heard the same evidence. There is some chance that an individual will make a mistake, but adding up the judgments of many separate individuals, however, reduces the probability of a mistake.

Revealed Preferences

The expression of what people want when facing a particular choice. Ex: two public policies or two political parties. What people express about public policies or political choices are revealed preferences. 

Latent

An issue that is potentially of broad concern but has not yet reached the public arena. 

Variable

A set of exclusive options that capture the range of opinions on a given issue.

Democracy Principle

Majority rule is a good decision rule.

Socialization

A process in which individuals take on their communities’ perspectives and preferences through social interactions.

Ideology

A comprehensive way of understanding political or cultural situations; a set of assumptions about the way society works that help us organize our beliefs, information, and reactions to new situations. It ascribes values to different alternatives and helps us balance competing values. 

Liberal

A person who generally believes that the government should play an active role in supporting social and political change and generally supports a strong role for the government in the economy, the provision of social services, and the protection of civil rights. 

Conservative

A person who generally believes that social institutions (such as churches and corporations) and the free market solve problems better than governments do, that a large and powerful government poses a threat to citizens’ freedom, and that the appropriate role of government is to uphold traditional values. 

Libertarianism

Seeks to expand liberty above all other principles and wishes to minimize government intervention in the economy and society. 

Political Identities

Distinctive characteristics or group associations that individuals carry, reflecting their social connections, or common values and interests with others in that group. These are absolute, unlike political ideologies. Ex: race, ethnicity, religion, and gender. 

Descriptive Representation

Preference for people of the same identity. Ex: Someone may vote for candidates of the same ethnicity apart from, or in spite of, the sorts of law they promise to enact. 

Gender Gap

A distinctive pattern of voting behavior reflecting the differences in views between women and men. First became evident in the presidential election of 1980 when war, peace, and women’s equality were at the forefront of the political conversation.

Walter Lippmann Claim

The collective action problem regarding the significant lack of political knowledge in Americans creates the opportunity for a learned class of elites to govern - not by winning elections, but by shaping how others think.

Vietnam War Mishap

When the government was trying to build public support around the war, CBS News aired its documentary The Selling of the Pentagon, which purported to reveal the extent of the government’s efforts to sway popular sentiment. Since then, public trust in the government has not recovered.

Agenda-Setting Effect

The power of the media to focus public attention on particular issues. 

Priming

The use of media coverage to make the public take a particular view of an event or a public figure.

Framing

 The influence of the media over how events and issues are interpreted.

Public-opinion polls

A scientific instrument for measuring public opinion.

Sample

A small group selected by researchers to represent the most important characteristics of an entire population. 

Probability Sampling

A method used by pollsters to select a representative sample in which every individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent. 

Random-digit dialing

A method used by pollsters in which respondents are selected at random from a list of 10-digit telephone numbers, with every effort made to avoid bias in the construction of the sample.

Selection Bias

 A polling error in which the sample is not representative of the population being studied, so that some opinions are over - or underrepresented. The 1936 Literary Digest poll’s incorrect prediction about the presidential election between FDR and Alf Ladon is demonstrative of this.

Sampling Error

A polling error that arises on account of the small size of the sample. (Margin of error)

Measurement Error

The failure to identify the true distribution of opinion within a population because of errors such as ambiguous or poorly worded questions.