Unit 4 - American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Public Opinion

Public Opinion

• how people feel about things

• everyone is seeking approval

General Public

• most Americans

• care more about issues that affect their own daily lives

Issue Public

• smaller group with an important issue that makes them become more politically active

• this is important to politicians as they can pull in these small groups for votes

Saliency

• degree to which an issue is important to a particular group or individual

• ex: old people and social security habe a high saliency

Intensity

• how strongly do people feel about a particular issue?

Stability

• public opinion on an issue can change over time or can stay stable

Referendum

• submits to popular vote to accept or reject a measure passed by a legislative body

Public Opinion Polls

• how public opinion is more frequently measured

Random Sampling

• method that allows pollsters to poll a representative cross-section of the public and apply it to the general population if done correctly = accuracy

Benchmark Polls

• conducted by a campaign when a candidate initially announces their intention to run

• provide the campaign with baseline data to see if their chance of winning an election improves over time

Tracking Polls

• performed multiple times with an identical sample in order to track changes in opinion

Entrance Polls

• conducted on Election Day as voters head into polling stations to cast their vote

Exit Polls

• they target voting districts that collectivly represent they voting public and randomly poll voters who are leaving the voting place

• discourages bias

Stratified Random Sampling

• variation of random sampling

• population is divided into subgroups and weighted based on demographic characteristics

Sampling Error

• tells how far off the poll results may be

Political Socialization

• how individuals develop their political attitudes

Family

• parents

• learned moral and ethical values

• HUGE IMPACT

Location

• rural v city, etc

School

• learning about history and government

• exposed to perspectives from teachers and peers

Religious Institutions

• perspectives, morals, ethics

Mass Media

• inform political issues but mainly takes on things that impact daily lives

Higher Education

• start questioning their social and political assumptions for the first time

• college = radical change

Ideology

• a coherent set of thoughts and beliefs about politics and govt

Conservative

• individuals responsible for their own well-being and should not rely on govt assistance

• oppose govt interference w/ private sector

• oppose federal regulations

• laissez-faire economics where market determines everything

  • SOCIAL conservatives only want govt intervention for social issues

Liberal

• govt should be used in a limited way to remedy social and economic injustices of the marketplace

• support govt reg

• support efforts to readdress past social injustices thru programs like affirmative action

• strict church and state separation

  • no prayer and pro abortion

Moderate (Independent)`

• view themselves as pragmatists who apply common sense rather than philosophical principles to practical problems

Race/Ethnicity

• minorities usually liberal

Religion

• Jews and African American Protestants liberal

• Catholics politically left but conservative on social issues

• white Protestants conservative

Gender

• women more liberal

Income Level

• rich liberal but fiscally conservative

• poor conservative except for welfare

Region

• East Coast liberal

• South conservative

• West Coast polarized but turning left

• rural conservative

• city liberal

News Media

• important role in developing public opinion

• BIAS bc sources, favorability, what is popular, time and money constraints

Public Agenda

• determined by the media as it determines what is the most pressing political issues