Chapter 10: Public Opinion

The distribution, or percentage, of the electorate that identifies with each of the political parties.

aggregate partisanship

In a democracy, the sum of all individual opinions.

aggregate public opinion

A state of mind produced when particular issues evoke attitudes and beliefs that pull in opposite directions.

ambivalence

An organized and consistent manner of thinking and feeling about people, groups, social issues, or, more generally, any event in one’s environment.

attitude

A mental device allowing citizens to make complex decisions based on a small amount of information. For example, a candidate’s party label serves as a shortcut by telling voters much about their positions on issues.

cognitive shortcut

In the United States, a proponent of a political ideology that favors small or limited government, an unfettered free market, self-reliance, and traditional social norms.

conservative

Moral beliefs held by citizens that underlie their attitudes toward political and other issues. As integral parts of an individual’s identity, these beliefs are stable and resistant to change.

core values

Providing a context that affects the criteria citizens use to evaluate candidates, campaigns, and political issues.

framing

Groups of citizens who are more attentive to particular areas of public policy than average citizens because such groups have some special stake in the issues.

issue publics

In the United States, a proponent of a political ideology that favors extensive government action to redress social and economic inequalities and tolerates social behaviors that conservatives view as deviant. Present-day liberals advocate policies benefiting the poor, minority groups, labor unions, women, and the environment and oppose government imposition of traditional social norms.

liberal

Uncertainties in public opinion, as revealed by responses to polls, that arise from the imperfect connection between the wording of survey questions and the terms in which people understand and think about political objects.

measurement error

A citizen who is highly attentive to and involved in politics or some related area and to whom other citizens turn for political information and cues.

opinion leader

The process by which citizens acquire their political beliefs and values.

political socialization

“Those opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed.”

public opinion

Tool developed in the twentieth century for systematically investigating the opinions of ordinary people, based on random samples.

scientific polling