American Political Ideologies and Beliefs Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers concepts related to American political culture, socialization, ideology, and the methodology of public opinion polling.

Political culture

A system of beliefs and values that defines political actions and serves as the commonly held group of beliefs about how a government should operate.

Popular sovereignty

The principle that government should be of the people, characterized by universal suffrage and competitive elections that are free and fair.

Limited government

An element of American political culture involving the expectation that government cannot dictate all aspects of an individual’s life, ensuring essential liberties and freedoms.

Rule of law

An expectation of government consistently and fairly applying laws to both the powerful and to those opposing a governing party, ensuring no individual is above the law.

Political ideology

The collective sets of beliefs that people have about what government should do with its policies.

Individualism

An expectation of government protecting individual liberties alongside an expectation that individuals attempt to work to live independent from reliance on government support.

Equality of Opportunity

An ideal of government allowing for individual success regardless of one’s demographic background, often linked to the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

Free enterprise

An expectation of government allowing for a capitalistic economic system that prefers private economic choices as opposed to planned governmental economic choices.

Political socialization

The process through which an individual acquires their political beliefs about ideologies and political parties, with family being the #1 influencer.

Political efficacy

An individual’s belief that their political participation makes a difference in successfully shaping governmental policies.

Demographics

Personal background traits such as gender, race, religion, class, education, age, occupation, and region that influence the development of political attitudes.

Crosscutting cleavages

Demographic tensions that occur when an individual's different characteristics (e.g., religion and race) push them toward different sides of the political spectrum.

Liberals

Those on the left side of the political spectrum who tend to favor change from traditional mindsets, support government intervention in the economy, and advocate for individual social choices like access to abortion.

Conservatives

Those on the right side of the political spectrum who favor established policies protecting free markets, traditional values, and less government intervention in the economy.

Globalization

The dynamic ongoing process involving the inexorable integration of markets, nation-states, and technologies to a degree that enables increased global reach.

Scientific opinion polling

The measurement of public opinion through surveys conducted with random samples, publishing the methods of respondent selection and the margin of error.

Random sample

A polling condition where every individual within a given polling universe has an equal chance of being selected to participate.

Margin of error

The expression of the possible statistical range of results in a poll; a standard of accuracy is generally considered to be $\pm 3\%$.

Push poll

A non-scientific campaign tactic used to shape public opinion by spreading negative information about a rival candidate under the guise of an opinion survey.

Exit poll

A survey taken to measure the opinions of voters as they leave the ballot box to provide an immediate snapshot of election day results.

Tracking poll

Also known as benchmark polls, these measure the opinions of the same group of respondents over a period of time to track changes in opinion.

Horserace journalism

A style of journalism that depicts candidates for office as leading or losing and gaining or losing momentum, rather than focusing on the substance of policies.

Party platforms

The list of policy stances officially approved by a political party every four years at their national party conventions.

Wedge issues

Policy areas where the stances of some party members may conflict with the general official ideology of their party due to regional or national popularity.