POLS 1101 Exam 3

classical liberalism

acknowledging and protecting human rights. democracy, civil liberties, limited gov’t.

• individualism, self-ownership, freedom

• rights cannot be taken away without just cause

• seeks to maximize freedom, so long as it doesn’t harm others

harm principle

laws should only be allowed to intervene in someone’s freedom if they will do direct harm to others

• radical definition — drug abuse, self harm is okay

self ownership

people have full ownership of themselves and their body

• includes the right to control their own labor

• taxation = theft

• assisted suicide laws

• organ donation / sales

classical conservatism

acknowledge that humans are limited, and tradition exists because it worked previously.

• traditional social institutions, respect past knowledge

• focus on greater collective good (VS. individualism)

• natural social “hierarchy”

• gradual change, community based localism

True / false: classical liberalism is the opposite of classical conservatism

false , they can overlap

veil of ignorance

thought experiment. you imagine you are a “soul” waiting to born, and could be anyone (rich, poor, disabled, race, gender, etc.)

• what kind of society do you want before you know who you will be?

progressivism

• make society more “just” and “fair”

• greater equality in society

• modern political center-left

Maximin principle

follow-up to veil of ignorance. maximize the good of whoever has the least.

• universal civil liberties for all people

• economic and societal rules help the least advantaged

John Rawls

American political and ethical philosopher, egalitarian liberalism

• veil of ignorance

• maximin principle

social safety net

taxpayer funded services to prevent the poorest from starving / homelessness

progressive taxation

the more money people earn, the higher percent of it they pay to be redistributed to the poor

libertarianism

liberty, maximizing freedom FROM government restrictions

• government should to the bare minimum for a functional society

rejection of the social contract

social contract: people willingly surrender some rights because they consent to live in a society

• rejection: you are an indentured servant of the country you happen to be born in

non-aggression principle

anything the government does is considered aggression, because it is supported by the threat of violence

• extreme version of harm principle

minarchism

the gov’t is only allowed to intervene to prevent aggression, theft, breach of contract, fraud, and enforcing property laws.

dictatorship of the proletariat

common people have all the power

Marxism-Leninism

democracy doesn’t exist in a capitalist system where wealthy people have more influence on elections

• critiques democracy, individualism

two step process to communism

Step 1: totalitarian society, dictatorship of the proletariat, abolition of private property

Step 2: classless, stateless society where everything is shared and there is no government

nationalism

inherently tribalistic ideology, finding a shared identity to coalesce around

parochialist

priority given to helping those in your in-group

ethnic nationalism

building a common identity on race or ethnicity or language

civic nationalism

building a common identity around shared civic values

• United States

political ignorance

most of the American public is ignorant to politics

Only 28% of Americans knew that John Roberts was chief justice of the Supreme Court (2010)

33% of Americans believe that foreign aid is the largest expenditure of the budget (2012)

43% of Americans did not know who Republican VP Candidate Paul Ryan was ahead of the 2012 election

60% of Americans did not know that increasing government spending contributed to deficit increases.

margin of error

usually caused by random error, do not skew one direction or the other

• if MOE is 3%, then there is a 95% chance the real results is more than or less than 3% of your results

key agents of political socialization

• family

• schools

• peer groups

• mass media

selection bias

your sample is not representative of the actual population

polls

• tracking — same question asked over multiple periods of time to measure change

• exit — asked (every 10th, etc.) voters who they voted on election day

• push — unscientific polls meant to influence or change public opinion

systematic error

you don’t get a representative sample

• too many young people (lean Dem)

• too many non-college grads (lean Rep)

social desirability bias

people often try to hide their real political views if they think honest answers receive judgement

• controversial views are underrepresented

order effects outcome

the order in which people are asked questions or given treatments affects their response

Converse- Nature of Belief systems in mass publics

the average joe doesn’t have a clear, defined ideology, just a set of random opinions formed based on vibes

• a mass study of the public’s views based on individual interviews

• he found that very few voters are consistently ideological

• when people are asked the same question multiple times, their answers change, often randomly

idealogue

individual who strictly, and often inflexibly, adheres to a specific set of beliefs, doctrines, or theories

• according to Converse, not many of these

group interest voters

voters support policies seen as favorable to a particular group or combination of groups

• what issues will improve things for a preferred in-group

nature of the times / retrospective voting

voters with little / no understanding of ideological differences

• “what has x party done recently”

• ex: if there is an economic depression when a Dem. is in office, they vote more Republican

• usually cannot tell if its the president’s fault or if its something out of their control

no issue content voters

know-nothing voters who vote randomly

nonresponse bias

the answers of survey respondents differ systematically from those who did not respond, skewing results

framing effects

a cognitive bias where people's decisions change depending on how options or statements are framed, even when they are logically identical

• ie. a 90% survival rate “sounds better” than a 10% mortality rate

Literary Digest catastrophe

wrongly predicted Republican Alf Landon would beat President Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide

• Literary digest readers were disproportionately white women, who at this time were far more likely to vote Republican

• “Oversampling” of this demographic ruined the entire electoral projection. (Systematic Error)

Zaller- The nature and origin of mass opinion

• voters’ views are flexible and based on context and recent info. instead of Converse’s “they change based on vibes”

• depending on what someone sees or hears recently, their political views can “flex” one direction or another

• ex: people who witness a crime within 1 week of an election vote differently than those who don’t

RAS Model (Receive, accept, sample) — Zaller

receive — we hear stores and engage in the world, which updates our information

accept — we accept some, not all, or what we hear as truth, and commit it to memory

sample — when we are asked out views on politics, recent considerations weigh heavily on our answer

impact of RAS

everyone has a “flexible” set of view on things

• if you witness mass shootings, you are more likely to give a pro-gun control answer than normally

• they are temporarily flexed by recent considerations

• whatever happens right before an election will be a great influence on voting

• media manipulation before an election

• one reason why campaigning is banned 100ft from a polling place

Page and Shapiro- The Rational Public

argues that we should be looking at the whole of the American public’s views, not specific responses

• When aggregate public opinion shifts, it shifts for reasons that make logical sense (Even if we don’t personally agree with them) ie. support for war goes down over time

Page and Shapiro- Macro vs Micro level public opinion

an individuals person’s views are random and erratic, but over the whole public the trands we see make sense

• random errors cancel each other

“miracle of aggregation”

even if most voters are uninformed or irrational, the collective outcome can still be wise

• crazy people get canceled out by smart people