American Political Ideology - Citizens Beliefs & Polling 2018-2019

Baby Boomers

(Born between 1946 and 1964)

Key segment due to their size and earnings, willing to invest money, time, and energy

Conservative

A person who believes government power, particularly in the economy, should be limited in order to maximize individual freedom.

Free Enterprise

Economic system in which individuals and businesses are allowed to compete for profit with a minimum of government interference

Generation X

people born between 1965 and 1978

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

Ideology

a system of ideas and ideals, especially one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Individualism

giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

Liberal

open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values, larger government

Libertarian

One who believes in limited government interference in personal and economic liberties

lifecycle effects

Variety of physical, social and psychological changes that people go through in a lifetime

Limited Government

A principle of constitutional government; a government whose powers are defined and limited by a constitution.

Millennials

the 83 million children of the baby boomers born between 1977 and 2000

Moderate

Person whose views are between conservative and liberal and may include some of both ideologies

Party Identification

a citizen's self-proclaimed preference for one party or the other

Political Socialization

the process by which people gain their political attitudes and opinions

Populist

a supporter of the rights and power of the people, typically from working class families

progressive

A belief that personal freedom and solving social problems are more important, workers rights and labor unions

Rule of Law

principle that the law applies to everyone, even those who govern

Saliency

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

Silent Generation

youth of the 50's that seemed to conform to middle class culture without question.

valence issues

an issue about which the public is united and rival candidates or political parties adopt similar positions in hopes that each will be thought to best represent those widely shared beliefs

Approval Rating

a measure of public support for a political figure or institution

bandwagon effect

a shift in electoral support to the candidate whom public opinion polls report as the front-runner

benchmark polls

initial poll on a candidate and issues on which campaign strategy is based and against which later polls are compared

entrance polls

voters asked about which candidate they are going to vote for and why before walking into an election

exit polls

polls based on interviews conducted on election day with randomly selected voters

focus groups

A strategy to obtain data from a small group of people using interview questions

margin of error

the range of percentage points in which the sample accurately reflects the population

push polling

a polling technique in which the questions are designed to shape the respondent's opinion

random digit dialing

A technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.

random sampling

a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion

representative sampling

a process for selecting research participants whose characteristics fairly reflect the characteristics of the population from which they were drawn

sampling error

The level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results.

stratification

demographic groups are properly represented in a sample

tracking polls

continuous surveys that enable a campaign or news organization to chart a candidate's daily rise or fall in support

universe

the population from which a sample will be drawn

weighting

adjustments to surveys during analysis so that selected demographic groups reflect their values in the population, usually as measured by the census