Untitled Flashcard Set

Public Opinion: Founders weren’t completely sold on democracy, and the public’s opinion created a system of filtration, a compromise of direct elections Public opinion is the collection of attitudes, preferences, and opinions of the government involving the interests of the government How is public opinion formed? George Gallup, Lou Harris, and other pioneers in the science of polling discovered the following: Americans lack political knowledge, they are not very interested, and they rely on broad/ general attitudes and predispositions to inform their decisions. Political Knowledge is a fundamental part of an individual's participation in politics. Low Ideological Constraint: their beliefs often do not go together and are not founded in any theory about politics or economics. Ideology is the system of ideas and ideals, particularly one that forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy Partisanship is loyalty to a political party; it does not mean that a person has consistent issue attitudes or that their political beliefs go well together. Socio-demographics, party identification, issues, and candidate image = how people vote Political Socialization is how we learn our political orientations and allegiances; school, family, social groups, and major social events Low Issue Consistency is people who are inconsistent with their political opinions. Mental Coin Flips: people come up with opinions on the spot. Often, these opinions are based on information they have seen/ heard recently. Heuristics are mental shortcuts that allow us to make fairly good decisions without being fully informed. Help us make decisions with little information, but they can also leave us astray. Implicit Bias: attitudes that are often unaware of and influenced by stereotypes and social constructions Public Opinion appears to be stable and meaningful over time. Probability Sampling is the method of surveying the population using random sampling Population: the group we want to know something about Random Sample: a sample in which everyone in the population has an equal probability of being selected Representativeness: the degree to which the sample looks like the underlying population. Types of Polls Issue Polls: examine public opinion on specific topics Tracking Polls: polls conducted over time to see how public opinions change regarding specific policies Exit Polls: taken immediately after an individual votes to determine who they voted for. Pseudo Polls: Not real polls, more deceptive than helpful - Voluntary participation - FRUGing - Push poll The Media: The Media educates Americans about issues, provides a forum for candidates, politicians, and the public to debate policies and issues, and scrutinizes the actions of the elected officials on behalf of citizens Freedom of the press is found in the 1st amendment Agenda Setting is the power the media holds to bring attention to a particular problem or issue “Alarm mode” is breaking news/ stories “Patrol mode” is for greater depth Framing the process of presenting information from a certain perspective to shape the audience’s comprehension of the information, the media also has the power to include or exclude information Priming is the process of calling attention to some issues and not others when reporting on political events and officials Principled Journalism knives facts, evidence, relying on original resources, and presenting multiple POV’s Adversarial Journalism is when journalists adopt a combative style towards government officials. Confirmation Bias is the tendency to favor information that confirms a person’s existing beliefs and to discount evidence that could challenge those beliefs A filter bubble is the partisan media environment in which users are exposed to opinions and information that conforms to existing beliefs. (ex CNN reports primarily on conservative/ republican value) Citizen Journalism is news that is reported and distributed by citizens (ex. George Floyd) Opinion-driven politics is journalism where the writer or hosts provide highly opinionated commentary Many cable television networks engage in journalism of assertion Bias is a result of journalism being a profit-motivated company Media earn revenue through advertising and need to reach a wide audience The media focuses on soft news Political news focused on sensational news Media monopolies are the ownership and control of media by a few large corporations: Fox, ABC, etc Broadcast Media is a traditional form of media, such as television and radio News websites are digital sites that are owned and managed by newspapers News aggregators organize content from diverse digital news organizations Political Participation: Forms of political participation Voting Traditional participation, such as volunteering or signing participation Electoral activities like attending meetings and rallies, or donating money Using your political voice Civic volunteering, such as volunteering at a community center Direct action, such as a political protest. When asked what makes a good citizen, 75% of citizens said voting. Paying taxes Following the Law Serving on a jury when called Respecting the opinions of others with whom you disagree The right to vote is a legal right, not in the Constitution Suffrage was restricted Voting was restricted to white, male property owners Poll taxes were used to restrict voting Literacy tests were designed to restrict minorities from voting in the Jim Crow era. Voting rights and reforms The 15th Amendment enfranchised black men (1870). The Voting Rights Act of 1965 allows the federal government to challenge laws affecting minority groups. The 19th Amendment enfranchised women (1920). The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18 (1971). Who votes? Voter turnout remains moderate Turnout was 67% in the 2020 presidential election, lower than Belgium (87%), Sweden (86%), and France (71%). Education and income levels track with voter turnout. Midterm elections have a much lower voter turnout than presidential elections Heavily skewed in favor of demographic groups that vote regularly- older, educated, affluent, partisan, and white. Calculus of voting: PB+D > C P is the probability that our one vote will impact the election outcome B is the perceived benefit that would be received if that person’s favored candidate wins office D of the civic duty one feels to vote or the social or personal gratification an individual gets from voting. C is the cost (in time, effort, and money) involved Lower C by early voting, mail-in voting, info on registering to vote, and greater info on the candidates Type of cost Informational Transactional Socioeconomic Status predicts who votes Higher education levels Higher levels of income General categories of why people vote: -2 Social and demographic characteristics and attitudes about politics - Political environment during the election - State electoral law Older individuals are more likely to vote Younger people don't have as much interest in voter mobilization; campaigns contact older people because they are likely voters. Mobilization: The process by which large numbers of people are organized for political activity. Personal contact is important for mobilizing voters Gerrymandering is drawing districts to favor one political party over the other; packing and cracking - Packing drawing based on a population that is very concentrated; packing districts all together - Cracking is drawing a line through a district; cracking a district in half. Redistricting is the drawing of new boundaries for congressional districts after the decennial census. State electoral laws: Many don’t vote because they aren’t registered Younger people with lower incomes and/ or education are less likely to vote In most democratic states, residents are automatically registered to vote at the adult age In most U.S states, individuals who are eligible to vote must take the initiative to register to vote In 1993, Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). It requires citizens to have the opportunity to register to vote when renewing their driver’s license Automatic Voter Registration was instituted in Oregon in 2016 and is now approved in 23 states and D.C. Same-day registration is the option to register to vote on the day of the election at polling place, rather than in advance of the election. Another barrier is having to provide proof of identity Felons are denied the right to vote in 48 states and D.C Political Parties: In the early republic, the framers saw parties as threats to the stability of the new democratic government and referred to them as “factions.” Worry today over parties and partisanship Parties serve democracy by mobilizing voters to participate in elections For voters, party labels provide party heuristics to people who don’t know the policy positions of the candidates Political parties are groups of people with similar interests who work together to create and implement policies Key components: Organization, leadership structure with a public following The purpose is to win elections to control the government and enforce policy Principles generally promote a set of principles Can find those principles in their party platform, positions on political issues, adopted at each party’s nominating convention every four years. Proportional representation system: a multimember district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote. They have multi-member district so the votes and representational can be split up between the parties The U.S uses a plurality system: a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in parliament or other representative body, a candidate needs only to receive the most votes in the election, not necessarily a majority of cast votes. The candidate with the most votes wins, no matter if that candidate received 40%, 51%, or 80% of the vote. The U.S has a simple plurality system; “winner-take-all” Duverger’s law says that when you have a system that has plurality voting rules and single-member districts, it will result in a two-party system. Disadvantages of 2-party system: limited ideological diversity and less representation Advantages of 2-party system: predictable and stable for the nation Party-In Government: Member in a party who hold office Responsible for organzing government action and promoting party issues in government Both the Senate and HOR are organized by political parties Republicans currently are the majority in both chamber of congress Party Organization: The formal organization of a political party; leadership, paid staff, election committees and active members The RNC and DNC are national party committees Functions: raise money for candidates, minimize disputes within the party, promote party policies and values, set rules for nominating candidates; primary elections) The house is the most dominated by the majority party Speaker of the house is the leader of the house; selections is by majority vote Party-in Electorate: Voters Parties what to turn out their base voters every election Largest, least otganized, and least active Party identification Roughly equal numbers of people identifying as Republican and Democrat Young people tend to identify as independent; they still end of voting for one of the two parties Independents tend to have “hidden partisanship” Pure independents are detached and absent from politics Increasing negative division and feelings between the two parties Affective Polarization is the emotional dislike of members Negative partisanship is a concept where people form strong opinions against a political party rather than in support of one. (Many vote democrat because of their dislike of Trump) Elections Consitiution gives the rights of election rules is left up to the states (photo id, vote by mail, early voting) Characteristics: Frequent and fixed, large numbers of elected officials at every level of government, expensive campaigns Why do we hold elections? We use elections to solve other issues as well as through direct democracy Recall elections to remove someone from office Primary: party voting for their representaive on the ticket - Closed primary: an election where voters are only permitted to vote for their registered party - Open primary: an election where voters can wait to the day of the primary to enroll and select candidates for general election - Multi-member primaries: nominating event in which all the candidates for the same office run against each other, regardless of party, on the same ballot General: the election which voters select office-holders (please make into a study guide)