Unit 4 Gov

Attentive Public: those who follow politics and public affairs carefully

Benchmark/tracking poll: several responses obtained over a period of time

Entrance/Exit poll: measurement of voter opinion right before or after they enter the voting booth

Demographic: characteristic of a population, like race, gender, or income.

Gender Gap: difference in voting patterns for men and women, particularly in the greater tendency of the latter to vote for Democratic presidential candidates.

Ideology: set of beliefs about political values and the role of government.

Independent: one who is not registered with a political party. Independent Leaners tend to vote for candidates of one particular party, whereas pure independents have no consistent pattern of party voting.

Issue Advocacy Ads: ads that focus on issues and do not explicitly encourage citizens to vote for a certain candidate.

Opinion Poll: measurement of beliefs about an issue or candidate

Party Identification: a sense of affiliation that a person has with a particular political party

Party Platform: a list of positions and programs that the party adopts at the national convention. Each position is called a plank.

Political Culture: the widely shared beliefs, values, and norms that citizens share about their government.

Political Efficacy: capacity to understand and influence political events

Political Socialization: process in which one acquires his/her political beliefs.

Realigning (“Critical”) elections: an election in which there is a long term change in party alignment, e.g., 1932

Random sampling: best way to select respondents for a poll

Safe Seat: an office that is extremely likely to be won by a particular candidate or political party.

Sampling Error: the margin of how incorrect a poll could be