AP Government Unit 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Topic 4.1: American Attitudes About Government and Politics

• individualism: the belief that individuals should be responsible for themselves and for the decisions they make

• equality of opportunity: belief that every American, regardless of their race, ethnicity, sex, religion, etc. deserves equal footing to go after life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

  • don’t believe in hierarchies and stuff

  • political equality: everyone should be able to affect political decision-making

• free enterprise: laissez-faire economics; as little government intervention as possible

  • reality is we are a mixed economy where economic decisions often are left to individuals and businesses, but there are federal and state govs that shape these decisions with taxation, spending, and regulation

  • American’s belief in free enterprise largely comes from our emphasis on individualism, but we still have a tendency to go running to the government when we need help

• rule of law: belief that every citizen is equal under the law

• limited government: a government whose limits are well-defined and is restrained through the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances

  • social contract is an example of this idea

• tho most ppl agree with the basic idea, there are different interpretations

• conservatives: cherish established institutions and seek to preserve these institutions for the good of society

  • view on individualism: value self-centered individualism, emphasizing the interests of the individual above the interests of society

  • believe in meritocracy, the belief that every American can rise based on how hard they work

  • conservatives want the gov to stay out of affairs of businesses and allow the free market to determine what’s best

  • laws themselves as embodying equality and therefore emphasize the letter of the law

  • want to define strong boundaries of federalism —> less government interference in ppl’s lives

• liberals: push for new reforms in order to make society more just and equitable

  • liberal means “free”

  • value enlightened individualism: emphasizes the interests of society over the interests of the individual

  • believe in meritocracy with condition, meaning that the believe that not all groups start equally

  • want the gov to intervene as needed to ensure safety and equality in the workplace

  • agree that laws embody equality with condition: emphasis on the unequal application of laws in regards to minority groups

  • embrace the need for government intervention in society for the sake of the greater good

Topic 4.2: Political Socialization

• How does someone’s environment affect their beliefs?

  • family: party identification is strongly correlated with family’s political beliefs cuz families are often the first source of political information for children

    • think about how parent’s choice of news programs, comments made at the dinner table, etc may shape a child

  • school: teach us about the government and politics through civics/gov classes, etc

    • introduces opportunities for political participation

    • education may also a student’s POV and provide diff perspectives than what has originally been introduced to them in their household, religion, social class, etc

  • religion and civic organization: influence through their doctrines, sermons, and social interactions among members of their community

    • civic organizations engage in political socialization: brings ppl w/common interests tgt so they’re likely to have the same political viewpoints on certain topics

  • peers: social conformity can be a huge factor

• media: makes it easier for people access many many different viewpoints

  • people also want to avoid cancelling —> changes viewpoints to avoid this

  • news outlets also controls how ppl think too

• globalization: the increasing interconnectedness of people, businesses, and countries throughout the world

  • influenced by factors outside of borders i.e immigrants bringing their ideals, countering and affecting our current culture/political ideas

Topic 4.3: Changes in Ideology

• generational and life-cycle effects

  • generational effects: the impact of historical events experienced by a generation upon their political views

    • ppl in the same generation have lived through the same or similar events, shaping their political views

  • life-cycle effect: the impact of a person’s age and stage in life their political views

    • diff stages of life care more about certain topics i.e if you are a student you likely care about financial aid and whether or not the department of education is still going to exist in the coming years 😭

    • young people are far less likely than older adults to vote or to become involved in politics

• silent generation: born before 1945; came of age during Great Depression and WW2, adults during the age of conformity —> like church and religious stuff

  • rigid gender roles

  • generally conservative —> oppose the great culture upheaval, gay liberation movement, etcetc

  • grew up during cold war —> support gov intervention

  • vote for ppl who are tough on crime

  • dont like legalized marijuana

• baby boomers: born after WW2 ending in the 60s

  • grew up in the 60s —> appreciate changes better than silent

  • conservative still but more liberal

• generation X: grew up in an era with more divorce; first group to grow up on the internet

  • even more liberal!

• millennials: even more liberal no way!

  • more ethnically diverse —> leaned hard into the liberal politici

  • es of the democratic party

  • more likely to believe that racial discrimination has a big part in society, favorable to immigration and more socialist policies with significant government intervention

Topic 4.4: Influences of Political Events on Ideology

political events: significant events in the life of our nation

• silent generation have Great Depression, FDR, lot of hardship in general

  • trusts the gov to intervene and help due to how the New Deal worked

• baby boomers lived through the Vietnam War

  • Pentagon Papers: revealed how much the gov was lying about how we were doing in the war

    • led to more distrust in the gov

• millennials experienced 9/11

  • viewed 9/11 as a result as our intervention in other countries —> tend to vote for candidates who champion cooperation and stuff

Topic 4.5: Measuring Public Opinion

scientific poll: a good poll has to be randomized, a good representation of the population, and use neutral political language

• representative sample through weighting, a procedure in which the survey is adjusted according to the demographics of the larger population

• types of polls/surveys

  • entrance surveys: a poll conducted of people coming to an event/before ppl vote

  • exit poll: a survey conducted asking who they voted for and why

    • entrance/exit polls are sometimes used to measure whether voters change their minds after attending an event such as a party caucus or during election day

  • benchmark poll: a survey taken at the beginning of a political campaign in order to gauge support for a candidate and determine which issues are important to voters

  • tracking polls: a survey determining the level of support for a candidate or an issue throughout a campaign

    • have caused criticism for news outlets cuz they focus on who’s winning/losing instead of covering more important issues and candidate’s policies

  • internet polls are not considered scientific since it involved voluntary polling, which isn’t random, likely doesn’t represent the cross-section of all the demographic groups, and in general, is unreliable

focus group: a specific group that is assembled for a conversation to provide feedback so that officials know what ppl care about

mass survey: aims for 1500 respondents; only really measures limited opinion about certain political topics unlike focus group, but gets data quicker

sampling errors can be caused by the question’s wording/order, sample size, the timing of the poll, random digit dialing (dialing random numbers but it not actually be representative of the population), and the fact that we elect based on the electoral college and not popular vote

• type of ppl who answer polls are likely to be more educated

Topic 4.6: Evaluating Public Opinion Data

• public opinion polls can cause the more popular candidate would be put front in center during primaries

• bandwagon effect: voters might vote for those who poll well to vote for the seemingly winning candidate

  • those who are polling well makes it easier to raise money due to this effect

• the relationship btwn public opinion polls and elections and policy debates can be affected by how ppl view the reliability of those opinion polls

• social desirability bias: when ppl filling out surveys give a socially desirable answer, even if they don’t follow through with it

• non-response bias: certain groups are more likely to respond to public opinion polls than others

• unreliable polls that is partisan may be used to simply bolster their candidate

Topic 4.7: Ideologies of Political Parties

party ideology: a party’s philosophy about the proper role of government and its set of positions on major issues

party identification: an individual’s attachment to a political party

• republicans are more conservative

  • more regulation on social behavior, less gov interference on economy

  • trust in marketplace, mistrust in government

  • seeks order and wants to uphold traditional american values

  • stronger punishment for crimes

  • pro-life

  • tax cuts for wealthy

• democrats are more liberal

  • wants less gov regulation on social behavior and more regulation on economy

  • mistrust of tyranny of the majority, gov protects minority rights

  • seeks order regarding gun regulation

  • civil liberties of the accused

  • pro-choice

  • tax cuts for small biz; more regulation for businesses

• libertarianism: little gov regulation anywhere

Topic 4.8: Ideology and Policymaking

bro idk 😭

it’s just like ideology becomes policy somehow lmfao

Topic 4.9: Ideology and Economic Policy

• Keynesianism (think demand side economics): economy is driven by demand and consumers and gov intervention is needed to help out

  • economic growth —> ppl invest in the stock market and other stuff, so it stimulates the economy (consumerism)

  • gov interferes with the economy in a good way to stimulate growth (such as gov programs)

  • democrats like this more

• supply-side theory: believes in lower taxes on individuals and businesses to combat economic downturn

  • trickle-down economics: the wealthy’s money will “trickle down” to the poor (it doesnt…)

  • excessive taxation is a drag on the economy and hinders the growth of businesses

  • Republicans like it

• Monetary Policy: set of economic policy tools designed to regulate the amount of money in the economy by the Fed

• fiscal policy: economy policy by

Topic 4.10 Ideology and Social Policy

yeah ykyk