UNIT 4: just stuff i wanna remember and did NOT already know

The political socialization factors:

  1. Family

   

  1. Greatest influence
    1. Schools

   

  1. Classes, history classes especially
    1. Peers

   

  1. Peer pressure
    1. Media

   

  1. Social media, TV news that’s biased, more access
    1. Civic and Religious Organization Participation

   

  1. Girl Scouts, for example, or membership in church/synagogue/mosque
    1. Globalization

   

  1. Different values being brought to the US (ex. community above family)

Generational and Lifecycle effects

Voting behavior depends on generations for generational effects

Silent generation

  • before 1945
  • Great depression and WWII
  • No high religious values, rigid gender roles
  • conservative
  • oppose movements for rights and recognition
  • Less supportive of foreign policy bc of vietnam
  • Support those tough on crime
  • No marijuana legalization
  • Highest numbers of voting

Baby Boomers

  • After WWII mid 60s
  • Population boom
  • More liberal than silent generation
  • Still reliably conservative

Gen X

  • Slightly more liberal too
  • More diverse

Millennials

  • 1981-1996
  • More liberal than any others
  • Greatly ethnically diverse
  • Liberal democratic policy support
  • Favorable to immigrants and to socialist policies with great government intervention

The older, the more conservative, the younger the more liberal

Lifecycle effects

  • Life stages can effect political beliefs
  • Focuses and priorities change
    • When younger focus is more on tuition and student debt
    • When older its more about childcare and lower taxes

Political Events’ Effects

%%Political socialization factor - political events%%

Silent generation

  • The Great Depression
    • Created expansion of federal government and poverty
    • Grew up in midst of hardship
  • Silent generation is therefore more trusting of government because of how it rescued the US

Baby Boomers

  • Vietnam War
  • Pentagon Papers exposed government lies
  • Nixon resignation and Watergate
  • Government was largely distrusted
  • Large migration to Republican Party bc of Reagan

Millennials

  • 9/11
  • Unification throughout the nation
  • Globalization was more emphasized
  • US was intervening too much
  • Foreign policy is a priority and American interaction
  • Vote for candidates championing interaction and alliances

Public Opinion Measuring

Mass surveying is done to measure opinions of as many people as possible, quantitative data

Focus groups examine a small group of people and allow for more detailed answers and qualitative data

Evaluating Data

Public opinion polls can have consequences

Bandwagon effect- more likely to band behind those winning in polling

Polling well means more donations and attention too, affecting elections

Influential in elections

Reliability in polls and if people think they even are can be influential

Non response bias- certain groups are more likely to respond than others

Non scientific polls can affect the data, especially if funded by certain groups with motives; partisan outlets cannot be reliable bc they are worded in a purposeful way

Ideologies

Ideologies have a spectrum from liberal (civil rights, social justice movements, government involvement, care for poor, business regulations, intervention in economy) to conservative (traditionally social structures and authority, limited government, states rights over federal power, strong stance on crime and punishment)

Republican Party

  • Grand Old Party
  • Conservative
    • Free enterprise, deregulation and free market letting economy be
    • Against LGBTQ marriage
    • Upholding old lifestyles
    • Personal responsibility (those who work hard will get what they deserve, those in bad situations are lazy) no need for welfare programs
    • Tougher punishments and views on crime

Democratic Party

  • Liberal
  • Level economic playing field
    • Ending poverty and corporation power
  • Universal affordable and quality health care (government intervention)
  • Civil Rights for All
    • Women, LGBTQ, Disabilities, indigenous tribes,
  • Diversity is essential
  • Protest is essential to voices

They do not = one another; some are more conservative or liberal on some issues than others, or the opposite ideology even! Not always consistent. Not synonyms!!

How they Affect Policy Making

  • Only the ideologies of those who vote are represented
  • Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act
    • COnservatives believed welfare trapped the poor in a cycle of poverty
    • This Act was passed to limit welfare payments to five years, reasserting the american work ethic
  • The Dream Act
    • Worked to allow children whose parents immigrated illegally the chance to become american citizens
    • never passed bc republicans wanted stricter immigration laws
    • Exec order was passed to make minor immigrant deportation illegal, but was rescinded by Trump bc why the hell not

Economic Policy

%%Fiscal Policy- decisions made about government spending and taxation%%

^^Monetary Policy- decisions about how much money should be in the economy^^

The Federal Reserve Regulated Monetary Policy

  • Buying and selling government bonds
  • Setting reserve requirements
  • Setting interest rates

Liberals on Fiscal Policy

  • favor the most government intervention in the economy keeping it secure,
  • big spenders too bc of it
    • Therefore more taxes
  • Keynesian Economics
    • More government spending
    • Monetary policy focus

Conservatives on Fiscal Policy

  • Less government intervention
  • Free market laissez faire approach
  • Upholds freedom for people to make own economic choices
  • Lower taxes
  • Supply side economics
    • Supporting businesses
    • If more goods, economy will grow, so support businesses who make the goods!
    • Limited government regulations to give more freedom
    • Less taxes to allow people to buy more

Monetary policy

Conservatives favor using it to stabilize economy, liberals think its too slow to make real change

Libertarians (on economy and not on it)

  • Least amount of government intervention possible
  • Only good to protect personal property rights
  • No business regulations
  • Minimal government regulations

Social Issues

Libertarians

  • Least government intervention
  • Only good for private property and individual liberty upholding
  • Legalization of marijuana is supported
  • Abortion is private
  • Education does not need government involvement
  • Economy- more conservative
  • Social- more liberal

Liberal

  • Personal privacy is broad (abortion, LGBTQ marriage, marijuana legalization)
  • No government involvement in personal privacy and social issues

Conservatives

  • Less government involvement in some issues and more in others
  • Abortion should be regulated and is not private
  • Government should mandate marriage as between one man and one woman
  • Gun ownership and education- no involvement
  • With religion, as little intervention as possible