Chapter 4: American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Demographics and Political Socialization

• Americans have core political values:
  • Individualism → the ability to exercise freedom and achieve goals/desires

Political Socialization

• Factor that determines voting behavior
• Sociological factors include:
  • Income/occupation
  • Education
  • Sex and age
  • Religious and ethnic background
  • Region of the country where you live
  • Family makeup
• Psychological factors include:
  • Party affiliation and identification
  • Perception of candidate’s policies and/or image
  • The belief that your vote will make a statement

Polling

• Scientific polling and its results are key indicators of how public opinion is measured, and can have profound effects on elections, governmental institutions, and public policy

Opinion Polls

• Determines what the American public is thinking
• Qualities measured are:
  • How intense people are in their beliefs and attitudes
  • The real wants and needs of individuals that can be translated into policy
  • Whether public opinion on any given issue is constant or changing
  • The extent to which the public is polarized or has a consensus on any given issue, for example, issues such as health care and care for veterans reveal the public’s polarization or consensus
• When looking at polls, pollsters consider:
  • Who conducts the poll
  • The sample size
  • Whether clear distinctions have been made regarding the population sample
  • When the poll was conducted
  • The poll methodology
  • The sampling error, which gives the poll statistical validity
  • How clearly the questions were worded

Political Philosophies and Political Party Ideology

• Party platforms can be a better barometer of party identification than traditional measurements

Liberals vs. Conservatives vs. Libertarians

• Hard to define except when looking at specific issues
  • For example , on foreign policy, liberals favor defense cuts, conservatives favor government spending on defense over social welfare programs and libertarians are against intervention in foreign affairs
• Basic differences between Republicans and Democrats and ideological differences between conservatives and liberals are great when economic issues are raised
  • Traditionally, Republicans have been identified as the party favoring the rich and big business, whereas the Democrats have been viewed as being sympathetic to labor and the poor