SJ

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