4.1 - American attitudes about government and politics (5 core values)

• Individualism: emphasis on self-reliance and independence

  • Less community-oriented than eastern cultures and value independence

  • Conservatives value self-centered individualism

    • Individual interests are above the interests of society

  • Liberals value enlightened individualism

    • Societal interests are above individual interests

  • Ex: Lyndon Johnson’s great society plans (help poor) were hated by conservatives but supported by liberals

• Equality of opportunity: every American (regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, etc) should have equal footing in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

  • Shouldn’t be special classes/heirarchies of who can and can’t do certain things

  • Conservatives believe in meritocracy

    • Everyone rises based on their own hard work

    • American dream (anyone can make it as long as they work hard)

  • Liberals agree with meritocracy but believe that everyone doesn’t start in the same place

    • People that start off with a disadvantage (like broken legs in a race) need an extra push to make them even (closer to the finish line)

• Free enterprise: laissez-faire economic policy (little government involvement in the economy)

  • Conservatives want the government out of affairs of business and allow the free market to sort itself out/figure out what’s best

  • Liberals want the government to intervene with appropriate regulations to make sure the workplace is safe and equal

  • Ex: Herbert Hoover (conservative) said the market would fix the Great Depression on its own and didn’t do anything about it; Franklin Roosevelt (liberal) got government involved with fixing the economy

• Rule of law: all citizens are equal under the law and no one is above the law/has special privileges

  • “Ours is a govrnment of laws, not of men” - John Adams

  • Conservatives see laws themselves as embodying equality

    • Emphasize the letter of the law/what’s actually written

  • Liberals agree that laws embody equality but emphasize unequal application of the laws (minority groups)

  • Ex: conservatives thought civil rights act made everyone equal just because of its passing; liberals thought that the law was being unequally applied so minorities were still disciminated against

• Limited government: government with clear and well-defined limits of power that is restrained throughs separation of powers/checks and balances

  • Conservatives want to define strong boundaries of federalism

    • Less government interference in people’s lives

  • Liberals embrace the need for government intervention in society

    • For the sake of the greater good

• Although most agree on these principles, there are debates over their interpretation between conservatives and liberals (explained above in each core value)

  • Conservatives: cherish established institutions and want to preserve them for the good of society, emphasize smaller government

    • Want to conserve the good things that society already has

    • Anything wanting/trying to overturn those well-established institutions is a threat

  • Liberals: push for new reforms to make society more just and equitable, emphasize more active government

    • Let the reigns out on changes in society (as long as they’re going towards justice and equity)

    • Liberal means free

  • Ex: conservatives thought the women’s rights movement for encouraging women to work outside of the home would break the tradition of women working in households/traditional family structure; liberals thought the change would be empowering and would break down unjust social stuctures

4.2 - political socialization

• People don’t usually do their research before picking an ideology to identify with

• Political socialization: the process by which we form political opinions

  • Family: children usually have same/similar values of their parent(s)

    • Younger voters cast votes based on the ideology they picked up from parents

    • Can be picked up intentionally or unententionally

    • Social media may be weakening it

    • Biggest early influence

  • Schools: k-12 classes have potential to shape kids’ thoughts on politics

    • Government and/or politics classes have direct influence

    • History classes have big influence

      • Ex: everything is built upon slavery (liberal) vs shouldn’t be ashamed of history (conservative)

  • Peers: social conformity

    • Pressure if you have a different ideology than your friends so you switch to match them

  • Media: more access to wide range of viewpoints (especially in younger people because they use it more)

    • See people getting cancelled for saying/doing/believing in certain things so you don’t want to say/do/believe the same things

    • TV pundits: strong beliefed people go on TV and tell others how they should feel ahout certain issues in a comical way

  • Civic/religious organizations: groups that influence beliefs

    • Ex civics: girl scouts and boy scouts (founded to teach patriotism)

    • Ex religious: church, synagogue, mosque, temple (whatever it believes is what the congregation hears)

  • Globalization: increasing interconnectedness of the world through economic partnerships

    • Political influences come with economic connections

    • Ex: people bring their cultural and political ideas into a new country through immigration

4.3 - changes in ideology

• Generational effects: the generation one was born into impacts one’s voting behavior and political ideology (generally), older are more likely to be conservative while younger are more likely to be liberal

  • Silent generation (1920s - 1945): tend to be conservative

    • Value religion and church attendance (because they were born in/around Great Depression and WW2)

    • Rigid gender roles

    • Usually opposed civil rights movements (culture, women, gay, etc)

    • Support American intervention abroad to stop communism (because grew up in Cold War)

    • Vote in favor of people that are tough on criminals and terrorists (usually conservative thing)

    • Don’t like the push to legalize marijuana

    • Vote in higher numbers than any other group

  • Baby boomers (post WW2 - mid 60s): tend to be more liberal than silent but still conservative

    • So many of them because of the prosperity of the war and men returning from war

    • Learned to appreciate changes better (because grew up in 60s)

  • Generation X (mid 60s - 1980): tend to be more liberal than baby boomers

    • Grew up with lots of divorce

    • First to really use the internet

    • More liberal because more ethnically diverse

  • Millennials (1981-1996): tend to be liberal

    • Even more ethnically diverse than gen x (40% non white)

    • Support policies of Democratic party

    • Believe racial discrimination plays a big role in society

    • More favorable towards immigrants (and socialist policies in general)

• Life cycle effects: the stage of life that people are in contributes to political attitudes

  • Young people: interested in things like free college tuition

  • Married with kids: interested in things like school laws and lower taxes (so you can care for your family better)

4.4 - influence of political events on ideology

• Significant national events can shape our political beliefs with larger ones having a larger impact - only a generalization though

• Silent generation: Great Depression and WW2

  • Depression: job loss, poverty, Roosevelt expanded federal government to help

  • The two combined made them trust the government to intervene in times of need

• Baby boomers: Vietnam War (Cold War in general) and Watergate scandal

  • Loss of government trust (especially after Pentagon Papers’ release which showed that the government was lying)

  • The two combined made them more Republican (saw the problems that the government caused so they wanted as little involvement as possible)

• Millennials: 9/11 terrorist attacks

  • Unification in months following but realized that because of how connected the world is, it was partially caused by decades of over-intervention in the Middle East

  • Vote for candidates that want cooperation with other countries (don’t like aggressive foreign policy)

• Major events have a lasting impact in political beliefs and behaviors but it can go either way

4.5 - measuring public opinion

• Main way to measure public opinion is through scientific polls

• Polls created with scientific rigor are best for measuring public opinion

  • Bias-free (or as free from bias as possible) questions

  • Present questions to small and randomized sample

  • Look at/analyze results and generalize them to the larger population

• Types of polls: opinion poll, benchmark poll, tracking poll, entrance/exit polls; exist to measure public opinion

  • Opinion poll: get feel for public’s opinion regarding a certain topic, policy, candidate, etc

    • Candidates make their speeches and promises based on the results of opinion polls

  • Benchmark poll: taken at the beginning of a candidate’s run so the campaign has a benchmark that they can compare future polls to so they can see how the candidate is doing

    • Focus on messages/messaging to see which types are resonating with voters so they can spend more time doing those

  • Tracking poll: conducted over time (usually with same group) to track how group opinion about an issue changes over time

    • Helps candidate shape their campaign promises

  • Entrance/exit polls: conducted at voting sites, ask people how they voted

    • Before vote is entrance poll, after vote is exit poll

    • Most desirable because measure actual voters (not just people who might vote)

• How to make sure that polls are good/able to be generalized

  • Have a good sample

    • Sample: group of people that are polled because the whole population is too big to poll

    • Sample needs to be representative (same characteristics of the population its measuring)

      • Ex: wanting to know what millennials think about something needs a sample of millennials (not senior citizens)

    • Sample needs to be random (everyone in the population has an equal chance of being selected)

    • Can only be generalized if the sample is balanced with the population about race, ethnicity, gender, etc

    • Sampling error: always a chance that the sample will not match the general population exactly

      • Plus or minus 3 sampling error usually makes it a representative poll

  • Ask neutral questions

    • Questions are neither confusing nor leading

    • Need to make sure the questions are asking what the pollsters actually want to know but wording effects can have a huge effect on results

• Survey methods: mass survey vs focus group

  • Mass survey: given to as many people as possible, can only measure quantitative data

  • Focus group: measure opinion of small group, better for qualitative data (more in-depth data about how people feel/think), can give detailed responses instead of just having a few options, not considered scientific polling because results can’t be generalized but can help candidates refine their message

4.6 - evaluating public opinion

• People measure public opinion because it affects elections and policy debate outcomes

  • Legislatures know how much support they have

  • Candidates know what people desire so they can then appeal to them

  • Candidates with highest polling public opinion numbers are at the center of primary debates (draw more attention, have more speaking time)

  • Bandwagon effect: people are more likely to support a candidate who has good public opinion poll results

  • Candidates with high polling numbers have an easier time getting funds

  • Policy-makers are more likely to vote for something if it has high poll numbers

• The relationship between public opinion polls and elections/policy debates can be affected by how people view the reliability of the polls

  • Polls constructed with scientific rigor are most reliable but there are still failures

  • 2016 presidential election: polls showed that Clinton would definitely win but Trump won which surprised everyone

    • Social desirability bias: when people fill out surveys and give a socially desirable answer even if they don’t follow through with it in action

      • Ex: wouldn’t say “I’m not going to vote” when asked who someone is voting for because voting is a sacred responsibility so some people that said they would vote Clinton didn’t actually vote for her

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

      • Trump used strong language in polls and Trump supporters were less likely to respond to polls

• Non-scientific polls can also impact candidates and policy

  • Partisan, show support for their bills

  • Not reliable at all but some people don’t know that so they don’t trust any polls (even good scientific ones)

4.7 - ideologies of political parties

• Political ideology: interlocking set of ideas that form the basis for political decision making, fall on a spectrum between liberal and conservative

  • Conservative ideology: emphasizes traditional social structures and existing structures of authority/society

    • Limited government involvement in public affairs

    • Strong stances on crime punishment

    • State’s rights above federal power

    • “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

  • Liberal ideology: emphasizes civil rights for the marginalized, supports the efforts of social justice movements to ensure everyone has equal access to civil liberties

    • Government involvement in public affairs (caring for the poor, regulations on businesses, intervention in the economy)

    • “It is broke, so let’s fix it”

  • Libertarian ideology exists too (go in detail in later section)

• Political parties of America

  • Party platform: published by party, set of party goals, says the kind of legislation they would pursue

  • Republican: mostly aligns with conservative ideology

    • GOP (grand old party)

    • Party platform has conservative ideology everywhere

      • Government can’t create prosperity, it can only limit and destroy it (limited government)

4.8 - ideology and policy making

• Policy in America is a reflection of the ideology of voters (in Congress)

• Debate over making English the official language: supported by conservatives and rejected by liberals

  • Conservatives: support the idea

    • Unite Americans

    • Save billions in government spending (no need for hospital translators, no need for bilingual staff in schools, no need to print election ballots in multiple languages)

  • Liberals: reject the idea

    • Would be oppressive and/or racist

    • Requiring immigrants to learn English at the expense of their native language is basically erasing their cultural heritage

  • Debate has been going on for decades, nothing has been done though

• Debate over multiculturalism vs assimilation: conservatives support assimilation and liberals support multiculturalism

  • Goes back to time of Native Americans

  • Is there a set of normative American values that we should measure all Americans by?

    • Conservatives say yes, liberals say no

  • No policy has been passed

• Conservative policy: personal responsibility and work opportunity act (PRWOA)

  • Conservatives thought that Lyndon Johnson’s expansion of the Great Society of the Welfare state in America (victory for liberals) would trap the poor in a cycle of poverty

    • If poor people got welfare benefits then they have no incentive to go to work

  • Republican Congress passed PRWOA (limited welfare payments to 5 years, reasserted American work ethic)

• Liberal policy: dream act

  • Addressed illegal immigrants that were minors

  • The minors could not be deported (they were minors so they didn’t really have a say in their parents decision to immigrate illegally) and could become citizens

  • Failed multiple times so Obama made an executive order that made deporting immigrant minors basically impossible (Trump undid this order though)

4.9 - ideology and economic policy

• Fiscal policy: government decisions about taxing and spending, under control of Congress

• Monetary policy: government decisions about how much money should be in the economy, under control of Federal Reserve (Fed)

  • Buying and selling bonds

  • Reserve requirements (how much banks keep in their vaults)

  • Setting interest rates

• Liberals: favor most intervention in the economy

  • Government regulation keeps the economy strong and keeps people safe/secure

  • Fiscal policy: favor government spending

    • Keynesian economics: came during Depression in Roosevelt’s election, although the economy will correct itself people are suffering now so something needs to be done soon instead of just waiting

  • Monetary policy: think it’s too slow to actually create change

• Conservatives: want minimal government intervention in economy

  • Letting the free market fix itself is a much better idea than involving government (upholds people’s freedom)

  • Keeps government from getting a lot of debt

  • Fiscal policy: spend less and lower taxes

    • Supply-side economics: support businesses so they can produce more and boost the economy, few regulations on businesses + lower taxes = people have more money to buy more products from businesses

  • Monetary policy: favor using it to stabilize economy

• Libertarian: want least amount of government intervention

  • Only good thing the government does economically is protecting personal property rights and making sure nothing hinders voluntary trade

  • No regulation on businesses

  • Minimal government programs

4.10 - ideology and social policy

• Libertarian: want as little government intervention as possible (including with social issues)

  • Only thing the government should do is protect property and uphold individual liberty

  • Legalization of marijuana: don’t want government telling people what they can and can’t buy

  • Abortion: don’t want government setting regulations for it

  • Lean conservative when it comes to economic issues but liberal in regards to social issues

• Liberal: privacy areas (things that there should be no government involvement) are broad

  • Abortion: shouldn’t be regulated by the government

  • Same-sex marriage: government shouldn’t care and should let people make their own choices

  • Legalization of marijuana: choice should be left to individuals

  • Want the government out on social issues (opposite of what they want in economics)

• Conservative: want less government involvement on some issues but more in others

  • Abortion: not a private matter, should be regulated by government

  • Marriage: government should mandate that marriage is only between one man and one woman

  • Gun ownership: want the government to stay out

  • Education: individuals should make own decision about educating kids

  • Religion: little government intervention

• Planned parenthood v. Casey: SCOTUS upheld Roe v. Wade decision but also upheld most restictions

  • Considered Roe v. Wade decision (abortion)

  • Law mandated that you had to wait 24 hours before getting abortion, minors had to have consent of 1 parent or consent of husband if married

    • Liberals didn’t like this law, conservatives did

• Zelman v. Simmons-Harris: SCOTUS said government can pay for religious schools if the parents send their kids there by choic

  • Education

  • Students in underperforming schools got vouchers to go to whatever other school they wanted, many used the vouchers to go to religious schools

    • Liberals thought it violated establishment clause (1st amendment) saying that although there should be government involvement in education the government shouldn’t pay for religious education

    • Conservatives thought this was good because it upheld free choice in education

  • Was a win for conservatives

• Obergefell v. Hodges: made same-sex marriage legal in all states

  • Right of gay couples to marry

  • Conservatives believe marriage/family is important in society so government should prevent same-sex marriage

  • Liberals believe government should have no say in who people can and can’t marry (even if same sex)

  • In favor of liberal ideology