unit four review: political ideologies and beliefs

overview

• American political beliefs are shaped by founding ideals, core values, linkage institutions (e.g., elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media in all its forms), and the changing demographics of citizens.
  • These beliefs about government, politics, and the individual’s role in the political system influence the creation of public policies.
• American political culture is comprised of citizens’ beliefs about government, including their perceptions, relationships, and interactions relative to one another and to their government.
  • Core beliefs about government center around different interpretations and applications of political values, such as individualism (the focus on individual rights and responsibilities), the rule of law (the notion that the law is supreme over all persons), limited government (the idea that the government’s power is enumerated and constrained by constitutional rules), and equality of opportunity.
• Citizens learn of and develop attitudes about government through political socialization. Several factors contribute to political socialization including family, schools, peers, and social environments.
  • How much influence these factors have on a person’s political beliefs relates in turn to lifecycle effects, dispositions that change with age or membership in a group experiencing the same events at the same time, and generational effects, which involve exposure across ages and groups to the same political information.
  • Both lifecycle and generational effects are fueled by past and present political events.
• American political culture, through expressed citizen opinions, influences governmental institutions in the formation, implementation, and evaluation of public policy.
  • For example, how people view the principles of freedom and individualism shape opinions about domestic and economic policy, including the appropriate range and types of such policies.
  • The tension behind citizen beliefs about the appropriate role of government is revealed through policy debates and legislation.
  • Some argue that government should take an active role in promoting social equality and ensuring economic opportunity, while others warn that excessive regulation violates individual freedoms.
• Major public policy programs are rooted in ideological trends that span decades. For example, ideology impacts the nature and extent to which the federal government shares powers with state governments and how it regulates the marketplace over time, as evidenced by debates about monetary and fiscal policies.
  • Globalization has had an impact on U.S. political beliefs and public policy. How the government determines the nature and direction of social policy, such as that involving immigration or health-care reform, is also impacted by ideological pressure from the right and left, and foreign policy is influenced by citizens’ beliefs about the U.S. government’s role on the world stage.

essential questions

• How are American political beliefs formed and how do they evolve over time?

●  How do political ideology and core values influence government policy making?

influences on American political culture

^^Big Idea #1: Citizen beliefs about government are shaped by the intersection of demographics, political culture, and dynamic social change.^^

• As a result of globalization, U.S. political culture has both influenced and been influenced by the values of other countries.

●  Generational and lifecycle effects also contribute to the political socialization that influences an individual’s political attitudes.

●  The relative importance of major political events to the development of individual political attitudes is an example of political socialization

measuring public opinion

^^Big Idea #2: Public opinion is measured through scientific polling, and the results of public opinion polls influence public policies and institutions.^^

methods of polling 

the impact of polling

• The relationship between scientific polling and elections and policy debates is affected by the importance of public opinion as a source of political influence in a given election or policy debate and the reliability of public opinion data.

political ideologies

^^Big Idea #3: Widely held political ideologies shape policy debates and choices in American policies.^^

political culture

• Because the U.S. is a democracy with a diverse society, public policies generated at any given time reflect the attitudes and beliefs of citizens who choose to participate in politics at that time.
• The balancing dynamic of individual liberty and government efforts to promote stability and order has been reflected in policy debates and their outcomes over time.

economic terms

economics and political ideology

social issues and political ideology