Ch 6 Public Opinion and Political Action Flashcards
Public Opinion
The distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy issues
Demography
the science of population change
Census
An “actual enumeration” of the populations, which the Constitution requires the government conduct every 10 years. The census is a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes.
Melting Pot
A term often used to characterize the United States, with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples
minority majority
the situation, likely beginning in the mid-twenty-first century, in which the non-HIspanic whites will represent a minority of the U.S. population and minority groups together will represent a majority
political culture
an overall set of values widely shared within a society
reapportionment
the process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census
political socialization
the process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others
sample
a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole
random sampling
the key technique employed by survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal opportunity of being selected for the sample
sampling error
level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. the more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results
random-digit dialing
a technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey
exit poll
public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision
political ideology
a coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events
gender gap
the regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.
