Chapter 6 Flashcards
The collective attitudes or opinions that people have about policy issues, political events, and elected officials
public opinion
Basic political values held by most Americans -Principles of democracy
Liberty (freedom), justice (fairness or equal treatment), and equality of opportunity
A set of beliefs and values that form a general framework about government
political ideology
View about particular issues, persons, or events
Attitudes (or opinions)
Difference of opinion are often associated with
partisanship, social and demographic (race, ethnicity, gender, income, education, age, religion, and region.)
Americans on fundamental democratic values
importance of free and fair elections, checks and balances of power among the president, the rule of law, and justice-even for elected officials.
Two most common political ideologies that have changed over time
Liberalism, and conservatism
Many conservatives today are
classical liberals
in classical political theory, someone who favored individual entrepreneurship and was suspicious of government and its ability to manage economic and social affairs, “progressives”
Liberal
the belief that government action (law and policies are often needed to preserve individual liberty and promote equality.
social liberals (today’s liberals)
progressive taxation, expansion of federal safety net, government spending and education, infrastructure and broadband access, fight climate change, renewable energy, protect people of color and women from discrimination ,LGBTQ rights
Liberal values
believe that large government pose a threat to the freedom of individual citizens, small businesses, free market, economic growth and democracy.
Conservatism -classical liberalism
high values on personal responsibility, supporting cutting taxes and reducing government spending, oppose government regulation of business, stricter criminal justice laws, oppose recreation drug legalization, more spending for the police, military, and emergency first responders.
Conservative values
believe that government policies interferes with freedom of expression, free markets, and society, most closely align with classical liberalism.
Support gun control.
Support legalization of drugs and other policies that reduce government interference in private decisions.
Libertarianism
Support free-market capitalism but favor expanded government.
Free public college, universal child care, single-payer health care, welfare for the poor, higher taxes on the rich, and protection of workers’ rights and unions.
They argue that government is necessary to promote justice and to reduce economic and social inequality.
Democratic Socialism -Bernie Sanders
How do values of beliefs differ from political attitudes or opinions?
Values or beliefs make up a person’s basic orientation to politics and are not limited to the political arena, while attitudes or opinions are views about particular issues, persons, or events.
How does liberal political ideology differ from conservative political ideology?
Most liberals support greater government intervention in the economy than do most conservatives.
The process which underlying political beliefs and values are formed
political socialization
promote differences in political opinions and political attitudes; include family and friends, members of a social group, religion, party affiliation, economic factors like income, region, media, public education system.
Agents of Socialization
Experiences and influences that are unique to each person play a role in shaping
political orientation
Cubans are most likely to vote —–
while Mexican and Puerto Rico are most likely to vote —–
Republican, Democrat
—– tend to oppose military intervention, while —– favor gun control and government social programs.
Women tend to oppose military intervention, while men favor gun control and government social programs.
The tendency of men’s and women’s voting to differ is known as the
gender gap
rely on party leaders and the media for cues on the appropriate positions to take on a major political issues
self-identified partisans
The increasing alignment among partisanship and social identities results in
political polarization
-Often set the agenda for the nation
-Opinion makers that have impact on popular attitudes
-not neutral messengers
marketplace of ideas
How do political parties influence political attitudes and opinions?
Most Americans filter their opinions and attitudes through their partisanship.
Three stages of opinion formation
“receive” “accept” “sample”
People assess information through their previously held political views and accept only those messages that fit their beliefs, meaning some of that information will be rejected
“accept stage” of the RAS model
people select some on the accepted information often the most recent and form an opinion from it
“sample stage” of the RAS model
public opinion is often a reflection of whatever recent campaign message people have stored in their short-term memory an effect called
priming
online-processing model
the idea is that people keep a running tally of information and use the tally to form an opinion
public opinion of same-sex marriage has occurred partly in response to government policy
“policy feedback”
political knowledge may protect individuals from
exposure to misinformation that can distort public opinion.
short cuts and cues are taken from
trusted friends, social networks, relatives, colleagues, and sometime religious leaders.
-means that party endorsements of an issue or candidate have a larger impact on public opinion that they used to.
-may thus reduce overall levels of political knowledge.
Polarization
lack of knowledge can
contribute to growing political and economic inequality, and even threaten U.S. democracy.
Why is political knowledge important for democracy?
Political knowledge in an important basis for individual to effectively defend their political interests, rights, and freedoms.
Government policy can cause changes in public opinion in various areas, such as environmental protection, public health, immigration enforcement and criminal justice, welfare reform, the death penalty, and smoking bans. A phenomenon called
policy feedback
strong bias toward the status quo
those with higher incomes are more likely to have their policy preferences represented by actual government policies.
Why do more affluent and educated Americans typically exert greater influence over government officials and public policy?
More affluent and educated people are more likely to vote and engage in other political activities, such as donating to campaigns, which gives them sway over elected officials.
Public officials and political campaigns make extensive use of —– and —— to help them decided to run for office, raise campaign funds, which policies to support and how to appeal to voters.
Public officials and political campaigns make extensive use of data analytics and public-opinion polls to help them decided to run for office, raise campaign funds, which policies to support and how to appeal to voters.
when pollsters take a sample it must
be an appropriate sampling method, large sample size, and avoidance of selection bias.
Simple random sample (or probability sample) -
Simple random sample (or probability sample) -a method used by pollsters to select a representative sample in which every individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent
the chance that a sample used does not accurately represent the population from which it is drawn
sampling error (or margin of error)
3.1 percent variation from 50 percent
-samples of 1000 people are considered accurate
3 frequent sources of measurement error is
-wording of survey questions
-social desirability response
-selection bias
respondents report what they think is the socially acceptable response, rather than what they actually believe or know to be true
social desirability response
when the sample is not representative of the population being studied.
selection bias
the effect that occurs when polling results convince people to support a candidate identified as the probable victor
bandwagon effect
public-opinion polls sometimes do not reflect the general population due to
social desirability effects
How can public-opinion polls influence elections?
Polls results can create a bandwagon effect in which people are convinced to support a candidate identified as the probable victor.
The tendency for Black Americans to perceive other Black Americans as members of a group with a common identity and a shared political interest is called
linked fate.
During the 2020 Democratic presidential primary elections, candidate and former vice president Joe Biden received favorable national coverage showing his lead in the South Carolina polls. Despite losses in the previous four states, Biden went on to become the party’s presumptive nominee in weeks. The increased public support for Biden is partly explained by
the bandwagon effect
