Political Ideologies and Beliefs Flashcards
Political Ideologies
Conservative
- Believe that government should be involved in the social/moral decisions of society.
- Believe that the government should leave the economic decisions to the individual.
Political Ideologies
Liberal
- Believe that it’s the government’s responsibility to respond to the economic needs of the people.
- Believe that it is not the government’s responsibility to dictate the social/moral decisions of society.
Political Ideologies
Moderate
- Do not have strong feelings about politics
- May take a more pragmatic approach
- May have views that span both liberal and conservative depending on the topic
Political Ideologies
Libertarian
- Believe government’s only job is to protect us and our property.
- IT is not the government’s job to provide for us financially or to tell us how to behave morally in our private lives.
Political Ideologies
Statist
Believe government should strongly control both moral and economic decisions for the people.
Political Ideologies
Valence Issues
Issues in which the public largely agrees upon but the methods of addressing those issues differ greatly.
Political Ideologies
Wedge Issues
Issues that divide us sharply in our views, such as abortion and the death penalty.
Political Ideologies
Saliency
Political Importance
Political Ideologies
Political Socialization
How we become acquainted with politics. Factors such as family, education and religion contribute to our socialization.
Political Ideologies
Baby Boomers
- Born from 1946-1964, creating a huge swell in the population after WWII.
- As they have begun to retire, the needs of the elderly population are becoming more and more important in politics.
Political Ideologies
Silent Generation
- The elderly.
- They aren’t as active in day to day politics but they vote in the biggest percentages of any age group.
Public Opinion
Benchmark Polls
Used to gather general information about people’s views and concerns.
Public Opinion
Tracking Polls
Ask people same/similar questions over a period of time to track changes in opinion.
Public Opinion
Exit Polls
Conducted outside of voting places to ask people how they voted.
Public Opinion
Representative Sample
A smaller group of people whose diversity reflects the overall community being polled.
Public Opinion
Random Sample
A collection of people for a poll where any person would have the same chance of being selected as any other person.
Public Opinion
Weighting/Stratification
A balancing of poll results giving higher value to groups that were underrepresented in the poll.
Public Opinion
Sampling Error
Evaluates the difference in results of multiple polls.
Public Opinion
Margin of Error
- An amount (usually small) that is allowed for in case of miscalculation or change of circumstances.
- This is NOT to be confused with a mistake. It is the acceptable expected variation if a poll is repeated multiple times based on statistical probability.
Public Opinion
Push Polls
Polls that seek to direct people toward a viewpoint instead of asking for the viewpoint of the person being polled.
Public Opinion
Bandwagon Effect
A shift of support for a candidate based on public opinion (everyone wants to vote for “the winner”).
Public Opinion
Social Desirabillity Bias
When people tell pollsters what they believe the pollsters want to hear as in attempt to not seem biased. (ex: refusing to criticize a minority candidate for fear of being considered racist)
Public Opinion
Pollster
A person who conducts or analyzes public opinion polls.
Public Opinion
Focus Groups
A demographically diverse group of people assembled to participate in a guided discussion about or to provide ongoing feedback on a political campaign.
Public Opinion
Pundit
A person who offers to mass media their opinion or commentary on a particular subject area.
Public Opinion
Demographics
Statistics that describe a group of people (ex. Mr Miller’s ninth grade AP government class for 2021-2022).
