Public Opinion Flashcards
Public Opinion
The distribution of the population’s belief about politics and policy issues
Political Ideology
a set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which gives meaning to political events
Political Socialization
The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge based on inputs from various sources
Agents of Socialization
The family, race, gender, religion, education, political climate, mass media, region, major events, political ideology
Gender Gap
a distinctive pattern of voting behavior reflecting the difference in views between men and women
Liberal
change
Conservative
Status Quo
Populist Movement
went against what the parties wanted, Jesse Ventura –> outsider
Initiative
people get to write laws then vote on them
Referendum
state makes laws then takes them to the people to have them vote (ex. school spending)
Public Opinion Polls
Define issues of concern, shape administrative decisions, speed up democracy
Literary Digest
1916 - mailed millions of surveys to predict presidential elections 1920-1932 (got it correct). Afterwords, they called phones during the Great Depression and got it wrong b/c only the rich had phones.
Selection Bias
errors in the selection/placement of subjects into groups that result in differences between groups which could effect the results of an experiment
Walter Lippmann
Random sampling - wrote a book about scientific polls, everyone who is eligible to vote has an equal opportunity to be asked
George Gallop
1932 - hoped that polling could contribute to the democratic process by providing a way for public desires to be heard other than at elections. “father of public opinion”
Sample
small group of people who are chosen to represent the whole for a survey