Unit 2 (Ch. 11, 15, 16) Flashcards
What is public opinion?
How the public feels about a particular issue or set of issues at any given time
How many people do national polls usually survey?
1500
Define demography.
The composition of a particular human population, the study of statistics such as births, deaths, income, race, gender, etc.
What is political socialization?
The process through which individuals acquire their political beliefs and values
What affects political socialization?
Family, gender, peers, school, media, religion, region, race, and age
How is public opinion measured?
Election results, personal contacts, media reporting, and polling
What is political ideology?
The coherent set of values and beliefs about the purpose and scope of government held by groups and individuals
How do we predict how people will vote?
Polling
What are the most common polling methods?
Straw polls, exit polls, tracking polls, entrance polls, and push polls
Which types of people are most likely to vote Democrat?
Unmarried women, Jewish people, middle class, cities, labor unions, younger voters
Which types of people are most likely to vote Republican?
White males, elderly, suburbs, upper class, Mormons
What do Conservatives believe in?
Limited government involvement, big government will infringe on personal and economic rights
What do Liberals believe in?
Favor interventionist government, social services, and the protection of minorities, women, elderly, environment
How do men and women differ on political issues?
Women tend to be more liberal and favor government assistance and limited military intervention
Describe Literary Digest and the 1936 presidential election.
Predicted that Alfred M. Landon would beat FDR, but FDR won in a landslide vote
Inaccurately predicted the winner because it only asked automobile owners in a voluntary response straw poll too far in advance to the election
Describe the outcome of the 1948 presidential election.
Gallup and other pollsters inaccurately predicted that Thomas E. Dewey would beat Harry S. Truman
Who is George Gallup?
Founder of scientific polling methods and Gallup Poll
What is the typical accepted sampling error range?
Plus or minus 3%
Describe push polls.
Push polls have strongly worded questions that influence that respondent to answer in favor of the surveyor’s opinion
Describe tracking polls.
Continuous polls that allow campaigns to track its daily changes in support
Describe exit polls.
Polls that ask voters how they voted as the leave specific polling locations on Election Day
What is intensity in context of polling?
How strongly someone feels about what they are responding to
What is stability in context of polling?
How likely someone is to change their opinion
What is relevance in context of polling?
How important an opinion is to the person who holds it
What is Federalist #10?
James Madison’s essay about controlling the influence of special interests by decentralizing power, accomplished by dividing power between the federal, state, and local level
What is an interest group?
A group that tries to influence public policy in a specific way
What are the theories on how interest groups form?
Pluralist theory, disturbance theory, transaction theory, population ecology theory
Define pluralist theory.
Political power is distributed among a wide variety of competing interest groups.
Define disturbance theory.
Interest groups arise in opposition to upheavals in politics or in opposition to other groups
Define transaction theory.
Public policies are the result of narrowly defined transactions between political actors
Define population ecology theory.
The life of a political interest group is dependent on the people and resources available in the area
What are the types of interest groups?
Public interest groups, economic interest groups, professional interest groups
What are public interest groups?
Groups that look out for the well being of people, not just its members
What are economic interest groups?
Groups that seek to make a profit and promote the financial benefit of its members
What are professional interest groups?
Groups that seek to maintain standards of the profession, hold meetings, and publish journals
How do SIGs influence public policy?
Increase the cost of public policy Grass roots Direct lobbying Coalition lobbying Litigation Going public Candidate recruitment/endorsement Getting out the vote Rating the candidate’s office Political action committees (PACs)
What are amicus curiae briefs?
When a case that a group is interested but not involved in reaches the court, groups will file an amicus brief to inform the court of the group’s preference on the ruling
How did Mancur Olson feel about special interest groups?
Individuals will not mobilize into groups
Individuals are perfectly informed
It makes little sense for people to join groups when they can reap the benefits without being a member, creating the “free rider” problem
Small groups are more likely to form since social pressures make it harder to be free riders
Define the “free rider” problem.
People refrain from joining special interest groups or unions because if the group wins the cause without them joining, they will still reap the benefit without having to be a member
Describe the New York Times v. Supreme Court Case
The Nixon Administration tried to restrain the New York Times from publishing the “Pentagon Papers” on the grounds that it was a matter of national security.
The Supreme Court ruled that because it did not pose any imminent danger the US, withholding the papers was in violation of the First Amendment
What is the Telecommunications Act of 1996?
Resulted in merging of previously different kinds of media to form multimedia conglomerates like Time Warner Cable
What is the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007?
Banned gifts to Congress and congressional staff
Toughened disclosure requirements
Increased the time limit set for an item to move from the Congressional floor to the private sector
How does the government regulate the media?
Technical regulations, structural regulations, and content regulations
What is the Federal Communications Act of 1934?
Created the FCC to regulate radio, television, telephone, telegraph, cable, and satellite communication
What is yellow journalism?
Journalism that is full of overly sensationalized and exaggerated details and stories
What is muckraking?
Journalism that is aimed to expose wrongdoings of a particular group or person
How has organized labor changed in the last 50 years?
Power has dwindled due to the internal split of the labor unions and the shift of workers from manufacturing to white-collar jobs
Power has declined also due to the free rider problem
Who was the first president to effectively use radio?
Calvin Coolidge was the first to appear on the radio, but FDR was the first to regularly use it
What is the Lobbying Disclosure Act?
Passed in 1995
Passed stricter lobbying regulations
Required lobbying groups that were direct at members of Congress, congressional staff, or executive branch policymakers to register
What is agenda setting?
The ability to influence what subjects become national-political issues
