American Government and Politics Today: The Essentials

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American Government and Politics Today The
Essentials

• Chapter 6
• Public Opinion and
• Political Socialization

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Defining Public Opinion

• Public opinion the aggregate of individual
  attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of
  adults
• Private opinion becomes public opinion when an
  individual takes some type of action to express
  an opinion to others publicly
• Consensus versus divisive opinion

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Political Socialization

• The process by which individuals acquire
  political beliefs and attitudes
• Sources of political socialization
• The family and the social environment
• The education system
• Peers and peer group
• Opinion leaders
• The media

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Political Socialization (continued)

• Political events can produce a long-lasting
  impact on opinion formation
• Example the impact of the Great Depression on
  people who came of age in that period, called a
  generational effect

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Political Preferences and Voting Behavior

• Demographic influences - education and economic
  status
• Religious influences - denominations, groups such
  as evangelicals
• Race and ethnicity influences
• Gender influences
• Geographical influences

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The Gender Gap
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Election-Specific Voting Behavior Factors

• Party identification
• Perception of the candidates
• Issue preferences

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Measuring Public Opinion

• The history of opinion polls
• In the 1800s - straw polls
• By the 1930s - modern and relatively accurate
  polling techniques developed by George Gallup,
  Elmo Roper, and others

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Measuring Public Opinion (continued)

• Sampling techniques
• Representative sampling
• The principle of randomness
• A purely random sample
  will be representative
  within the stated
  margin of error
• The larger the sample of the population, the
  smaller the margin of error

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Problems with Polls

• Sampling error the difference between a
  samples results and the true result if the
  entire population had been interviewed
• Yes/no answers pose problems when the issues
  admit to shades of gray
• Often people will attempt to please the
  interviewer
• Push polls attempts to spread negative
  statements about a candidate by posing as a
  polltaker

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Technology and Opinion Polls

• The advent of telephone polling
• Easier and less expensive
  than door-to-door
  polling
• But many entities are conducting
  polls
  and market research so
  nonresponse rates have skyrocketed
• Internet polling
• Many unscientific nonpolls are seen on the
  Internet
• In time, nonresponse rates to Internet polling
  could escalate as did telephone poll rates

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Public Opinion and the Political Process

• Political culture and popular opinion
• Certain shared beliefs about important values are
  considered the core of American political culture
• Values bind the nation together despite its
  highly diverse population
• These values include the rights to liberty,
  equality, and property support for religion and
  community service and personal achievement

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Public Opinion and the Political Process
(continued)

• Political culture and support for our political
  system
• Political trust

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Trends in Political Trust
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Public Opinion about Government

• Trust in government peaked shortly after
  September 11, 2001 but fell back thereafter
• Of all institutions, the military and churches
  have historically received the greatest public
  confidence
• Confidence in the military reached new highs
  after 9/11 confidence in churches was hurt by a
  series of sexual abuse scandals beginning in 2002
• Banks and the Supreme Court also score highly
  the media, Congress, labor unions, and businesses
  are less often trusted

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Confidence in Institutions
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Public Opinion and Policy Making

• The general public believes that the leadership
  should pay attention to popular opinion, though
  leaders themselves are less likely to believe
  this
• Limits on government action
• Public opinion may be at its strongest in
  preventing politicians from embracing highly
  unpopular policies
• Limits of polling

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Questions for Critical Thinking

• In what ways have you been socialized
  politically? Compare and contrast your
  experiences with those of your classmates.
• In 2000, less than half of the adult population
  participated in the U.S. presidential election.
  If the public continues to have minimal
  involvement in the political process, can
  democracy continue to function? What are your
  thoughts on the future of American democracy?