Gov 2302 Ch 8

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280 What is considered to be the keystone democracy?: Public opinion
280 What is considered to be central to democratic theory in democracies like the US and Israel?: Leader-follower connection reflected in public opinion
What philosopher wanted to shape and control public opinions?: Plato
Back in 1859 who advocated free rein of the public to their opinions?: John Stuart Mill
Why was Madison so concerned about public opinion?: There was a chance that they were divide rather than unite the country;
Mob rule over a political minority
Cite examples of expressions of public opinion:: 1. voting
2. free press
3. right of assembly
What is the term used to describe the collective expression of attitudes about the prominent issues and actors of the day?: public opinion
What is the term used to describe unscientific methods of measuring public opinions?: straw polls
What is the method of straw polling based on?: Farmers would throw up straw to see which way the wind was blowing
What do straw polls attempt to measure?: Which way and how strong the political breezes are blowing.
What is the main problem with straw polls?: The fail to obtain a representative sample
What is the term for a sample that includes all the significant characteristics of the total population?: representative sample
Why was the Literary Digest poll of 1936 so out of whack?: It's sample was underrepresented by the poor and and the average income people.
What is needed in order to obtain a representative sample?: 1. Need several hundred people
2. pollster need unbiased
3. must be selected at random
What is the percentage of accuracy for most pollsters?: 95%
What is the term used to describe the measure of ppossible error in a survey, which means that the number foir the entire population of voters will fall within a range of plus or minus several points of the number obtained from the small but representati: margin of error
T or F Larger samples increase the margin of error.: False. Larger samples reduce the margin of error
What is the term for a strategy required for a valid poll whereby every member of the population has an equal chance of appearing in the sample?: random sampling
What is the term for a bias in a survey whereby a particular set of people in thnepopulation at large is more or less likely to appear in the final sample than other sets of people?: sampling bias
What is wrong with polls based on land line telephone ownership?: Telephone ownership is likely to be underrepresented by the ethnic urban poor.
What kind of results do pollster wich to obtain?: reliable and consistent
What can easily effect the reliabilty of a poll?: poll wording?
What is the term for poll questions that have no answer menu to select from?: open-ended questions
What type of poll questions have the respondents select from an answer menu?: close-ended
What are polls used by the media to track the support levels for candidates over time?: tracking polls
What are polls that question voters as they leave the voting booth to predict the outcome of an election?: exit polls
What is the name for the organization that erred in its prediction of the 2000 Pres. election during that evening?: Voter News Service
What is the name for the consortium of news organizations that provided exit poll information up through the 2000 Pres. election?: Voter News Services
What is the process by which we learn about the world of politics and develop our political beliefs?: political socialization
List institutions that serve as agents of socialization:: 1. family
2. schools
3. peer groups
4. mass media
At approximately what age do children begin to develop their world view based sign. on family views towards politics?: 10 years old
T or F Many scholars believe that harsh, punitive parents produce children who are more lax, more tolerant and ultraliberal.: False. All of the exact opposites.
T or F Children tend to adopt the politcal party loyalty of their parents.: True
What helps people make sense of the political world and predicts their behavior within it?: partisan identification
T or F When each parent identifies with a different political party, children generally embrace the partisan affiliation of their father.: False. Their mother has more influence.
What describes the potential decline in family influence over children's values?: Generations gaps
What does the idea of generation gaps postulate?: That when children reach adulthood, they break away and may condem their parents' political beliefs.
What is the term for socialization patterns in which a generation of adults who grew up during a certain decade or period appears to have its own outlook, different from that of the previous age.: Generational effect
How would you characterize the views of the generation of adults who grew up during the 1960's?: 1. weaker ties to political institutions
2. weaker4 partisan identification
3. higher incident of political independence
What factors helped to influence the individuals who grew up in the 1960's and how they help shape their political views?: 1. Watergate
2. Viet Nam War
3. social dislocation
4. Racial unrest
Outside of the family, what insitution has the greatest influence over a child's developing social and political awareness?: Education setting - school
T or F Few children are taught to look at the president as a benevolent symbol of government and politics?: False the majority are taught this.
T or F Majority of people still believe that the experience of attending a university somehow "makes people more liberal.": True
T or F Those who obtain both a university educaiton and high socioeconomic status tend to be moderate or liberal.: False. they tend to be either moderate or conservative.
In what ways do peers influence teens' views on politics?: Little more than to reinforce the family's influence.
What is the term used to describe the young people of the 1990's: Generation X
What is the name for the pac group who identified reforming social security as a priority?: XPAC
Who argued that children's peers an television are much more influential in American culture than they were in the past, due in large part to the breakdown of the family and the decrease in its traditional influence?: Urie Bronfenbrenner
Who suggests the following: Americans are less prone to engage in civic activities, less trusting of others, and more cynical about the institutions of American society than they were in previous generations?: Robert Putnam
How much on average do children watch television per week?: 27 hours
T or F Television watching does not expose young viewers to a considerable abount of political information.: False. Television does expose children to polticial information.
List the different social circumstances that produce very different life experiences that are bound to be relected in differing political opinions:: 1.class & income
2. race & ethnicity
3. religion
4. region
5. gender
What is another term for class?: Social status
Can you quantify class?: No.
What measurement is used as a key element in the concept of class?: Income
Why is income used as a measurement to help define class?: Easy to define and measure
T or F The less money one make the less inclined one is to favor liberal economic policies that provide benefits to the less well off in society.: False. They are more inclined to favor social programs that benefit the less fortunate.
List policies that are favored by those who support social programs:: 1. Social security programs
2. prgressive taxation
3. minimum wage laws
4. generous unemployment benefits
5. welfare payments to the disadvantaged
T or F Income levels strongly influence voting patterns in the US?: True
In very general terms, who do poor people vote for?: Democrats
In very general terms, who do rich people vote for?: Republicans
T or F Income levels clearly do not affect one's perspective on the political process.: False
T or F In most cultures, minorities are discriminated against.: True
What ethnic group is the most alienated from the political process?: African Americans
What party does the majority of African Americans identify with?: Democrats
How do whites break down into party identification?: Tend to split between Repubs and Dems
As a general rule, ethnic groups become __________ as they rise in social status.: conservative
List the 3 general principles that help to explain the effect of religion on political attitudes:: 1. the less relgious you are, the more liberal you tend to be
2. members of any country's dominant religion tend to be more conservative
3. the more religious one is, the more conservative one is likely to be
Which religion is the dominant religion of the US?: Protestantism
Which religious group tends to be the most liberal politically?: Judaism
What region of the US has always been the most conservative?: The South
From a general perspective, rural areas everywhere tend toward social and political ________________________.: Conservatism
In what size communities, large or small, are conservative and Republicans more numerous than average?: Small
In what regions are the parties closely matched and compete intensely for the moderate middle, class vote?: Suburbs
In 2000, who did the majority of women vote for, Bush or Gore?: Gore
In 2000, who did the majority of men vote for?: Bush
What is the term for the difference in the political opinions of men and women?: Gender gap
What group of voters replaced "angry white men" as the swing voters in 1996?: Soccer moms
What is the term used to describe white women, 35-45 from the burbs, and voted as the swing voters in the 1996 election?: Soccer moms
What is the term for the political perspective based on core values, poltical ideology, culture, and lifestyle?: political culture
List the 3 key variables that has shped American politicl culture:: 1. core values
2. political ideology
3. culture & lifestyle
Cite the core issues that enjoy a remarkably broad consensus in America:: 1. individual liberty
2. political equality
3. rule of law
In what document are the American core values best expressed?: The US Constitution
What did American political thinkers and even European philosophers like Tocqueville fear?: The majority would sweep away the opinions and liberities of the minority, thus threatening the core of American democracy
T or F Americans rank the most tolerant of all people in industrialized democratic societies?: False, Americans rank the least tolerant.
What has become a form of social control?: controlling public opinion
What is a choherent way of viewing politics and government?: political ideology
Cite the 2 most common ideologies among politically aware Americans:: 1. conservatism
2. liberalism
On the whole which, conervative or liberal, support government intervention to minimize economic inequality: Liberal
What is the term for the theory that individual preferences "emerge from social interaction in defending or opposing different ways of life.": culture theory
What is the term for a framework of attitutdes within which individuals develop preferences on the basis of how they relate to others and to the insitutions of power?: "way of life"
How have social scientists described the American voter?: 1. primitive, apathetic
2. poorly informed
3. their opinions are unstable or even irrational
T or F At the height of the cold war, the majority of Americans believed that the Soviet Union was a member of NATO: True, but it wasn't true
T or F When presented with a list of names most Americans cannot name their regional or national leaders.: False. Survey
What keeps in check the American system to keep working and stay reasonably democratic?: 1. frequent elections
2. branches' checks and balances
What does the average American citizen use to develop broad orientations toward their politics?: their entire life experiences
What is the term used for the intellectual frameworks for evaluating the world based on an individual's life experiences?: schemas
Which do people tend to allign themsevles to: congruent schemas or incongruent schemas: Congruent schemas - that best fit their own frameworks to look a the world
What is the strongest predictor of an individual's political behavior?: party identification
What is the term for the broad-based change in partisanship in which large groups of people shift allegiance from one party to another?: realignment
In general, is large group partisan realignment a sudden or a slow development?: In general it is slow.
Cite an example for a sudden partisan realignment?: 1932 election where a large group went from Republican to Democrat
What caused the rise of the political independents during the last century?: Viet Nam War & Watergate scandal
List the 3 factors of opinions:: 1. latency
2. intensity
3. salience
What is the term for the measure of the depth of felling associated with a given opinion?: intensity
What is the term for issue that provoke intense feelings?: hot button issues
What is the name for feelings that are hidden or unspoken, suggesting the potential for an opinion?: latency
What controls the conversion of an opinion that is currently latent to one that is intense?: The right circumstances must occur like events affecting a person.
What is the term for the extent to which people see an issue as having a clear impact on their own lives?: Salience
What does one need to understand public opinion and how that opinion will affect citizenh actions?: Need to know how salient a given issue is to a given population

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