Government and Politics 170 Final Review Public Opinion 1 Public opinion is the opinions held by private persons which the government finds it prudent to heed Every government has to pay attention to public opinion in some fashion US government focuses on potential voters who can sway elections because basic constitutional guarantees allow citizens to compel government leaders to take the public s opinions into account if they want to keep their jobs Thus political leaders try to shape and mobilize public opinion on behalf of their causes Throughout America s history ambitious politicians sought to squeeze political advantage from whatever issue excited the people In addition interest group entrepreneurs sought to mobilize public opinion as a weapon in policy wars threatening political leaders with electoral retaliation Modern efforts to measure shape exploit public opinion have linked scientific polling and public relations Scientific polling is finding out how the public feels on issues by systematically investigating the opinions of ordinary people and public relations markets ideas policies and politicians to the public 2 How do citizens form political attitudes that represent their ideological beliefs from a psychological perspective An attitude is an organized and consistent manner of thinking feeling and reacting with regard to people groups and social issues generally any even in one s environment When stating opinions or casting votes people respond in ways that express underlying attitudes evoked by the choices they face Some people have elaborate well informed and organized attitudes that allow them to evaluate and understand political issues Most have loose inconsistent attitudes that offer little guidance in making sense of or responding to political issues Some have intense views radicals while others have looser views whose attitudes are open to modification by new info or ideas moderates Elaborate organized sets of political attitudes form political ideologies Ideologies often combine attitudes linked more by coalitional politics than by principle Main coalitions liberals and conservatives But also libertarians who believe in both minimal social and economic govt involvement However these terms don t guide the political thinking of most citizens nor do citizens opinions normally fall neatly into one of those categories About half the population can apply liberal and conservatives correctly to political issues and figures but only 1 in 5 uses these terms spontaneously to explain their own opinions on parties and candidates Adopting a liberal or conservative pattern isnt the only way people organize political attitudes They also reflect core values like individualism or support for equal opportunity People adopt attitudes in conflict but people are uncomfortable holding these inconsistencies and modify one or more attitudes to reduce inconsistency when they see it Those that are unaware of inconsistencies keep them in separate compartments so they are not brought to mind at the same time by political figures and events How politically informed is the public Large segments of the public are politically ignorant hold inconsistent views and can be manipulated by varying words or context of questions People s attitudes influence by personal experience and also a national perspective experience Ex Unemployment at 10 president doing a bad job However public opinion continues to play a crucial and effective part in American politics because a variety of formal and informal political institutions give it shape and force Public opinion is meaningful because although individual opinions may be badly informed and unstable the sum of all individual opinions the aggregate public opinion is both stable and coherent What are the necessary requirements of a scientific public opinion poll Describe the properties of a good scientific sample select a random sample of the population of interest ask the people in the sample some appropriate questions about their views and count up their answers a sample size gets too large its outcomes are divided by margins close to 50 percent so most samples should be 1200 1500 but not much larger hard to find a truly random sample of the population because there is no single directory where everyone is listed so can be given a chance of being equally selected telephone polls can work but dont reach 2 of the population without phones and if done on landlines they do not reach a third of the population that only has wireless not everyone willing to answer questions on average refusers are less affluent educated and have less political knowledge so responses need to be weighted for these under represented demographic categories need well designed questions so no distortion that can cause respondents to not understand or answer incorrectly What are the concepts of political ideology and partisan identification What do they represent and how do citizens form their ideological views and partisan attachments ideologies combines attitudes linked by coalitional politics liberals conservatives ideological labels may label politicians but don t label Americans Many Americans consider themselves conservative and act liberally for example core values of a person also shapes ideology most Americans political attitudes that shapes their opinions is disposition toward political parties some Americans label themselves with their political party like they would a region or ethnicity identification with a party was thought to establish an enduring orientation toward the political world for most citizens only powerful and unusual experiences would inspire permanent shifts of party allegiance some interpretations are more practical see themselves as supporting the side that will deal more effectively with their concerns and feel through past experiences that their party s candidate will get the job done but can be persuaded by the other party because of this parties are not a superior force and partisanship can gradually sway for the large majority of voters party remains a default cue unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise Americans interpret political phenomena in ways that favor the prefered party responses have become more partisan over the years party identification affects beliefs and opinions Attitudes introduce bias into perceptions and interpretations of political info because people tend to pay more attention and give more credence to sources and