Chapter 10 Public Opinion Attitudes An organized and consistent manner of thinking feeling and reacting with regard to people groups social issues or more generally any event in one s environment p 443 Attitudes combine feelings I trust the republicans beliefs the Republican party is against high taxes thoughts and predispositions Which party handles the economy better and the person chooses Republicans Some have an extensive set of political attitudes but most people have loose sets of political attitudes which are not consistent and not well informed on facts Examples rock ribbed Republicans and yellow dog Democrats Political Socialization is the process you go through growing up childhood and you adulthood where you acquire political attitudes usually from your family or close friends BUT new experiences can alter attitudes at any stage of life Although attitudes are certainly influenced by personal experiences this does not mean that people base how the economy is from their own family but as the economy as a whole Framing and priming Framing explains how both the mass media and political campaigns can affect people s expressed political opinions All pollsters have to do is frame the underlying attitudes to change expressed opinions The issue can be framed to draw out one response rather than the other The media news helps to define the political agenda by covering some issues and ignoring others They influence viewers on what to consider when they make political judgments or they prime their audience to use particular frames in responding to political phenomena Aggregate public opinion and its stability despite deficiencies within people s views 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 Aggregate public opinion is the sum of all individual opinions and is both stable and coherent despite individuals The evidence of this is backed behind research over the course of a few decades Surveys have asked questions and the only change that people may have about a certain topic is modest When substantial changes in the distribution of public opinion occur they reflect intelligible historical trends or responses to change conditions Ex Over the years people are more willing to vote for a president with out regarding race gender age religion because public policy has turned against discrimination practices Aggregate partnership the proportion of poll respondents labeling themselves Republicans and Democrats shifts with changes in economic conditions political events and presidential approval All this shows is that it does not move unintelligibly but that if it does move it is explained by real world events and circumstances Rationality of political ignorance This has already been touched upon within this review Pretty much people choose to be politically ignorant because putting forth the time and effort does not benefit them They base their opinions on opinion leaders because they have faith they are the most informed Cognitive short cuts A mental device allowing citizens to make complex decisions based on a small amount of information Ex A political figures party label by telling voters about his her position on issues Issue publics subsets of the population who are better informed than everyone else about an issue because it touches them more directly and personally The main conduits of public opinion in a political system is the opinion leaders and issue publics Opinion leaders and issue publics How can stable and coherent public opinion arise from irrational humans o A small segment of the public forms opinions by paying close attention to political events and issues The uninformed and free riders take cues from the members that are informed Thus public opinion is given rationally and coherence by opinion leaders Ignorance to issues does not make Americans dumb why Because it takes time and energy to become informed and most citizens receive no benefits of becoming informed o Better information holds no promise of a better outcome because the views of any single individual are so unlikely to be decisive Chapter 11 Voting Campaigns and Elections Motor Voter Law Issue Voting and Single issue voters Issue voting is the typical positions of Republicans and Democrats differ in predictable ways on many issues So you vote on something based on your party belief Single issue voters are citizens with strong views about a particular issue and if a candidate has a different view same view as them they will vote accordingly So if someone supports gun control they will vote for that person who supports it too Negative campaigning is pointed personal criticism of the other candidate and is a normal part of the political process and effective The problem with positive is that you have to run it again and again to make it stick With negative the poll numbers will move in three or four days Buckley v Valeo 1976 Supreme court case in which the court upheld a federal law which set limits on campaign contributions to prevent corruption but ruled that spending money to influence elections is a form of free speech so rejected spending limits Also in Buckley court overturned ceilings on how much of their own money candidates could spend on their campaigns and how much someone could spend towards theirs Party identification Is the best single predictor of the vote in a federal election Still there are enough independents and partisan defectors to keep party identification alone from determining who wins or loses Chapter 12 Political Parties Incentives for party building 1 Passing any form of legislation requires majority support In order to do so they have to get enough supporters arrange a common course of action and then get supporters to show up and vote It reduced transaction costs of negotiating a winning coalition on each proposal and they could make alliances These alliances are not solely built on shared interests and values because it is difficult to have everyone believe the same way so they are more like coalitions These participants of coalitions have to agree to cooperate on action even though they have different conflicting reasons 2 To mobilize voters whoever could win over these new voters would enjoy a distinct political advantage 3 To develop new electoral techniques this can be seen by the expansion of mass communication newspapers pamphlets public letters
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