Political Science 206 Texas A M University Last Exam Review You should be comfortable with the following terms and concepts Keep in mind that these are just some but by no means all of the more important topics we ve covered since the 2nd midterm Public Opinion Political Socialization Elements of public opinion o Direction o Stability o Intensity Low intensity is public opinion less stable People are more willing to change their minds High intensity are more stable o Salience o Public opinion needs clear direction reflect high level of intensity and be stable across reasonable period of time Competence of public opinion o Delegate model of representative democracy Gallup endorses this Elected officials are not to act independently They represent the opinions of the people o Trustee system of democracy Lippmann endorses this Tend to be experts on issues Make issues based on best interest of the public o John Zaller found that most people aren t sure what their opinions are on most political matters including even such completely personal matters as their level of interest in politics o Response to public opinion polls are influenced by the wording and the order of the questions o Push poll Elite Opinion and issue publics expertise o Elite opinion attitude of people with large measures of political influence or First approach looking at opinions of elites or general public o Opinions of some may help shape opinions of others o Issue public section of the public with a strong interest in a particular issue Second approach is to divide opinions by issue o Questions if poll is reliable indicator of public opinion 1 Did the poll ask the right people Can is accurately represent what it claims is tied to the people who answered it Based on random sampling Biased sample group that doesn t represent random sampling Straw Polls unscientific nonrandom sample polls 2 What is the margin of error Never perfect representation of larger population Amount that will differ with the actual public opinion Have a margin of error and confidence level Without margin of error hard to judge if accurate 3 What was the question How is the question worded can impact the response Closed end questions ensure degree of uniformity in responses Instrumentation process of designing survey questions 4 Which question came first Critical to know if random sample was used and what the margin Rational choice takes preference in public opinion of error is o These choices are products of our environment o Can be separated into political culture ideology and political socialization o What we believe is significantly shaped by who we are Political culture o Provides basic sense of what the nation is what is stands for and what political actions will be considered acceptable o Share general sense of how outcome should be achieved o Example Americans believe in democratic process and believe that the political system set up by the constitution is the best way to run things May not like people in office but like the democratic process o Policies and actions that contradict beliefs central to political culture tend to be rejected quickly Ex Changing to a parliamentary system o More or less stable through which changing currents of public opinion flow Ideology Political Socialization o Set of values and beliefs about role of government in society o Help drive political participation by prompting people to vote o Americans tend to lean right to conservative but most remain moderate o Process of acquiring political values o How a younger generation learns political values through a previous generation o Help determine ideology and opinions on specific issue o 5 categories family school peers events and experiences media Agents of political socialization o Family Most influential agent in shaping individual political attitudes and it exercises major effect during individuals most impressionable years Children tend to espouse the political party affiliation of their parents Important part of child s life One reason for schools is to ensure transition of right political values to the next generation Have less influence than family on fundamental political orientation ideology and partisanship Schools reinforce broader beliefs that make up political culture Political attitudes can be influenced by peers where common interests are shared o Schools o Peers Shaped through reference groups o Events and Experiences 9 11 was powerful example of how events shape public opinion Presidential favor sky rocketed rally around the flag following dramatic presidential actions in response to international and military crisis Events shape public opinion in good or bad way after the honeymoon period o The mass media Media outlets shape public opinion in negative way Strong focus on negative in media makes Americans more distrustful of government and more cynical about politics Ads don t help either Increased cynicism makes people less likely to vote Core American values o What are the core values Americans agree upon Rally around the flag The democratic system Random sampling non random sampling o Takes a population and randomly selects people to participate in the survey o Limits bias through randomization o How confident you are in the results o Change that results will fall within the bounds of the margin of error Confidence level Margin of error o Amount that sample size differs from actual population o Larger sample size smaller margin of error o 1 Pinpoint precision about public opinion is unlikely o 2 Confidence level chance that poll is wrong What are the major threats to a survey s validity o If it is randomized o What the margin of error is Political participation o Getting up and voting and taking action o Voting emails letters or joining interest group o Not everyone participates equally o Usually those who participate are distinct Older Better educated More prosperous Less racially and ethnically diverse than public at large More likely dissatisfied with status quo Distrustful of government More partisan More confident that their views deserve to get respected and should have satisfactory response Campaigns and Elections Elections o Primary mechanism that representative democracies use to achieve popular sovereignty o Make government responsive and accountable to the will of the people o Nomination Get group of candidates to one to represent the political party as a whole in general election o General election 3 Methods of nominating
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