POLS 1101 1st EditionExam # 2 Study Guide Lectures: 9 - 14Lecture 9 (October 7)Public Opinion is the collective attitudes of citizens about certain issues or questions.Another way to define public opinion is politically relevant opinions held by citizens that they express openly. Public opinion is just what it says it is, the public’s opinion. It could be about the current president, politics, issues, anything.Everyone has a different opinion, but the general views of society are the public opinion. Public opinion is important to the government and its officials because it is what keeps them going andin office. If the president’s popularity ratings go down, the public opinion is negative towards him. As we know, this is not good for him. Presidents and the government try to keep public opinion high.Political Socialization refers to the process by which political attitudes, norms and behaviors arepassed on from generation to generation. It is how adolescents learn and become part of the political society and form their own opinion and affiliation. Agents of Socialization are the specific factors that influence your opinion and what kind of stance you take in politics.There are two types: Primary agents and Secondary agents. Primary agents are your family, your school, your church, etc. Secondary agents are peers, the media, leaders, etc.Lecture 10 (October 9)The link between public opinion and representation is the media. Equivalency is your preferenceand choice is contingent on wording and how it’s described. In the Framing Effect words are logically equivalent. For example: 5% fat or 95% lean. Emphasis is most common framing effect in politics. Framing violates actions and opinions. It is an elite driven model. Contextualizing takes framing effect away. Framing effect occurs when someone communicates something to people and causes us to give greater weight to that issue.Emphasizes some relevant information.Agenda Setting is the media’s reflection of news causes you to take higher priority on something. The media are gatekeepers. Media goal=profit. The media is not successful in telling you what to think but is successful in telling you what to think about. Frames are unnecessary. Priming is almost the same as framing effect. It is subconscious, rooted in psych. Involves things that could affect you but should not, and it is an unconscious process that affects our attitudes.Persuasion is changing someone’s opinion, convincing someone of a different opinion, and it is a change in the weight of your considerationsLecture 11 (October 14)Political Participation is any action aimed at changing or supporting government policies or officials. Conventional ways to politically participate are socially acceptable ways to participate, aka the norms. They include voting, volunteering, donating to campaigns, etc.Unconventional ways are outside the norms. They include protests, boycotts, etc. Their aim is tobring attention to issues. An example is the Civil Rights Movement. The most common conventional form is voting.There has been a decline in voting in the United States since 1959 however. Americans do not vote because they are rational, they think in a self-interested manner. They weigh the costs and the benefits. The costs are time, information, energy, money, and registration…the benefits do not outweigh the costs. Your vote will not make THAT much of a difference.Voting is only beneficial if your vote impacts the outcome. BUT if you vote you are exercising your right as a citizen and fulfilling your duty. Civic duty, social norm, patriotism, social pressure are all reasons people vote.The socioeconomic model includes age, income, education, marital status, length of residence, basically all of your social and economic characteristics. Different socioeconomic groups are more or less likely to vote. In the last election, Blacks voted the most, followed by Whites, Hispanics, and Asians. People of high income also voted the most, and people aged 65 and above are most likely to vote.Lecture 12 (October 16)There has been a decline in political efficacy, meaning that citizens’ faith and trust in the government and their ability to understand issues and policies has declined. There is a more mobile electorate now, people are moving around a lot more, making it hard to keep registering to vote in different states. There could be dissatisfaction with the candidate choices. There are less married people, the age to get married continues to get older and married people are morelikely to vote.How do you decide whom to vote for? Economic considerations-how will they help the economy? What changes or policies do they want to enact? Will they hurt or harm the nation? Personal considerations- how they look, how their plans will affect you personally. Education, religion, prospective evaluations (how they will help/be in the future), party identification. People tend to change their opinions to fit their own party candidate, instead of changing their party or preferred candidate. Party affiliation is the strongest influence on who people vote for.Primary elections-standard, private elections. Caucus-public election in which people literally and physically pick a side on who they want to vote for in a large group. Closed primary-you canonly vote for candidates in the party you are registered for. There are also semi-closed and openprimaries. Primaries are spread out over a year. Votes are given to delegates and then super delegates who attend the national convention. They then make the decision for the presidential candidate. The Electoral College is A group of people appointed by each state to formally elect the president and the vice president. There are 538 Electoral College votes total. The minimum a state can have is 3 votes. If you add number of senators in a state to the number of congressional districts and you get the number of Electoral College votes they have. A candidatehas to get 270 electoral votes to become president.Lecture 13 (October 21)The state controls all aspects of elections such as registration. Campaigns have to finance their campaigns. There is a $1000 limit from individuals to a presidential candidate. “Soft Money” is an unlimited amount of money for political parties. Hard Money is federal funds. Soft money avoids legal limitations because it does not go to a particular candidate, but rather an entire political party.The 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform