Download Ch 5 Notes

Chapter Five:
Public Opinion and
Political Socialization
Public Opinion and
the Models of Democracy
• Public Opinion: the collected attitudes of
citizens concerning a given issue or question
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|2
Public Opinion and
the Models of Democracy
• Characteristics of public opinion
– The public’s attitudes toward a government policy can vary
over time, often dramatically
– Public opinion places boundaries on allowable types of
public policy
– If asked, people are willing to register opinions on matters
outside their expertise
– Governments tend to respond to public opinion
– The government sometimes does not do what the people
want
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|3
Public Opinion and
the Models of Democracy
• Sampling a Few, Predicting to Everyone
– Statistical sampling theory: a sample of individuals
selected by chance from any population is representative
of that population
– Sampling theory does not claim that a sample exactly
matches the population, only that it reflects the population
with some predictable degree of accuracy.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|4
Public Opinion and
the Models of Democracy
• Three factors determine the accuracy of a
sample:
– How the sample is selected: randomly
– The size of the sample: the larger the sample, the more
accurately it represents the population
– The amount of variation in the population: the greater the
population variation, the greater the chance that one
random sample will differ from another.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|5
Gallup Poll Accuracy
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|6
Public Opinion and
the Models of Democracy
• Assumptions about the role of public opinion in
democratic government
– The majoritarian model: the government should do what a
majority of the public wants
– The pluralist model: requires that government institutions
allow free expression of opinion by “minority publics”
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|7
The Distribution of Public Opinion
• Government must analyze the shape and the stability of the
distribution of public opinion
• Stable distribution: shows little change over time
• Shape of the Distribution
– The shape of the opinion distribution depicts the pattern of all the
responses when counted and plotted
– The 3 patterns of distribution:
• Skewed Distribution: An asymmetrical but generally bell-shaped
distribution (of opinions); its most frequent response, lies off to one side
• Bimodal Distribution: A distribution (of opinions) that shows two responses
being chosen about as frequently as each other
• Normal Distribution: A symmetrical bell-shaped distribution (of opinions)
centered on a single mode, or most frequent response.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|8
Three Distributions of Opinion
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5|9
Political Socialization
• Political Socialization: the complex process by
which people acquire their political values.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 10
Political Socialization
• The Agents of Early Socialization
– Two fundamental principles characterize early learning
• The primacy principle: what is learned first is learned best
• The structuring principle: what is learned first structures
later learning
– Agents that structure early socialization include
• The family
• School
• Community and peers
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 11
Political Socialization
• Continuing Socialization
– Peer groups assume greater importance is promoting
political awareness and shaping opinions
– Older Americans rely on newspapers and television news
for political information
– Younger Americans are more likely to rely on radio,
magazines or the Internet for political information
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 12
Political Socialization,
Age, and Public Opinion
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 13
Social Groups and Political Values
• People with similar backgrounds tend to develop
similar political opinions
• Characteristics that shape political opinions
– Education
– Income
– Race and ethnicity
– Religion
– Gender
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 14
Deviations of Group Opinion from National
Opinion on Two Questions of Order and Equality
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 15
From Values to Ideology
• The Degree of Ideological Thinking in Public
Opinion
– Education leads to increased ideological thinking
– The extent of ideological thinking in the U.S. is low
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 16
From Values to Ideology
• The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public
Opinion
– In many people’s minds, Liberals are associated with
change
– In many people’s minds, Conservatives are associated
with tradition
• More helpful to think about tradeoffs;
– Liberals are more willing to trade freedom for equality
– Conservatives are more wiling to trade freedom for order
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 17
From Values to Ideology
• Ideological Types in the United States
– Conservative responses are the most common pattern
– Communitarian responses are the 2nd most common
pattern
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 18
Respondents Classified
by Ideological Tendencies
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 19
Forming Political Opinions
• Political Knowledge
– Political knowledge is not randomly distributed
– Women, African Americans, the poor, and the young tend
to be less knowledgeable about politics than men, white,
the affluent, and older citizens
– The collective opinion of the public may still be interpreted
as stable and meaningful
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 20
Forming Political Opinions
• Costs, Benefits, and Cues
– Self-interest principle: the implication that people choose
what benefits them personally
– Plays an obvious role in how people form opinions on
government policies
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 21
Forming Political Opinions
• Political Leadership
– Public opinion is molded b political leaders, journalists, and
policy experts
– Politicians give cues to members of the public
– Issue framing: the way that politicians or interest group
leaders defines an issue when presenting it to others
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
5 | 22