Public Opinion and Political Participation

Public Opinion and
Political Action
Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Public Opinion and
Political Action
 The American People
 How Americans Learn About Politics:
Political Socialization
 Measuring Public Opinion and Political
Information
 What Americans Value: Political
Ideologies
 How Americans Participate in Politics
 Understanding Public Opinion and
Political Action
 Summary

Chapter Outline and
Learning Objectives
 The American People
LO 6.1: Identify demographic trends and
their likely impact on American politics.
 How Americans Learn About Politics:
LO 6.2: Outline how various forms of
socialization shape political opinions.

Chapter Outline and
Learning Objectives
 Measuring Public Opinion and Political
Information
LO 6.3: Explain how polls are conducted
and what can be learned from them about
American public opinion.
 What Americans Value: Political Ideologies
LO 6.4: Assess the influence of political
ideology on Americans’ political thinking
and behavior.

Chapter Outline and
Learning Objectives
 How Americans Participate in Politics
LO 6.5: Classify forms of political
participation into two broad types.
 Understanding Public Opinion and Political
Action
LO 6.6: Analyze how public opinion about
the scope of government guides political
behavior.

Public Opinion and Political
Action
 Why is Public Opinion important in the
US?
-In a Representative Democracy,
citizens’ preferences are supposed
to guide policy makers

Introduction
 What is Public Opinion?
 The distribution of the population’s beliefs
about politics and policy issues
 Americans a very diverse
 There are many “publics” in America
 Many groups with many opinions rather than
a single public opinion
 This chapter focuses on the nature of these
“public opinions”, how citizens learn about
politics, and to what extent these opinions
are conveyed to government through various
types of political participation

A Way of Looking at the
American Public
 One way of looking at the American
public is through - Demography
 The science of human population
 Census
 Required every 10 years by the
Constitution
 A valuable tool for understanding
population changes in the US

The American People
LO 6.1: Identify demographic trends and
their likely impact on American politics.
 The Immigrant Society
 The American Melting Pot
 The Regional Shift
 The Graying of America
To Learning Objectives

The American People
 The Immigrant Society
United States is a nation of
immigrants.
Three waves of Immigration:
• Northwestern Europeans (prior to late 19th
Century)
• Southern and eastern Europeans (late 19th
and early 20th
centuries)
• Hispanics and Asians (late 20th
century)

The American People
 The American Melting Pot
Melting Pot: the mixing of cultures,
ideas, and peoples that has changed
the American nation
Minority Majority: the emergence of a
non-Caucasian majority, minority
groups will be 50% or more of the
population

LO 6.1
To Learning Objectives

The American People
 The American Melting Pot (continued)
 African Americans face a legacy of racism.
• economically disadvantaged
• Political power
 Hispanics are the largest minority group faced with
the problem of illegal immigration.
• Simpson-Mazzoli Act(1986): requires employers
document citizenship of employee
• Gaining power in the Southwest
 Asian immigration has been driven by a new class of
professional workers. Most highly skilled immigrant
group
 Native Americans: least healthy, the poorest, and
least educated

The American People
 The Regional Shift
 Population shift from
east to west
 Reapportionment: the
process of reallocating
seats in the House of
Representatives every
10 years on the basis of
the results of the census
 Can you think of other
ways this regional shift
can impact the political
process?

The American People
 The Graying of America
Fastest growing age group is over 65
Potential drain on Social Security
• Pay as you go system
• In 1940, 42 workers per retiree
• 1960, 5.7 workers per retiree
• 2010, 3 workers per retiree
• In 2040, 2 workers per retiree
How does an a graying of America impact the political process?

The American People
 Americans live in an increasingly
multicultural and multilingual society
 Yet, regardless of ethnic background
most Americans share a common
political culture
 Political culture is an overall set of
values widely shared within a society.

How Americans Learn About
Politics: Political
Socialization
 Political Socialization:
“the process through which and
individual acquires (their) particular
political orientation”
Orientation grows firmer with age

 How do each of following
have an impact on an
individuals’ political views
 The Family
 The Mass Media
 School
 Which one, do you think,
has had the greatest impact
on you? Why?

Politics: Political Socialization
 The Process of Political Socialization
 The Family
• Political leanings of children often mirror their parents’
leanings
 The Mass Media
• Chief source of information as children age
• Generation gap in viewing television news
 School
• Used by government to socialize young into political culture
• Better-educated citizens are more likely to vote and are
more knowledgeable about politics and policy.
 Political Learning Over a Lifetime
 Aging increases political participation and strength of
party attachment.

Politics: Political Socialization
 The Process of Political Socialization
 Opinion leaders
 Race/Ethnicity
 Gender
 Place of Residence
 Occupation

“There are lies, damn
lies, and then there
are statistics.” “Facts
are stubborn things,
but statistics are
more pliable.”
.

Measuring Public Opinion
and Political Information
 Government leaders make public policy based on what
Americans feel they need.
 Measuring Opinion
 Elections – “mandate theory” – results can be misleading
 Interest Groups – hard to measure
 The Media – “mirrors” and “molders” or PO; reflect and shape
 Personal Contacts – letters, emails, telephone calls
 Public Opinion Polls – best way to measure public opinion

 How Polls Are Conducted
Choose the universe to be surveyed
Get a representative sample
Prepare valid questions
Select and control the polling process
Report the results

 How Polls Are Conducted
 Sample: a small proportion of people who are chosen in a
survey to be representative of the whole
 Random Sampling: the key technique employed by sophisticated
survey researchers which operates on the principle that
everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for
the sample
 Sampling Error: the level of confidence in the findings of a public
opinion poll
 In public opinion polling, a sample of about 1,000-1,500 people
can accurately represent the “universe” of potential voters
 A typical poll of 1,500-2,000 respondents has a sampling error of
+/- 3%
 What this means is that 95% of the time the poll results are
within 3% of what the entire population thinks.
 Example: Gallup

Polling Companies
 In the United States, some notable companies include:
 D3 Systems, Inc.
 Gallup poll run by The Gallup Organization
 Harris Poll
 National Opinion Research Center
 Nielsen ratings
 Pew Research Center
 Rasmussen Reports
 Research 2000
 YouGov.
 Zogby International

Polling Pros/Cons
1.List at least 3 reasons why
polling can be a positive to the
political process in the U.S.
2.List at least 3 reasons why
polling can be a negative to the
political process in the U.S.

Polling Activity
 Analyzing Poll Results
 Interpreting Public Opinion
 Pollingreport.com

 The Role of Polls in American
Democracy
Polls help politicians detect public
preferences.
But critics say polls make politicians
think more about following the public
instead of leading the public

 The Role of Polls in American
Democracy (continued)
Exit Polls: used by the media to
predict election day winners
• May discourage people from voting
• 2000 presidential election in Florida

 What Polls Reveal About Americans’
Political Information
 Americans don’t know much about politics.
 Americans may know their basic beliefs but
not how that affects policies of the
government.
 The Decline of Trust in Government
 Since 1964, trust in government has
declined.
 Trust in government has gone up somewhat
since September 11 but recently has seen a
downward trend

Agents of Socialization
 Influence in one degree or another an
individual's political opinions: Family,
Media, Peers, Education, Religion,
Race, Gender, Age and Geography.
 These factors and many others the
people are introduced to as they are
growing up will affect their political views
throughout the rest of their lives.

What Americans Value:
Political Ideologies
 Political Ideology:
 A coherent set of beliefs about politics,
public policy, and public purpose
 Who Are the Liberals and Conservatives?
 Predominance of conservative over liberal
thinking
 Currently about 38% conservative, 24%
liberal, 38% moderate
• Gender gap: women tend to be less conservative
than men
SELF TEST TIME!!!

Spectrum 8 - 12
0 - 7 13 - 20
Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means ofSocialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of
producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that oftenproducing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often
plans and controls the economy.plans and controls the economy.
Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and aCommunism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy and a
single, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher socialsingle, often authoritarian party holds power, claiming to make progress toward a higher social
order in which all goods areorder in which all goods are equallyequally shared by the people.shared by the people.
Reactionary: An extremely conservative person or position that not only resists change but seeks toReactionary: An extremely conservative person or position that not only resists change but seeks to
return to the “good old days” of an earlier social order.return to the “good old days” of an earlier social order.
Fascism: a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed toFascism: a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to
democracy or liberalism)democracy or liberalism)

The Political Spectrum
Liberal or Left Wing
 Group responsibility
 General welfare
 Looking to the future for
guidance
 Change
 Optimistic view of human
nature
 Personal freedom over order
 Religious tolerance
 Trust government
 Business is self absorbed
Conservative or Right Wing
 Individual accountability
 Personal rights and
responsibility
 Looking to the past or using
tradition for guidance
 Stability
 Pessimistic view of human
nature
 Order over personal freedom
 “Traditional” religious values
 Keep government small
 Trust business

What Americans Value:
Political Ideologies
 Do People Think in Ideological
Terms?
Ideologues: those who think in
ideological terms (12 percent)
Group Benefits voters: view politics
through party label (42 percent)
Nature of the Times: view of politics
based on whether times are good or
bad (24 percent)
No issue content: vote routinely for
party or personality (22 percent)

How Americans Participate
in Politics
 Political Participation: all the activities
used by citizens to influence the
selection of political leaders or the
policies they pursue
 Conventional Participation
Voting in elections
Working in campaigns or running for
office
Contacting elected officials
Donating $

in Politics
 Protest as Participation
Protest: a form of political participation
designed to achieve policy changes
through dramatic and unconventional
tactics
Civil disobedience: a form of political
participation that reflects a conscious
decision to break a law believed to be
immoral and to suffer the
consequences

in Politics
 Class, Inequality, and Participation

Understanding Public
Opinion and Political Action
 Public Attitudes Toward the Scope of
Government
 Many people have no opinion about scope of
government.
 Public opinion is inconsistent, which may
lead to policy gridlock.
 Democracy, Public Opinion, and Political
Action
 Americans select leaders, but do they do so
wisely?
 If people know little about candidates’
issues, how can they?
 People vote more for performance than
policy.

Summary
 American society is ethnically diverse
and changing.
 Knowing public opinion is important to
a democracy
 polling has costs and benefits.
 Americans know little about politics.
 Political participation is generally low.

Public Opinion and Political Participation

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