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PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

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PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION How American democracy works depends largely on who participates and how. Linkage Institutions Linkage institutions are the ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION


1
PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION
  • How American democracy works depends largely on
    who participates and how.

2
Linkage Institutions
  • Linkage institutions are the political channels
    through which peoples concerns become political
    issues on the policy agenda.
  • Political Parties
  • Elections
  • News Entertainment Media
  • Interest Groups

3
Mistrust of Government
  • Growing (when did it start?)
  • Political Efficacy- citizens capacity to
    understand and influence political events
  • Internal- ability to understand and take part in
    political affairs
  • External- belief that the government will
    respond to his or her needs or beliefs

4
POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION
  • The process in which individuals acquire the
    information, beliefs, attitudes and values that
    help them comprehend the workings of a political
    system and orient themselves within it.
  • Life long process

5
Political Socialization and Other Factors That
Influence Opinion Formation
  • Political attitudes are grounded in values. We
    learn our values by a process known as political
    socialization.
  • Many factors influence opinion formation.
  • The Family
  • The Mass Media
  • School and Peers
  • The Impact of Events
  • Geographic region
  • Social/economic groups
  • Religion, Race/ethnicity,
  • Education, Income,
  • Gender,

6
The Role of Family
  • While most children tend to adopt the political
    beliefs of their parents, they may adjust those
    beliefs to adapt to a changing world as they get
    older.

Schooling
  • The most powerful institutional influence on
    children, outside of the family, is education.
  • Lower education levels- less political
    information
  • Higher levels of education- tend to hold
    conservative points of views

7
Peers
  • We all absorb the ideas, especially when we are
    young.
  • Peer groups affect political attitudes on those
    few issues of interest to young people.

Television
  • The values conveyed by television become a part
    of our culture.

8
Social Variables That Influence Opinion Formation
  • Class
  • Our relative standing in society shapes many of
    our social and political values.
  • Income
  • Very roughly stated, poor people tend to vote for
    Democrats (the more liberal party on economic
    policy) while richer people tend to vote
    Republican.

9
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Race and ethnicity influence political attitudes
    and behaviors which are clearly evident.
  • African Americans, for example, are generally
    more alienated from politics than whites.
  • Hispanics tend to vote Democratic, with the
    exception of Cuban-Americans, who tend to be very
    conservative.
  • As a general rule, ethnic groups become
    conservative as they rise in social status.

10
Religion
  • Religious differences produce serious political
    conflict in the United States. -Ex Catholics and
    Jews- associate with the Democratic party
  • Protestants are more conservative on economic
    matters than Catholics and Jews
  • Jews tend to be more liberal on both economic and
    social issues
  • Catholics tend to be more liberal on economic
    issues
  • Generally speaking, the more religious one is,
    the more conservative one is likely to be.

Region
  • Some areas of the United States, such as the
    South, are very conservative.

11
Gender
  • Gender shapes our political views as well, with
    men and women taking very different views on many
    of the issues of our day.
  • The gender gap reflects the difference in the
    political opinions of men and women. Women tend
    to be more democratic. Ex- support social
    measures such as gun control
  • A New Political Typology
  • In addition to fighting each other, both
    Democrats and Republicans now find their parties
    internally divided over such issues as national
    security, religion, and moral values.

12
American Political Culture
  • Core Values
  • There is broad support among Americans for such
    core values as liberty, equality, and the ideals
    of the Constitution.
  • Americans and Intolerance
  • Some claim that tolerance of diverse beliefs and
    practices is another core American value.
  • Public opinion data suggest that it may be
    intolerance that has become a core value.

13
Political Ideology
  • It provides an overarching frame around which to
    organize our political beliefs and attitudes.
  • The most common political ideologies among
    Americans are liberalism and conservativism.

Culture and Lifestyle
  • Ones culture and lifestyle will also influence
    ones politics because such views emerge from
    specific life experiences.
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