Political Beliefs and Behaviors I

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Political Beliefs and Behaviors I

• Chapter 5
• Public Opinion and Political Socialization

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Chapter 5

• Public Opinion? What is it? What is your opinion
  on major policy issues?
• It can vary over time
• PO can place limits on what policy and govt can
  do
• You might not be expert, but you always have an
  opinion
• Responsiveness is key to representative
  democracy? but govt sometimes does not do what
  people want (why???)

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Chapter 5

• Statistical sampling theory does not claim that a
  sample exactly matches the population, only that
  it reflects the population with some predictable
  degree of accuracy.
• 3 Factors that determine accuracy
• How the sample is randomly selected
• The size of the samplethe larger the sample, the
  more accurately it represents the population
• The amount of variation in the population

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Chapter 5
Sometimes polls can be off but if they follow
the rules of appropriate polling they will be
close. 1948 Truman 1992 Clinton
Good website for looking at poll
accuracy!! http//www.ncpp.org/?qnode/4
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Chapter 5

• Assumptions about public opinion
• M majority of people are consistent on their
  opinions on government policy
• This means that government should do all people
  want
• P public is uninformed and wishy washy from day
  to day
• Government should listen to the informed interest
  group

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Chapter 5

• Distribution of public opinion

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Chapter 5

• Implications?
• Normal public tends to support moderate policy
  on issue
• Bimodal great potential for political conflict
• Skewed most share the same opinion, those in
  the minority risk social ostracism
• What issues would fit into these 3 categories?
• HW Public opinion poll

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Chapter 5

• Stability?
• How stable were the distribution of your opinions
  compared to those you talked with?
• Some opinions change very little over time, some
  change within subgroups, and some change very
  dramatically. Historical examples???

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Chapter 5

• So where do we learn all this from???
• Political socialization process where you learn
  about political values
• What are the major agents that socialize you
  politically?

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Chapter 5

• 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

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Chapter 5

• Agents that structure early socialization include
• The family usually adopt same as parents or
  deviate to independent
• What are your parents political party and
  ideologies??
• Are you the same?
• Community and Peers create opportunities to
  reinforce or change your political attitudes
• Are your beliefs the same or different than
  theirs?
• School introduces government and citizen roles
• What have you been taught?
• VIDEO CLIP ON SCHOOL SOCIALIZATION

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Chapter 5

• Questions
• Why type of political socialization activities
  did you witness?
• What type of model does this follow?
• What does this movie teach us about democracy?
  The role of the citizen?
• I KNOW THIS IS A SILLY MOVIE

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Chapter 5

• Socialization of Mrs. Wells???

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Chapter 5
Family contributes a lot to the socialization of
children!
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Chapter 5

• This guy did not create my political views.
• However, he does continue to politically
  socialize me in adulthood.

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Chapter 5

• 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
• People gain perspective on government as they
  grow older

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Chapter 5
Is this the authority on news and government???
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Chapter 5

• So who are we??? Based on that, how are you
  going to participate??? Is your background and
  continued social groups and indicator of your
  political values?
• HW find outbe prepared to analyze yourself
• http//politicsstudio.wetpaint.com/page/Diversity

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Chapter 5

• 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

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Chapter 5

• WHAT SOCIAL GROUPS DO YOU BELONG TO ACCORDING TO
  YOUR HW?
• DOES OUR CLASSROOM REFLECT SOCIETY?
• United States Profile http//www2.census.gov/geo/m
  aps/dc10_thematic/2010_Profile/2010_Profile_Map_Un
  ited_States.pdf
• Ohio Profile http//www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10
  _thematic/2010_Profile/2010_Profile_Map_Ohio.pdf
• http//factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/
  jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pidDEC_10_DP_DPDP1pr
  odTypetable

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Chapter 5
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Chapter 5
Freedom v. Order
Freedom v. Equality
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Chapter 5

• Looking at the chart, what trends do you see
  based on the social groups??
• How would that connect to political values and
  ideology??
• A good resource to look at election studies (that
  we will look at again) http//www.electionstudies.
  org/nesguide/gd-index.htm9

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Chapter 5

• http//www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/19/nyre
  gion/how-many-households-are-like-yours.html?reff
  amiliesandfamilylife
• In class essay time ?
• HW Voter demographic analysis

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Chapter 5

• How do social values translate into political
  thinking?
• Education?
• Income levels?
• Region?
• Race/Ethnicity?
• Religion?
• Gender?

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Chapter 5

• The Degree of Ideological Thinking in Public
  Opinion
• Most people dont think in ideological terms?
  pick moderate because they do not understand what
  liberal or conservative mean
• The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public
  Opinion
• Liberal or conservative because of the symbolic
  value of the terms
• Associate liberals with change (freedom) and
  conservatives with tradition (maintenance of
  order)
• More helpful to think about tradeoffs
• Liberals are more willing to trade freedom for
  equality
• Conservatives are more wiling to trade freedom
  for order

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Chapter 5

• Ideological Types in the United States
• Conservative responses are the most common
  pattern
• Communitarian responses are the 2nd most common
  pattern
• But the US is pretty much divided down the middle
  in regards to those that are on the left and
  those on the right of the spectrum
• Look at elections if you dont believe me?

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Chapter 5
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Chapter 5

• Forming Political Opinions
• Political Knowledge gt 50 have basic info
• DO I KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON? (INSTITUTIONS AID IN
  THIS?)
• 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
• HOW DOES THIS EFFECT ME? (INSTITUTIONS AID IN
  THIS AS WELL?)

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Chapter 5

• Information processing
• An opinion schema constitutes a network of
  organized knowledge and beliefs that guide a
  persons processing of information regarding a
  particular subject.
• How have I been socialized? How do we continue to
  be socialized?
• Political Leadership
• Public opinion is molded by political leaders,
  journalists, and policy experts
• Issue framing the way that politicians or
  interest group leaders defines an issue when
  presenting it to others