Term
|
Definition
| the collection of attitudes, opinions, and preferences of the general public. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| in statistical research, the entire group about which you want to learn. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| in statistical research, a subset of the population chosen to provide information for the research about the population. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| choosing a sample such that each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected into the sample. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| in statistical research, the range of outcomes we expect for a population, given the data revealed by a sample drawn from that population. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a sample that, because it does not accurately represent the overall population, is likely to lead to erroneous conclusions about the population. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the process by which certain issues, or certain aspects of an issue, are made to seem more important in make a decision. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| portraying a problem or decision so as to highlight certain aspects and influence decision making. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the habit of choosing the best choice among available options given one's interests and information. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a coherent, organized set of ideas and principles that functions as a core on which individuals draw when forming their attitudes about public affairs. |
|
|
Term
| Party identification (partisanship) |
|
Definition
| loyalty or psychological attachment to a political party. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a lack of opinion on an issue, or an opinion so weakly held that it does not enter into a person's calculations about voting or taking some other political action, even though the person amy express an opinion to a pollster. |
|
|
Term
| What is the relationship between the public and the president? |
|
Definition
| A special kind of principal-agent problem: the president works for all the people, they “hire” the president. → the president struggles to incorporate the views of 300 million people into the decision making process. |
|
|
Term
| What are ways to measure public opinion? |
|
Definition
1. Early attempts at measuring: The size of the crowds at rallies and straw polls, but they did not accurately represent the views of the public.
2. Random sampling: by sampling a small fraction of randomly selected respondents from the population, social scientists can get an accurate picture of what an entire group will do/wants.
3. Question writing: by wording a question in a particular way, interest group leaders can publicize results that are favorable to their policy interests. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a form of marketing and campaigning: people are given information that reflects poorly or well on a particular candidate, and then asked if they would vote for that candidate on the basis of that information. |
|
|
Term
| Where do political attitudes come from? |
|
Definition
1. Socialization: parents play a primary roles, cue-givers influence the way their peers think about politics, major events can change people’s partisanship and ideology, and the media can be a source of an individual's opinion.
2. Interest and Rationality:
• People’s response are consistent with their self-interest in particular public policies → protecting their interests.
• “Rational choice” is not always the route citizens take, emotions play a large role in voting.
3. Group Attachments: Group interest guides individuals’ political attitudes and opinions; people orient themselves in the political world by connecting cognitively with groups. |
|
|
Term
| What is the American Creed? |
|
Definition
| A set of widely shared values and it has been instrumental in allowing the US to stay united and relatively free of group-on-group violence. |
|
|
Term
| What are the fundamental attitudes in the American political system? |
|
Definition
1. Ideologies, which relate to attitudes about concrete issues that confront the American government today.
2. Party identification, which according to the Michigan Model, is a psychological orientation to the political world that colors how people evaluate policies and candidates. |
|
|
Term
| Why do political leaders partake in private/public polls? |
|
Definition
| Political leaders want to know how many people are evaluating them negatively and how many are satisfied enough to keep them in office. |
|
|
Term
| What is "rational ignorance"? |
|
Definition
| Free riding off people who happen to like politics (cue-givers). As long as people can learn the necessary information to make wise choices from people they trust and who share their interest, then general ignorance of politics is not a major problem. |
|
|
Term
| Why are American's ideologies not far spread across the spectrum in comparison to other countries? |
|
Definition
| The US was founded on basic principles that transcend ethnicity, religion, and class, whereas other countries were organized along those lines. |
|
|
Term
| What occurs when public opinion sends clear signals? What about conflicting signals? |
|
Definition
• When public opinion, world events, and the interests within one’s own political party all point in the same directions, politicians will move in that direction.
• When information about public opinion sends conflicting signals, it grants leaders a certain freedom to make policy decisions based on other grounds. |
|
|
Term
| What is the landscape metaphor? |
|
Definition
| It conceptualizes the role of public opinion within the American political system. |
|
|
