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| Those opinions held by private persons which governments find it prudent to heed. |
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| Tool developed in the twentieth century for systematically investigating the opinions of ordinary people, based on random samples. |
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| An organized and consistent manner of thinking and feeling about people, groups, social issues, or more generally, any event in one's environment. |
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| A comprehensive, integrated set of views about government and politics. |
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| In the United States, a proponent of political ideology that favors extensive government action to redress social and economic inequalities and tolerates social behaviors that conservatives view as deviant. Present-day liberals advocate policies benefiting the poor, minority groups, labor unions, women, and the environment and oppose government imposition of traditional social norms. |
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| In the United States, a proponent of political ideology that favors small or limited government, an unfettered free market, self reliance, and traditional social norms. |
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| Moral beliefs held by citizens that underline their attitudes toward political and other issues. As integral parts of an individuals' identity, these beliefs are stable and resistant to change. |
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| The process by which citizens acquire their political beliefs and values. |
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| A state of mind produced when particular issues evoke attitudes and beliefs that pull in opposite directions. |
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| The news media's influence on how citizens make political judgments, through emphasis on particular stories. |
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| In a democracy, the sum of all individual opinions. |
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| The distribution, or percentage, of the electorate that identifies with each of the political parties. |
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| Uncertainties in public opinion, as revealed by responses to polls, that arise from the imperfect connection between the wording of survey questions and the terms in which people understand and think about political objects. |
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| A citizen who is highly attentive to and involved in politics or some related area and to whom other citizens turn for political information and cues. |
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| A mental device allowing citizens to make complex decisions based on a small amount of information. For example, a candidate's party label serves as a cognitive shortcut by telling voters much about his or her position on issues. |
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| Groups of citizens who are more attentive to particular areas of public policy than the average citizen, because such groups have some special stake in the issues. |
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