1 Chapter Five Public Opinion and Political Socialization

Chapter 5 Guiding Questions Which member of Congress is more likely to subscribe to the majoritarian Model, a Senator or a Representative? Why? Which model do you feel is best for the American people, majoritarian or pluralist? Why? Please look at the slide labeled #21 and read about the self interest principle. What do you think are the top five issues for voters when they think about their own self interests? For the next several questions please look at the chart labeled #15 Who is more likely to be conservative, males or females? Who is more likely to be pro-life, African Americans or White Americans? Which US regions tend to be the most liberal? According to this information, how does education influences someone’s political views? 2

3 Public Opinion and the Models of Democracy Public Opinion is the collective attitude of the citizens on a given issue or question. 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.

4 Gallup Polls… Presidential Approval and More States.aspx?utm_source=WWWV7HP&utm_medium=topic&utm_cam paign=tiles

5 Three Factors Determine the Accuracy of a Sample: How the sample is randomly selected The size of the sample—the larger the sample, the more accurately it represents the population The amount of variation in the population

6

7 Public Opinion and the Models of Democracy (Cont’d) The majoritarian and pluralist models of democracy differ greatly in their assumptions about the role of public opinion in democratic government.

8 Majoritarian Model According to the classic majoritarian model, the government should do what a majority of the public wants.

9 Pluralist Model In contrast, pluralists argue that the public as a whole seldom demonstrates clear, consistent opinions on the day-to-day issues of government.

10 Political Socialization Political Socialization is the complex process by which people acquire their political values. Agents of Early Socialization include two fundamental principles that characterize early learning Primacy principle—what is learned first is learned best Structuring principle—what is learned first structures later learning. Agents that structure early socialization are the family, school and community and peers.

11 Political Socialization (Cont’d) Continuing Socialization includes newspaper and television news for the older American’s source of political news, while younger Americans are more likely to rely on radio, magazines or the Internet.

12 Figure 5.3: Socialization, Age, and Public Opinion

13 Social Groups and Political Values No two people are influenced by precisely the same socialization agents or in precisely the same way. People with similar backgrounds, however, do tend to develop similar political opinions.

14 Social Groups and Political Values (Cont’d) Examples used to demonstrate this included abortion and guaranteed employment. Perspectives applied to these issues included education, income, region, race and ethnicity, religion and gender.

15 National Opinion on Two Questions of Order and Equality

16 The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion Studies of the public’s ideological thinking find that two themes run through people’s minds when they are asked to describe liberals and conservatives.

17 From Values to Ideology Liberals are associated with change and Conservatives with tradition. Liberals support intervention to promote economic equality while Conservatives favor less government intervention and more individual freedom in economic activities.

18 The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion (Cont’d) Liberals are people who believe that government should promote equality, even if some freedom is lost in the process, but who oppose surrendering freedom to government-imposed order.

19 The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion (Cont’d) Conservatives are people who place a higher value on freedom than on equality when the two conflict. Will restrict freedom when threatened with the loss of order.

20 The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion (Cont’d) Ideological Types in the United States also include: Libertarians: People who favor freedom over both equality and order Communitarians: People who favor equality and order over freedom

21 The Process of Forming Political Opinions (Cont’d) The self-interest principle—the implication that people choose what benefits them personally— plays an obvious role in how people form opinions on government policies.

22 The Process of Forming Political Opinions (Cont’d) Public opinion on specific issues is molded by political leaders, journalists and policy experts. Politicians serve as cue-givers to members of the public. Issue framing is the manner in which a politician or interest group leader defines an issue when presenting it to others.