Public Opinion and Political Socialization

The Definition Bentham Difficulty in defining public opinion Utilitarianism Public opinion should lead to a government that rules in a way that brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number Difficulty in defining public opinion Does “public” really have an opinion? Are we actively interested? Politically relevant opinions held by ordinary citizens that they express openly

Struggles with Public Opinion People have conflicting opinions Sometimes our opinions conflict with reality So do we have to be informed to have a reasonable opinion?

How Do We Measure It? Polls are the most basic Problems with polls Use a sample to measure attitudes of a population Laws of probability Marbles Must have random selection based on probability samples Size of sample matters…not size of population Sampling error 1,000 individuals in sample has sampling error of +/- 3 percent Problems with polls Hard to have a population We don’t all have phones, for example Nonopinions Social desirability bias Interviewer effects

Political Socialization Process by which we acquire political opinions, beliefs, and values Occurs throughout life but most impacted by childhood learning Effect is cumulative Agents: Family Schools Media Peers Leaders and Institutions Churches

How We Think Politically Cultural Ideological Conservative, liberal, libertarian, populist Divided between economic and social policies Group Religion, class, region, race/ethnicity, gender, age But there are crosscutting cleavages at times Party identification

But Does it Influence Policy? Some say that politicians are insensitive...others find the opposite effect Certain issues have their own effects i.e. Social Security Some issues are too divisive to be satisfied The question of whether government cares enough about public opinion is normative

For Tuesday Patterson Chapter 7 Connell: What are the basics Connell says a website needs? His article was from 1998…what is he missing that we know about in 2010? Maor: What does the Maor article teach us about handling campaign speeches? What do you find interesting? Surprising?