Chapter 6 Review

1. What are crosscutting cleavages

They tend to moderate our political views our opinions and political views

2. What do conservatives think?

They are in favor of prayer in schools, control Japanese imports, and free-market solutions rather than government intervention

3. When are public opinion polls considered valid?

When they use random sampling and have a sampling error of within 4 points or so.

4. The gender issue tends to be the most in regards to what?

Military response to issues…sending our young men into harm’s way, and the fact that they’re a bit more likely to be Democrats

5. Why are straw polls or asking people to volunteer to be interviewed a problem?

Because polls are valid when they are select people randomly, either through a dialing system or some other method.

6. Why are more and more people not participating in the process?

Other groups (which are growing more and more) seem to have more and more access to decision- making, people think helping won’t make a difference.

7. What’s the relationship between public officials and public opinion polls?

They tend to rely more and more on them, like the French radical, seeing a mob go by, says, “There are my people, I must see where they’re going so I can lead them.”

8. Do people often or sometimes express an ideological opinion that goes against what political label they attach themselves to?

Very often, for example the farmers who are conservative and don’t like handouts to people who won’t work, like the farm subsidies dolled out by the federal government

9. Are national polling organizations (like Zogby and Neilson) very accurate?

Yes

10. What is sampling error?

How confident the pollster is in the final results of the poll, say a 3% plus or minus difference

11. What is an exit poll?

When the media puts people outside certain election places and asks them who they voted for, in an effort to help predict the election before the polls close

12. What has changed the most over the past several years about people’s political opinions?

People’s opinion’s of the two major parties, we’ve become more distrustful of leadership and more likely to disagree with leadership

13. What shapes our own public opinion?

Our political culture and political socialization, those that have affected us over the years (It’s what this whole chapter is about)

14. Why are internet polls so questionable regarding public opinion?

Because the sample is not random, people choose to be part of the sample, which is questionable in it’s accuracy.

15. Are men more likely to vote than woman?

No

16. Are Republicans more likely to vote than Democrats?

No

17. Are Hispanic voters more likely to vote than non-Hispanic voters?

No

18. Who is more likely to vote, young people or old people?

Old people, by a lot, and they’re more likely to support increases (or at least the status quo) for Social Security

19. What do Libertarians support?

No tax breaks for big companies, unrestricted freedom of speech and all that encompasses, legalizing pot, fewer laws restricting guns

20. Does the income levels of African American’s have much of an effect on their political socialization?

No, not really, considering about 85 to 90 percent of African American’s vote the Democratic party

21. What is the biggest influence regarding your political party of choice?

Believe it or not, your parents.

22. What is the bigger influence on your political socialization, occupation or education?

Differing levels of education have more of an effect on your political ideals. Once, most college educated people were liberal, but as more and more people get degrees like business, engineering, and the like, they tend to become more conservative

23. How do public officials tend to find out what the public want?

Wait until they get voted out of office??? NO! Public opinion polls

24. How significant is religion in the formation of our political beliefs?

In America, more than in other part of the world, religion is a bigger part of our culture and a larger part of our political socialization (Think how significant the Religious Right is in American politics today)

A The End