1. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 1 Jerry says It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper.

2. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 2 What is Public Opinion? Public opinion: How people think or feel about particular things Not easy to measure The opinions of active and knowledgeable people carry more weight

3. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 3 How Polling Works Pollsters need to pose reasonable questions that are worded fairly They have to ask people about things for which they have some basis to form an opinion

4. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 4 Random Sampling Random sampling is necessary to insure a reasonably accurate measure of how the entire population thinks or feels For populations over 500,000, pollsters need to make about 15,000 phone calls to reach 1,065 respondents, insuring the poll has a sampling error of only +/- 3%

5. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 5 Political Socialization Political socialization: the process by which personal and other background traits influence one’s views about politics and government Family: Party identification of your family is absorbed, although children become more independent-thinking with time Religion: Families form and transmit political beliefs through their religious tradition

6. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 6 The Gender Gap Men have become increasingly Republican since the mid-1960s Women have continued to identify with the Democratic Party at approximately the same rate since the early 1950s This reflects attitudinal differences between men and women about the size of government, gun control, social programs, and gay rights

7. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 7 Table 7.3: The Gender Gap: Differences in Political Views of Men and Women

8. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 8 Education From 1920s through 1960s, studies showed a college education had a liberalizing effect, possibly because of exposure to liberal elites Contemporary college students’ opinions are more complicated

9. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 9 Figure 7.1: Generational Gaps on the Issues Survey by Washington Post/Henry J. Kaiser Foundation/Harvard University, August 2-September 1, 2002, as reported in Elizabeth Hamel et al., "Younger Voters," Public Perspective, May/June 2003, p. 11.

10. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 10 Social Class Social class: ill-defined in U.S., though recognized in specific cases (e.g., truck drivers and investment bankers) Social class is less important in the U.S. than in Europe; the extent of cleavage has declined in both places

11. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 11 Race and Ethnicity Similarities and differences between blacks and whites are complex, but there is some evidence that they may be narrowing Latinos tend to identify as Democrats, though not as strongly as African Americans

12. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 12 Table 7.4: African American and White Opinion

13. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 13 Regional Differences White southerners were once more conservative than other regions regarding aid to minorities, legalizing marijuana, school busing, and rights of the accused Southerners are now significantly less Democratic than they were for most of the 20 th century

14. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 14 Political Ideology Political ideology: a more or less consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue The great majority of Americans do not think ideologically People may have strong predispositions even if they do not satisfy the condition of being “ideological”

15. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 15 Figure 7.3: Ideological Self-Identification The American Enterprise (March/April 1993): 84, Robert S. Ericson and Kent L. Tedin, American Public Opinion (New York: Longman, 2001), 101, citing surveys by CBS/New York Times.

16. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 16 Liberals and Conservatives Economic policy: liberals favor jobs for all, subsidized medical care and education, increased taxation of the rich Civil rights: liberals favor strong federal action to desegregate schools, hiring opportunities for minorities, and strict enforcement of civil rights laws Public and political conduct: liberals are tolerant of protest demonstrations, favor legalization of marijuana, and emphasize protecting the rights of the accused

17. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 17 Table 7.6: How Liberals and Conservatives Differ

18. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 18 Liberals and Conservative Pure liberals: liberal on both economic and personal conduct issues Pure conservatives: conservative on both economic and personal conduct issues Libertarians: conservative on economic issues, liberal on personal conduct issues Populists: liberal on economic issues, conservative on personal conduct issues

19. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 19 Table 7.7: Policy Preferences of Democratic and Republican Voters

20. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 20 Political Elites Political elites: those who have a disproportionate amount of some valued resource Elites influence public opinion by framing issues and stating norms But elite influence only goes so far; they do not define problems that are rooted in personal experience

21. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 21

22. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 22 Discussion Question Identify and explain the two ways that political scientists measure political ideology. In addition note any possible shortcomings of each approach.

23. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 23 Answer!!! a. Self-identification: ask respondents to identify themselves as liberal, conservative, etc. b. Problems: most Americans do not employ the terms liberal and conservative unless asked to do so, many do not have a clear definition of the terms, a plurality identify themselves as “moderate” c. Search for constraint: examining how consistent one's policy views are over time, or at any point in time d. Problems: relatively low correlations (little constraint)

24. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 24 #2 Identify the major factors which influence political socialization and explain some of the specific differences that emerge in opinions as a result of these factors.

25. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 25 #2 Answer a. Family: parents and children often share party identification although strength of relationship is declining b. Religion: differences more prominent on social as opposed to other issues c. Gender: men forsaking Democratic Party, considerable differences in viewpoints of men and women on welfare, spending on the homeless, defense spending and sexual harassment in the workplace d. Schooling and information: liberalism traditionally associated with higher levels of education, changes in trend

26. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 26 #3 What are three cross cutting cleavages that are evident in public opinion in the United States?

27. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 27 #3 Answer a. Social class b. Race and ethnicity c. Region

28. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 28 #4 Identify and explain three broad categories of opinion that enable one to distinguish between liberals and conservatives. Provide specific examples of opinion differences within each category.

29. Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.7 | 29 #4 Answer a. Economy: liberals favor activist government with respect to jobs, increased spending on health and education, increasing taxes (especially on the rich), etc. b. Civil rights: liberals more likely to favor strong federal action to desegregate schools, increased hiring opportunities for minorities, strict enforcement of civil rights laws, affirmative actions, etc, c. Conduct: liberals more likely to be in favor of legalization of marijuana and other victimless crimes, more likely to be concerned about the root causes of crime and the rights of criminal defendants, etc.