| 1) What are the Origins of Public Opinion? |
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Public opinion has become the standard against which conduct of contemporary governments is measured. |
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Public opinion denotes the values and attitudes that people have about issues, events, and personalities. |
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Opinions are the product of your personality, social characteristics, and interests. |
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A) Common Fundamental Values |
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Americans share beliefs in equality of opportunity, individual freedom, and in democracy. |
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Americans share widespread agreement on these fundamental values, because they never had a feudal aristocracy, and no socialist movement really developed here. |
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B) Political Socialization |
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Attitudes tend to be shaped by underlying beliefs and values. |
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Agencies of socialization are the family, social groups, education, and prevailing political conditions. |
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The family provides initial orientation and children often absorb political preferences from parents. |
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Social groups, both involuntary (race and gender) and voluntary (parties and unions), affect political values. |
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Education is a great equalizer, and increases participation. |
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Changing political conditions can alter attitudes and behavior, such as with the changing partisanship of southern whites over time. |
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C) Political Ideology |
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Liberals tend to support extensive governmental intervention in the economy, social services, services for the poor, minorities, women, the environment, and favor abortion rights. |
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Conservatives tend to support smaller government, oppose regulation of business, oppose abortion, and support school prayer. |
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| 2) Public Opinion and Political Knowledge |
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Americans in general are not very politically aware. |
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Americans invest little time in educating themselves about political issues and tend to prefer to be informed by trusted others—ministers, commentators, journalists, friends, etc. |
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Individuals are continually bombarded by others seeking to influence their opinions. |
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| 3) Shaping of Opinion: The Influence of Political Leaders, Private Groups, and the Media |
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A) Government and the Shaping of Public Opinion |
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All governments attempt to manipulate their citizens' beliefs. |
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Polling helps politicians gauge public opinion. |
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Political, business, and media elites are seen as opinion leaders. |
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B) Private Groups and the Shaping of Public Opinion |
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Ideas are developed and spread by organized groups. |
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Groups with financial resources more effectively market their ideas. |
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C) The Media and Public Opinion |
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Communications media are the most powerful forces in the marketplace of ideas. |
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| 4) Measuring Public Opinion |
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Politicians make extensive use of polls to decide whether to run for office, what policies to support, how to vote, and what appeals to make in campaigns. |
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A) Constructing Public Opinion from Surveys |
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Surveys attempt to find a representative sample to reflect public opinion. |
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Quota sampling, probability sampling and area sampling are techniques to improve results. |
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Poor sampling, push polling, poor question wording, and small sample size all hurt accuracy |
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The illusion of central tendency occurs when we think opinions are normally distributed when in fact they are not. |
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Survey question wording may artificially reinforce this illusion. |
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The illusion of saliency conveys the impression that something is important to the public when in fact it is not. |
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People give opinions when asked, even though the issue may not be very important to them. |
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The poll results can then generate opinion through a bandwagon effect. |
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B) Public Opinion, Political Knowledge, and the Political Uncertainty Principle |
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Politicians' ignorance of true public opinion may have its uses. |
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Lack of certainty about opinion may lead to moderation. |
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| 5) How Does Public Opinion Influence Government Policy? |
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The framers feared trusting the public when it comes to governing, designing some institutions that insulate government from popular pressure. |
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In democratic nations, leaders should pay heed to public opinion and most evidence suggests that they do. |
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Even so, policies sometimes do not match up with popular opinion, either because the minority cared much more intensely, or because opinion changes more quickly than do policies. |
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Ballot initiatives are one way in which the public legislates for itself. |
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