Political Opinions, Behaviors, and Beliefs

Political Culture, Public Opinion, Political Participation and Voting Behavior

Political Culture

Alexis de TocquevilleFactors critical in shaping American

democracyAbundant and fertile landOpportunities to acquire land and make a livingLack of feudal aristocracyAn independent spirit encouraged by frontier

living

Political Culture

Core ValuesLibertyEquality

Opportunity and Outcome IndividualismDemocracyRule of lawCivic DutyCapitalismFree enterprise

Political Culture

Values change in the 1930sPromotion of the general welfareSecond Bill of Rights—FDR

Political ToleranceMistrust of the GovernmentPolitical EfficacyCulture Wars

Public Opinion

Measuring Public OpinionGeorge GallupPollsRepresentative sample

Random samplingStratified sampling

Respondent’s knowledge or lack thereofCareful and objective wordingCost efficiency v. accuracy

Straw poll

Public OpinionVariances between samples

Sampling errors (margin of error)

Factors that influence political attitudesPolitical Socialization

FamilyGenderMarried v. unmarriedReligionEducationSocial ClassRaceGeographic region

Public Opinion

Political Ideology: Liberals and Conservatives12% Ideologues42% Group benefits voters24% Nature of the times voters22% No issue content

Public OpinionIssue Liberals Conservatives

Healthcare Widely available, tend to support n’tl healthcare

Best handled by private insurance and tied to workplace benefits

Crime Cure the economic and social reasons for crime

Stop coddling criminals and punish them

Business Gov’t should regulate businesses in the public interest

Businesses should be allowed to operate under free market conditions

Military Spend less Spend more

Taxes The rich should be taxed more; the gov’t is responsible for reducing economic inequality

Taxes should be kept low

Welfare Gov’t should help the poor People are responsible for themselves; welfare takes away the incentive to work

Civil rights Pro-active civil rights gov’t Limited role in promoting social equality

Abortion Pro-choice Pro-life

Religion Clear separation of church and state

Support for faith based initiatives

Public Opinion

Political Ideology: Liberals and ConservativesNeo-cons

Main goal is to counter global terrorismSocial Conservatives

Religious Right

Political Participation and Voter Behavior

Types of ParticipationWho Participates?

EducationReligious InvolvementRaceAgeGenderTwo party competitionCross cutting cleavages

Political Participation and Voter Behavior

Expanding SuffrageLifting of property restrictionsSuffrage for Blacks

15th amendmentJim CrowVoting Rights Act of 196524th amendment

Women’s Suffrage19th amendment

18-21 year olds26th amendment

Political Participation and Voter Behavior

Voter Turnout Registered voters Eligible voters Voter registration

Motor Voter

Reasons for low Turnout Difficulty of absentee voting Number of offices to elect Weekday, non holiday voting Weak political parties Apathy/mistrust/low levels of efficacy