Political Beliefs and Behaviors I
Chapter 5Public Opinion and Political
Socialization
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• Public Opinion? What is it? What is your opinion on major policy issues?– It can vary over time– PO can place limits on what policy and gov’t can
do– You might not be expert, but you always have an
opinion– Responsiveness is key to representative
democracy but gov’t sometimes does not do what people want (why???)
• Statistical sampling theory does not claim that a sample exactly matches the population, only that it reflects the population with some predictable degree of accuracy.
• 3 Factors that determine accuracy– How the sample is randomly selected– The size of the sample—the larger the sample, the
more accurately it represents the population– The amount of variation in the population
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Good website for looking at poll accuracy!!
http://www.ncpp.org/?q=node/4
Sometimes polls can be off… but if they follow the rules of appropriate polling they will be close.
1948: Truman1992: Clinton
• Assumptions about public opinion– M: majority of people are consistent on their
opinions on government policy• This means that government should do all people want
– P: public is uninformed and wishy washy from day to day
• Government should listen to the informed interest group
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• Distribution of public opinion
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• Implications?– Normal: public tends to support moderate policy
on issue– Bimodal: great potential for political conflict– Skewed: most share the same opinion, those in
the minority risk social ostracism
What issues would fit into these 3 categories?HW: Public opinion poll
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• Stability?– How stable were the distribution of your opinions
compared to those you talked with?
Some opinions change very little over time, some change within subgroups, and some change very dramatically. Historical examples???
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• So where do we learn all this from???– Political socialization: process where you learn
about political values
What are the major agents that socialize you politically?
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• The Agents of Early Socialization– Two fundamental principles characterize early
learning• The primacy principle: what is learned first is learned
best
• The structuring principle: what is learned first structures later learning
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– Agents that structure early socialization include• The family: usually adopt same as parents or deviate to
independent– What are your parents political party and ideologies??
– Are you the same?
• Community and Peers: create opportunities to reinforce or change your political attitudes
– Are your beliefs the same or different than theirs?
• School: introduces government and citizen roles– What have you been taught?
– VIDEO CLIP ON SCHOOL SOCIALIZATION
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Questions:1.Why type of political socialization activities did
you witness?2.What type of model does this follow?3.What does this movie teach us about
democracy? The role of the citizen?
I KNOW THIS IS A SILLY MOVIE…
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• Socialization of Mrs. Wells???
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Family contributes a lot to the socialization of children!
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• This guy… did not create my political views.
• However, he does continue to politically socialize me in adulthood.
• Continuing Socialization
– Peer groups assume greater importance is promoting political awareness and shaping opinions
– Older Americans rely on newspapers and television news for political information
– Younger Americans are more likely to rely on radio, magazines or the Internet for political information
– People gain perspective on government as they grow older
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Is this the authority on news and government???
• So… who are we??? Based on that, how are you going to participate??? Is your background and continued social groups and indicator of your political values?
• HW: find out…be prepared to analyze yourself• http://politicsstudio.wetpaint.com/page/
Diversity
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• Social Groups and Political Values• People with similar backgrounds tend to develop similar
political opinions
• Characteristics that shape political opinions– Education
– Income
– Race and ethnicity
– Religion
– Gender
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• WHAT SOCIAL GROUPS DO YOU BELONG TO ACCORDING TO YOUR HW? • DOES OUR CLASSROOM REFLECT SOCIETY?United States Profile
http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10_thematic/2010_Profile/2010_Profile_Map_United_States.pdf
Ohio Profile http://www2.census.gov/geo/maps/dc10_thematic/2010_Profile/2010_Profile_Map_Ohio.pdf
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1&prodType=table
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Freedom v. Order
Freedom v. Equality
• Looking at the chart, what trends do you see based on the social groups??
• How would that connect to political values and ideology??
A good resource to look at election studies (that we will look at again) http://www.electionstudies.org/nesguide/gd-index.htm#9
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• http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/19/nyregion/how-many-households-are-like-yours.html?ref=familiesandfamilylife
• In class essay time
• HW: Voter demographic analysis
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• How do social values translate into political thinking?– Education– Income levels– Region– Race/Ethnicity– Religion– Gender
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• The Degree of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion
– Most people don’t think in ideological terms pick moderate because they do not understand what liberal or conservative mean
• The Quality of Ideological Thinking in Public Opinion
– Liberal or conservative because of the symbolic value of the terms
– Associate liberals with change (freedom) and conservatives with tradition (maintenance of order)
• More helpful to think about tradeoffs
– Liberals are more willing to trade freedom for equality
– Conservatives are more wiling to trade freedom for order
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• Ideological Types in the United States– Conservative responses are the most common
pattern
– Communitarian responses are the 2nd most common pattern
• But the US is pretty much divided down the middle in regards to those that are on the left and those on the right of the spectrum– Look at elections if you don’t believe me
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• Forming Political Opinions
– Political Knowledge: > 50% have basic infoDO I KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON? (INSTITUTIONS AID IN THIS)
– Costs, Benefits, and Cues
• Self-interest principle: the implication that people choose what benefits them personally
• Plays an obvious role in how people form opinions on government policies
HOW DOES THIS EFFECT ME? (INSTITUTIONS AID IN THIS AS WELL)
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– Information processing• An opinion schema constitutes a network of organized
knowledge and beliefs that guide a person’s processing of information regarding a particular subject.
How have I been socialized? How do we continue to be socialized?
– Political Leadership
• Public opinion is molded by political leaders, journalists, and policy experts
• Issue framing: the way that politicians or interest group leaders defines an issue when presenting it to others
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