Public Opinion and
Polling
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How do we measure public opinion?
How do citizens participate in
government?
Polls
 The Role of Polls in
American Democracy
 Polls help politicians
figure out public
preferences.
 Exit Polls- used by the
media to predict
election day winners.
 Dangers?
 -Bandwagon effect
 -Wording effect
Polls
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Random Sampling- must
be representative of the
population and random
Sampling Error- + or –
the poll could be
skewed. The more
polled, the lower the
sampling error.
Self Reported- Who
actually does this?
Random Digit Dialing
Obama is the worst president ever
according to polls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=95&v=H
FDSeH0Y4FA
Political Participation
All the activities used by citizens to influence
the selection of political leaders or the
policies they pursue.
Conventional Participation

Voting in elections
 Most common form of participation
 US has lower turnout than most other
countries
 Suffrage= the right to vote

Progressive movement created more
direct participation through voting which
allowed citizens to:
 Direct primary- nominate candidates
 Recall- remove officials from office
 Referendum- vote directly on issues
call propositions
 Initiative- petition to propose issues
to be decided by voters
 http://www.ncsl.org/research/election
s-and-campaigns/initiativereferendum-and-recall-overview.aspx
More Conventional Participation
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Working in
campaigns
Contributing
campaign $
Running for office
Contacting elected
officials
Forming interest
groups
Unconventional Participation

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Protest: A form of
political participation
designed to achieve
policy changes through
dramatic non violent
and legal tactics.
Civil disobedience: A
form of political
participation that
reflects a conscious
decision to break a law
believed to be immoral
and to suffer the
consequences.
Why People Do NOT Participate
 What Polls Reveal About Americans’ Political
Information (3 things)
 Americans
don’t know much about politics.
Americans may know their basic beliefs, but
not how that affects policies of the
government.
Ideology vs Ideas
The Decline of Trust in Government
Now only about 25% of the public trust the
government most of the time or always.
Trust in Government- Causes?
Who participates?
Figure 6.5
Who participates?
Who participates?
Political Demographics
and Socialization
-
How has our population changed and why does it
matter?
What factors influence political identity?
Change in Demographics
 The Immigrant Society
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Wave 1: Before the late 19th centurynorthwestern Europeans.
Wave 2: During the late 19th century- southern
and eastern Europeans.
Wave 3: Recent decades- Hispanics from
Central America & Mexico. Asians from
Vietnam, South Korea, etc.
Change in
Demographics
 The American Melting Pot


Minority Majority
Illegal immigration
The American People
Figure 6.1
Greying of America
 1940- 42 workers per retiree
 2014- 3 workers per retiree
 The Regional Shift
 Census
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Figure 6.2
Every 10 years
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Yankeedom: Founded by Puritans, residents in
Northeastern states and the industrial Midwest
tend to be more comfortable with government
regulation. They value education and the
common good more than other regions.
New Netherland: The Netherlands was the
most sophisticated society in the Western world
when New York was founded, Woodard writes,
so it’s no wonder that the region has been a hub
of global commerce. It’s also the region most
accepting of historically persecuted populations.
The Midlands: Stretching from Quaker territory
west through Iowa and into more populated
areas of the Midwest, the Midlands are
“pluralistic and organized around the middle
class.” Government intrusion is unwelcome, and
ethnic and ideological purity isn’t a priority.
The Far West: The Great Plains and the
Mountain West were built by industry, made
necessary by harsh, sometimes inhospitable
climates. Far Westerners are intensely
libertarian and deeply distrustful of big
institutions, whether they are railroads and
monopolies or the federal government.
New France: Former French colonies in and
around New Orleans and Quebec tend toward
consensus and egalitarian
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Tidewater: The coastal regions in the English colonies of
Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and Delaware tend to
respect authority and value tradition. Once the most
powerful American nation, it began to decline during
Westward expansion.
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Greater Appalachia: Extending from West Virginia
through the Great Smoky Mountains and into Northwest
Texas, the descendants of Irish, English and Scottish
settlers value individual liberty. Residents are “intensely
suspicious of lowland aristocrats and Yankee social
engineers.”
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Deep South: Dixie still traces its roots to the caste
system established by masters who tried to duplicate
West Indies-style slave society, Woodard writes. The Old
South values states’ rights and local control and fights the
expansion of federal powers.
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El Norte: Southwest Texas and the border region is the
oldest, and most linguistically different, nation in the
Americas. Hard work and self-sufficiency are prized
values.

The Left Coast: A hybrid, Woodard says, of Appalachian
independence and Yankee utopianism loosely defined by
the Pacific Ocean on one side and coastal mountain
ranges like the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas on the
other. The independence and innovation required of early
explorers continues to manifest in places like Silicon
Valley and the tech companies around Seattle.
Why do changing demographics
matter?
Elections
 Congressional
Representation

Reapportionment
How Americans Learn About
Politics: Political Socialization
 Political Socialization: Process by which citizens
acquire a sense of political identity.
 The Process of Political Socialization
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Demographics
The Family
The Mass Media
School / Education
Peers
World and Life Events
70%
Your parents are most influential in determining your
political affiliation.
Political Ideologies
 Political Ideology:
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A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public
purpose.

Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal
opportunity and equality for all. It is the duty of the
government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil
liberties and individual and human rights.
 Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited
government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional
American values and a strong national defense.
Currently about 42% conservative, 25% liberal, 34% moderate
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NOT always the same as political parties
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