Chapter 6
Public Opinion and Political Socialization
Public Opinion
 Term not easily defined
 Often literally no majority opinion
 In public opinion, the “public” is usually a smaller
segment of the populace.
Public Opinion
 Usually taken from a sampling
 Pluralist in nature
Public Opinion
 The politically relevant opinions held by ordinary
citizens that they express openly
 Sometimes well informed and sometimes not
Measurement of Opinion
 Opinion Polls
1. Include a relatively small sample
2. Estimates populace views based
on sample
Measurement of Opinion
3.
4.
Sample often chosen at random
Sampling errors can occur when not enough folks
are polled
News polls, Gallup Poll, etc.
Problems with Polls
1.
2.
3.
Sampling errors
Questions worded in a biased manner
Unfamiliarity of polling sample to question

Used and relied upon in American Government
regardless of any problems.
Political Socialization
 The learning process by which people acquire their
political opinions, beliefs and values.
 Usually starts in the family
 Lifelong process
Agents of Political Socialization
1. Family
2. Schools
3. Media
Agents of Political Socialization
4. Peers
5. Political institutions and
leaders
6. Churches
Ideology
 Ideology: a consistent pattern of political attitudes
that stem from a core belief (example: belief in
environmentalism)
Ideology
 Political ideologies include liberals, conservatives,
libertarians and populists (see p. 208 of text)
 Ideologies can change as times change
 Can be part of public opinion but not necessarily so
Liberals
 Those that say that government should do more to
solve the country’s problems, and say that
government ought not support traditional values at
the expense of less conventional ones.
Conservatives
 Those who think that government should be sparing
in its programs; feel government should uphold
traditional values.
 Largest percentage of US population
Libertarians
 Those who are reluctant to use government either as
a means of economic redistribution or as a means of
favoring particular social values.
 Government doesn’t need to be deeply involved
Populists
 Those who would use government both for the
purpose of economic distribution and for the purpose
of guarding traditional values.
Group Thinking
 Many citizens relate more to groups that they belong
to rather than an ideology
 Examples of groups: church, economic class, region
(Northwesterners), race, ethnicity, gender, and age.
 Sometimes groups can crosscut.
Political Identification
 An individual’s ingrained sense of loyalty to a political
party
 The United States has a weak two party system,
meaning that Democrats and Republicans are
predominant but other parties (ex. Green) can exist
too.
Public Policy
 Public Opinion can influence policy
 Example: growing discussion on the environment has
lead to an increase in hearings and discussion on what
new policies need to exist.