Joshua Bryant
Period 4
A.P. Government
Chapter 6
1. Explain the implications for political change of the movement toward a new
minority majority.
a. The move towards a new minority majority affects the political world
because over half of the population will be made of minorities allowing
for a shift of political views being dominated by the white majority to
possibly focusing on the views of the minority majority.
2. Contrast and explain the relative positions of African Americans, Hispanic
Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans in the American political and
economic spheres.
a. African Americans have been mostly left both economically and
politically disadvantaged though they have recently shown the use of
greater political power. Hispanics are set to soon outnumber African
Americans and are quickly gaining power in the southwest. Asian
Americans are the best off being the highest skilled and generally the best
educated of the minority groups. Native Americans are generally the worst
off since they are generally the poorest, the least healthy, the least
educated, and the most politically disadvantaged.
3. Identify and describe the political implications of an increasingly elderly
population.
a. The fastest growing political group in America is that of citizens over 65.
The political interest of this increasingly powerful group has been grouped
under the umbrella of “gray power.”
4. Explain why an understanding of the content and dynamics of public opinion is
important in evaluating the extent to which the people rule in a democracy.
a. Public opinion shows how the citizens that are being ruled in a democracy
feel about the actions of those governing. Also, an understanding of public
opinion can give politicians an idea of what to work towards for their
represented people, yet the representatives need to be careful to not just
follow public opinion blindly and mindlessly.
5. Outline and explain the components that are essential if one wants to obtain
accuracy in public opinion polling.
a. For an accurate public opinion polling, the poll must follow at least three
guidelines: it must be a large sample chosen (generally about 1500 to 2000
is fine), it must be random, and the questions must not be biased or slanted
towards a particular side.
6. Evaluate and describe the role of polls in American democracy.
a. The polls give politicians and the general public a window into how the
society is feeling in general, in theory. They can become important for the
government when it has to make a challenging plan or decision because it
can show how the people want the government to work. However, at the
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
A.P. Government
same time, government must be careful not to become a blind follower of
sheep when it needs to be a shepherd to the blind.
7. Describe how the American political system works as well as it does given the
lack of public knowledge about politics.
a. This paradox presented by Russell Neumann is possible because the
people generally know the basic values that they want government to
uphold even if they don’t know about the particulars involved in
government.
8. Describe the political beliefs that are likely to be preferred by liberals and
conservatives.
a. Liberals will generally want the government to do more and to expand
while conservatives would rather nothing changed or the policies moved
to reflect those of earlier times.
9. Identify and explain the activities that encompass political participation in the
United States.
a. The activities of political participation in America encompass two
categories: conventional and unconventional participation. Conventional
participation includes: voting, persuading, running for office, etc. These
are basically the ways people directly participate in the government.
Unconventional participation includes: protests, civil disobedience, and
violence. These are usually dramatic ways for people to get a message
across that they are unhappy about what government is doing and that they
want change. These generally don’t directly involve the participation in
the government.
10. Explain the difference between conventional and unconventional types of political
participation.
a. The difference between conventional and unconventional types of political
participation is how directly they involve participating in government.
Conventional participation deals directly with the government and
influences policy making. Unconventional participation is dramatic
actions taken to prove a groups point and to force a change of a policy that
is thought to be unconstitutional or unfair.
11. Show how nonviolent civil disobedience was one of the most effective techniques
of the civil rights movements in the American South.
a. Their nonviolent civil disobedience showed how the laws in place were
unconstitutional and how they were deserving of equal rights because they
were just as civilized, if not more, than the people who were beating them
down. This threw into the general public’s face how the laws were
horribly degrading to human beings and how the African Americans
deserved equal rights.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
A.P. Government
12. Explain what political scientists mean when they conclude that Americans are
ideological conservative but operational liberals.
a. Political scientists are concluding that Americans talk one way about what
they want but end up acting in a different way. Most people will say that
they do not want change and that they want things to stay the same while
their actions show that they want change and they want things to be
different.
KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS
1. Census: A valuable tool for understanding demographic changes. The
Constitution requires that the government conduct an “actual enumeration” of the
population every 10 years.
2. 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.
3. Conservatism: A political ideology whose advocates fear the growth of
government, deplore government’s drag on private-sector initiatives, dislike
permissiveness in society, and place a priority on military needs over social needs.
4. Demography: The science of human populations
5. Exit poll: Public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict
electoral winners with speed and precision.
6. Gender gap: A term that refers to the regular pattern by which women are more
likely to support Democratic candidates. Women tend to be significantly less
conservative than men and are more likely to support spending on social services
and to oppose the higher levels of military spending.
7. Liberalism: A political ideology whose advocates prefer a government active in
dealing with human needs, support individual rights and liberties, and give higher
priority to social needs than to military needs.
8. Melting pot: The mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples that has changed the
American nation. The United States, with its history of immigration, has often
been called a melting pot.
9. Minority majority: The emergence of a non-Caucasian majority, as compared
with a white, generally Anglo-Saxon majority. It is predicted that, by about 2060,
Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans together will
outnumber white Americans.
10. Political culture: an overall set of values widely shared within a society
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
A.P. Government
11. Political ideology: A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and
public purpose. It helps give meaning to political events, personalities, and
policies. See also liberalism and conservatism.
12. Political participation: All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection
of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common, but not the
only, means of political participation in a democracy is voting. Other means
include protest and civil disobedience.
13. Political socialization: According to Richard Dawson, “the process which an
individual acquires his [or her] particular political orientations-his [or her]
knowledge, feelings, and evaluations regarding his [or her] political world.”
14. Protest: A form of political participation designed to achieve policy change
through dramatic and unconventional tactics.