AP Government
Chapter 6
Public Opinion and
Political Action
Definitions
• Public Opinion: Aims
to understand the
distribution of the population’s belief about
politics and policy issues
• Demography: Science of human populations
• Census: Enumeration of the population every 10
years
• 295 million Americans (2000 census)
• 311,110,140 million today (April 5, 2011)
Three major waves of Immigration
• 800,000 new immigrants legally admitted every year
Melting Pot/Tossed Salad
Minority-Majority
• Prior to the late 19th century: Northwestern Europeans
(English, Irish, Germans, Scandinavians)
• Late 19th and early 20th century: Southern and Eastern
Europeans (Italians, Jews, Poles, Russians, etc.)
• Recent decades: Hispanics (Cuba, Central and South
America) and Asians (Korean, Vietnam, Philippines,
etc.)
Minority Majority
Definitions Continued
• Political Culture: An overall set of values widely
shared within a society
• Reapportionment: States gain or lose
congressional representation as their population
changes and thus power shifts as well
• Every decade (census) 435 seats in the House of
Representatives is reallocated to the states on the
basis of population changes
• Politics is a lifelong activity
1. Family
Political
2. Mass Media
3. School….what else?
Socialization
Measuring Public Opinion
• Gallup Polling: Sample
population of 1,000-1,500
people can accurately
represent the “universe” of
potential voters
• Random Sampling:
Everyone should have an
equal probability of being
selected as part of a
sample
• Sampling error +-3%
• Random Digit dialing
Decline in Trust in Government
Political Ideologies
Voters' Thought
Processes
Ideologue
12%
No Issue
Content
22%
Nature of
the Times
24%
Group
Benefits
42%
Liberals V. Conservatives
• Gender Gap: Regular
pattern by which women
are more likely to support
democratic candidates
• Religiosity: The degree to
which religion is
important in one’s life
(most conservative
demographic group)
• Fundamentalists or “born
again” are the new
Christian Right of
Catholics and Protestants
Participation in Politics
• Conventional: Voting,
trying to persuade
others, ringing
doorbells for a
petition, running for
office
• Unconventional:
Protesting, civil
disobedience,
violence,
Political Participation
by Family Income
Unconventional Participation
• Protesting: Form of political participation
designed to achieve policy change through
dramatic and unconventional tactics
• Civil Disobedience: Form of protest;
Consciously break a law that is thought to
be unjust
Low Participating Groups
• Many politicians don’t
concern themselves
with views of groups
with low participation
rates (young, low
income)
• So who gets what in
politics, therefore,
depends in part, who
participates
What are Americans??
• Political scientists say
Americans are
“ideological
conservatives but
operational liberals—
meaning that they
oppose the idea of big
government in
principle but favor it
in practice”