Bell Ringer 11-19-2007 Not create government that would do what the people want from day to day Check Public Opinion Popular rule –Elect House of Rep’s,

Bell Ringer 11-19-2007

• Not create government that would do what the people want from day to day

• Check Public Opinion• Popular rule

– Elect House of Rep’s, Senate, presidential electors

– Representative Gov, Bill of Rights, independent judiciary, federalism, separation of powers

– Factions “No complete Public Opinion”

•What is public opinion?

•How is public opinion formed?

•Why public opinions differ.

• How people think or feel about things (politics)

• Vast majority of people knew next to nothing about government

• Only vague notions of much-publicized public policy that affects us directly

• 1940s• 21% favored the bill• 25% opposed it• The rest said they

hadn’t thought about it or didn’t Know

• NO SUCH BILL

• Poll – survey of public opinion

• Random Sample – any given voter or adult has equal chance of being interviewed.

• Sampling Error – difference between to identical polls

• Exit Polls = interview randomly selected people at polling place on election day

• Quite accurate except when a very close election

• Opinion saliency: some people care more about certain issues than other people do

• Opinion Stability: some issues or choices opinions are steady, while on others they are more volatile

• Opinion-policy congruence: some issues government is in sync with popular views, while on other issues it is significantly out of sync

• Personal and other background traits influence one’s views about politics and government matters

• Your surroundings influence your political and Government beliefs

• People who have a disproportionate share of some valued resource (money)

• Know more about politics• Hold more or less a

consistent set of political beliefs

• Government attends more to the elite views than the popular vies

• 60% of adults adopt the party preference of their parents

• There has been a decline in the ability of family to promote a partisan identification

• Religious differences make for political differences

• Catholics – more liberal

• Protestants – more conservative

• Jewish – more liberal

• SOCIAL ISSUES

• Men and women both ID with Democrats at the same levels in 1950s

• 1990s men more Republican

• WHY = men more conservative, Democratic female candidates

• Longer in College more liberal

• Political participation among college students has declined

•“It would be so much easier if everyone’s opinion on political affairs reflected some single feature of his or her life, such as income, occupation, age, race, or sex.”

• Public Opinion and voting less determined by class than in Europe

• Becoming less clear-cut source of political cleavage

• Noneconomic (abortion, race relations, environment, etc.) issues now define liberal and conservative

• African-Americans are overwhelmingly Democrat

• Becoming a less clear-cut source of political change

• The gap in opinions is narrowing between blacks and whites

• Tables 7.4 & 7.5

• Gap between leaders of African American Organizations and African Americans in general.

• Gap between white leaders and white citizens

• Gaps within own race

• Southerners & Northerners disagree significantly

• Southerners becoming less Democratic

• Patterned set of political beliefs about who ought to rule, their principles and policies

• Moderates – largest group of voters.

• Figure 7.3 (pg 168)

• Small minority take ideologically consistent views on political issues

• People often express opinions at odds with their ideological label

• Ideological thinking may be greater in some years than in others

• Americans do not think of politics in an ideological manner

ConservativeLiberal

• Favor bigger welfare state

• Favor smaller military establishment

• Strong military

• Prayer should be in schools

• Oppose abortion on demand

• Liberal: favored personal and economic liberty – freedom from the controls and powers of the state

• Supported free market and opposed Government regulation of trade

• Conservative: opposed the excesses of the French Revolution and its emphasis on personal freedom and favored instead a restoration of the power of the state, the church, and the aristocracy

• An active national government that would intervene in the economy, create social welfare programs, and help certain groups gain greater bargaining power

• Barry Goldwater• Free market rather than

a regulated one• States’ rights over

national supremacy• Individual choice in

economic affairs• US play active role in

world affairs

• Liberals

– Favor gov. efforts to ensure everyone has a job

– Spend more money on medical and educational programs

– Increase rate of taxation for well-to-do persons

• Liberals

– Strong federal action to desegregate schools

– Provide compensatory programs for minorities

– Enforce Civil Rights laws strictly

–Liberals:

»Tolerant of protest demonstrations

»Legalizing Marijuana

»Eliminate crime causes rather than getting tougher with offenders

• Economy• Personal Conduct• Political Ideologies

are Complex• Liberal and

Conservative in their pure form describe the views of relatively few people

• Are pure liberal or pure conservative because of information and peers

• Activists: hold office, run for office, lead interest groups and social movements

• Since 1980s Congress has showed more partisan voting

• Elites influence public opinion in two ways.

1. Elites raise and frame political issues: influence what issues capture public opinion and how those issues are debated and decided

2. State the norms by which issues should be settled

•POLITICAL ELITES HAVE A DISPROPORTIONATE INFLUENCE ON PUBLIC POLICY AND ENVEN AND INFLUENCE ON MASS OPINION