Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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Transcript of Public Opinion and Political Socialization
• Bentham• Utilitarianism• Public opinion should lead to a government
that rules in a way that brings the greatest happiness to the greatest number
• Difficulty in defining public opinion• Does “public” really have an opinion?• Are we actively interested?
• Politically relevant opinions held by ordinary citizens that they express openly
The Definition
• People have conflicting opinions
• Sometimes our opinions conflict with reality
• So do we have to be informed to have a reasonable opinion?
Struggles with Public Opinion
• Polls are the most basic• Use a sample to measure attitudes of a population
• Laws of probability
• Marbles
• Must have random selection based on probability samples
• Size of sample matters…not size of population
• Sampling error
• 1,000 individuals in sample has sampling error of +/- 3 percent
• Problems with polls• Hard to have a population
• We don’t all have phones, for example
• Nonopinions
• Social desirability bias
• Interviewer effects
How Do We Measure It?
• Process by which we acquire political opinions, beliefs, and values
• Occurs throughout life but most impacted by childhood learning
• Effect is cumulative
• Agents:• Family• Schools• Media• Peers• Leaders and Institutions• Churches
Political Socialization
• Cultural
• Ideological• Conservative, liberal, libertarian, populist• Divided between economic and social
policies
• Group• Religion, class, region, race/ethnicity, gender,
age• But there are crosscutting cleavages at times
• Party identification
How We Think Politically
• Some say that politicians are insensitive...others find the opposite effect
• Certain issues have their own effects• i.e. Social Security
• Some issues are too divisive to be satisfied
• The question of whether government cares enough about public opinion is normative
But Does it Influence Policy?
• Patterson Chapter 7
• Connell: What are the basics Connell says a website needs? His article was from 1998…what is he missing that we know about in 2010?
• Maor: What does the Maor article teach us about handling campaign speeches? What do you find interesting? Surprising?
For Tuesday