Transcript Judging Public Opinion

PUBLIC OPINION
IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
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What Is Public Opinion?
Judging Public Opinion
Public and private opinions
• Private Opinions: personal
feelings you might express to
your family, neighbors, etc.
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Judging Public Opinion
Public and private opinions
• Public Opinion: the combination
of many individuals’ expressed
feelings about gov’t and
political issues.
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Judging Public Opinion
What factors
actually
determine
how much
influence public
opinion will have
on government
actions and policies?
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Judging Public Opinion
• Are people
personally
concerned?
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Judging Public Opinion
• How many people
agree on the
issue?
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Judging Public Opinion
?
• How intensely
do people
care?
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Judging Public Opinion
• How stable
are people’s
opinions?
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Judging Public Opinion
• How widespread
is an opinion?
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Ideology and Public Opinion
Ideology: an organized
pattern of looking at the
political world…
… a systematic set of ideas
that is used to justify a
particular point of view.
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Ideology and Public Opinion
On the ideological far left
Radicals: favor rapid, fundamental change in the existing
social, economic, or political
resort
to extreme
order, and
may bemethods
willing to
-- even violence and
revolution -- to accomplish
their goals.
RADICAL
GROUPS
Students for a
Democratic
Society
and the
Weather
Underground
(Weathermen)
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Black Panther Party Founders
Huey Newton and Bobby Seale
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Ideology and Public Opinion
On the ideological left:
Liberals: believe the gov’t
should actively promote social
reform to increase individuals’
well-being… tend to see
change as good… but
peaceful change within the
existing system.
Ideology and Public Opinion
In the ideological center:
Moderates: people whose
attitudes & opinions on issues
are between right and left –
between conservative and
liberal… are usually tolerant
of others’ opinions… &
Ideology and Public Opinion
On the ideological right:
Conservatives: people who
favor the status quo -- keeping
things as they are… gov’t
should stay out of people’s
lives and business.
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Ideology and Public Opinion
On the ideological far right:
Reactionaries: people who
advocate
a
return
to
a
Reactionaries: people who
previous state of affairs, often
a social order or gov’t that
existed earlier in history…
and may go to extremes to
reach their goals.
Ideology and Public Opinion
Left and Right
Originated in French National
Assembly, 1789. Those who
favored policies of the past were
seated to right of speaker… and
those who favored swift change
were seated to his left.
Many Factors Shape Political Opinions
American
Political
Culture
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American Political Culture
Political culture: those
elements related to a nation’s
gov’t and politics.
…it affects our -• support for democratic process
• attitudes toward officials
• sense of civic responsibility
• feelings toward political symbols
American Political Culture
Political symbols
...objects or expressions that
represent abstract ideas,
like “freedom,” “democracy,”
even “America” -21
American Political Culture
Political symbols
serve 3 main functions… they
 help people recognize and
respond directly to political
ideas and objects
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American Political Culture
Political symbols
 help people identify with
their own group or nation.
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American Political Culture
Political symbols
 evoke emotions… and so
help to shape attitudes --
and feelings of pride, hope,
and respect.
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American
Political
Culture
of
Four Types Political Symbols
Verbal
Personal
Symbols Symbols
Authority
Visual Symbols
Symbols
I pledge
allegiance
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Political Socialization
Political Socialization
Political socialization:
the process by which citizens
acquire their sense of political
identity.
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Political Socialization
Four main agents of
political socialization:
Family
School
Peers
Media
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