– An ideology is a coherent set of

beliefs and thoughts about

politics and government
– Three most common in America
are conservative, liberal, and
moderate
– stress that people should be responsible for
themselves and should not rely on government
intervention
– favor free-market solutions to problems rather
than having the government regulate business
– favors lower taxes
– Social Conservatives – makeup a powerful wing
of the conservative movement
» Support government action on social issues
» Pro-life
» Pro-prayer in school
» Anti-drug
– believe that government should be used to
remedy social problems and economic
inequalities
– support government regulation of the
economy
– support government efforts to redress past
social injustices (affirmative action)
– strictly enforce separation of church and
state
– Pro-choice
– make up the largest
portion of the American
public
– as of 1993, nearly half of
all Americans identified
themselves as
moderates
– there is no coherent
ideology
– People are not well informed about
the issues facing government, and
they may have contradictory
attitudes
– The least informed are the least
likely to participate in politics.
The US has always been a nation
of immigrants
•America is becoming more and
more diverse all of the time
•Minority groups have assimilated
many basic American values, such
as the principle of equality
 N

O E

R U

T R

H O

Three Great W P

Waves of E E
A
S
Immigration T N

E S

R
N
SOUTHERN &
EASTERN
EUROPEANS
HISPANICS & ASIANS
– America has long been considered a
“melting pot,” but many people now
speak of a new minority majority
• They feel that America will eventually cease
to have a white majority
• It is estimated that all the minority groups
combined should pass the 50% mark by the
middle of this century
 Demographic changes are
associated with political changes
• The regional shift
– over the last 50 years, much of the growth of
America’s population has been centered in the
South and the West – movement TO “Sun Belt”
states such as Florida, California, and Texas FROM
“rust belt” states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and
Michigan
– Process of reapportionment occurs every ten
years, causing a massive change in
representation of states – New York has lost
about 1/3 of its Representatives over the last 50
years.
– Fastest growing age group in America is
citizens over 65
– By 2020, there will be only two working
Americans for every person over the age of 65

*Gray Power” – strong coalition of the

elderly voting against programs that
would take money and benefits away
from them
– Political Socialization
• Process through which a person acquires
knowledge, a set of political attitudes, and
forms opinions about the political system
and other social issues
• Only a small portion of this process is
formal learning, informal learning is much
more important
– family
» important because of its monopoly on
two crucial resources in the early years –
time and emotional commitment
» although many children like to think of
themselves as “independent minded,”
you can fairly accurately predict their
political leanings by knowing the
tendencies of their parents
– mass media
» referred to as “the new parent”
» television, without a doubt, is the
most common source of political
information
» recent studies have attributed the
lack of political knowledge of the
youth to their media consumption
habits – older people pay more
attention to the news than younger
people
– Schools
» Governments throughout the
world use schools as an
attempt to instill a
commitment to the basic
values of their system
• Aging increases one’s political
participation and the strength of their
party affiliation
• Political behavior is to some degree a
learned behavior
• Governments largely aim their
socialization efforts at the young
because one’s political orientations
grow firmer as one grows older
– Public opinion is what
Americans believe (and
think they believe) about
politics and public policy.
• Fluctuates over time
• President usually has
the greatest success in
shaping public opinion in
the area of foreign
policy – during times of
national crises, public
opinion and support for
the President usually
increases
 •Intensity – how strongly people feel
about a particular issue
•Stability – public opinion on issues
changes over time

Efficacy – the degree to which people think

that they can change government
– education level
» better educated tend to be better
informed, more likely to vote, and are
more tolerant of opposing views than
their uneducated counterparts
– race/ethnicity
» racial and ethnic groups that tend to
have lower income levels tend to be
more liberal than other Americans
» Blacks and many Hispanics are more
likely to support liberal social
programs
– religion
» Jews and African-American Protestants
are generally the most liberal of religious
groups
» Catholics tend to be liberal, but many are
conservative on social issues
» Devout white Protestants tend to be
more conservative (especially in the
South, where white Protestants who
attend church regularly are among the
strongest supporters of the GOP)
– gender – women are more liberal than men
• Public opinion polling was first created by George
Gallup in 1932
• Polls rely on a sample of the population
– group to be measured is called the “population”
– pollster takes a “random sample”
» key to accuracy of opinion polls is random
sampling
» there is always a certain amount of risk of
inaccuracy involved, known as the “sampling
error”
» proper techniques must be followed to
remain within the margin of error
» typical poll of about 1000 to 1500 has a sampling
error of + or – 3 percent
• Most polling today is done on the phone
with numbers selected through
“random-digit dialing”
– used by the media to project election
winners before most votes have
been counted
– criticized in presidential elections
because the media may actually
declare a winner before the polls have
closed on the West Coast
 – Polls have revealed time and time again
that the American public has a dismally
low level of political knowledge
• Less than half of the public can name their
representative in the House of
Representatives
• 14% of Americans in a 1998 survey could
not even find their own country on a
world map
– Americans have many different ways to
participate in politics, but voting in
presidential elections is the most common
form of participation
– The US has a participatory political culture
(participation is not required), only 49%
voted in the 1996 election, and 67% in 2000.
» running for office
• Conventional
– these are the widely accepted modes of influencing
government
» voting
» trying to persuade others
» ringing doorbells for a petition
– Most adult Americans, when participating in politics,
will vote in an election, but only a minority of people
will do more than that.
• Unconventional – activities that are often
dramatic, such as protesting, civil
disobedience, and even violence
• In the US, participation is a class-based activity –
citizens of a higher socio-economic status
participate more than others
• Minority groups are below average in terms of
political participation
• When blacks, Hispanics, and whites of the SAME
educations and incomes are compared, the
minorities participate more in politics