1. Chapter 7: Public Opinion
Pages

2. Bell Ringer
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”

3. How is public opinion formed? Why public opinions differ.
Chapter Objectives
What is public opinion?
How is public opinion formed?
Why public opinions differ.

4. WHAT IS PUBLIC OPINION?

5. PUBLIC OPINION
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

6. Monetary Control Bill
1940s
21% favored the bill
25% opposed it
The rest said they hadn’t thought about it or didn’t Know
NO SUCH BILL

7. HOW POLLING WORKS
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

8. HOW POLLING WORKS
Exit Polls = interview randomly selected people at polling place on election day
Quite accurate except when a very close election

9. HOW OPINIONS DIFFER
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

10. Political Socialization
Personal and other background traits influence one’s views about politics and government matters
Your surroundings influence your political and Government beliefs

11. THE ELITE
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

12. POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

13. FAMILY 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