POLS 1101 UGA Glas Exam 3 Study Guide
Week 11 (Public Opinion) |Q’s and A’s
Basic constitutional guarantees in the United States allows citizens to express their views
freely and compel government leaders to take the public's opinions into account if they
want to keep their jobs. The constitutional guarantees make it possible and essential for
political leaders and policy advocates to try to shape and mobilize public opinion on behalf
of their causes. Public opinion is so multi-dimensional because of the multitude of
expressions by people. - -How is public opinion multi-dimensional?
-Political socialization, political cognition, and political knowledge influence what people
believe is the most important in the aspect of public opinion. - -How do people weigh
different dimensions of public opinion differently, based on their own values?
-People often let their political identities (attitudes, perceptions, and viewpoints about
government and politics) cloud their ability to think logically. Other things that affect public
opinion include: political culture and socialization, limited political education, and how
views are shaped by the government, and mass media - -What factors influence public
opinion? How does partisanship cloud people's ability to process political information
logically?
-Political socialization, the transmission of values, social networks, and environmental
factors. Experience also shapes political values. - -How are political values shaped?
-Basic constitutional guarantees (regular elections, broad suffrage, freedom of speech and
press, freedom to form and join political organizations) allows citizens to express their
views freely and compel government leaders to take the public's opinions into account if
they want to keep their jobs. - -How does the public influence the government?
-Candidates are constantly seeking reelection - -Why would/should the government listen
to public opinion?
-Through polls and surveys - -How is public opinion measured?
-Polls are the most trustworthy when they have a large sample size, the demographics of
those polled reflect the demographics of the electorate (different for local, state, national
elections), and when the questions posed are nonbiased and not leading questions. - -
When can polls be trusted?
-Random sampling is a sampling technique in which each person in a population has an
equal probability of being chosen for sampling. In random sampling, you randomly select
people from the population with no individual selection bias-- everyone has an equal
chance of being selected. A truly random sample of any large population is rarely feasible
because there is no single directory where everyone is continently listed and so can be
Week 11 (Public Opinion) |Q’s and A’s
Basic constitutional guarantees in the United States allows citizens to express their views
freely and compel government leaders to take the public's opinions into account if they
want to keep their jobs. The constitutional guarantees make it possible and essential for
political leaders and policy advocates to try to shape and mobilize public opinion on behalf
of their causes. Public opinion is so multi-dimensional because of the multitude of
expressions by people. - -How is public opinion multi-dimensional?
-Political socialization, political cognition, and political knowledge influence what people
believe is the most important in the aspect of public opinion. - -How do people weigh
different dimensions of public opinion differently, based on their own values?
-People often let their political identities (attitudes, perceptions, and viewpoints about
government and politics) cloud their ability to think logically. Other things that affect public
opinion include: political culture and socialization, limited political education, and how
views are shaped by the government, and mass media - -What factors influence public
opinion? How does partisanship cloud people's ability to process political information
logically?
-Political socialization, the transmission of values, social networks, and environmental
factors. Experience also shapes political values. - -How are political values shaped?
-Basic constitutional guarantees (regular elections, broad suffrage, freedom of speech and
press, freedom to form and join political organizations) allows citizens to express their
views freely and compel government leaders to take the public's opinions into account if
they want to keep their jobs. - -How does the public influence the government?
-Candidates are constantly seeking reelection - -Why would/should the government listen
to public opinion?
-Through polls and surveys - -How is public opinion measured?
-Polls are the most trustworthy when they have a large sample size, the demographics of
those polled reflect the demographics of the electorate (different for local, state, national
elections), and when the questions posed are nonbiased and not leading questions. - -
When can polls be trusted?
-Random sampling is a sampling technique in which each person in a population has an
equal probability of being chosen for sampling. In random sampling, you randomly select
people from the population with no individual selection bias-- everyone has an equal
chance of being selected. A truly random sample of any large population is rarely feasible
because there is no single directory where everyone is continently listed and so can be
