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30 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Public opinion
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The distribution of the populations beliefs about politics and policy issues
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Demography
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The science of population changes
ie. births, deaths, income, or the incidence of disease |
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Census
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An "actual enumeration" of the population, which the Constitution requires the government to conduct every 10 years. (Years that end in 0)
Asks for age, gender, amount of people living in household, etc... Tells the amount of people living in given area, which is good for figuring out representatives in the House |
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Minority Majority
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Where non-Hispanic whites will represent the minority of the US population and minority groups together will represent the majority
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Political culture
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An overall set of values widely shared within a society
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Reapportionment
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Every 10 years, Congress has to take a census. The results of this census will see how many people are allowed in each states House since the representation there depends on the amount of people in the state.
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Political Socialization
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The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views and knowledge based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others.
other: books |
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Sample
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A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative as a whole
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Random sampling
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The key technique employed by survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample
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Exit poll
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Public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision
ie. Election Day |
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Gender gap
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A regular patters in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending
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Political participation
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All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue.
The most common means of this in a democracy is voting Other examples include protest and civil disobedience |
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Protest
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A form of political participation designed to achieve polity change, through dramatic and unconventional methods
i.e.. Occupy wall street |
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Civil disobedience
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A form of political participation based on a conscious decision to break a law believed to be unjust and to suffer the consequences
In 1840s, Henry Thoreau refused to pay taxes in protest against the Mexican War |
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Polling
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The recording of opinions through the use of a poll.
Good: Gives politicians an idea of what the people want so they can shape their campaigns. Bad: Are not always fairly made. Can result in sampling error, not a good sampling size, etc... |
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Majoritarian politics
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Majoritarian politics is a system that believes that a majority of a certain population should have a bigger say in the decisions of a society.
The majority could be determined by religion, social class or some other factor. |
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Liberal
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Open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.
Supports a wide scope for the central government, often involving policies that aim to promote equality ie. Supporting the freedom of choice in abortion, or allowing gays to marry with all the benefits |
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Conservative
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A person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in relation to politics.
Support a less active scope of government that gives freer rein to a private sector ie. Supporting right to life, not allowing gays to marry with benefits |
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Activist
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Advocating or engaged in the policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change.
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Political spectrum
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A way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions.
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Moderate
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A person who holds moderate views, esp. in politics.
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Political elite
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The best educated, best-informed and most politically active people nationwide with an outsized influence on public officials.
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Polls: Sample Bias
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Not everyone in the population is equally represented.
ie. Polls taken at the mall make it hard for lower class and older generations to take it. Hard to get a poll done over the phone because you are not supposed to call people cell phones and a lot of people only have those |
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Polls: Response Bias
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Not everyone equally likely to respond to the polls.
A sollution to this is oversampling, where a vote may not count if their "type" is already being represented fully ie. Enough white, male, higher class have already participation |
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Polls: Question Bias
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Poll Questions can lead people to not answer as they really feel
ie. Do you agree with gay marriage People may not admit to the socially unacceptable view May give the answer they think the pollster wants |
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Polls: Deliberately Bad Polls
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Some are deliberately biased
Entertainment polls are not designed for get accurate information |
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Political ideaology
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A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events
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Group Benefit voters
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Think of politics in terms of who others like
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Nature of times voters
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Politics are based on whether the times seemed good or bad at the time
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Ideologues
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Thought in ideology terms and could connect their opinions/beliefs with broad policy positions taken by parties or candidates.
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