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103 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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CNN/USA Today Poll on September 11 found:
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86% felt the attacks were an act of war
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Washington Post/ABC Poll on September 13, 2001 found:
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93% favored military action
85% favored striking Afghanistan if Osama bin Laden was responsible |
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Public opinion
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aims to understand the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues
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Demography
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The study of human populations
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Census
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US constitution requires one every 10 years; first one in 1790 and most recent in 2010
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1999 - Department of Commerce v. House of Representatives
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sampling could not be used to determine number of congressional districts each state is entitled to
however, court said you could use sampling for other purposes such as the allocation of federal grants to the states |
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3 Waves of immigration
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1. Prior to 19th century, NW Europeans: English, Irish, German, Scandinavian
2. late 19th and early 20th: Southern/Eastern Europeans: Italians, Jews, Poles, Russians, through Ellis Island 3. Hispanics from Cuba, Central America, and Mexico and Asians form Vietnam, Korea, and the Philippines |
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Decade with the largest number of immigrants
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1980s
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Huge immigrant population
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in Miami, escaping Castro's regime
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Melting pot
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a mixture of cultures, ideas, and peoples
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Minority majority
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Americans will eventually cease to be white, generally Anglo-Saxon community
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Until recently, largest minority was
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blacks
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In 2004, Census Bureau found that:
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25% of African Americans lived under the poverty line, only 11% of whites
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Number of African American officials has increased by:
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500% since 1970
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In 2001, who became first African American secretary of state?
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Colin Powell
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First black national security adviser, then replaced Powell as secretary of state
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Condoleezza Rice
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In 2000, what group outnumbered African Americans
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Hispanics
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The Simpson-Mazzoli Act
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everyone had to prove they were either a US citizen or a legal immigrant in order to work
Civil and criminal penalties could be assessed against employers who knowingly employed undocumented immigrants However, it has proved difficult to prove that employers have knowingly accepted false documents |
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Recent influx of Asians has been driven by:
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a new class of professional workers looking for greater opportunity
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Asians who have come to America since 1965 Immigration Act
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opened the gate to make up the most highly skilled immigrant group in American history
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Asian Americans have been called the:
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"super achievers" of the minority majority
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What percent of Asian Americans over 25 hold a college degree?
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49%, twice the national average
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Gary Locke
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1996 - the first Chinese American elected Governor of Washington; also Secretary of Commerce and now ambassador to China
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Norman Mineta
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Asian appointed Secretary of Transportation
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Worst off majority
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Native Americans
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Native Americans have largest number of:
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suicides, alcoholism, poverty
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Originally __ Native Americans before Europeans arrived
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12-15 million
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# of people list themselves as Native American heritage
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4 million
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Native Americans are:
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least healthy, poorest, and least educated group in America
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Largest Sioux reservation
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in Dakotas, half live under poverty line
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Political culture
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an overall set of values widely shared within a society
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For most of US History, most populous states concentrated in:
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states north of Mason-Dixon line and east of Mississippi river
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Over past 60 years, most of population growth centered:
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in west and south
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Reappointment
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Once a decade, after every census; the 435 seats in House are reallocated to states on the basis of population changes
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Fastest growing age group
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Citizens over 65
Because of medical advances and dropped birthrate |
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Social security: pas as you go
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Today's workers pay benefits for today's retirees
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Social security exceeded only by:
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national defense as America's most costly public policy
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Political ideology
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A coherent set of values and beliefs about public policy
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2004 General Survey, how did people label themselves?
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38% Conservative, 38% moderate, 24% liberal
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Among people under 30, how many were liberals/conservatives
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Just as many!
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The younger a person is,
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the less likely that person will be conservative
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Younger people are less likely to vote, which means
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conservatives are over represented at the polls
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Groups with political clout tend to be more:
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conservative
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Blacks in America today tend to be more:
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liberal
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Latino population tends to be:
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less conservative than whites
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Women are not a minority group, but
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54% of population and economically and politically disadvantaged
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Compared to men, women are more likely to vote for
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spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending
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Gender gap
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the ideological differences between men and women
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Differences between liberals and conservatives:
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Financial status/social class; but, political sciences can't use social class as a way to determine how people are going to vote
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Catholics and Jews tend to be more
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liberal
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New Christian Right
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Catholics and Protestants who consider themselves fundamentalists or born-again
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American Voter published in 1960 split people into 4 groups
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12% ideologues - think in ideological terms
42% Group Benefits - think in terms of groups who they like/dislike 24% Nature of the Times - whether or not times are good or bad 22% No issue Content - vote based on personality or party |
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Nie, Verba, and Petrocick said...
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voters were more sophisticated in the 1970s than the 1950s
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Authors of The American Voter concluded....
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to speak of election results as indicating a movement of the public either left (to more liberal policies) or right (to more conservative policies) is not justified because most voters do not think in such terms
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Fiorina concluded...
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"The views of the American citizenry look moderate, centrist, nuanced, ambivalent rather than extremely polarized, unconditional, dogmatic"
Small groups of liberal and conservative activists act as if they are at war with one another, left most Americans in middle position |
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Political participation
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encompasses the many activities in which citizens engage to influence the selection of political leaders of the policies they pursue
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Conventional participation
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includes widely accepted modes of influencing government: voting, trying to persuade others, ringing doorbells for a petition, running for office
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Unconventional participation
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activities that are often dramatic; protesting, civil disobedience, violence
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For few, politics is...
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their lifeblood; they run for office, work regularly in politics, and live for the next election
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Political elites
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activists, party leaders, interest group leaders, judges, members of Congress, and other public officials
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Voting is the only aspect of political participation...
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that a majority of the population reported engaging in but also the only political activity for which there is evidence of a decline in participation in recent years
Substantial increases in participation have been found on the dimensions of giving money to candidates and contacting public officials |
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Protests
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a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics
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Protests today....
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are often orchestrated to provide television cameras with vivid images
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Demonstration coordinators
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Steer participants to prearranged staging areas and provide facilities for press coverage
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Civil disobedience as a form of protest
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Consciously broken a law they thought was unjust
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Thoreau
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refused to pay his taxes as a protest against the Mexican-American War and went to jail; Emerson paid the taxes for him
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College campuses
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sometimes turned into battle zones as protesters against the Vietnam War fought police and National Guard
Kent State and Jackson State |
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Constitution, produced 11 years after the Revolution, had to deal with:
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effort to reconcile personal liberty with th eneeds of social control
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This politicla tradition has imbued the daily conduct of US politics with a kind of adversarial spirit quite foreign to the political life of countries that:
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did not undergo a libertarian revolution or were formed out of an interest in other goals, such as social equality, national independence, or ethnic supremacy
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Adversarial spirit of the American political culture reflects not only our:
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preoccupation with rights but also our long-standing distrust of authority and of people wielding power
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Americans saw human nature as
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fundamentally depraved
To colonists, all of mankind suffered form original sin |
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Constitution had to be designed in such a way as to:
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curb the darker side of human nature
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First great test case took place around 1800 between Federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton, and the Democratic-Republicans, led by Thomas jefferson and James madison
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Two factions distrusted each other: Federalists passed laws designed to suppress Jeffersonian journalists; Jefferson suspected the Federalists were out to subvert the Constitution; and the Federalists believed Jefferson intended to sell the country to France
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Within a few years the role of an opposition party became ligitimate,
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and people abandoned the idea of making serious efforts to suppress their opponents. By happy circumstance people cane to accept that liberty and orderly political change could coexist.
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Religious diversity was inevitable:
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due to the absence of an established or official religion, reinforced by a constitutional prohibitiion of such an establishment and by th emigration to this country of people with different religious backgrounds
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Two big religious separations:
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Conflict between Puritan tradition, with its emphasis on faith and hard work, and the Catholic Church, with its devotion ot the sacraments and priestly authority
Differences showed up not only in their religious practices but also in areas involving the regulation of manners and morals, and even in people's choice of political party |
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Who came up with the Protestant work ethic
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Max Weber
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Class consciousness
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thinking of oneself as a worker whose interests are in opposition to those of management, or vice versa
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For many years, the most explosive political issues have included:
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abortion, gay rights, drug use, school prayer, and pornography
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Orthodox
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people who believe that morality is important as, or more important than, self-expression and that moral rules derive from the commands of God or the laws of nature--commands that are relatively clear, unchanging, and independent of individual preferences
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Progressive
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people who think that personal freedom is as important as, or more important than, certain traditional moral rules and that those rules must be evaluated in light of the circumstances of moderl life--circumstances that are quite complex, changeable, and dependent on individual preferences
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Many people who hold orthodox views are not fanatical or deeply religious or right wing on most issues;
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they simply have strong views about drugs, pornography, and sexual morality
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Progressive side often includes:
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members of liberal Protestant demoninations (ex. Episcopalians and Unitarians) and people with no strong religious beliefs
Their critics often denounce them as immoral, anti-Christian radicals who have embraced the ideology of secular humanism |
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Few progressives are
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immoral or anti-Christian, and most do not regard secular humanism as their defining ideology
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Leaders of the same faiths who have a progressive outlook are more likely to:
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say that many legitimate alternatives to the traditional two-parent family exist, that pornography and homosexuality are private matters protected by indivudual rights
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Since the late 1950s there has been a more or less steady decline in the
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proportion of Americans who say they trust the govenrmen tin Washinton to do the right thing
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Nixon
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had to resign becaues of Watergate and unahappy war in Vietnam
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Clinton
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was impeached by House of Representatives
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1960s and 1970s changed everything
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Domestic turmoil, urban riots, a civil rights revolution, the war in Vietnam, economic inflation, and a new concern for the environment dramatically increased what we expected Washington to do
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September 11
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Huge outburst of patriotic fervor, things changed
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In October 2001,
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57% percent of Americans said they trusted the federal government to do what is right just about always or most of the time
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By May 2002,
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40 percent expressed trust in federal government
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Political ifficacy
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a citizen's capacity to udnerstand and influence political events
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Internal efficacy
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the ability to understand and take part in political affairs
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External efficacy
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the ability to make the system respond to the citizenry
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Though Americans may feel less effective as citizens than they once did,
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their sense of efficacy remains much higher than it is among Europeans
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Americans were much more likely than Europeans to say:
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that they reguarly discussed politics, signed petitions, and worked to solve community problems
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There is evidence that the less voters trust politicl institutions and leaders,
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the mor elikely they are to support condidates from the nonincumbent major party and third-party candidates
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Democratic politics depends crucially on
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citizens' being reasonably tolerant of the opinions and actiosn of others
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But, at a minimum, citizens must hav ea political culture that allows:
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the discussion of ideas and the seleciton of rulers in an atmosphere reasonably free of oppression
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When we get down to concrete cases, mny americans are not
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very tolerant of groups they dislike
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Most of us are ready to deny some group its rights
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but we usually can't agree on which group that should be
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1919-1920 and again in early 1950s,
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communists were disliked by most people in the US
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