Review Topics/Vocab s1

AP US GOVERNMENT

Review Topics/Vocab Political Socialization/Public Opinion

o Political socialization – how Americans learn about politics & form political beliefs o Factors influencing political socialization - #1 is family; others include school, mass media,

geographic location – later on, will be real life experiences also

o Minority Majority – predicted soon o Senior Citizens – largest group in America’s population today o Political ideology – thoughts & beliefs about politics & government ….liberal - conservative spectrum o U.S. has less ideological groups than most other western democracies – why? o Majority of Americans are moderates o Those who are most strongly ideological tend to be most politically active o SO, they vote in primaries and caucuses o Forces candidates have to appeal to strong ideology in primaries……but

candidates have to move to the middle/moderates in general election

o Know the major beliefs of the conservatives and the liberals! o Factors that affect political ideology: o Race – Blacks, Hispanics are liberal EXCEPT Cubans who are conservative o Gender – women more liberal o Religion – Jews, African American Protestants are most liberal; Catholics – liberal,

Protestants (esp. South) – conservative o Income – higher income tend to be fiscally conservative, but supportive of racial/sexual

equality & international cooperation; Poor – more conservative on all issues EXCEPT social welfare;

poor whites are least likely to vote

o Geographic location – based on different economic/social interests

. Unionized Midwest – L; Farmer Midwest - C; Religious South – C; East Coast –

most L; West Coast – traditionally liberal, now a mix

o Gender gap – women are more likely to be liberal & vote Democrat o Ways Americans participate in politics: voting, campaign contributions & volunteering, protest

and civil disobedience

o Polls – most common means of assessing public opinion o Harris & Gallup are most famous o Done via stratified sampling – cross-sections of population or

. Random Sampling - to protect against bias

• Anyone in population could be selected

• 1,000 to 1,500 sufficient for validity • Questions must be unbiased in content

• Must be asked in neutral manner o Sampling error – how far off poll could be; more respondents a poll surveys, the lower the sampling error, usually 4% o Other types of polls o Push polls o Straw polls o Exit polls – target polls in districts that represent the voting public & randomly poll voters as they leave