<p> AP US GOVERNMENT</p><p>Review Topics/Vocab Political Socialization/Public Opinion </p><p> o Political socialization – how Americans learn about politics & form political beliefs o Factors influencing political socialization - #1 is family; others include school, mass media, </p><p> geographic location – later on, will be real life experiences also</p><p> 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 </p><p> candidates have to move to the middle/moderates in general election</p><p> 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, </p><p>Protestants (esp. South) – conservative o Income – higher income tend to be fiscally conservative, but supportive of racial/sexual </p><p> equality & international cooperation; Poor – more conservative on all issues EXCEPT social welfare; </p><p> poor whites are least likely to vote</p><p> o Geographic location – based on different economic/social interests</p><p>. Unionized Midwest – L; Farmer Midwest - C; Religious South – C; East Coast – </p><p> most L; West Coast – traditionally liberal, now a mix</p><p> o Gender gap – women are more likely to be liberal & vote Democrat o Ways Americans participate in politics: voting, campaign contributions & volunteering, protest </p><p> and civil disobedience</p><p> 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</p><p>. Random Sampling - to protect against bias</p><p>• Anyone in population could be selected</p><p>• 1,000 to 1,500 sufficient for validity • Questions must be unbiased in content</p><p>• 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 </p>