Pols CG

Includes family, schools, mass media, peers, and political leaders and events

are people who believe that government should do les in this realm, leaving economic benefits to be distributed to a great extent through the marketplace only.

Those who think government should do more to help the less well off.

is a consistent pattern of political attitudes that stems from a core belief. A basic belief of socialism, for example, is that society should ensure that everyone’s basic economic needs are met.

characterizes the combination of attitudes such as opposing big governments in both the economic and the social realms. Dr. B’s definition (Libertarians are social liberals and economic conservatives. They want the government to spend less and to not legislate morality)

Refers to a person’s ingrained sense of loyalty to a political party. This is not a formal membership in a party but rather an emotional attachment to a party

A learning process by which people acquire their political opinions, beliefs, and values

In a public opinion poll, a relatively few individuals –the sample—are interviewed in order to estimate the opinions of a whole “population” such as the residents of a city or a country

used to describe this combination of attitudes. Dr. B’s definition (Populists are social conservatives and economic liberals. They want the government to actively pursue traditional values, spending money as necessary to do so)

viewed as the politically relevant opinions held by ordinary citizens that they express openly.

A relatively few individuals –the sample—are interviewed in order to estimate the opinions of a whole population. (similar to definition of population)

In the “public opinion poll, this refers to the few individuals that are interviewed in order to estimate the opinions of a whole population. (Similar to Public opinion poll and Public opinion.)

The accuracy of polls is expressed in terms of sampling error --Accuracy of a poll, the degree to which the sample estimates might differ from what the population actually thinks

Those who think government should do more to promote cultural traditions, for example, by enacting laws that promote certain religious beliefs and practices, such as a ban on abortion or civil unions are called social conservatives

Those who think government should not favor traditional values but should instead leave lifestyle choices to the individual are labeled social liberals

Random selection is the key to scientific polling, which is based on probability sampling i.e. a bowl full of red and blue marbles, blindfold a person and have them choose a thousand and chances are they will pick about 50% blue, 50% red.

There are different types of polls, Scientific polls are different from internet polls and different from “people in the street” interviews such as news reporters will conduct

A properly drawn sample of one thousand individuals has a sampling error of roughly plus or minus 3 percent. Thus, if 55 percent of a sample of one thousand respondents say they intend to vote for Republican presidential candidate, then the probability is high that between 52 and 58% (55 plus or minus 3%) of all voters actually plan to vote Republican

The Gallup organization has polled voters since 1936 (19 elections) and has only erred once as they stopped polling several weeks before the 1948 election and missed a shift that let Truman to victory

Problems with polls is shift from home phones to cell phones, people not wanting to take polls, people who do take polls respond to issues they don’t know as they don’t want to seem stupid, the later is called “nonopinions”. Some people who know an issue will state a politically correct answer rather than what they actually think

Despite the issues of polling, the poll or survey is the most relied upon method of measuring public opinion