Chapter 8 Public Opinion, Participation, and Voting

1

• Chapter 8 Public Opinion, Participation, and
  Voting
• Public opinion is just one part of this chapter
• We also look at how we measure it, how it
  changes, how we participate in the political
  process, and why people vote (or do not) the way
  they do
• Lets start with the definition
• Public opinion is the distribution of individual
  preferences for or evaluations of a given issue,
  candidate, or institution within a specific
  population.
• Basically, public opinion is what the people are
  thinking
• The way we find out what people are thinking is
  by conducting polls
• Sampling is keyyou must choose a random sample
  in which everyone is eligible of being selected.
• The book gives a good examplea survey of 18 to
  24 year olds should not be conducted on ONLY
  college students.
• Even with the proper sampling, there is still a
  margin of errorusually /- 3
• Some issues we have a consensus and with some,
  Americans are polarized

2

• Intensity
• This is how strongly a person feels about a
  specific issue
• Latency
• This is the idea that there are issues that are
  really not on the front-burner yet, but it takes
  a candidate and/or an event to make them a
  critical issue in America
• Salience
• How relevant is a specific issue to you?
• How Do We Get Our Political Opinions and Values?
• Family (parents are strongest)
• Schools (include peers)
• Mass Media
• Other Religious, ethnic, racial attitudes,

3

• Stability and Change in Public Opinion
• Typically, Americans do not change their views
  dramatically
• 9/11 is a good example of how the trust of
  government increases for a short time (even
  though before most people in America did NOT
  trust the government
• These views do not change because of our core
  values
• That is why you typically do not see a large
  change in abortion, death penalty, etc over time
• The job performance of a president typically does
  not effect our core values
• Public Opinion and Public Policy
• At times, public policy MUST reflect public
  opinion
• If politicians fail to following this, they may
  be out of a job

4

• Awareness and Interest
• For most of us, politics is not that importantwe
  have many more things to worry about
• However, politics play a role in those things
  we worry about
• Most people do not know many top government
  officials
• i.e. Jay Walking on The Tonight Show
• There are some people, called the attentive
  public that know and care a great deal for
  politics
• On the other side, you have nonvoters and
  political know-nothings
• Finally, part-time citizens- these people vote
  some of the time

5

• VOTING
• People do not
• Registration is a must- however states can make
  certain rules
• The American Government has switched to an
  Australian Ballot (secret ballot)
• The Motor-Voter Bill (National Voter Registration
  Act), sign by Clinton, has increased the number
  of people who registered (however, they still do
  not vote)
• The turnout (those who actually vote) sways from
  time period to time period
• The last two elections have had high turnout
• Who Votes?
• There are lots of factors
• As education increases, so does the number of
  people who vote
• Blacks turn out less than whitesHispanic turnout
  is greatly increasing
• More women than men vote
• Higher family incomes are more likely to vote
  than those with lower incomes
• Older people vote more (unless they are sick,
  etc)

6

• NonvotingIs it serious?
• Half of all Americans fail to vote
• Why?
• Laziness, apathy, difficulty???
• The amount of time and effort is higher than
  other democracies
• There are many offices on a ballot there are
  referendums or state constitutional amendments
• Voting Day is held on a weekday (working day)
• Lowering the age to 18 also lowered the turnout
• Some say nonvoting is not a critical problem
• Others see the class bias of those who vote

7

• VOTING CHOICES
• Voting on Basis of Party
• Party Identification is the single biggest
  predict of how a person will vote
• Voting on the Basis of Candidates
• Some like the candidates appeal and vote for a
  person for that reason (Reagan, Clinton)
• Negative appeal obviously hurts the candidate
  (McGovern, Dole)
• Others vote against the other guy
• Appeal means more than you think. If the public
  perceives a candidate are boring or incompetent,
  the campaign staff does all it can to change that
  image
• Voting on the Basis of Issues
• If the issue is important enough, people will
  vote for the candidate that best aggress with
  them
• The Republican candidates have been helped by
  Christians with their views of abortion and gay
  marriage