Chapter 7 Public Opinion

How much does public opinion in America vary by age and other characteristics?

Lots. There are cleavages in American public opinion, but they change over time, and it is hard to generalize meaningfully about how they affect politics and government. For example, the opinions of voters under age 30 differ markedly from those of senior citizens (people age 65 and older) on numerous issues. Women are far more sympathetic to liberal causes and Democratic candidates than men, but these so-called gender gaps in opinion and voting behavior are more pronounced in some elections than in others. On some issues, the opinions of whites and blacks are similar or narrowing, but on other issues, wide opinion gaps remain between whites and blacks. People who attend worship services regularly are more conservative and far more likely to vote Republican in presidential elections than people who attend worship services rarely if ever.

elite

People who have a disproportionate amount of some valued resource.

political elites

Persons with a disproportionate share of political power.

What is "public opinion" and how do we measure it?

Public opinion refers to how people think or feel about particular things, including but not limited to politics and government. Today, it is commonly measured by means of scientific survey research or polls based on random samples of given populations.

political ideology

A more or less consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue.

norm

A standard of right or proper conduct.

poll

A survey of public opinion.

What role did the Framers of the Constitution think public opinion should play in making public policy?

Basically, they believed that it should play a rather limited role. The Framers worried that majority opinion would often prove fickle, factious, or overly inclined toward short-term thinking. And they did not want fundamental rights and freedoms at the mercy of majority will. But, as explained in this chapter's Constitutional Connections feature, the Framers were sympathetic to the idea that a persistent majority—a majority, for example, that persisted over several national election cycles for Congress and the presidency— should often, though not always, be heeded by duly elected representatives and reflected in public policies. Of course, for good or ill, not all persistent majorities prevail. As this chapter's What's Your Issue? feature indicates, for more than a dozen years now more than six in ten Americans have favored amending the Constitution to end the Electoral College system and replace it with a system of direct popular election; it has not happened, and there is at present little chance that it will happen anytime soon.

gender gap

Difference in political views between men and women.

public opinion

How people think or feel about particular things.

random sample

Method of selecting from a population in which each person has an equal probability of being selected.

What is "political ideology" and how does it matter for what elites and the mass public believe?

Political ideology is defined as a more or less consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue. Elites are more prone to think ideologically than average citizens are, but there are mass ideologies, and the relationship between what diverse elites believe and what the public at large believes admits of no easy generalizations. Political scientists measure the extent to which people have a political ideology by seeing how frequently people use broad political categories (such as "liberal" and "conservative") to describe their own views or to justify their preferences for candidates and policies. They also measure it by seeing to what extent the policy preferences of a citizen are consistent over time or are based at any one time on consistent principles. Many scholars believe that Americans are becoming more ideological. On many issues, for example, the policy preferences of average Republican and Democratic voters now differ significantly from one another. There is clear evidence that political elites are more ideological today than they were just a generation or two ago. The government attends more to the elite views than to popular views, at least on many matters.

What is "political socialization" and how does it work?

Political socialization refers to the process by which background traits influence one's political views. It works mainly through families, schools, and religious affiliations.

exit polls

Polls based on interviews conducted on election day with randomly selected voters.

political socialization

Process by which background traits influence one's political views.

sampling error

The difference between the results of random samples taken at the same time.

People self-label as "liberal," "moderate," or "conservative," but are there more refined ways of describing and classifying citizens' political views?

Yes. One example is the political typology pioneered in 1987 by survey research experts with the Pew Research Center, and updated four times since then. The latest Pew political typology describes and classifies citizens' political views into nine different groups: go to the web site (www.people-press.org/ typology/quiz) and see whether you are scored as a "Staunch Conservative," a "Solid Liberal," or one of the seven other categories in between.