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Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions

Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions. Dr Justin Greaves Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick. So who am I? . Currently teach first and second year students in PAIS Particular interest in British politics Interest in working across subject areas

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Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions

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  1. Left and Right: Political Attitudes and Opinions Dr Justin Greaves Department of Politics and International Studies University of Warwick

  2. So who am I? • Currently teach first and second year students in PAIS • Particular interest in British politics • Interest in working across subject areas (‘interdisciplinarity’)

  3. Political views • People have different views about political issues • One way of characterising such views is the ‘left/right’ political spectrum • Originated from the time of the French Revolution • The aristocracy sat on the right of the King, and the popular movements to the left

  4. Do you agree? • ‘Higher education should be free for all and there should be no tuition fees’.

  5. Do you agree? • ‘Rich people have worked hard to make their money and therefore they should pay as little tax as possible’

  6. Do you agree? • ‘Many unemployed people spend too much time watching Jeremy Kyle and not enough time looking for work. Therefore, we should reduce their welfare benefits’.

  7. Left-right spectrum • Right-wingers stress freedom or the rights of individuals to do as they please – free from interference from government • Left-wings believe that such freedom is at the expense of the weak. Promoting equality is far more important. Therefore, a larger role for government

  8. Why do you think people have different views on political issues?

  9. Possible explanations • Genes • Upbringing (parents/friends) • Financial situation/class/personal circumstances • ‘Reason’ – rationally thinking through the issues?

  10. The three main parties

  11. The three party leaders

  12. Difficulties may occur when people with different political views try to work together • How does this apply to the Coalition government?

  13. A fair reflection or not?

  14. Broken promises in politics

  15. ‘Public Opinion’ • You will have seen opinion polls in the media • These may only interview 1000 people out of the whole population of Britain • If the sample is ‘representative’ these polls should be accurate

  16. Polls usually have a margin of error of + or – 3% • 19 times out of 20 a poll should fall between this margin of error

  17. What could cause an opinion poll to be biased or skewed in some way?

  18. A few ideas • An unrepresentative sample • ‘Politically-correct answers’ (people like to come across to others as being nice!) • Faulty memories • Loaded (or badly worded) questions • Key problem: polls measure attitudes and opinions not behaviour

  19. Getting the answer you want • This clip from Yes Prime Minister is very illuminating on opinion polls!

  20. I hope you have enjoyed this seminar • More about my teaching and research interests can be found at this link: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/people/greaves • Video of one of my undergraduate lectures on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5NJyrkT-2w

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