Prentice Hall PoliticalScience Interactive

1. Prentice HallPoliticalScienceInteractive Thomas R. Dye Politics in America Chapter 5 Opinion and Participation: Thinking and Acting in Politics

2. Politics and Public Opinion Knowledge Levels Politics is not the major interest of most Americans and as a result, knowledge about the political system is limited

3. Politics and Public Opinion Issues concerning collecting reliable data: • Halo Effect • Inconsistencies • Instability • Salience

4. Can We Believe the Polls? • Most common: • Probability sample • Simple random sample • Stratified sample Two Methods of Drawing a Sample • Least scientific: • Accidental sample

5. Abortion: the “Hot Button” Issue

6. Socialization: The Origins of Political Opinions Family Schools Number of times a week American families say that they eat together Schools teach an idealized view of the nation’s slogans and symbols

7. Socialization: The Origins of Political Opinions Peers and Community Research shows that in heterogeneous communities, political participation tends to be higher, with more contested and competitive elections, and with more political debate than in homogeneous communities Religion Those raised in religious households tend to be socialized to contribute to society and to get involved in their communities

8. Socialization: The Origins of Political Opinions Media More than two-thirds of Americans report that they receive “all or most” of their news from television Age and Generation Generation Gap: Differences in politics and public opinion among age groups

9. Ideology and Opinion

10. Gender and Opinion

11. Race and Opinion Blacks and whites differ over the extent of racism in the United States as well as over what, if anything, should be done about it

12. Race and Opinion Students at Augustana College react to the verdict in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

13. Individual Participation in Politics Only a small percentage of the American people are actively engaged in the political process, yet they receive most of the media attention

14. Securing the Right to Vote • The elimination of property qualifications (1800-1840) • The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) • Continued denial of voting rights (1871-1964) • The Civil Rights Act, the Twenty-fourth Amendment, and the Voting Rights Act, 1964-1965

15. Securing the Right to Vote • The Nineteenth Amendment, 1920 • The Twenty-sixth Amendment, 1971 • The National Voter Registration Act, 1993

16. Should Government Leaders Pay More Attention to Public Opinion in Policy Making? Q. If the leaders of the nation followed the views of the public more closely, do you think that the nation would be better off, or worse off than it is today? • Better 81% • Worse 10% Q. Do you think that the American public knows enough about the issues you face to form wise opinions about what should be done about these issues or not? • Yes 31% • No 47% • Maybe 17% Source: Center on Policy Alternatives

17. Why Vote? Voter Turnout in Presidential and Congressional Elections

18. Voting: Registration Spanish language registration forms, where they are used, may ease the burden of registration for some

19. The Politics of Voter Turnout • The stimulus of competition • Political alienation • Intensity of opinions

20. Voter Turnout in Western Democracies Average Turnout 1991-2000

21. Nonvoting: What Difference Does it Make? A huge army of nonvoters, “hangs over the democratic process like a bomb ready to explode and change the course of history.” -Arthur Hadley “I’m not going to shed any crocodile tears if people don’t care enough to vote….I’d be extremely happy if nobody in the United States voted except for the people who thought about the issues and made up their own minds and wanted to vote.” - the late Senator Sam Ervin

22. Protest as Political Participation Cruelty or violence directed at peaceful protesters further dramatizes their cause. In Jackson, Mississippi in 1963, segregationists poured mustard, ketchup, and sugar over lunch counter sit-in protesters