AP GOV Unit 4: Political Ideologies and Political Beliefs

• Public opinion: how the public feels about something
• Issue public: a smaller group to whom an issue appeals to
• Public opinion polls: measure the opinion of the public
• Random sampling: taking from a random group of people to ensure representative results
• Benchmark poll: a poll taken when the candidate announces to measure chances and see how they improve
• Tracking polls: polls taken throughout the election process frm the same sample group to see how opinion changes
• Entrance polls: taken on election day as voters go in
• Exit polls: at polling places as voters exit, target groups of random people
• Stratified random sampling: the weighting of the poll to ensure for different demographics
• Sampling error: the fact that polls are not 100% accurate and tend to have variations in accuracy above or below
• Public opinion: comes from political socialization, family, friends, media
• Ideology: ones viewpoint on government
• Conservative: less government involvement, state autonomy, defense, laissez faire
• Liberal: freedom of the individual and the rights of the individual to pursue their own happiness, separate church and state, economy regulation, social welfare
• Independent: use own sense of ideals
• Primaries: bring out the extreme voters
• Factors in Ideology: race, religion, gender, income, region
• News sources: magazines, blog, broadcasts, interviews, web, papers
• Media tends to be more objective now but still influence with what stories to cover, sound bites, photo ops, press releases, and planned apearances
• Political efficacy: believing your vote matters
• Increase Voter Turnout: mail in voting, early voting, absentee voting