question of the day 10.22.14 “the constitution, like an old wine has rarely survived an ocean...
TRANSCRIPT
Question of the Day10.22.14
“The Constitution, like an old wine has rarely survived an ocean crossing.”
Alexis de Tocqueville 1835
Explain
“Unique American Moral and Intellectual characteristics”
Political Culture&
Political Socialization
Chapter 4 & 5
Chapter 410.22.14
Objectives Topics Political Culture vs
Political Ideology Characteristics of
Political Culture• Sources of Political
Cultrure
• Cultural War
• Mistrust
• Efficacy
• Tolerance
1. Define what scholars mean by political culture, and list some of the dominant elements of political culture in the United States.
2. List the contributions to United States political culture made by the Revolution, by the nation's religious heritages, and by the family. Explain the apparent absence of class consciousness in the U.S.
3. Identify The Cultural War that exist in America and understand the groups involved in it.
4. Define internal and external political efficacy, and explain how the level of each of these has varied over the past generations.
Political Culture
Define it
Political Culture
Widely shared beliefs, values and norms concerning people’s fundamental assumptions about how the Political Process ought to be carried out.
Ex.• “Ballots not Bullets”
• “One Man One Vote”
Political Sub-Culture (ch. 5)
Important Elements of P.C. Liberty- Equality – Civic Duty – Democracy - Individual Responsibility –
What are the widely shared beliefs, values and norms people have about these concepts?
Should we add or subtract any “Elements”?
3 Questions raised regarding PC
How do we know we “share these beliefs?”
How do we explain behavior which is “inconsistent” to them?
If there is agreement on political values…why so much political conflict?
Political Culture vs. Political Ideology (pg. 79)
11/26/14:
What is the Difference b/t P.C. and P.I. Consistent set of views concerning the policies
government ought to pursue
Why is it important to examine political culture as well as political institutions and laws to understand a political system?
Important because it determines whether and how certain political institutions and policies actually operate
Sources of P.C.Sources of P.C.1.1. Political history:Political history:
• revolution, U.S. Constitution, evolution of parties;• established liberty as the foremost political value.• the legitimate competition of governing and opposition parties • de Tocqueville; “…unique adversarial spirit quite foreign to
political life of countries who did not go through libertarian revolution…”
• and widespread but not universal electoral participation2.2. Absence of established religion, but dominance of Absence of established religion, but dominance of
Protestant ethic:Protestant ethic: • obligation to work hard, save money, obey law, do good; • development of participatory habits in congregational churches• de Tocqueville; “religion and politics actually complement each
other… religion here has a way of preventing tyranny.”
Sources Cont.3.3. Family:Family:
• primary transmitter of political values• especially egalitarianism• de Tocqueville; “They [men] give no superiority even in
opinion to one man above another, so that even though two individuals never meet in the same salons, if they meet on the public square, one looks at the other without pride, and in return is regarded without envy. At the bottom they feel themselves equal, and are.”
Culture War Define
Issues
Differ from Political Issues b/c…
Based on Question: “_________________.”
Two Groups
3 causes for the rise in Cultural Conflict?
USA Today What Roe Started 1. Define “demonization”
2. What are the 2 factors that caused it’s growth?
3. What facts would you select to show that each side is guilty of “demonizing” the other side?
4. What is the relationship b/t Roe and a current issue (Afghan war, ObamaCare, gay rights…)
5. Which other “Milestones in the culture War” were most divisive?
6. Can we add any items to the “Milestones in the culture War” post 2009?
The Forum; America, We’ve Seen Worse
1. Thesis and support
2. Mistrust & Political Efficacy
What level of mistrust do American’s have & what has shaped our mistrust?
Define Political Efficacy and distinguish b/t Internal vs. External
Compare our Current Levels to Europe
Short-answer question
The U.S. political culture emphasizes the importance of civic duty. This belief has no validity unless political efficacy exists in reality. Discuss the degree to which the American public possesses a sense of political efficacy. Is the cultural value of civic duty legitimately realized in the opinion of the public?
Chapter 5
Political Socialization & Public Opinion
Chapter 5 Objectives
1. Political Ideology and liberal vs conservative.2. Define Political Socialization and identify the
main sources in the developing of it.3. Explain why there are crosscutting
cleavages between liberals and conservatives in this country. Assess the significances of race, ethnicity, and gender in explaining political attitudes.
4. Identify the five key criteria that must be met in designing and interpreting Public Opinion Polls
Political Ideology
Political Socialization
Define
list of Socializing Agents• Family
• Religion
• Gender
• School
• Any we should add from your list?
The learning process in which The learning process in which individuals become aware of politics and individuals become aware of politics and form political valuesform political values
The “Pregnant Nun” and Influencing Agents of Political Socialization
Assignment
A. Using pages 106-111 Identify the 4 Agents of Political Socialization.
B. For Each Agent, identify 5 characteristics/facts regarding its role in Political Socialization.
(ex. Party ID and Family)
C. Identify the Ideology of the “Pregnant Nun”D. For each of the 8 symbols used to reflect her P.I.:
• identify which Agent of Political Socialization it reflects• Explain how the Agent of P.S. helped shape the P.I. of our
Pregnant Nun
QofD 10/14
Does the Media / campaign ads manipulate voter behavior? Explain
Successful, but limited b/c we have learned-independent of media/gov’t- ideals that help us make own choices.
Family
# 1 predictor of? Age process begins As grow older “Red diaper baby?” Upper Class vs lower class Recent Influence
• Decline since 1950’s b/c…
Religion
Breakdown• Catholic
• Protestant
• Jewish Why?
• Social Status
• Religious Tradition Christian Coalition
Gender Gap
Shift in political identification • 1952 both = support for D.
• Men more Rep. since 1960’s
• Women- unchanged Why?
• more prevalent w/ Issues like gun control, size of gov’t, gay rights, defense spending
Gap not always evident• Gender sensitive issues not at forefront
2008?
The gender gap in voting for president may have been significantly larger if Hillary Clinton rather than Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee.
Schooling and Information
College = More Prestigious College = Length in College = Study social Science as opposed to physical
science and engineering = WHY?
• Information
• College Teaches Liberalism
• Nature of Academia
QofD: Conservative or Liberal?1. A black woman with a college degree and high income2. A middle-class Asian man who belongs to a labor union3. A southern white male business owner4. A Hispanic employee of the federal government living in South Dakota.5. A white “soccer mom” who lives in the suburb.6. A Protestant African American man who lives in Macon, Alabama, and is
CEO of a Fortune 500 Company.7. A White, affluent women, who lives in Dallas Texas, owns her own
marketing firm and teaches part time at the local university.8. A White, Jewish male, living on Park Avenue, who is currently enrolled in
NYU seeking an engineering degree and paying for the schooling from a trust fund his parents left him.
9. A White male catholic, living in Hollywood, owns MGM studios, and is the producer of American Idol.
10. An auto mechanic living in Ohio who is currently attempting to earn his GED and is a member of the Protestant church.
Cross-cutting & Reinforcing Cleavages
Societal cleavages (e.g. race, class, religion, gender, region, etc) can produce conflict and disagreement among the population over politics and policy.
Demographics: The study of the characteristics of population Examples of demographic characteristics are where we live and who we are in terms of age, education, religion, and occupation. Such characteristics affect how we vote.
Reinforcing Cleavages:
Divisions within society that reinforce one another, making groups more homogeneous or similar
Political conflict becomes more intense and society becomes more polarized when reinforcing cleavages occur.
If cleavages overlap with each other, this can heighten the conflict and be more divisive.
The disagreements produced by one division (e.g. class), will reinforce the divisions produced by another (e.g. race).
Finding agreement and compromise across groups in this situation can be that much more difficult.
Cross-Cutting Cleavages
Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different
If both the rich and poor people in all religions vote sometimes on the basis of their religion and sometimes on the basis of their wealth, the divisions would be cross-cutting.
If cleavages cut across each other, this can lessen the presence of conflict across groups
Disagreements produced by one division can produce cross-pressures for individuals and mitigate the divisions they may experience by way of another cleavage
Cross-pressures help produce "bridges" across the cleavages, making agreement and compromise more likely.
Question:
Are RACE & CLASS (SES) reinforcing, or cross-cutting, cleavages in the United States?
YOU DECIDE!
The level of support (1-10) there is by different SES groups AND Races, for Generic (government sponsored) Social Programs targeting: Elderly, Health Care, College Assistance
What information is contained in the chart? WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT?
This graph shows a slight tendency for class to serve as a cross-cutting cleavage on these issues. The lower SES groups (both white and black) tend to show slightly greater support for social programs to benefit the elderly, health care assistance, and assistance to college students, than their higher SES counterparts. However, blacks (regardless of SEC) tend to show slightly greater support than whites.
However, this graph clearly shows that there is indeed a pattern of class serving as a cross-cutting cleavage with race. Note that the level of support among the high SES groups is uniformly lower within racial groups (i.e. high SES black have less support than low SES blacks, and high SES whites have less support than low SES whites). Even so, within classes blacks do tend to show more support for these programs than whites, even though there may still be disagreement within the races across class lines. When the issue is about policy that has a more class-based component (e.g. making sure that everyone who is willing/able to work has a job, providing for a minimum standard of living, working to equalize income differences in society, and providing adequate housing to those who need it) the potential for class to cross-cut with race is greater.
However, it is a very different picture when the issue is more directly related to race. On matters involving race-targeted policies (policies like affirmative action and anti-discrimination laws) all evidence of class as a cross-cutting cleavage disappears.
Reinforcing and Cross-Cutting Cleavages
Cleavages in public opinion • No single feature of an individual's life (such
as social class) explains all (or even most) of that individual's attitudes.
• Create Divisions in public opinion
• Among the important cleavages are: • Social Class/Occupation
• Race/Ethnicity
• Region
Social Class/Occupation
Class Differences• “Blue-Collar” vs. “White-Collar”
Decline since 1950’s Class/Income less of Cleavage Why?
• Occupation is replaced by “schooling”
• “Upper class” exposed to “liberalism”
• Cultural War issues = non-economic
Region
“Solid South” has transformed• “Dixicrats” and Democrats of 50’s-1980’s
(economic issues)
• Nixon and the “Southern Strategy”
• More Conservative since “social” issues began to dominate politics. Also more accommodating “small business”
Race/Ethnicity
Blacks = Liberal on:• Busing, housing discrimination, death penalty,
national defense
• Most consistent liberal group (little cleavage among Blacks; even rich and poor; Gender)
Hispanic • Traditional liberal (2004 saw shift)
Asian• Conservative
Polling Pre-assessment
1. What is a poll? 2. What are some ways businesses can use polls? What
about politicians? The media?3. There are several types of polls. What do you think is
meant by an issue poll? What about a favorability poll? 4. Results from a poll show that 51% of voters prefer Senator
Jones while 47% prefer her opponent, with a margin of error of 3%. What does margin of error mean?
5. A campaign manager can use both demographic data and polls to make decisions. What are some differences in how these two types of information can be used?
6. How can poll results change the way individual people think or behave?
7. What are three ways data from polls can impact a political campaign?
Public Opinion
Yet Congress allowed the shutdown to last 16 daysYet the federal government's budget is not balancedYet most Americans opposed Clinton's impeachment
Yet most Americans favor term limits for CongressYet the American People have a greater opinion of Communist (12% approval rating) than they do of the
United States Congress (8%)
150 years ago Abraham Lincoln said in the Gettysburg address that we are a government … "of the people, by the people, for the people."
Public Opinion
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to public opinion polls and to learn how they influence political campaigns.
Identify the problems associated with polling and the aggregation of data, particularly to identify biases in the wording of questions or the size or make-up of the survey sample.
Demographics: the statistical characteristics of human populations (as age or income) used especially to identify markets.
Characteristics of P.O.
• Public Attitude: inconsistent over time, hard to uncover
• P.O. places boundaries on allowable types of public policy
• Citizens willing to express opinion on matters outside their expertise.
The Art of Public Opinion Polling pg. 116
5 key criteria in designing and interpreting Random Sampling polls
1. Equal chance of being asked2. Questions must be comprehensible 3. Questions must be asked fairly, unemotional4. Answers offered to person must be chosen carefully5. Sampling Errors
• Larger respondents = Lower error• 500,000 pop = 1,065 respondents = 15,000 calls =
95% w/ +/- 3• Polls are $$$ = less calls = higher error
Types of Bias in Polling
6 types of Bias found in polling
1. Testimonial
2. Mudslinging
3. Transfer
4. Card Staking
5. Glittering Generalizations
6. Contrast Question or Sandwich question
Polling Bias Types Testimonial - Implied endorsements from celebrities. Mudslinging – Name-calling or groundless assertions about another
candidate. Transfer – Use of popular symbols or causes to create a positive
connotation for a candidate or the use of negative or controversial symbols and causes to create a negative connotation of the competition’s candidate.
Card stacking – Use of statistics in a one-sided manner; the omission of information that is crucial to drawing an informed conclusion.
Glittering Generalities – Use of very vague words or phrases that may have a positive effect on the viewer and appeal to a variety of interests.
Contrast question or Sandwich question – Juxtaposing positive images of one’s candidate with negative images of the competition’s candidate.
Polling Bias TypesTestimonial - Implied endorsements from celebrities. Example Question: Did you know that Pat Robertson does not believe John McCain will make a good president? Do you plan to vote for George Bush or John McCain in the Republican primary?
Mudslinging – Name-calling or groundless assertions about another candidate.Example Question: Do you favor the economic policies of the Democrats, which will preserve Social Security, or the policies of the Republicans, which will destroy our Social Security system and leave many of our elderly citizens homeless?
Transfer – Use of popular symbols or causes to create a positive connotation for a candidate or the use of negative or controversial symbols and causes to create a negative connotation of the competition’s candidate.
Example Question: Knowing that Texas has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the US, who do you think will be the best candidate for president in 2000, Al Gore or George Bush?
Card stacking – Use of statistics in a one-sided manner; the omission of information that is crucial to drawing an informed conclusion.
Example: Democratic television ads showing former teachers and college administrators listing republican George Allen’s failings concerning education. What the ads do not show is the reasoning behind why he didn’t support certain bills, and that many of the former teachers and college administrators are disgruntled democrats who lost their appointed jobs under Allen’s republican administration.
Glittering Generalities – Use of very vague words or phrases that may have a positive effect on the viewer and appeal to a variety of interests.
Example Question: Do you believe that we need a Washington insider or a fresh new face from outside Washington to lead our country through the next four years?
Contrast question or Sandwich question – Juxtaposing positive images of one’s candidate with negative images of the competition’s candidate.
Example Question: Al Gore trusts the people of the United States, not big corporations. Do you believe Bush, who calls himself a “Compassionate Conservative” or Gore, who is fighting for the people not the powerful, will make a better president for most Americans?
BIAS when there is no BIAS!
“Consider, for example, a July 2009 Kaiser Health Tracking Poll that asked about expanding the number of Americans covered by health insurance (http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/healthpoll.cfm).
The option given was creating a government administered public health insurance option similar to Medicare to compete with private health insurance plans.
It was strongly favored by 26%, favored somewhat by 33%, a clear (59%) endorsement of ObamaCare. To demonstrate just how this typical questions is riddled with assumptions and missing information, envision a knowledgeable respondent handling this item. He might ask for more information about who, exactly, lacks insurance coverage and what proportion is voluntary or just reflects non-medical priorities. Or even how many are illegal aliens? He will certainly inquire about projected costs, how they are calculated, and how this "free" government help is to be funded. And what about that word "compete"? Will government under-cut private firms ("making medical care more affordable") and thus drive them into bankruptcy? Will voluntary non-participants still have to pay taxes for those enrolled? Who are these "Americans"? Will illegal immigrants and non-citizens be eligible, and how will government administer this sorting if they show up at the local ER? No doubt, the typical telephone interviewer will be totally overwhelmed by our well-informed, sophisticated respondent, especially since the questionnaire lacks adequate space for non-scripted respondent input. The interviewer (who may be paid by the completed interview) will probably hang up and welcome the next randomly dialed respondent who sheepishly accepts the questionnaire designer's over-simplified policy framework. In a sense, polling is closer to ventriloquism than giving voice to what thoughtful people actually think.”
Conservative or Liberal? A black woman with a college degree and high income A middle-class Asian man who belongs to a labor union A southern white male business owner A Hispanic employee of the federal government A white “soccer mom” who lives in the suburb. An African American man who lives in Macon, Alabama, is Protestant, and is
CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. A White, affluent women, who lives in Dallas Texas, owns her own marketing
firm and teaches part time at the local university. A White, Jewish male, living on Park Avenue, who is currently enrolled in
NYU seeking an engineering degree and paying for the schooling from a trust fund his parents left him.
A White male catholic, living in Hollywood, owns MGM studios, and is the producer of American Idol.
An auto mechanic living in Ohio who is currently attempting to earn his GED and is a member of the Protestant church.
BACK
Fourth National Survey of Religion and PoliticsBliss Institute University of Akron, March-May 2004
% of US Political Political Political
Population
Affiliation Affiliation Affiliation
Republican
Democratic
Independent
Evangelical Protestant
26.30% 56% 27% 17%
Mainline Protestant
16.00% 44% 38% 18%
Latino Protestant 2.80% 37% 43% 20%
Black Protestant 9.60% 11% 71% 18%
Catholic 17.50% 41% 44% 15%
Latino Catholic 4.50% 15% 61% 24%
Other Christian 2.70% 42% 22% 36%
Other Faiths 2.70% 12% 55% 33%
Jewish 1.90% 21% 68% 11%
Unaffiliated 16.00% 27% 43% 30%
Religion as a Political Socializing Agent
BACK
Fourth National Survey of Religion and PoliticsBliss Institute University of Akron, March-May 2004
% of US Political Political Political
Population
Affiliation Affiliation Affiliation
Republican
Democratic
Independent
Evangelical Protestant
26.30% 56% 27% 17%
Mainline Protestant
16.00% 44% 38% 18%
Latino Protestant 2.80% 37% 43% 20%
Black Protestant 9.60% 11% 71% 18%
Catholic 17.50% 41% 44% 15%
Latino Catholic 4.50% 15% 61% 24%
Other Christian 2.70% 42% 22% 36%
Other Faiths 2.70% 12% 55% 33%
Jewish 1.90% 21% 68% 11%
Unaffiliated 16.00% 27% 43% 30%
Political Socialization & Cleavages
BACK
Figure 8.3
BACK
Top bar
Bottom bar
Extended Response Questions
Chapter 41. Explain the term political culture. Why is it important to
examine political culture as well as political institutions and laws to understand a political system?
2. The U.S. political culture emphasizes the importance of civic duty. This belief has no validity unless political efficacy exists in reality. First, discuss the degree to which the American public possesses a sense of political efficacy. Is the cultural value of civic duty legitimately realized in the opinion of the public?
Extended Response Questions
Chapter 51. List and explain the symbolism behind the
caricature “Pregnant Nun” that represents our Political Socialization.
2. The text examines both the formation of and cleavages in political Socialization. Discuss how the factors accounting for the formation of political Socialization also contribute to the cleavages that have developed in public opinion.
Public Opinion & Polling Gagging Public Opinion is difficult Lack of info and efficacy ChangesArt of Public Opinion Polling ( pg 116)1. Must be Random Sample2. Question must be comprehensible3. Question must be asked fairly (clear language, no
emotional words or loaded language)4. Answer categories must be carefully considered5. Must control sampling Error
Read
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1205991/index.htm