POLI 2051 Chapter : Public Opinion Ch 6
Document Summary
2/28/2012 4:04:00 pm: grouping things together of individual attitudes or beliefs about certain issues or officials, considered the most reliable indicator of what the public is thinking. They include: voting, campaigning, contacting elected officials, protests. George w bush high public opinion after 9/11- passed patriot act, after katrina he had low approval rate-defeat immigration reform act. Efficacy: the extent to which people believe their actions affect the course of government. Political trust: the extent to which people believe the government acts in their best interests, note that polls show that both have been declining over the past 50 years, but patriotism has not declined. They got the data way wrong: straw polls: ballot polls by nineteenth-century newspapers to predict the outcome of elections. Scientific polls rely on a representative sample of the group being polled: each person in the group has the same chance of being selected, most nation-wide scientific polls include a minimum of 1000 people.
