political beliefs

political ideology

liberal

conservative
Write an evaluation: Do you think that this test correctly predicted your political ideology?  

political polarization

Public opinion

The way people think about individual issues, candidates, or political institutions. 
George Gallup (picture on the right) developed "Gallup Polls"in 1932.  Since 1936, this agency has only gotten ONE election result prediction incorrect.

political socialization:

The factors that influence a person's opinion.

the #1 influence on someone's political attitude is their family. 

Other influences include:

education

  • Higher education = more conservative
  • College education = liberal views
  • Not always correlated

religion

  • Protestants are more conservative on economic issues
  • Jews tend to be more liberal on social issues
  • Catholics tend to be more liberal on economic issues
  • Catholics are becoming more conservative

gender

  • More men support the military
  • Women tend to vote more Democratic than men

geography

  • East and West Coast = more liberal
  • Mid-west = more conservative
  • Urban = Liberal
  • South = more socially conservative

social class

  • "Blue Collar" = typically Democrat
  • "White Collar" = typically Republican
  • Relationship is becoming less clear

race

  • African Americans and Hispanic Americans tend to vote Democrat
  • Asian Americans tend to vote Democrat but are less liberal than African Americans or Hispanic Americans
  • Whites are more divided

How do we know what americans think?