Essay about Public Opinion – Flashcards

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a plebiscite is
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a popular vote on national policy issues
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regarding the impact of the public in American national decision making, the founders wanted
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a system legitimated by the public but also protected from the possible dangers of the publics power
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public opinion should matter in American politics, but realistically it does matter in American politics because
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politicians and the media act as if it matters
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one advantage of direct contact between elected officials and the public verses the use of public opinion polls is that direct contact
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makes it less likely that certain public concerns will be overlooked
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if you are conducting a horse race poll, you want your sample to comprise
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likely voters
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according to studies, americans tend to be
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not very acknowledgeable about politics
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regarding tolerance, americans are generally
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supportive of general issues such as free speech but less supportive when asked to extend rights to unpopular groups
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which of the following is not and argument put fourth by the textbooks authors
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in many ways, less educated people are more tolerant than educated people
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in general, which of the following statements is not true regarding whether americans meet the criteria for being ideal democratic citizens
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compared with other countries, the US has high voter participation rates
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tolerance is a key democratic value because
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it is a prerequisite for compromise
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compared with other industrial nations, the us ranks ___ in voter participation
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near the bottom
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voter turnout for us national election is
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the lowest, or among the lowest, among industrialized nations
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according to the text, the current process of political socialization in the US
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trains us to support and obey the existing political system
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which of the following is not mentioned in the textbook as a agent of socialization
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the internet
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the sharp decline in trust in government among the public in the 1960s and 1970s is used by the authors to show the effects on political socialization of
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political and social events
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which of the following pairs if items concerning socialization is not linked properly
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the media, ideological orientation
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the textbook does not argue the following
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self interest is a source of agreement in public opinion
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self interest is a source of
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agreement in society
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education is a source of all of the following except
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apathy
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major political and social events are an important source of socialization, therefore all of the following statements are true except
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socialization does not exist because people learn politics somewhat differently
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which of the following statements concerning the roles of ideology and partisanship in shaping public opinion are not true
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most americans are too moderate or nonpartisan for these concepts to have much influence on them
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a citizens ability to hold democratic beliefs, including the acceptance that politics is about compromise is called
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democratic engagement
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which of the following statements concerning the relationship between age and opinions is not true
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people tend to become more conservative as they age
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the gender gap is especially large on issues of
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violence
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which of the following statements concerning the relationship between gender and public opinion is not true
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women have become more liberal in the past 30 years
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which of the following statements is not true
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blacks are less likely than whites to favor bible prayer in school
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which of the following is not true about religion
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catholics are strongly republican
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all of the following have great influence on public policy except
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the young
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the collective decisions of citizens reflect a greater level of knowledge than public opinion polls reflect because of all of the following except
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the desire to hide our real views from pollsters
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the portion on the population selected to participate in a poll is known as the
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sample
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which relationship sample size and sampling error is correct
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the larger the sample, the smaller the sampling error will be
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when politicians try to determine public opinion by listening to their supporters and friendly interest groups, they are likely to face the problem of
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sample bias
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unscientific polls that are often conducted by newspapers and politicians to determine who is ahead in a political race are called ___ polls
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benchmark
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with respect to constructing survey questions, all of the following statements are true except
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surveys tend to underestimate the racial tolerance of the American people
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sampling error refers to
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a number that indicates within what range in the results of a poll are accurate
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today the most likely cause of sample bias in polls is
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when a person is picked for the sample and he cant be contacted or refuses to participate
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one concern about the wording of questions in polls is that the person being sampled will be unfamiliar with a subject and thereby will
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give responses solely based on cues picked up from the context of the interview or the question
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benchmark polls
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are instrumental in designing campaign strategy
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benchmark polls and tracking polls are two types of
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campaign polls
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we can conclude from the history of polling that
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polls are reliable only when they are timely and have been conducted using the proper procedures
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which of the following is not true regarding policy
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a poll that showed candidate a with 48%.......
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If you are to be a critical watcher of polls, among the issues of concern are all of the following except
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whether the poll agrees with your position
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which of the following statements concerning sampling bias is not true
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pollsters are often unaware of the problem of sampling bias
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when the Chicago tribune mistakenly declared that Dewey had defeated Truman in the 1948 presidential election, the newspaper had made the mistake of
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not realizing that some people decide who to vote for right up to the day of an election
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public opinion pollsters will often ask respondents their opinion on complex issues and public policies. research indicates these questions are most likely to
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ask respondents to express an opinion about something they do not know
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a survey question such as do you support or oppose being allowed to take the life time learning credit during the years in which you pay ....
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it is likely that few people have thought about the issue
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a survey question such as how many times in the past month have you used drugs is a problem because
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the question ambiguous and loaded
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good survey questions meet all of the following criteria except
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they are always short
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tracking polls are significant because they
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can catch daily changes in public opinion that other horse race polls cant
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which of the following statements concerning exit polls is not true
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they are a form of pseudo polls
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internet polls are
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unreliable
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the authors conclude that, in general, the accuracy of election polls is
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quite good
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which of the following statements concerning technology and polling is not true
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autodialing is one method of overcoming the problem caused by citizen reliance on cell phones
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rational ignorance refers to
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the state of being uninformed about politics because the cost in time and energy does not produce tangible or measurable results
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the process by which citizens take their political cues from more well informed opinion leaders is known as
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the two step flow of information
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the role of public opinion in government today is strongly debated because
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on the one hand we want our opinions to be heard, but on the other hand, we do not want politicians to blindly follow public opinion
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those who favor __ democracy would be least likely to favor popular votes on national policy issues
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an elite
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