Exam 5: Public Opinion

Javier attributes the financial collapse of 2008 to the loosening of regulatory controls that once governed the financial industry. He also holds the opinion that it was the reckless behavior of financial institutions themselves that fueled the crisis and worsened its impact on ordinary Americans. Given this profile of Javier, is he more or less likely to reject claims that government should play a significantly smaller role in overseeing Wall Street in the future?

Although conservatives and liberals both generally argue otherwise, government policy and public opinion seem to be independent of each other.

You are a public policy researcher who favors legislation that requires voters to present photo identification before being allowed to cast votes. Design a "forced choice" question that will likely yield greater support for your position than might otherwise exist. Explain why you worded your question the way that you did.

The right of gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military became official policy in __________.

Which of the following statements best supports the assertion that collective public opinion is rational?

On which federal program does the government currently spend the most?

Only 40 percent of Americans know that our main source of electricity comes from __________.

If some element of the population is underrepresented or overrepresented in a sample, researchers can __________ the relevant population group, giving it more or less importance in the total sample, so that the mix of elements in the final sample closely matches the general population.

Under what conditions is public opinion less likely to play a role in shaping government policy?

What have several decades of polling shown about most ordinary Americans?

What are the principal things about telephone surveys that make it difficult to draw a sample that is random, thereby undermining the validity of the research?

A generational effect seen in the American electorate is the tendency for people to participate more in politics as they adopt more economically conservative views after college.

Identify a political issue where African Americans and white Americans are known to have a discernible difference of opinion and offer a plausible explanation for that difference.

What do polls with simple "yes-no" or "agree-disagree" answer options fail to measure? How can pollsters avoid problems associated with questions that ask only for simple "yes-no" or "agree-disagree" answers?

Americans are more proud of their country and its political institutions than which nation or nations?

Internet polling tends to capture samples that are very unrepresentative of the American population.

Why should anyone be concerned about a U.S. citizenry that is poorly informed and that has no real opinions about government and politics?

Why do African Americans tend to be more liberal than whites on economic issues?

According to probability theory, what chance do the views of a random sample of 1,500 people have of accurately reflecting the views of the whole population?

A correspondent on The Daily Show with John Stewart makes a joke about the United States getting into wars with countries that most Americans cannot locate on a map. Apply what you know about the process of political socialization to describe at least one political belief and attitude that the correspondent is conveying.