Ideologies

• Liberal: more government economic regulation, personal privacy is very important

• Conservative: less government economic involvement, some government involvement in personal privacy (but not in regulation/education)

• Libertarian: bare minimum government involvement in economy (only property right and voluntary trade), personal privacy (only private property/individual liberty)

Formation of Ideologies

• Political socialization: process through which individual/group develops opinions/attitudes on society and politics

• Factors: environment, age cycle, family, school, peers, media, religion, civic organizations, globalization

• Political events/era: major political events can significantly change/spread ideologies

Manifestation of Ideologies

• Linkage Institutions: allow communication of policy preferences (ex. interest groups, elections, parties)

  • Political parties: DEM - left-leaning, generally more liberal, GOP - right leaning, generally more conservative

• Planned Parenthood v. Casey

• Obergefell v. Hodges

• Public Opinion: distribution of views of an issue/candidate/intuition, can indicate political will

Measuring Public Opinion

• Types of Scientific Polls: opinion (small section), entrance/exit (election day), benchmark polls (for later comparison), tracking (change in 1 group), mass survey (large sample - interviews), focus group (small, in depth discussion)

• Evaluating data: validity/veracity depends on method, questions

  • Flaws: open ended questions, insufficient sample size, high margin of error