Public Opinion. Refers
to the attitudes people have about issues, events,elected officials, politics, and policy
.
Values
(or Beliefs)
What is public opinion in government?
Public opinion is the collective opinion on a specific topic or voting intention relevant to a society.
What is a public opinion poll and how are they helpful to governments quizlet?
It identifies issues for resolution, brings views into political debate
, helps choose the political candidates, and gives policymakers some idea of what the voters want.
What is public opinion how does that influence politics quizlet?
Public opinion does not make public policy; rather,
it restrains government officials from making truly unpopular actions/laws
. Representatives on each level of government must use their own ideology and constituents desires to make what they feel is the best choice for their town, county, district, or state.
How is public opinion determined quizlet?
Public opinion is measured by
election results, personal contacts, media reporting
, and especially by polls. … Government officials used public opinion to guide their public policy decisions.
What is the main purpose of public opinion polls?
Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals.
How do politicians use public opinion polls quizlet?
Politicians mostly use public opinion
data to tell them how to vote on matters of public policy
. … Politicians mostly ignore the results of public opinion polls, preferring to rely on their own judgment.
What is the general impact of public opinion on government action quizlet?
Sometimes, a poll shows a distribution of opinion, indicating that most people either have no information about an issue or are not interested enough in the issue to form a position on it. Public opinion impacts government
actions by providing support for elected officials to adopt or fail to adopt policies.
What is the importance of public opinion quizlet?
Why is public opinion important?
It guides government action, influences public policy, gives feedback to politicians
. It gives self rule in democracy.
What do you need to get public opinion quizlet?
To be a public opinion, a view
must involve something of general concern and of interest to a significant portion of the people as a whole
. In addition, public opinion involves only those views people hold such as things as parties and candidates, taxes, unemployment, foreign policy, etc.
How can public opinion affect presidential power quizlet?
Public opinion can
allow a president to get away with things they might usually not be able to
. If the president is disliked, than his power is decreased because his ideas wouldn’t appeal to the people. A feeble executive means a weak execution of the government.
What is public opinion and what factors help shape quizlet?
Public opinion is those attitudes held by a significant number of people on matters of the government and politics. The main factors shaping public opinion include
family, school/education, mass media, peer groups, opinion leaders, and historic events
. Give three examples of an opinion leader.
What two factors have the biggest impact on public opinion?
Public opinion can be influenced by
age, gender, income, hobbies, race, religion, occupation
, etc., as well as the economic situation during or concerning a public issue. Public opinion can also be influenced by mass media which includes television, magazines, radio, and newspapers.
What is the most reliable measure of public opinion quizlet?
Public opinion is best measured by
public opinion polls
. Opinion polls are taken in order to collect information by asking people questions. There are two major types of opinion polls: straw polls and scientific polls.
What is public opinion polls quizlet?
public opinion polls.
scientific efforts to estimate what an entire group thinks about an issue by asking a smaller sample of the group for its opinion
.
sample
. the portion of the population that is selected to participate in a poll.
What does it mean that public opinion is focused on a target population quizlet?
What does it mean that public opinion is focused on a target population?
They focus on the opinion of the population that supports their idea/desire
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