09 Political Beliefs, Public Opinion, and Political Participation Free Online FlashCards

What is political culture?

Political culture is the collection of widely shared beliefs about government, authority, citizenship, and the relationship between individuals and the state.

How did Madison propose controlling factions?

In Federalist No. 10, James Madison argued that factions are unavoidable in a free society and should be controlled through a large republic, representation, and institutional checks.

What is political socialization?

Political socialization is the lifelong process through which people acquire political knowledge, values, opinions, and patterns of participation.

How do ideology and partisanship differ?

Ideology is an organized set of beliefs about political values and policy, whereas partisanship is psychological attachment to a political party. They can diverge.

What is public opinion?

Public opinion is the collection of individual attitudes, beliefs, and preferences about political leaders, institutions, issues, and events.

What is a political heuristic?

A heuristic is a mental shortcut, such as relying on a party endorsement, trusted organization, expert, or past experience to make political decisions manageable.

How does a public opinion poll work?

A public opinion poll uses a sample of respondents to estimate the views of a larger population. Its quality depends on sampling, wording, weighting, nonresponse, and other methods.

What does a poll’s margin of error indicate?

A margin of sampling error describes uncertainty from surveying a sample rather than the entire population. It does not capture every error, such as nonresponse bias or flawed wording.

What counts as political participation?

Political participation includes actions intended to influence government or public policy, including voting, contacting officials, campaigning, protesting, petitioning, donating, and civic service.

Why is political participation unequal?

Participation is unequal because citizens differ in age, education, income, registration access, mobilization, transportation, work schedules, disability access, and confidence that participation matters.

How do agenda setting and framing differ?

Agenda setting occurs when media attention influences which issues the public considers important; framing influences how audiences interpret an issue by emphasizing selected aspects.

What is media priming?

Priming occurs when repeated media attention to certain issues affects the standards citizens use to evaluate political leaders.