By: Rajat Goyal

Grade: 12

Due: 29 January 2012 Teacher: Mrs. Bowen

Subject: AP U.S. Government & Politics

Politics in Action A rare moment of consensus in public policy

Public Opinion

The distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy issues.

Public Opinion on policies and politics tends to differ more between party lines, although there often still is a difference in public opinion within a single party.

Demography

The science of population changes.

The United States has a large urban

demography that is shifting westward and

southward.

Census

A valuable tool for understanding demographic changes. The Constitution requires that the government conduct an “actual enumeration” of the population every 10 years.

Although the Constriction only required the Census to enumerate the population every 10 years, today, the census (which is conducted by the US Census Bureau) asks questions such as one’s age, sex, race, salary, and housing information.

Melting Pot

The mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples that has changed the American nation. The United States, with its history of immigration, has often been called a melting pot.

The United States is often referred to as a Melting pot because it has been a nation where people from all over the world immigrate to work and live for many reasons.

Minority Majority

The emergence of a non-Caucasian majority, as compared with a White, generally Anglo-Saxon majority. It is predicted that by about 2060, Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans together will outnumber White Americans.

The percentage of non-whites residing in the United States continues to decline due to continued immigration (both legal and illegal) which will lead to America having less whites than non-whites , a minority majority, by 2060.

Political Culture

An overall set of

values widely shared

within a society.

Although Americans

are from a wide array

of ethnic backgrounds,

they share a common

political culture, such

as the fundamental

belief in equality for all.

Reapportionment

The process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census.

After the 2010 Census, House of Representative seats had to be reapportioned because of the shifting U.S. population, and the Southwestern States (such as Texas) tended to gained seats in the House while many Northeast states lost seats (such as Massachusetts & New York).

Political Socialization

According to Richard Dawson, “the process through which an individual acquires his [or her] particular political orientations --- his [or her] knowledge, feelings, and evaluations regarding his [or her] political world.”

Political Socialization is a subtle process in which one subtly absorbs and acquires political knowledge from schools, family, and the media, and then formulates his/her own political ideas.

Sample

A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representatives of the whole.

Because surveying an entire population is impractical, a small sample is often chosen to represent the entire population when a poll is conducted.

Random Sampling

The key technique employed by sophisticated survey researchers, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.

Random Sampling is a way to make sure a sample is representative of the entire population, and the hope is the responses of the sample is indicative of the entire population.

Sampling Error

The level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results.

A sampling error is unavoidable; however, if you increase the sample size through picking more individuals to be in your sample randomly, the error reduces.

Random-Digit Dialing

A technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.

The hope of random-digit dialing is to randomly select individuals (and remove bias in selecting individuals) to be a part of the sample who is being surveyed; however, this type of survey leads to a voluntary response sample (only those who want to engage in the conversation will respond/answer survey questions) and seven percent of individuals are not represented in this type of survey (seven percent of Americans don’t have phones).

Exit Poll

Public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision.

Exit Polls allow the media to accurately determine the outcome of elections before results are disclosed unless the election outcome is very close.

Political Ideology

A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose. It helps give meaning to political event, personalities, and policies.

In America today, the political ideology of younger people tends to be liberal (more government programs and spending) while the political ideology of older people tends to be conservative (a term associated with Republican).

Gender Gap

A term that refers to the regular pattern by which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates. Women tend to be significantly less conservative than men and are more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.

In recent presidential elections a larger percentage of women (sometimes the majority of women, 50%+) supported the democratic candidate in comparison to voting men, a trend that shows women are less conservative and signifies a gender gap.

Political Participation

All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common, but not the only, means of political participation in a democracy is voting.

The most common way people engage in political participation is when they vote, although only roughly 64% (2/3rds) of eligible Americans voted in 2008.

Protest

A form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.

The recent Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), introduced by the House of Representatives, was the subject of protest, and was declared to be the largest online protest in history.

Civil Disobedience

A form of political participation that reflects a conscious decision to break a law believed to be immoral and to suffer the consequences.

Some people involved in the Occupy Movement often engage in Civil Disobedience in hopes of bringing economic and social equality.