Chapter 8
In a government "by the people,
for the people" it is the voice of the people which should matter the
most. Public preferences should
determine who will hold office and what policies will be pursued by office‑holders. The problem, of course, is trying to
determine what those preferences are, who the public is, and how the public
arrives at its preferences. This chapter
discusses the oft-times complex subject of public opinion.
In a democracy, voting serves as the
primary avenue for the transmission of public opinion to the government. Probably no aspect of American politics has
been studied more thoroughly than voting behavior. Political scientists are gradually
unscrambling many of the puzzles relating to voting behavior. Current research, for example, indicates that
voting behavior is not determined by any one predominating cause and can be
better understood in terms of statistical categorizations. It can be shown that a network of
socioeconomic patterns exists which distinguishes the voters from the
nonvoters. This network is itself
interwoven with personal and psychological factors that are in many cases
interlocked. For example, the sociological
factors of religion, race, age and class frequently are strong predictors of
political party identification and voting behavior. Other factors, such as education, provide a
strong variable in the determination of voting patterns. Economic factors also come into play. Certainly, income and occupation are also
significant.
The political context of the act of
voting cannot be overlooked. National
elections trigger the voting impulse far more than state or local
campaigns. Also, recent research seems
to indicate that voters make choices on the basis of reasonably clear political
considerations; they are not fools or political robots. Although nearly all adults now have access to
the ballot, many do not vote. The
explanations for non‑voting are as fascinating as the explanations for
voting. For some, non‑voting is a
conscious political act: they are alienated from the system. Others have feelings of apathy or else feel
personally powerless. In this chapter,
the authors explain the formation of political attitudes and the political acts
of voting and non‑voting.
I. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify and define the characteristics
of public opinion.
2. Define political socialization and
identify sources of our views.
3. Evaluate
the impact that public opinion and polls can and should have upon government.
4. Describe the general public's varying
level of interest in politics.
5. Identify the ways Americans can
participate in politics and influence government.
6. Explain how candidate appeal played an
important role in the 2000 election..
7. Discuss
the level of voter turnout in the
8. Explain why voting turnout is so low in
the
9. Describe the demographics of voters.
10. Debate whether nonvoting is a critical
problem for the American political system.
11. Identify and discuss three main elements
of the voting choice.
12. Explain
why electoral reform became an important national issue after the 2000
election.
13.
Summarize
the key components of the Motor-Voter law.
How has the law affected turnout?