GVPT 170 Lecture 6: 6-Public-Opinion

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Government and Politics
• Course: GVPT 170
• Professor: All

Document Summary

Those opinions held by private persons which government finds it prudent to heed. (v. o. Active role: instructions do what we want now. Passive role: elected officials have discretion of what they want to do if you do something you don"t want then p. o. kicks in. Salience: how important an issue is to a person/the public. Socialization: the process by which an individual"s political opinions are shaped by. Intensity: strength of the direction of public opinion information, other people, and the surrounding culture. Primacy: what is learned first, is learned best. Persistence: what is learned first can shape the way people think and learn about politics later. Especially if people don"t have strongly held opinions. Rely on others in group as a source of opinions. Previous generation of political scientists argued that public opinion is generally: People respond to questions on issues they haven"t thought about or don"t know about. People are only well-informed on certain issues.