“Governments have paid attention to public opinion as long as there have been governments.” (Public Opinion) Public opinion used to be expressed not by polls but by rebelling. A more modern discovery is to use polls. A poll is how the government gets the people’s opinions. The the most recent thing coming into question is whether the polls are actually accurate or not. Another question is to why the polls are loosing accuracy. When polls are done right they can be very accurate. Polls are taken by using an area code and then the rest of the numbers they enter in randomly until they get a certain number of responses from that area code. They do that for lots of areas to get responses from all demographics. Then they average out the responses
Zorn, Eric. “One thing polls show accurately: Changed minds." Chicago Tribune Nov 9, 2004: 1.
The "silent majority" of the American people is now accepted as the status quo, the way things always have been and will be. Voter turnout is now the litmus test for political participation. Non-voters are becoming rampant in our democracy, with voter turnout hovering around a low 60% for general elections. At this rate, a candidate would have to win over 80% of that 60% vote in order to have true majority support. Thus, inactivity in voting threatens the very legitimacy of our government. In the recent November 7, 2013 midterm election, a few counties reported a mere 4% of eligible voters actually participated, in some cases to vote for a policy referendum that would aff...
In the wake of the 2016 general election, Michael Lind published a piece on The Smart Set entitled: Can Electoral Reform Save America? This piece centered around a single question on the ballot of a single state, question 5 in Maine, and the impact on electoral reform it could have for the country according to Lind. Using deconstruction, Lind analyzes the idea of a Ranked Choice polling system, rather than the first-past-the-post system that is currently in place in the United States. His allusions to the past as well as separate government entities globally, as well as a deconstruction of both polling systems and the impact they have (or could have) allows the reader to absorb information and produce their own personal opinion.
Voter suppression is no surprise to the American Government. It goes unseen by most. of the public, or they realize the suppression of voters after the damage has already been done. done.
To examine this decline in voter turnout we must consider several factors. One of those factors is that there is no political efficacy. Political efficacy means that people are less likely to vote if they don't believe that their vote will be counted, or if they don't trust the government. Little faith in the electoral process leads to a conviction that a person's vote doesn't really matter. Citizens show lack of interest in politics because they have limited information about the government. The percentage of Americans who say they have “trust and confidence” in the presidency and Congress has decreased in the past decades. Americans’ Trust in government was 70% in 1960s, and then decreased to 40% in 1980s. A recent survey from Pew Research Center showed that “Only 2...
My fourth topic should be familiar with majority of Americans because this method is prevalently used in American politics. The question that is posed in this topic is, discuss the nature of political polling. Be sure to discuss terms such as random sample and margin of error. What should the public look for in determining whether a poll is accurate? Political polling is a very primal methods that candidate utilize to see where they stand with the American public. Around election time weather local or national one would notice several polls being conducted and evaluated. Political polls usually give us Americans a preview of who would most likely win the election; conversely, political polls can be incorrect as well so it definitely can
There are several different types of surveys and questionnaires that can be used to collect data. The most common is the electronic survey because it can be given to a lot of people quickly and is viewed as more anonymous. However, there are some draw backs with surveys. According to Marril (n.d.), surveys can elicit responses that are socially acceptable instead of the truth. In addition, surveys are impersonal and leave little room to clarify responses (Cummings & Worley, 2009).
Public is one of the main things that influence today’s government. The public is important, especially in things like elections and new laws. If a president candidate was for abortion, then he would lose part of the public who believe in pro-life, but would capture the vote of the people who are all for abortion. People running for office take into account what they believe in, but they also how the public will view them. Most of the time, candidates want to attract the public which means that most of their beliefs and decisions shift to what the public want to hear. Candidates try to focus on the immediate needs of the public. The Government are most likely to make decisions that the public will like. After this candidate is elected, then they can change their whole focus. Candidates just need the vote from the public. The worst fear of the Government and its possible candidates is rejection of the public. It would be very difficult to hold their position if most of the public hates them and their decisions. The Government tries to focus on what the public is most worried about. For example, in 2001, our country had a major terrorist attack. Most people fear for their safety and what the Government is going to do to ensure it. Most of the presidential candidates this last election focused on the war in Iraq and healthcare. These were issues that people are most concerned about. The public controls most of the Government and its decisi...
...it rarely happens because these social issues are discussed online instead. This can also be said because of how the majority of the public surveyed in Prior (2010) questionnaire.
“Democracies with coalition governments are more effective than democracies with single-party governments in ensuring that public policy is as representative of public opinion as possible.” Discuss whether this statement is empirically convincing.
Conducting Surveys A survey can either be administered as a census survey. member of the appropriate population is surveyed, or a sample can be. selected. The.
The causes for a decrease in public trust are vast and thus one cannot focus only on one issue (Ibid). One obvious reason that public trust in government is steadily eroding away is an ever increasing number of scandals in the political sphere, such as Nixon’s Watergate Scandal (Public Trust in Government). Another correlation that affects public trust is the presence of economic recessions (Thompson). Almost every time a recession hits, public trust in government falls soon thereafter (Ibid). The largest reason for lower public trust,
One of the major reasons why survey research may not be effective is that the survey instruments are less useful than they should be. “Instrument design is a three-phase process with numerous issues within each phase: (a) developing the instrument design strategy, (b) constructing and refining the measurement questions, and (c) drafting and refining the instrument” (Cooper & Schindler, 2014 p. 324). There are several issues with each phase but the four that I believe are the four possible major faults of survey instrument design is: (1) disguising objectives and sponsors, (2) using multiple choice questions, (3) introducing sensitive and ego-involving information too early, and (4) the sources of existing questions.
Does quantitative methodology have an optimistic future in the study of political science? The answer is positive. But it doesn’t mean that using quantitative methods are panaceas for every research puzzle. Applying this methodology has several principles and limits. Whether the future of quantitative methodology is bright depends on its internal capability as we as its external possibility.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau who is a famous Francopphone Genvan philosopher explained that opinions form the society is a law which is beyond the law. That is to say, he thought that public opinion is the most important one among the laws (Rousseau, 1762). As a matter of fact, media can gather opinion of citizens, which means if media is not allowed, then public opinion will not be gathered. Therefore, government cannot listen to the people and know their demands. The situation become worse that government will pay less attention to citizens and even ignore them. Additionally, if media is restricted by the government, officials will choose to filter out those information from public opinion which are harmful to the regime of party. A government which lose the public reaction will never be a representative of all citizens and finally it will be a dictatorship society rather than a democracy