July 9 2010

Friday, July 09, 2010

9:11 AM

Incentives for political participation

1. Gain greater attention from political officials

2 types of political participation and 2 types of opinion

1. Mass public - everyday people, apprehensive, complacent, indifferent
2. Attentive public - well organized, assertive, eager to be involved

1. Latent opinion - unarticulated opinion

2. Expressed opinion - interest, gets noticed

○ Educate people (Social economic status)

 Income - college level jobs
 Education
○ Affluent
○ White collar - profession
○ Blue collar - uniformed worker

Most active voters are white citizens

Who doesn't participate?

1. Minority groups
2. Educated and affluent

Educated and affluent can choose whether they want to participate or not. Education can make
you a cynic and to doubt the government. Believe political system is flawed. Affluent don't
participate because they have enough money to not care about day to day activism, rather they
focus on large events. Can pay politicians to support their interests.

Logic of participation
1. Walter Lippman
a. The public should be participate and the public opinion could not be trusted
1) They uninformed and operate on incomplete information
b. "The real environment is too big, to complex…."
c. Poll: Asked people to indentify certain people or pieces of legislation in society.
1) Party with senate majority
2) Name vice president - 40% could not respond correctly
3) Who is the speaker of the house of rep - 47% could not answer correctly
4) Senator of your state - 54% could not answer correctly
5) Chief justice of supreme court - 97% could not answer correctly

2. George Gallup (Gallup polls - one of most respected polls)

a. American people have a remarkably degrees of common sense, no exactly smart or
educated, but they have good sense seen in their expression on everyday issues
1) May not have all info, but our common sense allows us to make good judgment

Government AP course Page 1

 Al gore "assault on reason"- people aren't educating themselves on issues, media is responsible to
some degree

Collective intelligence:
1. More likely to attribute to few leaders than the group itself
2. Stop hunting and ask the crowd
3. Big diverse group, ask them about general interest, best response over time.

1200-1500 is a good sample of entire population if done correctly

Government AP course Page 2