US Government Chapter Review Outlines    

Three vocabulary terms and their definitions.

Term 1: Public Opinion-the combination of many individuals' expressed feelings about government and political issues.

Term 2: Ideology-an organized pattern of looking at the political world; a systematic set of ideas that is used to justify a particular point of view.

Term 3: Political Culture-those elements of a nation's culture that are related to government and politics.

Short answer essay question (which can be answered in a 2-3 sentence paragraph).

Essay: What are the 5 traditional methods public officials use to assess public opinion, and what are the main weaknesses of each?

    The first traditional method is making personal contacts.  This can include conversing over the telephone, shaking hands at rallies or local events, or taking trips to meet with constituents.  The weakness is that it is physically impossible for most officials to meet person-to-person.  The second is listening to interest groups.  Interest groups are organizations of people with shared attitudes who attempt to influence public policy.  The weakness is that many more people may hold different views but not be represented by a well-organized interest group.  The third is monitoring the mass media where officials keep an eye on headline news, magazine cover stories, television newscasts, etc.  The weakness is again that the mass media may not represent broader public views.  The fourth is assessing election returns.  An official will look at the "mandate of the people" which is the support of the indicate public opinion.  The last tradition is using informal polls.  Polls can show the outcome of an election and is proven to come very close to the actual election.

Diagram:

[Interdisciplinary Units]