- cluster sampling
- when researchers divide the overall population into clusters, based on characteristics such as shared cities or schools, then randomly select people to poll from within those clusters
- conservative
- politically speaking, an individual who generally does not believe in government intervention and tends to maintain that governmental control means fewer individual freedoms
- convenience sample
- a sample based on convenience rather than probability
- eligible voters
- voters who meet the requirements of their localities or states to cast a ballot in an election
- elite opinion
- the opinion not of the broader public but of business, political, and other cultural elites
- gerrymandering
- the manipulation of voting districts in order to favor candidates from one party over another
- interviewer bias
- when individual characteristics such as the race or gender of the interviewer affect a person’s survey response
- issue publics
- small segments of the overall public that express interest or vote based on a single issue
- Jim Crow laws
- a set of laws enforced mostly in the southern United States from the late 1800s until 1965 that legalized discrimination based on race, preventing Black Americans from enjoying fundamental rights such as equal access to education and voting
- liberal
- politically speaking, an individual who supports government intervention and social welfare programs
- majority opinion
- the opinion of the majority of those polled
- measurement error
- limitations in response validity due to survey design problems
- opinion leaders
- individuals who can affect the opinions of other individuals, whether through their prominence, influence, or experience
- political ideology
- a set of beliefs, principles, or doctrines that guide one’s views of how government should work
- political participation
- activities that express opinions on public officials and public policy; the ways in which people can influence political outcomes
- probability sampling
- when researchers choose samples at random from the larger population
- public opinion
- views that individuals are willing to express openly at a specific point in time
- question wording effects
- when the wording of the questions on a survey affects how individuals respond
- random digit dialing
- a survey method that selects people for involvement by generating telephone numbers at random
- response bias
- when respondents to a survey inaccurately report their true opinions for one reason or another
- sample
- a group selected by researchers to represent the characteristics of the entire population
- sampling errors
- errors that occur in a statistical analysis due to the unrepresentativeness of the sample
- selection bias
- when the method by which a sample is chosen causes the sample to be unrepresentative of the population being studied
- self-government
- when the people of a given country are the ones who grant the power to govern that country, through either direct or indirect representation
- social capital
- the effects of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively
- social desirability bias
- when respondents answer survey questions in a manner intended to cause them to be viewed favorably by others
- suffrage
- the right to vote in political elections
- voter fatigue
- feelings of apathy that the electorate can experience under certain circumstances—for example, when they are required to vote too often or are exposed to too much political information or negative news
- voter suppression
- discouraging or preventing specific groups of people from voting in order to alter the outcome of an election
- voter turnout
- the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election