1) Explain the core American beliefs, values, and norms that define the relationship between citizens and government and citizens with each other. Religion plays a big role in the relationship between citizens and government. Individual public beliefs also factor into how they will vote and what they will want out of their government. Many people want a limited government and complain about it, yet, when a large government will benefit them, they don't mind as much. Peoples relationships with other citizens have to do with each persons beliefs.
2) Evaluate the influence of various factors in political attitudes and socialization. Many things influence peoples political attitudes and their socialization. Family being the biggest factors. Others are ones peers, social group at school, and the media.
3) Evaluate the impact that public opinion and scientific polling have on elections and policy debates. Public opinion and scientific polling before elections have swayed the voters toward the side with the higher rating.Public opinion and scientific polling before policy debates sway the politicians in way that they can convince the people that are doubting their ideas
4) Analyze the relationship between 21st century globalization and American political, social and cultural values. People are now connected and democracy has spread to many more places. This has led to many more people being involved in politics in not only the U.S. but the world. America has now pushed its own policies onto other nations of the world.
5) Analyze how political culture influences the formation, goals, and implementation of public policy. Now in this 21st century where the world is at everyone's fingertips, more people are able to be involved with politics. This leads to a bigger group of people that are factoring into the public policy.
6) Compare how political ideologies vary on the role of government in regulating the marketplace. There are differing views on if the government should regulate the economy. Republicans believe that there should be very limited government intervention. This is why republicans tend to be large business owners and tend to want tax cuts and fewer regulations. Democrats tend to want more government intervention and more regulations on big businesses.
7) Compare how political ideologies vary with regard to the role of government in addressing social issues. Both republicans and democrats have differing opinions on social issues. For example,
democrats tend to be pro-choice, support gay marriage, and support universal health care. Republicans tend to be pro-life, not support gay marriage, and believe that private companies can provide better health care than universal health care.
8) Summarize the voting rights protections in the Constitution and in legislation. The Constitution started with all white men having the right to vote. Later minorities and women gained the rights to vote with the 14th and 19th Amendments respectively. With these rights being guaranteed by the Constitution, those groups are that much closer to equality.
9) Analyze the roles that individual choice and state laws play in voter turnout in elections. Some states try to pass laws to make it easier to register in turn to make it easier to vote. But, many people still have apathy towards the government and see their votes as not counting. So, because of this, voter turnout has been in a steady decline for a while.
10) Analyze U.S. voter turnout and compare it with that in other democracies. Voter turnout in the U.S. is very low. But it is hard to compare the turnout to other democratic nations because of the size to America and the relative newness of many other democratic nations.
11) Explain the factors that influence voter choices. Many things influence voter choices. From their individual beliefs, the current state of the union, the candidates, and personal problems.
12) Compare different models of voting behavior. There are four different of voting behaviors which are based on the type of election. Voters tend to vote based on their political beliefs Presidential elections. in local elections people tend to pick candidates that will contribute more to their area. Referendums follow a different type of logic because people are specifically asked to vote for a clearly defined policy.