Week of September 10, 2007

US Government Ch 6 Vocabulary

1. Census – a count of the American population conducted every ten years.

2. Civil disobedience – a form of unconventional participation designed to consciously
break a law thought to be unjust.
3. Demography – the science of human populations.
4. Exit poll – a poll taken at randomly selected polling places after the citizens have placed
their votes.
5. Gender gap – a consistent attitudinal pattern where women are more likely than men to
express liberal attitudes and to support Democratic candidates.
6. Melting pot – the mixture of cultures, ideas, and peoples in the US.
7. Minority majority – a reference to the impending status of white, Anglo-Saxon
Americans, currently holding majority status.
8. Political culture – an overall set of values widely shared within a society.
9. Political ideology – a coherent set of values and beliefs about public policy.
10. Political participation – the activities used by citizens to influence political outcomes.
11. Protest – a form of political participation designed to change policy through
unconventional tactics.
12. Public opinion – the distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and issues.
13. Random digit dialing – phone numbers are dialed at random around the country.
14. Random sampling – a polling technique which is based on the principle that everyone has
an equal probability of being selected as part of the sample.
15. Reapportionment – the reallocation of 435 seats in the House of Representatives based on
changes in residency and population found in the census.
16. Sample – a small proportion of the population chosen as representative of the whole
population.
17. Sampling error – the level of confidence involved in a sample result – the level is
dependent on the size of the sample.
18. Unconventional participation – includes activities that are often dramatic, such as
protesting, civil disobedience, and even violence.