I'm Kenneth Janda, initial author of Chapter 5 on "Public Opinion and Socialization." In reading this chapter, pay close attention to these five major points:

First, understand how public opinion on political issues relates to the majoritarian and pluralist models of democracy. Which model depends more on public opinion in shaping public policy?

Second, you should understand modern methods for assessing public opinion. Learn the basic principles in sampling thousands of people to estimate the opinions of millions. Virtually all polls reveal that citizens' attitudes vary toward a given question. Pollsters measure whether public opinion follows a "normal" distribution, whether the distribution of opinion is "bi-modal," or "skewed." Learn the meanings of these terms and the political implications of each form of opinion distribution.

Third, become familiar with the term, "political socialization." Learn the two fundamental principles of socialization and understand how those principles operate through the agents of early socialization: which are family, school, community, and peers.

Fourth, study how political opinion differs within social groupings such as educational and income levels, regions, ethnicity, religion, and gender.

Fifth, consider the evidence concerning to what extent the public thinks in ideological terms. Do most people think that way? How does the American public divide among the four ideological types discussed in the text? Are we a nation of conservatives? Of liberals? What does the public's ideological distribution say about the conventional liberal-conservative continuum?

The chapter concludes by discussing the process of forming political opinions. You should be prepared to assess the influence of political knowledge, self-interest, and political leadership on how citizens form their opinions.