Name: Ideology and policymaking | AP US Government and Politics | Khan Academy
Uploaded: 2020-03-27T17:36:40.000Z
Duration: 3 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

- [Instructor] Let's take a look at this chart,

based on survey data from the Pew Research Center.

Researchers asked U.S. adults in early 2020

which issues they think should be top priorities

The top two issues were the economy and the environment.

although the economy has ranked 1st since 2002.

The environment was last place for several years,

and climate change didn't even make the list until 2015.

Questions like these help political scientists

people's preferences toward policy choices.

As you can see, policy mood changes over time,

in response to problems and issues that arise.

For example, in 2009, as a response to the economic crash,

after a period of economic recovery and low unemployment,

jobs had fallen as a main concern and new issues

Climate change has become a major concern

for many people, which wasn't even a term

Conversely, a poll like this taken in 1980,

might have shown containing Communism as a main concern,

These measures of policy mood help politicians

and political parties craft their policy agendas,

in order to attract voters and serve their constituents.

But if so many people think that the economy

should be a major priority, why don't voters

Here's where ideological differences come into play.

Political scientists sometimes divide policy issues

Position issues are issues that divide voters,

like abortion or gun control, where there isn't much room

Valence issues are issues that most voters will agree with,

like our communities should be free of crime

These are high level values that cut across partisan lines,

For example, although both Democrats and Republicans

might want to reduce drug use, Republicans might argue

that tougher drug laws are most likely to achieve that goal,

while Democrats might argue that prevention

and education programs would be more effective.

So policy mood tells us what the public thinks

but differing ideological beliefs about how best

to achieve those priorities lead to different approaches