Arturo Salazar

POLS-1100-004
Shari Lee Sowards.
5 November, 2015

Political Awareness & Issues

American population in the most part believe in the Constitution and Government,
however, are we fully aware of the Government structure? Or how does Government works? and
how does the Government represents the population? and how do Americans divide their
ideological identity and beliefs?, We all want freedom, opportunities, happiness and financial
prosperity, however, the way we approach it and reach it has to be a mutual effort from
communities and interest groups, which groups priorities and tactics are different.
Students took a survey at the beginning of the course to explore their knowledge about
the issues in our contemporary society also to know how aware were they in the political arena,
however, it was surprising what the results were for the most part the survey showed that
students are aware of the politics at the highest level which is the president but the students
lacked on the Knowledge of their local representatives for example Senators, District
Representatives and even the State Governor. The survey gave us an understanding of where are
the students political preferences either liberal or conservative.
Here is the graph where we undermine the tendencies for most of the students in the
class, however some of them did not answer the questions or decided to opt out on some of the
questions.

Students need to understand that what is the difference between conservative and liberals
as is stated in the book American Political Science Individual differences in conservative
liberal ideology are said to lead people to adopt particular political views that are organically
consistent with their underlying ideologies (Alford ,JR) Meaning that people take tendencies to
what is normal to them and tend to support a political party with the same ideas Student daily
News define Liberal as Liberals believe in government action to achieve equal opportunity and
equality for all. It is the duty of the government to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties
and individual and human rights.(Conservative vs. ) and describes Conservatives believes in this
form Conservatives believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets,
individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. (Conservative
vs.)on this definitions students can see the difference in opinions and how they are represented
by the different political parties, however, these characteristics are not fully descriptive to a
specific political party but it has been established that over the years Democrats are more Liberal
than Conservative and Republicans are more Conservative than Liberals.
Reviewing the answers is clear that most of the students know who the president is and
vice president because they are on the media most of the time and represents the higher executive

power and in the las years the office has been addressed multiple times on controversial issues,
but it doesnt show the students knowing about local representatives or which can more
drastically have a n impact on the area where they live. Now taking a look to the second part of
the survey where polemical questions are asked it showed a difference on what the students say
is their beliefs. On the right to bear arms question we can see that people has a more conservative
view of the issue were they are in favor to bear arms also on the question about Gay marriage it
shows that the class is more conservative.
As opposite on the questions about NSA conducting surveillance on citizens the class
took a much Liberal Approach against it another questions that shows the liberal beliefs is the
global warming question where the students want stricter rules to fight global warming.
There was also the question about immigration and tax cuts showing us that there is a
clear division on beliefs and it almost went 50-50.

The graph shows what the students consider themselves in terms of conservative or
liberal and it is almost perfectly divided in 3 and a slightly smaller 3rd part that has not decided
or can define themselves. After all we can see that the class has a tendency to conservativism but
when it comes to personal rights it is a mix of Conservative and liberal beliefs we also have to
take in consideration the Religion, culture and Age in this case the Average age was 20.8 years
old. We also have to look at the way the Student are getting the information from most of it is

from social media which can affect the decisions. None the less to me the survey is a little more
liberal than conservative but it definitely hard to say because of the diverse class.
WORKS CITED:
Alford, John R., Carolyn L. Funk, and John R. Hibbing. "Are political orientations genetically
transmitted?." American political science review 99.02 (2005): 153-167.
"Conservative vs. Liberal Beliefs." Student News Daily Conservative vs Liberal Beliefs
Comments. Web. 4 Nov. 2015.