Political Science 105

Bi-Weekly Public Opinion Poll

The Size and Role Of Government

Your Responses Compared With the Public's

PLEASE TAKE PART IN THE POLL

There are just five questions. Please answer all five.

It will be interesting to compare the views of the people in Political Science 105 with those of national samples? Do you suppose students are more liberal? more conservative? Or perhaps their views on many issues do not differ from one anyone else's. The questions have been taken virtually word for word from a national survey of public opinion, The General Social Survey.

Please spend a minute answering the five questions below about the role and size of the federal government. We are interested in your opinions; there are no right or wrong answers.

Note that your responses are recorded anonymously; they are tabulated by a computer program. We only check to make sure that no one "votes" twice.

Click on the send button when done

I. We find that people differ in how much faith and confidence they have in various levels of government in this country. In your case, do you have more faith and confidence in the national government, your state government, or your local government?

II. Now what about the federal government, does it have too much power or too little power?

III. We'd like to ask you about issues some people tell us are important. Some people think that the government in Washington should do everything possible to improve the standard of living of all poor Americans; they are at Point 1 below. Other people think it is not the government's responsibility, and that each person should take care of himself; they are at Point 5.

Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you have up your mind on this?

IV. In general, some people think that it is the responsibility of the government in Washington to see to it that people have help in paying for doctors and hospital bills. Others think that these matters are not the responsibility of the federal government and that people should take care of these things themselves.

Where would you place yourself on this scale, or haven't you made up your mind on this?

V. People have different ideas about the government in Washington. These ideas don't refer to Democrats or Republicans in particular, but just to the government in general. We want to see how you feel about these ideas. For example: How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right--just about always, most of the time, or only some of the time?

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

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