1. Imagine that you are a representative in Congress. How would you go about measuring the public opinion of your district? Polls? Mailed surveys? Town halls? Some other method? Why are the methods you selected good choices?

2. Imagine that you are a representative in Congress. Would you be interested in the opinion of business leaders, labor leaders, and citizens from neighboring districts or states? Why or why not?

3. According to the minimalist paradigm, most of the public is not very knowledgeable about political issues and policies. In our current age with information so being so widely available, why might that be that case? In other words, why isn’t the public more knowledgeable in our technological age?

4. Think about all the surveys that you have taken in your life. Are there any instances where you may have offered a non-attitude? What was the general aim of the question and why did you offer a non-attitude? Why are non-attitudes so problematic for researchers and elected officials?

5. Why aren’t Americans better informed about politics? What differences are there in the public in terms of political knowledge? In what ways might these differences in the amount of knowledge shape our political landscape?

6. Given the wide diversity of opinion about the situation in Ferguson, why was the public so uniformly supportive of body cameras for police? In other words, how did this specific policy lead to more support than the wider issue of police misconduct?

7. In what ways do elections qualify as a means of measuring public opinion? What are the limits of that method?

8. How is a focus group a good way to measure public opinion on an issue? What are the limits of that method? Have any of you ever personally been a part of a focus group?

9. Why are random samples so hard to achieve in real life? What kinds of biases creep into most random samples? Are there any ways to correct them? What kinds of biases are surveyors most concerned with?

10. What is weighting in terms of surveys? Why is it done and what problems is it designed to correct? What are some of the major issues when using weights?

11. What is sampling error? How does sampling error affect the accuracy of a poll? What is the main way to reduce the sampling error of a poll?

12. What is a straw poll and why is it used? What are the main advantages of this approach? What are the main disadvantages?

13. What is an exit poll and why is it used? What are the main advantages of this approach? What are the main disadvantages? In what ways might exit polls be dangerous for democracy?

14. What are race of interviewers effects? How might these affect the outcome of surveys? Are there some types of surveys less likely to see these effects?

15. What kind of civic education did you have in school? How long was it? How seriously was it taken? Was your teacher biased in an obvious way?

16. How much civic education should there be in schools? How long should be and when should it happen? What should the goals be for civic education?

17. Many of the young people quoted in the text, refer to the events surrounding the death of Michael Brown as being events that led to them becoming involved in politics. Were there any events that made you more involved or interested in politics? Any that might have shaped your voting in a major way?

18. What kind of political materials show up in your social media? Do they always agree with your views or do they differ? Or is the material you see largely non-political in nature?

19. What is party polarization in Congress? Do you find it troubling? Why or why not? In what ways might polarization in Congress be a good thing?

20. What is the “gender gap” and why is it important? Where might the “gender gap” have come from and is there any likelihood of it narrowing in the near future?