What Is A Political Party?
Chapter 5 Notes
What Is a Party * A political party is a group of persons who seek to control government by winning elections and holding office. * The two major parties in American politics are the Republican and Democratic parties. * Parties can be principle-oriented, issue-oriented. The American parties are election-oriented.
What Do Parties Do * Nominate - recruit, choose, and present candidates for public office. * Inform and activate supporters - campaign, define issues, and criticize other candidates. * Govern - members of government that act accordingly to their partisanship, or firm allegiance to a party. * Acting as a watchdog - parties that are out of power keep a close eye on the actions of the …show more content…
party in power for a blunder to use against them in the next election.
Why a Two-Party System: * The historical basis – the nation started out with two parties: the Federalist and Anti-Federalist. * The force of tradition – America has a two party system because it always has had one. Minor parties, lacking wide political support have never made a successful showing so people are reluctant to support them. * The electoral system – certain features of government, such as single member districts are designed to favor two major parties. * Ideological consensus – most Americans have a general agreement on fundamental matters. Conditions that would spark several strong rivals parties do not exist in the United States.
Advantages of Multiparty Systems: * Provides broader representation of the people. * More responsive to the will of the people. * Give voters more choices at the polls.
Disadvantages of Multiparty System: * Causes parties to form coalitions, which can dissolve easily. * Failure of coalitions can cause instability in government.
* One party system is where only one party is allowed. * Modified one party system is where one party regularly wins most elections.
Party Membership Patterns: * Factors that can influence party membership include family, major events, economic status, religion, occupation, and age.
Federalist: * Led by Alexander Hamilton. * Represented wealthy and upper-class interests. * Favored strong executive leadership and liberal interpretation of the Constitution.
Anti-Federalist: * Led by Thomas Jefferson. * Represented the “common man”. * Favored Congress as the strongest arm of government and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
The Era of Democrats (1800-1860): * Democrats dominate all but two presidential elections. * The Whig Party emerges in 1834, but declines by the 1850’s, electing only two Presidents. * The Republican Party is founded in 1854.
The Era of the Republicans (1860-1932): * Republicans dominate all but four presidential elections. * The Civil War disables the Democratic Party for the remainder of the 1800’s.
The Return of the Democrats (1932-1968): * Democrats dominate all but two presidential elections. * Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President four times.
* Since 1068, neither Republicans nor Democrats have dominated the presidency and Congress has often been controlled by the opposing party. * Types of minor parties include ideological parties, single-issue parties, economic parties, and splinter parties.
Why Minor Parties Are Important: * “Spoiler role” are when minor party candidates can pull decisive votes away from one of the major parties’ candidates, especially if the minor party candidate is from a splinter party. * “Critic” are when minor parties, especially single-issue parties, often take stands on and draw attention to controversial issues that the major parties would prefer to ignore. * “Innovator” is when minor parties will draw attention to important issues and propose innovative solutions to problems. If these proposals gain popular support, they are often integrated into the platforms of the two major parties.
The Decentralized Nature of the Parties: * Both of the major parties are highly decentralized and fragmented. * Reasons include the party out of power lacks a strong leader, the federal system distributes power widely, in turn causing the parties to be decentralized, and the nominating process pits party members against one another because only one person can chosen to be the party’s presidential candidate.
National Party Machinery: * The national convention, the national chairperson, the congressional campaign committees, and the national committee are the four elements both parties work together loosely to achieve the party’s goals.
The Three Components of the Party: * The party organization are those who run and control the party machinery. * The party in the electorate are whose who always or almost always vote for party candidates. * The party in government are those who hold office in the government.
Future of Major Parties for Voters: * More people are unwilling to label themselves as “Democrats” or Republicans”. * Split-ticket voting – voting for candidates of different parties for different offices at the same election.
Future of Major Parties for Candidates: * Structural changes have increased conflict and disorganization within parties. * Changes in the Technology of Campaigning, especially the use of television and the Internet have made candidates more independent of the party organization. * The growth of single-issue organizations provides candidates with another source of financial support.
Chapter 6 Notes
The History of Voting Rights: * The Framers of the Constitution purposely left the power to set suffrage qualifications to each State. * Suffrage means the right to vote. Franchise is another term with the same meaning. * Initially, the right to vote in America was limited to white male property owners. * Today, the size of the American electorate is greater than 200 million people. Nearly all citizens at least 18 years of age can qualify to vote.
Extending Suffrage: * The expansion of the electorate to its present size happened in five fairly distinct stages.
* 1.) During the early 1800’s, religious, property, and tax payment qualifications were gradually eliminated. * 2.) The 15th Amendment (1870) was intended to end race-based voting requirements. * 3.) In 1920, the 19th Amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of sex. * 4.) The 1960’s: the Voting Rights Act of 1965 guaranteed the right to vote for minorities; the 23rd Amendment (1961) granted citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote for presidential electors; and the 24th Amendment (1964) eliminated the poll tax. * 5.) The 26th Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age to 18.
Setting Voter Qualifications: * The Constitution sets five limits on the power that States have to set voter qualifications. * 1.) Any person whom a State allows to vote for members of the “most numerous Branch” of its own legislature must be also allowed to vote for members of Congress. * 2.) No State can deprive any person the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of …show more content…
servitude. * 3.) No State can deprive any person the right to vote on account of sex. * 4.) No State can require the payment of any tax as a condition for voting. * 5.) No State can deprive any person who is at least 18 years of age the right to vote.
Universal Requirements: * There are 3 factors that States require people to meet to be eligible to vote. * 1.) Citizenship – most States require United States citizenship in order to vote. * 2.) Residence – one must be a legal resident of a State to vote in elections. Most States require residency for minimum amounts of time in order to vote in the State. * 3.) Age – the 26th Amendment requires that no State set a minimum voting age above 18.
Other Qualifications: * All states except North Dakota requires citizens to register to vote. Registration is a procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting. * Literacy – a person’s ability to read or write – is no longer required in any State to vote, but had been several States at time in our nation’s history. * At one time, poll taxes, or special tax payment required to vote, were prevalent in the South. Poll taxes are now forbidden by the 24th Amendment. * States also have restrictions on the right to vote on certain members of the population, such as those found to be mentally incompetent or people convicted of serious crimes.
The Fifteenth Amendment: * Declares that the right to vote cannot be denied to any citizen of the United States because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Early Civil Rights Legislation: * Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the United States Civil Rights Commission, investigated and reported voter discrimination, and gave the Attorney General the power to require federal courts to issue orders to prevent any interference with a person’s right to vote. * Civil Rights Act of 1960 created federal voting referees who helped correct conditions to prevent voter discrimination.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: * Mare far-reaching than the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished the user of voter registration or a literacy requirement to discriminate against any voter. * Its enforcement relied on judicial action and the use of injunctions – court orders that either force or restrain specific acts. * The violent response of civilians and police and state troopers to a voter registration drive mounted by Dr. Martine Luther King, Jr. in Selma, Alabama showed that the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964 were still not enough to ensure voter equality.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965: * Led to the abolishment of the poll tax, outlawed the use of any kind of literacy test, mandated preclearance, and later amendments added a language-minority provision. * Court decisions upholding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 included Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966), Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), and South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966).
Nonvoters: * Millions of Americans do not vote when elections are held. * Only 50.1 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2000 presidential elections, and only 46.3 percent of the electorate voted for the members of the House of Representatives. * Voters turnout significantly decreases in off-year elections, congressional elections held in years when there is no presidential elections.
Why People Do Not Vote: * Some people cannot vote for various reasons such as physical or mental illness, unexpected travel, and resident alien citizenship status. * However, most nonvoters do not vote because voting is in some ways inconvenient, they do not believe their vote will make a difference, or they distrust politics and political candidates.
Voters and Voting Behavior: * Voting is studied more than any other form of political participation in the United States. American learn about voting behavior in 3 ways: * 1.) The results of elections – information can be gleaned by studying the results of confidential voting compared to the population make-up of a particular sector. * 2.) The field of survey research – data can be gathered by conducting polls across specific cross sections of the population, as the Gallup Organization does. * 3.) Studies of political socialization – studying political socialization, the process by which people gain their political attitudes and opinions, can also be useful in predicting behavior.
Sociological Factors: * Voter preferences can’t be predicted by just one sociological factor. Voter opinion is a combination of all these factors and more. * These combinations include income/occupation, education, gender/age, religious/ethnic background, geography, or family/other groups.
Psychological Factors: * Voters’ perceptions of their party, the candidates, and the issues significantly affects their voting. * Party Identification 0 the loyalty of people to a particular political party is the single most significant and lasting predictor of how a person will vote. * Candidates and Issues – candidates and issues are two short-term factors that can influence even the most loyal Democrat or Republican. People may vote out of their chose party if they dislike a candidate or the party’s stand on a particular issue.
Chapter 7 Notes
A Critical First Step: * In the United States, the election process occurs in two steps: nomination, in which the field of candidates is narrowed and general election, the regularly scheduled election where voters make the final choice of officeholder.
Three Ways to Nominate: * Self-Announcement – a person who want to run for office announces their candidacy. Whenever a write-in candidate appears on the ballot, the self-announcement process has been used. * The Caucus – originally a private meeting of local bigwigs, the caucus as a nominating device fell out of favor in the 1820’s. * The Convention – considered more democratic than the caucus, convention delegates were selected to represent the people’s wishes. Party bosses soon found ways to manipulate the system, however, and the convention system was on its way out by the early 1900’s.
Types of Direct Primaries: * Closed primary – only declared party members can vote. * Open primary – any qualified voter can take part. * Runoff primary – if a required majority is not met, the two people with the most votes run again. * Nonpartisan primary – candidates are not identified by party labels. * Blanket primary – qualified voters can vote for any candidate, regardless of party.
Petition: * Candidates must gather a required number of voters’ signature to get on the ballot by means of petition. * Minor party and independent candidates are usually required by State law to be nominated by petition. * Petition is often used at the local level to nominate for school posts and municipal office.
The Administration of Elections: * Election are primarily regulated by State law, but there are some overreaching federal regulations. * Congress has the power to set the time, place, and manner of congressional and presidential elections. Congress has chosen the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year for congressional elections, with the presidential election being held the same day every fourth year. * States determine the details of the election of thousands of State and local officials. * Most states provide for absentee voting, for voters who are unable to get to their regular polling places on election day. Some States within the last few years have started to allow voting a few days before election day to increase voter participation.
Precincts and Polling Places: * A precinct is a voting district. * Precincts are the smallest geographic units used to carry out elections. * A precinct election board supervises the voting process in each precinct. * A polling place is where the voters who love in a precinct go to vote. * It is located in or near each precinct. Polling places are supposed to be located conveniently for voters.
Casting the Ballot: * Voting was initially done orally. It was considered “manly” to speak out your vote without fear of reprisal. * Paper ballots began to be used in the mid-1800s. At first, people provided their own ballots. Then political machines began to take advantage of the flexibility of the process to intimidate, buy, or manufacture votes. * In the late 1800s, ballot reforms cleaned up ballot fraud by supplying standardized, accurate ballots and mandating that voting be secret.
Voting Machines and Innovations: * Electronic voting counting has been in used since the 1960s. Punch-card ballots are often used to cast votes. * Vote-by-mail elections have come into use in recent years. * Online voting is a trend that may be encountered in the near future.
Sources of Funding: * Private and public sources of campaign money. * Small contributors – nonparty groups such as PACs. * Wealthy supporters – temporary fund-raising organizations. * Candidates – government subsidies.
Regulating Campaign Financing: * Early campaign regulation were created in 1907, but feebly enforced. * The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 was passed to replace the former, ineffective legislation. * The FECA Amendments of 1974 were passed in response to the Watergate Scandal. * Buckley v. Valeo invalidated some of the measures in the FECA Amendments of 1974. Most significantly, it also stipulated that several of the limits that the 1974 amendments placed on spending only apply to candidates who accept campaign money from the government, not those who raise money independently. * The FECA Amendments of 1976 were passed in response to Buckley v. Valeo.
The Federal Election Commission: * The Federal Election Commission enforces the timely disclosure of campaign finance information, limits on campaign contributions, limits on campaign expenditures, and provisions for public funding of presidential campaigns.
Loopholes in the Law: * Soft money – money given to State and local party organizations for “party-building activities” that is filtered to presidential or congressional campaigns. $500 million was given to campaigns in this way in 2000 * Independent Campaign Spending – a person unrelated and unconnected to a candidate or party can spend as much money as they want to benefit or worl against candidates. * Issue ads – take a stand on certain issues in order to criticize or support a certain candidate without actually mentioning that person’s name.
Chapter 8 Notes
What is Public Opinion: * Public opinion can be described as those attitudes held by a significant number of people on matters of government and politics. * Different Publics – the United States is made up of many groups, or publics, who share common news. * Public Affairs – are those events and issues that concern the public at large. In its proper sense, public opinion includes only those views that relate to public affairs. * Public opinion – more than one public opinion can exist at the same time, because there are many publics. A view or position must be expressed in the open in order to be a public opinion.
The Political Spectrum: * People who have similar opinions on political issues are generally grouped according to whether they are “left”, “right”, or “center” on the political spectrum.
Family and Education: * Many factors influence our political opinions and political socialization over the course of a lifetime. * The family – children first see the political world from within the family and through the family’s eyes. The strong influence the family has on the development of political opinions is due to the large amount of time children spend with the family. * The schools – children acquire political knowledge throughout their time in the classroom. Students are taught about political systems, patriotism, and great Americans. Some are even required to take a course on government in high school.
Other Factors Influencing Public Opinion: * Mass media – the mass media include those means of communication that reach large, widely dispersed audiences (masses of people) simultaneously. The mass media has a huge effect on the formation of public opinion. * Peer groups – are made up of the people with whom one regularly associates, including friends, classmates, neighbors, and
co-workers. * Opinion leaders – any person who, for any reason, has an unusually strong influence on the views of others. * Historic events – can have a major impact on public opinion. The Great Depression is one event that shaped the political views and opinions of a generation.
Measure of Public Opinion: * Elections – candidates who win an election are said to have a mandate, or a command from the electorate, to carry out campaign promises. In reality, however, election results are seldom an accurate measure of public opinion. * Interest groups - are private organizations whose members share certain views and work to shape public policy. Interest groups are a chief means by which public opinion is made known. * The media - are frequently described as “mirrors” as well as “molders” of opinion. * Personal contacts - public officials rely on frequent and wide-ranging contacts with their constituents, such as reading their mail, answering calls, and meeting people in public.
Polls – The Best Measures: * Public opinion is best measured by public opinion polls, devices that attempt to collect information by asking people questions. * Straw votes - is a method of polling that seeks to read the public’s mind simply by asking the same question of a large number of people. The straw-vote technique is highly unreliable, however. * Scientific polling - serious efforts to take the public’s pulse on a scientific basis date from the 1930s. There are now more than 1,000 national and regional polling organizations in this country, with at least 200 of these polling political preferences.
The Polling Process: * Defining the universe - The universe is a term that means the whole population that the poll aims to measure. * Constructing a sample - a sample is a representative slice of the total universe. Most professional pollsters draw a random sample, also called a probability sample. A quota sample is one that is deliberately constructed to reflect several of the major characteristics of a given universe. * Preparing valid questions - the way in which questions are worded is very important. Wording can affect the reliability of any poll. * Interviewing - pollsters communicate with the sample respondents using various methods including person-to-person interviews, telephone calls, and mail surveys. * Reporting - pollsters use computers to store and manipulate data, which helps them analyze and report the results of the poll.
Evaluating Polls and Their Limit on Public Opinion: * Evaluating polls - On balance, most national and regional polls are fairly reliable. Still, they are far from perfect. Potential problems with polls include their inability to measure the intensity, stability, and relevance of the opinions they report. Another potential problem is that polls and pollsters are sometimes said to shape the opinions they are supposed to measure. * Limits on the impact of public opinion - public opinion is the major, but by no means the only, influence on public policy in this country. Much of the American political system is designed to protect minority interests against the excesses of majority views and actions. Finally, polls are not elections, nor are they substitutes for elections.
The Role of Mass Media: * A medium is a means of communication; it transmits some kind of information. Four major mass media are particularly important in American politics: * Television - politics and television have gone hand in hand since the technology first appeared. Today television is the principle source of political information for a majority of Americans. * Newspapers - the first newspapers carried mostly political news. Even with the total number of newspapers declining, they are still the second leading source of political information for most Americans. * Radio - on average, Americans hear 20 hours of radio each week. Radio has been a source of news and entertainment since 1920. * Magazines - some 12,000 magazines are published in the United States today. Several magazines are devoted to American news and politics.
The Media and Politics: * The Public Agenda - the media play a very large role in shaping the public agenda, the societal problems that political leaders and citizens agree need government attention. It is not correct that the media tell the people what to think; but it is clear that they tell the people what to think about. * Electoral Politics - Today, television allows candidates to appeal directly to the people, without the help of a party organization. Candidates regularly try to use media coverage to their advantage. Newscasts featuring candidates are usually short, sharply focused sound bites—snappy reports that can be aired in 30 to 45 seconds.
Limits on Media Influence: * Only a small part of the public actually takes in and understands much of what the media have to say about public affairs. * Many media sources mostly skim the news, reporting only what their news editors judge to be the most important and/or most interesting stories of the day. * In-depth coverage of public affairs is available to those who want it and will seek it out.
What Is a Party * A political party is a group of persons who seek to control government by winning elections and holding office. * The two major parties in American politics are the Republican and Democratic parties. * Parties can be principle-oriented, issue-oriented. The American parties are election-oriented.
What Do Parties Do * Nominate - recruit, choose, and present candidates for public office. * Inform and activate supporters - campaign, define issues, and criticize other candidates. * Govern - members of government that act accordingly to their partisanship, or firm allegiance to a party. * Acting as a watchdog - parties that are out of power keep a close eye on the actions of the …show more content…
party in power for a blunder to use against them in the next election.
Why a Two-Party System: * The historical basis – the nation started out with two parties: the Federalist and Anti-Federalist. * The force of tradition – America has a two party system because it always has had one. Minor parties, lacking wide political support have never made a successful showing so people are reluctant to support them. * The electoral system – certain features of government, such as single member districts are designed to favor two major parties. * Ideological consensus – most Americans have a general agreement on fundamental matters. Conditions that would spark several strong rivals parties do not exist in the United States.
Advantages of Multiparty Systems: * Provides broader representation of the people. * More responsive to the will of the people. * Give voters more choices at the polls.
Disadvantages of Multiparty System: * Causes parties to form coalitions, which can dissolve easily. * Failure of coalitions can cause instability in government.
* One party system is where only one party is allowed. * Modified one party system is where one party regularly wins most elections.
Party Membership Patterns: * Factors that can influence party membership include family, major events, economic status, religion, occupation, and age.
Federalist: * Led by Alexander Hamilton. * Represented wealthy and upper-class interests. * Favored strong executive leadership and liberal interpretation of the Constitution.
Anti-Federalist: * Led by Thomas Jefferson. * Represented the “common man”. * Favored Congress as the strongest arm of government and a strict interpretation of the Constitution.
The Era of Democrats (1800-1860): * Democrats dominate all but two presidential elections. * The Whig Party emerges in 1834, but declines by the 1850’s, electing only two Presidents. * The Republican Party is founded in 1854.
The Era of the Republicans (1860-1932): * Republicans dominate all but four presidential elections. * The Civil War disables the Democratic Party for the remainder of the 1800’s.
The Return of the Democrats (1932-1968): * Democrats dominate all but two presidential elections. * Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected President four times.
* Since 1068, neither Republicans nor Democrats have dominated the presidency and Congress has often been controlled by the opposing party. * Types of minor parties include ideological parties, single-issue parties, economic parties, and splinter parties.
Why Minor Parties Are Important: * “Spoiler role” are when minor party candidates can pull decisive votes away from one of the major parties’ candidates, especially if the minor party candidate is from a splinter party. * “Critic” are when minor parties, especially single-issue parties, often take stands on and draw attention to controversial issues that the major parties would prefer to ignore. * “Innovator” is when minor parties will draw attention to important issues and propose innovative solutions to problems. If these proposals gain popular support, they are often integrated into the platforms of the two major parties.
The Decentralized Nature of the Parties: * Both of the major parties are highly decentralized and fragmented. * Reasons include the party out of power lacks a strong leader, the federal system distributes power widely, in turn causing the parties to be decentralized, and the nominating process pits party members against one another because only one person can chosen to be the party’s presidential candidate.
National Party Machinery: * The national convention, the national chairperson, the congressional campaign committees, and the national committee are the four elements both parties work together loosely to achieve the party’s goals.
The Three Components of the Party: * The party organization are those who run and control the party machinery. * The party in the electorate are whose who always or almost always vote for party candidates. * The party in government are those who hold office in the government.
Future of Major Parties for Voters: * More people are unwilling to label themselves as “Democrats” or Republicans”. * Split-ticket voting – voting for candidates of different parties for different offices at the same election.
Future of Major Parties for Candidates: * Structural changes have increased conflict and disorganization within parties. * Changes in the Technology of Campaigning, especially the use of television and the Internet have made candidates more independent of the party organization. * The growth of single-issue organizations provides candidates with another source of financial support.
Chapter 6 Notes
The History of Voting Rights: * The Framers of the Constitution purposely left the power to set suffrage qualifications to each State. * Suffrage means the right to vote. Franchise is another term with the same meaning. * Initially, the right to vote in America was limited to white male property owners. * Today, the size of the American electorate is greater than 200 million people. Nearly all citizens at least 18 years of age can qualify to vote.
Extending Suffrage: * The expansion of the electorate to its present size happened in five fairly distinct stages.
* 1.) During the early 1800’s, religious, property, and tax payment qualifications were gradually eliminated. * 2.) The 15th Amendment (1870) was intended to end race-based voting requirements. * 3.) In 1920, the 19th Amendment prohibited the denial of the right to vote because of sex. * 4.) The 1960’s: the Voting Rights Act of 1965 guaranteed the right to vote for minorities; the 23rd Amendment (1961) granted citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote for presidential electors; and the 24th Amendment (1964) eliminated the poll tax. * 5.) The 26th Amendment (1971) lowered the voting age to 18.
Setting Voter Qualifications: * The Constitution sets five limits on the power that States have to set voter qualifications. * 1.) Any person whom a State allows to vote for members of the “most numerous Branch” of its own legislature must be also allowed to vote for members of Congress. * 2.) No State can deprive any person the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of …show more content…
servitude. * 3.) No State can deprive any person the right to vote on account of sex. * 4.) No State can require the payment of any tax as a condition for voting. * 5.) No State can deprive any person who is at least 18 years of age the right to vote.
Universal Requirements: * There are 3 factors that States require people to meet to be eligible to vote. * 1.) Citizenship – most States require United States citizenship in order to vote. * 2.) Residence – one must be a legal resident of a State to vote in elections. Most States require residency for minimum amounts of time in order to vote in the State. * 3.) Age – the 26th Amendment requires that no State set a minimum voting age above 18.
Other Qualifications: * All states except North Dakota requires citizens to register to vote. Registration is a procedure of voter identification intended to prevent fraudulent voting. * Literacy – a person’s ability to read or write – is no longer required in any State to vote, but had been several States at time in our nation’s history. * At one time, poll taxes, or special tax payment required to vote, were prevalent in the South. Poll taxes are now forbidden by the 24th Amendment. * States also have restrictions on the right to vote on certain members of the population, such as those found to be mentally incompetent or people convicted of serious crimes.
The Fifteenth Amendment: * Declares that the right to vote cannot be denied to any citizen of the United States because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Early Civil Rights Legislation: * Civil Rights Act of 1957 created the United States Civil Rights Commission, investigated and reported voter discrimination, and gave the Attorney General the power to require federal courts to issue orders to prevent any interference with a person’s right to vote. * Civil Rights Act of 1960 created federal voting referees who helped correct conditions to prevent voter discrimination.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: * Mare far-reaching than the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 abolished the user of voter registration or a literacy requirement to discriminate against any voter. * Its enforcement relied on judicial action and the use of injunctions – court orders that either force or restrain specific acts. * The violent response of civilians and police and state troopers to a voter registration drive mounted by Dr. Martine Luther King, Jr. in Selma, Alabama showed that the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, and 1964 were still not enough to ensure voter equality.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965: * Led to the abolishment of the poll tax, outlawed the use of any kind of literacy test, mandated preclearance, and later amendments added a language-minority provision. * Court decisions upholding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 included Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966), Oregon v. Mitchell (1970), and South Carolina v. Katzenbach (1966).
Nonvoters: * Millions of Americans do not vote when elections are held. * Only 50.1 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in 2000 presidential elections, and only 46.3 percent of the electorate voted for the members of the House of Representatives. * Voters turnout significantly decreases in off-year elections, congressional elections held in years when there is no presidential elections.
Why People Do Not Vote: * Some people cannot vote for various reasons such as physical or mental illness, unexpected travel, and resident alien citizenship status. * However, most nonvoters do not vote because voting is in some ways inconvenient, they do not believe their vote will make a difference, or they distrust politics and political candidates.
Voters and Voting Behavior: * Voting is studied more than any other form of political participation in the United States. American learn about voting behavior in 3 ways: * 1.) The results of elections – information can be gleaned by studying the results of confidential voting compared to the population make-up of a particular sector. * 2.) The field of survey research – data can be gathered by conducting polls across specific cross sections of the population, as the Gallup Organization does. * 3.) Studies of political socialization – studying political socialization, the process by which people gain their political attitudes and opinions, can also be useful in predicting behavior.
Sociological Factors: * Voter preferences can’t be predicted by just one sociological factor. Voter opinion is a combination of all these factors and more. * These combinations include income/occupation, education, gender/age, religious/ethnic background, geography, or family/other groups.
Psychological Factors: * Voters’ perceptions of their party, the candidates, and the issues significantly affects their voting. * Party Identification 0 the loyalty of people to a particular political party is the single most significant and lasting predictor of how a person will vote. * Candidates and Issues – candidates and issues are two short-term factors that can influence even the most loyal Democrat or Republican. People may vote out of their chose party if they dislike a candidate or the party’s stand on a particular issue.
Chapter 7 Notes
A Critical First Step: * In the United States, the election process occurs in two steps: nomination, in which the field of candidates is narrowed and general election, the regularly scheduled election where voters make the final choice of officeholder.
Three Ways to Nominate: * Self-Announcement – a person who want to run for office announces their candidacy. Whenever a write-in candidate appears on the ballot, the self-announcement process has been used. * The Caucus – originally a private meeting of local bigwigs, the caucus as a nominating device fell out of favor in the 1820’s. * The Convention – considered more democratic than the caucus, convention delegates were selected to represent the people’s wishes. Party bosses soon found ways to manipulate the system, however, and the convention system was on its way out by the early 1900’s.
Types of Direct Primaries: * Closed primary – only declared party members can vote. * Open primary – any qualified voter can take part. * Runoff primary – if a required majority is not met, the two people with the most votes run again. * Nonpartisan primary – candidates are not identified by party labels. * Blanket primary – qualified voters can vote for any candidate, regardless of party.
Petition: * Candidates must gather a required number of voters’ signature to get on the ballot by means of petition. * Minor party and independent candidates are usually required by State law to be nominated by petition. * Petition is often used at the local level to nominate for school posts and municipal office.
The Administration of Elections: * Election are primarily regulated by State law, but there are some overreaching federal regulations. * Congress has the power to set the time, place, and manner of congressional and presidential elections. Congress has chosen the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every even-numbered year for congressional elections, with the presidential election being held the same day every fourth year. * States determine the details of the election of thousands of State and local officials. * Most states provide for absentee voting, for voters who are unable to get to their regular polling places on election day. Some States within the last few years have started to allow voting a few days before election day to increase voter participation.
Precincts and Polling Places: * A precinct is a voting district. * Precincts are the smallest geographic units used to carry out elections. * A precinct election board supervises the voting process in each precinct. * A polling place is where the voters who love in a precinct go to vote. * It is located in or near each precinct. Polling places are supposed to be located conveniently for voters.
Casting the Ballot: * Voting was initially done orally. It was considered “manly” to speak out your vote without fear of reprisal. * Paper ballots began to be used in the mid-1800s. At first, people provided their own ballots. Then political machines began to take advantage of the flexibility of the process to intimidate, buy, or manufacture votes. * In the late 1800s, ballot reforms cleaned up ballot fraud by supplying standardized, accurate ballots and mandating that voting be secret.
Voting Machines and Innovations: * Electronic voting counting has been in used since the 1960s. Punch-card ballots are often used to cast votes. * Vote-by-mail elections have come into use in recent years. * Online voting is a trend that may be encountered in the near future.
Sources of Funding: * Private and public sources of campaign money. * Small contributors – nonparty groups such as PACs. * Wealthy supporters – temporary fund-raising organizations. * Candidates – government subsidies.
Regulating Campaign Financing: * Early campaign regulation were created in 1907, but feebly enforced. * The Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 was passed to replace the former, ineffective legislation. * The FECA Amendments of 1974 were passed in response to the Watergate Scandal. * Buckley v. Valeo invalidated some of the measures in the FECA Amendments of 1974. Most significantly, it also stipulated that several of the limits that the 1974 amendments placed on spending only apply to candidates who accept campaign money from the government, not those who raise money independently. * The FECA Amendments of 1976 were passed in response to Buckley v. Valeo.
The Federal Election Commission: * The Federal Election Commission enforces the timely disclosure of campaign finance information, limits on campaign contributions, limits on campaign expenditures, and provisions for public funding of presidential campaigns.
Loopholes in the Law: * Soft money – money given to State and local party organizations for “party-building activities” that is filtered to presidential or congressional campaigns. $500 million was given to campaigns in this way in 2000 * Independent Campaign Spending – a person unrelated and unconnected to a candidate or party can spend as much money as they want to benefit or worl against candidates. * Issue ads – take a stand on certain issues in order to criticize or support a certain candidate without actually mentioning that person’s name.
Chapter 8 Notes
What is Public Opinion: * Public opinion can be described as those attitudes held by a significant number of people on matters of government and politics. * Different Publics – the United States is made up of many groups, or publics, who share common news. * Public Affairs – are those events and issues that concern the public at large. In its proper sense, public opinion includes only those views that relate to public affairs. * Public opinion – more than one public opinion can exist at the same time, because there are many publics. A view or position must be expressed in the open in order to be a public opinion.
The Political Spectrum: * People who have similar opinions on political issues are generally grouped according to whether they are “left”, “right”, or “center” on the political spectrum.
Family and Education: * Many factors influence our political opinions and political socialization over the course of a lifetime. * The family – children first see the political world from within the family and through the family’s eyes. The strong influence the family has on the development of political opinions is due to the large amount of time children spend with the family. * The schools – children acquire political knowledge throughout their time in the classroom. Students are taught about political systems, patriotism, and great Americans. Some are even required to take a course on government in high school.
Other Factors Influencing Public Opinion: * Mass media – the mass media include those means of communication that reach large, widely dispersed audiences (masses of people) simultaneously. The mass media has a huge effect on the formation of public opinion. * Peer groups – are made up of the people with whom one regularly associates, including friends, classmates, neighbors, and
co-workers. * Opinion leaders – any person who, for any reason, has an unusually strong influence on the views of others. * Historic events – can have a major impact on public opinion. The Great Depression is one event that shaped the political views and opinions of a generation.
Measure of Public Opinion: * Elections – candidates who win an election are said to have a mandate, or a command from the electorate, to carry out campaign promises. In reality, however, election results are seldom an accurate measure of public opinion. * Interest groups - are private organizations whose members share certain views and work to shape public policy. Interest groups are a chief means by which public opinion is made known. * The media - are frequently described as “mirrors” as well as “molders” of opinion. * Personal contacts - public officials rely on frequent and wide-ranging contacts with their constituents, such as reading their mail, answering calls, and meeting people in public.
Polls – The Best Measures: * Public opinion is best measured by public opinion polls, devices that attempt to collect information by asking people questions. * Straw votes - is a method of polling that seeks to read the public’s mind simply by asking the same question of a large number of people. The straw-vote technique is highly unreliable, however. * Scientific polling - serious efforts to take the public’s pulse on a scientific basis date from the 1930s. There are now more than 1,000 national and regional polling organizations in this country, with at least 200 of these polling political preferences.
The Polling Process: * Defining the universe - The universe is a term that means the whole population that the poll aims to measure. * Constructing a sample - a sample is a representative slice of the total universe. Most professional pollsters draw a random sample, also called a probability sample. A quota sample is one that is deliberately constructed to reflect several of the major characteristics of a given universe. * Preparing valid questions - the way in which questions are worded is very important. Wording can affect the reliability of any poll. * Interviewing - pollsters communicate with the sample respondents using various methods including person-to-person interviews, telephone calls, and mail surveys. * Reporting - pollsters use computers to store and manipulate data, which helps them analyze and report the results of the poll.
Evaluating Polls and Their Limit on Public Opinion: * Evaluating polls - On balance, most national and regional polls are fairly reliable. Still, they are far from perfect. Potential problems with polls include their inability to measure the intensity, stability, and relevance of the opinions they report. Another potential problem is that polls and pollsters are sometimes said to shape the opinions they are supposed to measure. * Limits on the impact of public opinion - public opinion is the major, but by no means the only, influence on public policy in this country. Much of the American political system is designed to protect minority interests against the excesses of majority views and actions. Finally, polls are not elections, nor are they substitutes for elections.
The Role of Mass Media: * A medium is a means of communication; it transmits some kind of information. Four major mass media are particularly important in American politics: * Television - politics and television have gone hand in hand since the technology first appeared. Today television is the principle source of political information for a majority of Americans. * Newspapers - the first newspapers carried mostly political news. Even with the total number of newspapers declining, they are still the second leading source of political information for most Americans. * Radio - on average, Americans hear 20 hours of radio each week. Radio has been a source of news and entertainment since 1920. * Magazines - some 12,000 magazines are published in the United States today. Several magazines are devoted to American news and politics.
The Media and Politics: * The Public Agenda - the media play a very large role in shaping the public agenda, the societal problems that political leaders and citizens agree need government attention. It is not correct that the media tell the people what to think; but it is clear that they tell the people what to think about. * Electoral Politics - Today, television allows candidates to appeal directly to the people, without the help of a party organization. Candidates regularly try to use media coverage to their advantage. Newscasts featuring candidates are usually short, sharply focused sound bites—snappy reports that can be aired in 30 to 45 seconds.
Limits on Media Influence: * Only a small part of the public actually takes in and understands much of what the media have to say about public affairs. * Many media sources mostly skim the news, reporting only what their news editors judge to be the most important and/or most interesting stories of the day. * In-depth coverage of public affairs is available to those who want it and will seek it out.