GOV 312L - Chapters 12 & 13

Voter Turnout

The percentage of eligible voting-age citizens who actually cast a ballot in an election.

Mobilization

Efforts by campaigns and groups to get supporters to actually show up and vote on Election Day.

If a group of millionaires donates heavily to campaigns and PACs, thus successfully gaining more influence over the political process than other people living in the same state, we might say this is -

Participatory Inequality

What is the most effective type of mobilization effort?

In-person contact via knocking on doors

What is the trend in voter turnout in recent elections?

It declined from the 1970s to the 1990s but has increased since then.

Why were voter registration requirements created?

Progressive Era reformers sought to limit the power of urban political machines and the immigrant and working-poor voters who supported them.

Why do young people vote less often than older people?

Young people are more mobile, which makes it harder for them to register to vote and harder for campaigns to find them to mobilize them.

What differences are there in the views of voters and nonvoters?

Nonvoters are more in favor of government spending than voters.

What was the intent of the Motor Voter Act?

To lower registration costs

When the Trump campaign used the immigration issue to court Democratic voters who favored restrictions on immigration, we might say these voters were

cross-pressured.

When a campaign affects the criteria that voters use in choosing a candidate, the process is known as

priming.

The most powerful influence on a person’s party identification tends to be

their parents.

Why is the legalization of marijuana a wedge issue?

It has support from Democratic and Republican voters.

What does reinforcement mean?

encouraging voters who are predisposed to support you to actually do so

How do political consultants think candidates should respond to the fact that most voters have low levels of interest in politics?

They advise candidates to repeat a basic message over and over.

Solidary Benefits

Intangible social rewards of political involvement derived from mutual camaraderie, social status, and participation in a collective group effort.

Purposive Benefits

Intangible internal satisfaction gained from advancing an ideological cause, supporting a favored policy principle, or fulfilling a sense of civic duty.

Mobilization Spillover Effect

The dynamic in which successfully contacting one individual in a household to vote significantly raises the probability that their cohabitants will also cast ballots.

Sociotropic Voting

A decision-making strategy where citizens choose between candidates based on assessments of national economic health rather than their individual pocketbooks.

Pocketbook Voting

An electoral choice made by assessing whether a household's personal finances and living standards have improved or worsened under the incumbent leadership.

Proximity Voting

A spatial model decision rule where a citizen casts a ballot for the contender whose stated policy positions and ideological score are nearest to their own.

Issue Publics

Organized subgroups within the broader electorate that care intensely about a specific policy domain, follow candidates' stances on it, and base their votes on that single issue.