special topics (139 nonwards)

Representation

is a relationship through which an individual or group stands for, or acts on behalf of, a larger body of people.

trustee

A ______ is a person who is vested with formal responsibility for another’s property or affairs.

Trustee model

______ model: A trustee is a person who is vested with formal responsibility for another’s property or affairs. For Burke, the essence of representation was to serve one’s constituents by the exercise of mature judgment and enlightened conscience. Trustee representation thus portrays professional politicians as representatives insofar as they are members of the educated elite.

election

is the means by which the people choose their officials for definite and fixed periods and to whom they entrust for the time being as their representatives, the exercise of powers of government. 

suffrage

is the right and obligation to vote of qualified citizens in the election of certain national and local officers of the government and in the decision of public questions submitted to the people.

plebiscite

is a name given to a vote of the people expressing their choice for or against a proposed law or enactment submitted to them. In the Philippines, the term is applied to an election at which any proposed amendment to, or revision of, the Constitution is submitted to the people for their ratification.

referendum

is the submission of a law or part thereof passed by the national or local or legislative body to the voting citizens of a country for their ratification or rejection

initiative

is the process whereby the people directly propose and enact laws. Congress is mandated by the Constitution to provide as early as possible for a system of initiative and referendum.

recall

is the method by which a public officer may be removed from office during his tenure or before the expiration of his term by a vote of the people after registration of a petition signed by a required percentage of the qualified voters.

delegate

A d_______ is a person who is chosen to act on the basis of clear guidance or instructions. A delegate is expected to act as a conduit conveying the views of others, while having little or no capacity to exercise his or her own judgment or preferences.

Delegate model

_______ model: A delegate is a person who is chosen to act on the basis of clear guidance or instructions. A delegate is expected to act as a conduit conveying the views of others, while having little or no capacity to exercise his or her own judgment or preferences.

Mandate model

______ model: this is based on the idea that in winning an election, a party gains a popular mandate that authorizes it to carry out whatever policies or programs it outlined during the campaign.

resemblance model

R______ Model: suggests that only people, who come from a particular group and have shared the experiences of that group, can fully identify with its interests.

1) Recruiting politicians; 2) Making governments; 3) Providing representation; 4) Influencing policy; 5) Educating voters; 6) Building legitimacy; and, 7) Strengthening elites

Functions of elections:

party identification model

is based on the sense of psychological attachment that people have to parties.  Electors are seen as people who identify with a party, in the sense of being long-term supporters who regard the party as their party. 

theories of voting behavior

the sociological model

links voting behavior to group membership, suggesting that electors tend to adopt a voting pattern that reflects the economic and social position of the group to which they belong.

theories of voting behavior

rational-choice model

voting is seen as a rational act, in the sense that individual electors are believed to decide their party preference on the basis of personal self-interest.

theories of voting behavior

dominant ideology model

radical theories of voting tend to highlight the degree to which individual choices are shaped by a process of ideological manipulation and control.

theories of voting behavior

single member plurality

the country is divided into single member constituencies, usually of equal size. Voters select a single candidate, usually marking his or her name with a cross on the ballot paper. The winning candidate needs only to achieve a plurality of votes (the first past the post rule)

electoral system

Second Ballot System

There are single candidate constituencies and single choice voting, as in the first past the post system. To win on the first ballot, a candidate needs an overall majority of the votes cast. If no candidate gains a first ballot majority, a second runoff ballot is held between the leading two candidates.

electoral system

political culture

refers to a people’s psychological orientation, political culture being the pattern of orientations to political objects such as parties, government, and constitution, expressed in beliefs, symbols, and values.

Political culture differs from public opinion in that is fashioned out of long-term values rather than simply people’s reactions to specific policies and problems.

hint: pc

hegemony

came from Greek word hegemonia meaning leader, the ascendancy or domination of one element of a system over others.

is typically understood as a cultural or ideological process that operates through the dissemination of bourgeois values and beliefs throughout society.

participant

in which people know about politics and feel they should and do participate in politics

types of political cuture: p, s, p

subject

in which people are aware of politics but cautious about participating; they are more conditioned to obeying

types of political culture

parochial

meaning narrow or focused only on their intermediate concerns, is one in which people are not even much aware of politics and do not participate

types of political culture

civic culture

Democratic stability is underpinned by political culture that is characterized by a blend of activity and passivity on the part of citizens and a balance between obligation and performance on the part of the government.

The civic culture thesis rests on the unproven assumption that political attitudes and values shape behavior and not the other way around. It tends to treat political culture as homogenous: that is, as little more than a cipher for national culture or national character. In doing so, it pays little attention to political subcultures and tends to disguise fragmentation and social conflict.

types of political culture

Marxist theory

In Marx’s view, ideas and culture are part of a superstructure that is conditioned or determined by the economic base, the mode of production.

Culture is essentially class specific: as members of a class share the same experiences and have a common economic position and interests, they are likely to have broadly similar ideas, values and beliefs. Culture emphasizes the degree to which the ideas of ruling class pervade society and become the ruling ideas of the age. In this view, political culture, or even civic culture is thus nothing more than bourgeois ideology.

pluralist model

The pl____ mod___ of the mass media portrays the media as an ideological marketplace in which a wide range of political views are debated and discussed. In ensuring an informed citizenry the mass media both enhance the quality of democracy and guaranteed that government power is checked.

political communication

dominant ideology

portrays the mass media as a politically conservative force that is aligned to the interests of economic and social elites and serves to promote compliance or political passivity amongst the masses.

political communication

propaganda model

They identified five filters through which news and political coverage are distorted by the structures of media itself. These filters are as follows:

1) The business interests of owner companies,

2) Sensitivity to views and concerns of advertisers and sponsors,

3) Sourcing of news and information from agents of power such as governments and business backed think tanks,

4) Flak or pressure applied to journalists including threats of legal action, and

5) Unquestioning belief in the benefits of market competition and consumer capitalism.

political communication

elite values model

The _________ shifts attention away from the ownership of media corporations to the mechanism through which media output is controlled. This view suggest that editors, journalists and broadcasters enjoy significant professional independence and that even most interventionist of media moguls is able only to set a broad political agenda but not to control day to day editorial decision making.

political communication

dispenses the idea of media bias, it holds that newspapers and television reflect rather than shape the views of the general public. This occurs because regardless of the personal views of media owners and senior professionals, private media outlets are first and foremost businesses concerned with profit maximization and thus with extending market share.

The media therefore give people what they want and cannot afford to alienate existing or potential viewers or readers by presenting political viewpoints with which they may disagree.

political communication

The favorable presentation of information and policies or what is come to be called spin has thus become a major preoccupation of modern governments. The art of spinning practiced by so-called spin-doctors has many facets.

These include the following:

1) Careful vetting of information and arguments before releasing to the media;

2) Control of sources of information to ensure that only an official line is presented;

3) Use of unattributable briefings or leaks,

4) Feeding of stories only to sympathetic media sources;

5) Release of information close to media deadlines to prevent checking or the identification of counterarguments; and,

6) Release of bad news at times when other, more important events dominate the news agenda.

communicator, message, medium, receiver

model of political communication consists of C, M, M, R

communicator

chooses what message to transmit and how the message will be shaped. Similarly, the receiver determines how to interpret the message and what, if anything, to do with it. In this situation, the behaviors of the communicator and the receiver are influenced by each one’s experiences, self-image and role within a social context.

model of communication: c, m,m, r

The ownership and biases of the media have been an issue of continuing interest to analysts. Communicators and their messages are constrained by the organization to which they belong. Most media are owned either by the government or by the powerful and wealthy.

The government run or heavily government-regulated media in many countries generally support the state and its policies. Those media that are for profit business in a competitive environment tend to be cautious about offending those upon whose financial support they rely (particularly corporate advertisers) and to report in a manner that is consistent with the ideology of their owners.

media

can send powerful images to one society about the values and living standards of another country. In response, to these concerns, many countries have attempted to place restrictions on the extent to which the foreign media can penetrate their society.

they have made more information about politics easily accessible to the citizens than at any previous time. In some countries an individual has access to hundreds of hours of news every day; such news can be rich source of information as well as analyses and criticisms regarding the political world.

new media

make it far more difficult for a government to control the information available to its citizens. From radio to cross border television to regional satellite transmissions to computer based information networks, national borders have been obliterated as barriers to the movement of information.

The new communication technologies can affect the political and social values of many people, especially those in more traditional societies. The increasing availability of foreign media exposes people to information and ideas that challenge their cultural base including their understanding of the political world.