POLISCI EXAM #3

Public Opinion

Citizen’s attitudes about political issues, personalities, institutions, and events. 

Condorcet’s Jury Theorem

The majority of a jury would more likely reach the right decision in a trial than would a single individual who heard the same evidence. There is some chance that an individual will make a mistake, but adding up the judgments of many separate individuals, however, reduces the probability of a mistake.

Revealed Preferences

The expression of what people want when facing a particular choice. Ex: two public policies or two political parties. What people express about public policies or political choices are revealed preferences. 

Latent

An issue that is potentially of broad concern but has not yet reached the public arena. 

Variable

A set of exclusive options that capture the range of opinions on a given issue.

Democracy Principle

Majority rule is a good decision rule.

Socialization

A process in which individuals take on their communities’ perspectives and preferences through social interactions.

Ideology

A comprehensive way of understanding political or cultural situations; a set of assumptions about the way society works that help us organize our beliefs, information, and reactions to new situations. It ascribes values to different alternatives and helps us balance competing values. 

Liberal

A person who generally believes that the government should play an active role in supporting social and political change and generally supports a strong role for the government in the economy, the provision of social services, and the protection of civil rights. 

Conservative

A person who generally believes that social institutions (such as churches and corporations) and the free market solve problems better than governments do, that a large and powerful government poses a threat to citizens’ freedom, and that the appropriate role of government is to uphold traditional values. 

Libertarianism

Seeks to expand liberty above all other principles and wishes to minimize government intervention in the economy and society. 

Political Identities

Distinctive characteristics or group associations that individuals carry, reflecting their social connections, or common values and interests with others in that group. These are absolute, unlike political ideologies. Ex: race, ethnicity, religion, and gender. 

Descriptive Representation

Preference for people of the same identity. Ex: Someone may vote for candidates of the same ethnicity apart from, or in spite of, the sorts of law they promise to enact. 

Gender Gap

A distinctive pattern of voting behavior reflecting the differences in views between women and men. First became evident in the presidential election of 1980 when war, peace, and women’s equality were at the forefront of the political conversation.

Walter Lippmann Claim

The collective action problem regarding the significant lack of political knowledge in Americans creates the opportunity for a learned class of elites to govern - not by winning elections, but by shaping how others think.

Vietnam War Mishap

When the government was trying to build public support around the war, CBS News aired its documentary The Selling of the Pentagon, which purported to reveal the extent of the government’s efforts to sway popular sentiment. Since then, public trust in the government has not recovered.

Agenda-Setting Effect

The power of the media to focus public attention on particular issues. 

Priming

The use of media coverage to make the public take a particular view of an event or a public figure.

Framing

 The influence of the media over how events and issues are interpreted.

Public-opinion polls

A scientific instrument for measuring public opinion.

Sample

A small group selected by researchers to represent the most important characteristics of an entire population. 

Probability Sampling

A method used by pollsters to select a representative sample in which every individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent. 

Random-digit dialing

A method used by pollsters in which respondents are selected at random from a list of 10-digit telephone numbers, with every effort made to avoid bias in the construction of the sample.

Selection Bias

 A polling error in which the sample is not representative of the population being studied, so that some opinions are over - or underrepresented. The 1936 Literary Digest poll’s incorrect prediction about the presidential election between FDR and Alf Ladon is demonstrative of this.

Sampling Error

A polling error that arises on account of the small size of the sample. (Margin of error)

Measurement Error

The failure to identify the true distribution of opinion within a population because of errors such as ambiguous or poorly worded questions. 

Adverse Selection

The problem of incomplete information - of choosing alternatives without fully knowing the details of available options. > hidden information about the candidate. 

Moral Hazard

The problem of not knowing all aspects of the actions taken by an agent (nominally on behalf of the principal but potentially at the principal’s expense.) > hidden actions from the agent (representative/politician). 

Convenience Voting

Voting by mail or voting early at a polling center or town hall. 

World War II & Voting

 Five Decades after the war, there was a steady erosion of voter turnout in the US, with voter participation in presidential elections falling below 50 percent in 1996. That decline stirred Congress to reform voter registration rules in the mid 1990s.

Turnout Rate

The number of people who vote in a given election (or cast ballots) divided by the number of people who are allowed to vote. 

National Voter Registration Act

Approved by Congress and signed in 1993 by Bill Clinton, known as the “motor voter” law, which allows individuals to register to vote when applying for driver’s licenses as well as in public assistance and military recruitment offices.  

Australian Ballot

An electoral format that presents the names of all the candidates for any given office on the same ballot. Introduced in 1881 in Australia, now universal in the United States. Paired with the secret vote, it brought administrative reform in the US government: enabled voters to choose candidates as well as parties and facilitated the rise of the personal vote and the incumbency advantage in American electoral politics. 

Split-ticket Voting

When voters select candidates from different parties for different offices. > Its rising brings increasingly divided control of government.

Single-member District

An electoral district that elects only one representative - the typical method of representation in the United States. 

Electoral College

An institution established by the Constitution for the election of the president and vice presidency of the United States. Every four years, voters in each state and the District of Columbia elect electors who, in turn, cast votes for the president and vice president. The candidate receiving a majority of the electoral vote for president or vice president is elected. 

17th Amendment Effect

Established in 1913, providing direct election of senators. Jettisoned the system of state legislatures choosing senators, with each state choosing 2 senators. 

1842 Apportionment Act

Initiated by Representative John Campbell of South Carolina. Pertains to the election of House Members. “In every case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the number to which each state shall be entitled under this apportionment shall be elected by districts, composed of contiguous territory, equal in number to the number of representatives to which said state may be entitled; no one district electing more than one Representative. > made states responsible for creating appropriate districts. 

Uniform Congressional District Act

Established in 1967. Congress forbade the use of anything but single-member districts. Some states insisted on using at-large and multimember districts up to the 1960s. 

Baker v. Carr (1962)

Supreme Court ruled that all federal and state legislative districts must have equal populations: one person, one vote.

1971 Establishment

 After a series of important cases, the Supreme Court ruled that unequal representation violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal representation. So by this time, nearly every legislative district in the United States elected one representative, and the populations of the districts for each legislative chamber were equal.  

Voting Rights Act (1982)

An amendment was established in response to historical discrimination against Latinos and Blacks in district making: the creation of legislative districts with enough minority voters to elect House members representative of those groups. 

Gerrymandering

The drawing of electoral districts in such a way as to give advantage to one political party. Exemplifies the policy principle.

Plurality Rule

A type of electoral system in which victory goes to the individual who gets the most votes, but not necessarily a majority of the votes cast. 

Majority Rule

A type of electoral system in which, to win an office, a candidate must receive a majority (50 percent plus one) of all the votes cast in the relevant district.

Proportional Representation

A multimember district system that awards seats to political parties in proportion to the percentage of the vote each party won. Often leads to coalition governments, due to the lack of representation of a decisive majority. 

Duverger’s Law

Law of politics, formalized by Maurice Duverger, stating that plurality-rule electoral systems will tend to have two political parties. 

Direct Democracy

Allows the electorate to decide on laws directly. Used in state and local level politics. 

Referendum

A direct vote by the electorate on a proposed law that has been passed by the legislature or on a specific governmental action. An institution of direct democracy. Allows voters to govern directly without government official intervention, but is subject to judicial action.  26 states provide for it.

Initiative

A process by which citizens may petition to place a policy proposal on the ballot for public vote. Needs to be accompanied with a minimum of signatures approved by the Secretary of State.

Recall

The removal of a public official by popular vote. It exists in 18 states. Usually comes into effect with a petition campaign.

Party Identification

 An individual’s attachment to a particular political party, which may be based on issues, ideology, past experience, upbringing, or a mixture of these elements. 

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022)

The guarantee of access to abortion was struck down and left in the hands of state legislatures. 

Issue Voting

The tendency of individuals to base their decision of which candidate or party to vote for on the extent to which they agree with the candidate or party on specific issues. > Encourages candidate convergence.

Prospective Voting

 Voting based on the imagined future performance of a candidate. 

Retrospective Voting

Voting based on the past performance of a candidate or party.

Spatial Issues

An issue for which a range of possible options (can be mapped on a continuum or line) or policies can be ordered, say, from liberal to conservative or from most expensive to least expensive.

Valence Issue

An issue or aspect of a choice for which all voters prefer a higher value, in contrast to a spatial issue - for example, voters prefer their politicians to be honest, and honesty is a valence issue.

Median Voter Theorem

A proposition predicting that, when policy options can be arrayed along a single dimension, majority rule will pick the policy most preferred by the voter whose ideal policy is to the left of half of the voters and to the right of exactly half of the voters. 

Federal Election Campaign Act (1971)

Congress established many limiting campaign reforms. Mostly pertained to how and how much money was donated or contributed to a campaign. Regulated campaign funding to go through the political action committee (PAC). Established the Federal Election Commission to oversee public disclosure of information and enforce the laws. 

Political Action Committee

A private group that raises and distributes funds for use in election campaigns. 

Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

The Supreme Court declared that “money is speech” and those limits are unconstitutional in accordance with James Buckley, a NY Senator candidate, stating that restrictions on spending and contributions set by the FEC was a violation of his free speech. However, the court also believed that the government had an incentive to protect elections from corrupt practices so they left contribution limits in place.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

Supreme Court case that held that the First Amendment protects the rights of corporations, unions, and other associations to make independent political expenditures. This ruling struck down and overturned  long-standing restrictions on independent spending in elections by the BCRA. > led to the establishment of 501c(4) organizations and super PACs. 

Political Party

An organized group that attempts to control the government by electing its members to office. 

Nomination

The process by which political parties select their candidates for election to public office. 

Closed Primary

A primary election in which only those voters who have registered their affiliation with the party by a specified time before the election can participate.

Open Primary

A primary election in which voters can choose on the day of the primary which party’s primary to vote in. 

Majority Party

 The party that holds the majority of seats in a legislative chamber, such as the US House or Senate. 

Party Activists

 A partisan who contributes time and energy beyond voting to support a party and its candidates. 

Caucus

A meeting of a political or legislative group, normally closed to nonmembers, to select candidates, plan strategy, or make decisions about legislative matters. 

Winner Take All

A form of voting in which the candidate with the largest percentage of votes, regardless of whether it is a majority, wins the race.

Proportional Representation

A multimember district system that awards seats to political parties in proportion to the percentage of the vote each party won. 

First Party System

 Federalists & Democratic-Republicans 

Second Party System

 Democrats & Whigs (developed from remnants of federalism) 

Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)

Gave each territory the right to decide for itself whether to permit slavery. Overturned the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise of 1850 which both prohibited the expansion of slavery into the American territories. 

Third Party System

Republicans and Democrats (1869-1896)

Party Machines

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the local party organization that controlled local politics through patronage and the nomination process. 

Fourth Party System

The emergence of protest parties, most notably the Populist party (1896-1932) 

Fifth Party System

The New Deal Coalition (1932-1968) 

Sixth Party System

The reduction of moderate wings in both republican and democratic parties and less of a focus on the center of the electorate> extreme polarized political alignment  (1968-Present)

Third Party

A party that organizes to compete against two major American political parties. 

Interest Group

An organized group of people that attempts to influence governmental policies. Also called lobby.

Pluralism

The theory that all interests are and should be free to compete for influence in the government.

Selective Benefits

Benefits that do not go to everyone but, rather, are distributed selectively - to only those who contribute to the group enterprise. Can be informational, solidary, purposive, or material. 

Lobbying

An attempt by a group to influence the policy process through persuasion of government officials. 

Administrative Procedure Act (1946)

Required most federal agencies to provide notice and an opportunity for public comment before implementing proposed rules and regulations.

Negotiated Rulemaking Act (1990)

Encouraged administrative agencies to engage in direct and open negotiations with affected interests when developing new regulations. 

Griswold V Connecticut (1965)

 Supreme Court declared that states could neither prohibit the dissemination of information about contraceptives nor prohibit the their actual use by married couples.  > enunciation of a constitutional doctrine of privacy

West Virginia V Environmental Protection Agency

Severely limited the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions in the energy sector. 

Going Public

Trying to influence public opinion for or against some proposed action by the government. 

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)

Restricted donations to nonfederal accounts to limit corruption, and it imposed limits on the types of campaign commercials that groups could air within 60 days of an election. It also raised the limits on direct campaign contributions to compensate for election. 

Initiative

A process by which citizens may petition to place a policy proposal on the ballot for  public vote. 

Proposition 13

An initiative made in California that placed a limit on property tax increases and forever changed the way that the state finances education. 

Earmarks

Expenditures on particular projects in specific districts or states, and they are usually added to bills late in the legislative process to help secure enough votes for passage. 

Communications Act of 1934

Required every broadcast outlet to obtain a license establishing its right to broadcast at a given frequency and with a maximum strength.

Telecommunications Act of 1996

Loosened restrictions on media ownership brought on by the 1934 regulations, and allowed telephone companies, cable television providers, and broadcasters to compete for the provision of telecommunication services. This led to an increase in media ownership concentration. 

A&M Records v. Napster

The Ninth Circuit Court sided with record companies against firms that offered free distribution of copyrighted content. The case has had far-reaching implications for all providers of content on the internet. 

Prior Restraint

An effort by a government agency to block publication of material by a newspaper or magazine; censorship. 

Near v. Minnesota (1931)

 The Supreme Court ruled that, except under the most extraordinary of circumstances, the First Amendment prohibits government agencies from preventing newspapers or magazines from publishing whatever they wish.  

New York Times v. United States (1971)

The Supreme Court ruled that the government could not even block the publication of Secret Defense Department documents furnished to the New York Times by an opponent of the Vietnam War who had obtained the documents illegally.