Unit 5 - Political Participation (Elections)

Critical Election

• Major adjustments in the parties

• New issues emerge, which shift voter support from one party’s advantage to another’s

• 1876/1896 - Republican Realignment → Laissez-Faire

• 1932 - Democratic Realignment → Big government (New Deal Coalition)

• 1968 - Dealignment → Era of Divided government/polarization

  • 30/40/30 → Republicans/Moderates or communists or socialists/Democrats

Mandate to govern (legitimacy)

• Landslide victory → coattail effect (going along with the victory) → party realignment

• Why Johnson does The Great Society, Vietnam War (how mandate can be dangerous), and Civil Rights Act

Culture War

• Effective tactic to win the election

• BUT divides the country into us vs. them (causes dealignment/polarization)

Tribalism

• Can lead to “the other” (alienation)

Reactionary

• Someone who doesn’t like change

• Mostly conservatives

• Political perspective

Federalism

• Division of power: the federal government has power and state governments have power

• The original constitution is silent on voting requirements → they are left up to the states

• States determine gerrymandering and election rules

“Jacksonian Democracy”

• End of property requirements to vote (the states’ decision, not Jackson’s)

  • Presidents are given too much credit (bad or good) and they don’t directly make history

15th Amendment

• Gave ex slaves the right to vote

• But many still couldn’t because of literacy tests, poll taxes, and the grandfather clause

24th Amendment

• Outlawed the poll tax

19th Amendment

• Expands the right to vote to women

26th Amendment

• Made the voting age 18

Motor Voter Act

• Requires all states to give people the option to register for voting when they get their driver’s license

Voter ID Laws

• Showing certain kinds of IDs as a requirement to vote

• But, many poor people don’t have a driver’s license and people could vote more than once with different driver’s licenses

• Now, we use social security so you shouldn’t need photo ID in many states

  • Mostly red states pass voter ID laws because many cities are blue and most people in cities don’t get their licenses (the IDs aren’t free if people take off work to get their licenses)

• Widespread voter fraud is impossible

• States make these laws

Voter supression

• Prevents specific groups of people from voting

• Ex. poll tax and grandfather clause

Political efficacy

• People are more likely to vote if they have political efficacy

• If they believe their vote will make a difference

• If they perceive a real difference between candidates

• If they feel civic duty

Swing state

• A state where the two major political parties have similar levels of support among voters

• Candidates want to concentrate on winning votes from the swing states with the most electoral votes

• People in swing states generally feel more political efficacy because their vote matters more

Factors that make someone more likely to vote

• Education (more educated)

• Age (older)

• Race (white)

• Gender (women)

  • Gender gap → Women vote more for Democrats and men vote more for Republicans

• Members of labor unions

• Marriage (married people

Accurate Polling

• Must be scientific polling, which includes:

  • Stratified sampling: ensure that demographics are represented

  • Representative sample: 1,500 people from all of the U.S.

  • Random sampling: everyone has the same chance of being selected

Problems with polling

• Loaded questions

  • Ex. Do you agree that American troops should be brought back from Iraq even if doing so would lead to thousands getting killed?

• Order and phrasing of question

• Framing (emphasizes a certain perspective)

• Push polling (provides negative information about one candidate)

• Opinion saliency (the importance or prominence of a specific issue in a person's mind)

• People being uninformed about the question

Closed primary

A primary election in which only registered voters from a political party may vote

Open primary

• A primary election in which all eligible voters may vote, regardless of their partisan affiliation

Coattails

• Popular political party leaders attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election

• Ex. victorious president will win many seats in Congress too

Caucus/Primary system

• A process through which a state’s eligible voters meet to select delegates to represent their preferences in the nomination process

• States choose whether the primaries are open or closed

General elections vs. Primaries

• Primaries are elections that political parties use to select candidates for a general election

• The electorate in the primaries is more polarized than the general election

FECA

• Federal Election Campaign Act

• Regulates U.S. campaign finance and created the Federal Election Commission (FEC), which enforces rules for federal elections

• FEC keeps track of the money given to each candidate (hard money → only $6,000 allowed per election cycle) and what the candidates do with it

• Prevents quid pro quo and allows for transparency

“Clean Elections”

• Government-funded elections

• No quid pro quo

Federal Election Commission

• U.S. regulatory agency that administers and enforces federal campaign finance laws for U.S. House, Senate, and Presidential Elections

Buckley v. Valeo

• The Supreme Court upheld limits on how much money an individual could donate directly to someone else’s campaign, but struck down limits on how much a candidate could spend on their own campaign

• Ruled that you can donate as much as you want to an interest group or party (soft money)

  • Money = speech (plutocracy → government of the rich/elite theory)

McCain-Feingold Act (2002)

• Sought to regulate the funding of political campaigns by trying to end the use of soft money and restricting the use of corporate and union funds for issue ads shortly before elections

• Limits money that PAC’s spend on campaign ads

• Congress can’t pass a law to overturn a Supreme Court Decision

McConnell v. FEC

• The court upheld key parts of McCain-Feingold, especially banning soft money and restricting issue ads

Hard money

• Strictly regulated political donations given directly to parties or candidates

• More trustworthy

Soft money

• Unregulated campaign contributions given to parties or interest groups rather than specific candidates

• Ex. Voter registration drives

PAC’s

• Political Action Committees

• Organizations that raise and spend money to influence elections and support candidates

Incumbent

• A political official who is currently in office

Negative Ads/Mudslinging

• Campaign strategy that focuses on attacking an opponent’s character, policies, or qualifications rather than promoting one’s own platform

Causes of polarization

• Echo chambers, primary elections, gerrymandering, and campaign finance

“Primaried”

• Being beat by a more radical member of your own party

• Republicans are more likely to be primaried

Gerrymandering

• The intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific interest group or group of voters

• FOR:

  • State legislatures draw district lines

• Districts must be compact, contiguous, and competitive

• Causes polarization in the House of Representatives

• DOES NOT affect the Presidential Election

Efficiency Gap

• A quantitative measure used to determine whether electoral districts have been drawn to unfairly benefit one political party over another

• FOR:

  • “My party doesn’t represent me anymore”

Rational choice voting

• Voting based on what a citizen believes is in his or her best interest

Prospective voting

• Voting for a candidate who promises to enact policies favored by the voter in the future

Retrospective voting

• Voting based on an assessment of an incumbent’s past performance

Split-ticket voting

• Voting for candidates from different parties in the same election

Straight-ticket (party line) voting

• Voting for all of the candidates on the ballot from one political party

Valence issue

• A policy question that has a widely shared public agreement on what the “right” answer is

Critical Election

• A major national election that signals a change in the balance of power between the 2 parties

Party Alignment

• Stable and long-term pattern of a voter consistently supporting and identifying with a specific political party

Party Dealignment

• Gradual disengagement of people and politicians from the major political parties

Party Coalitions

• Interest groups and like-minded voters who support a political party over time

Political Machine/Patronage

• Filling administrative positions as a reward for support, rather than solely on merit

Party Era

• Time period when one party wins most national elections

Third parties

• Minor political parties in competition with the 2 major parties

• Impossible in America because of polarization

• Prevented by the Electoral College

• Agendas are taken up by the more dominant parties

Two-party system

• 2 major parties consistently dominate the political landscape

Plurality system

• The winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, even if it’s not the majority

Electoral college/Winner takes all

• Selects the President through slates of electors chosen in each state, who are pledged to vote for a nominee in the presidential election

• FOR:

  • To protect against demagogues

  • Check upon the tyranny of the majority

  • Favors small states (vote matters more)

• AGAINST:

  • Could violate popular sovereignty

    • Popular vote does not always equal win

    • Votes matter more in swing states

Voting Rights Act of 1965

• Outlawed literacy tests

Shelby County v. Holder

• Ruled that jurisdictions with a history of discrimination no longer needed federal approval for changes to voting procedures

Candidate centered campaigns

• Electoral strategies that focus on the candidate rather than their party as a whole

Party centered campaigns

• Electoral strategies that focus on the party of the candidate rather than the actual candidate

• What politics shifted to after Citizens United and the formation of super PAC’s

RNC/DNC

• Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee

• National governing bodies for each party that coordinate national strategy, fundraising, and conventions

Air War

• Mass media advertising campaigns

Ground War

• Campaign’s field operations (direct and personal contact with voters)

Super PAC’s

• Organizations that can spend an unlimited amount of money on a political campaign as long as the spending isn’t coordinated with the campaign

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC) (2010)

• Congress passed the BCRA, which restricted corporations from financing issue-based advertising on behalf of candidates

• Citizens United wanted to distribute and advertise a film speaking about Hillary Clinton, but the FEC argued that it was a violation of the BCRA because it was aired within 30 days of a primary

• Citizens United won

• Ruled that corporations and unions have the same 1st Amendment free speech rights as individuals

• Led to an increase in independent spending in elections, the creation of super PAC’s, and the rise of soft money

• Overturned McCain-Feingold

Shaw v. Reno (1993)

• North Carolina added a 12th district to adjust to a growing population, and it was a minority-majority district that grouped Blacks together

• White voters sued because they argued it violated the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause

• Shaw won → It could’ve been an illegal racial gerrymander

• Ruled that redistricting should not be primarily based on race

Baker v. Carr (1962)

• Charles Baker, a voter in Shelby County, believed that he was being denied the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection because his vote in a district with a large population was devalued or diluted compared to a rural district with a small population

• Baker won

• Ruled that federal courts have authority to enforce the 14th Amendment if the state legislative districts are disproportionately populated

• One person, one vote → You can’t malapportion districts

  • Affects House of Representatives and the Electoral College (Presidential Elections)

  • Apportionment → number of seats per state (affects Electoral college number)

Amicus Briefs

• Amicus Curiae → Friend brief

• Friend of the court

• Not part of the case, but interest groups that lobby for a certain thing (they provide information to the court)

• The only legal way to influence the court

Asymmetrical Polarization

• Republicans have moved farther right than democrats have moved left

  • Republicans are more likely to be primaried

• The House of Representatives is more polarized than the Senate

Campaign Finance Reform

• Quid Pro Quo → Watergate → FECA → Buckley v. Valeo → McCain-Feingold → Citizens United → Super PAC’s

• Goal: to increase transparency

Quid Pro Quo

• This for that

• Bribery

• Watergate

Watergate

• Nixon used his re-election campaign money for bribery (quid pro quo)

• Something good for special interest (something that comes out of bribery) is bad for common good

17th Amendment

• Granted the people the right to vote senators into office

Direct Primary

• The selection of party candidates through ballots of qualified voters rather than party nomination conventions

Nixon

• Watergate

• Southern Strategy → Republican political plan to gain conservative white voters in the South by appealing to racial resentment and cultural conservatism, focusing on "law and order," states' rights, and opposition to forced busing and civil rights expansion, which helped shift the South from solidly Democratic to Republican

  • Culture War

Free Rider Problem

• People who get the benefits of interest groups but don’t contribute

• Ex. The Sierra Club works to promote NJ nature, which is good for everyone in the state, but not many people actually donate to them