AP Gov Unit 5

Rational Choice

Rational Choice

Citizen’s individual interest

Retrospective Voting

whether or not a party/candidate should be reelected based on their performance

Prospective Voting

the potential performance of a party/candidate

Party-Line Voting

voting for candidates from a single political party for all offices

Splinter/Bolter Parties

• Form to represent constituencies that feel disenfranchised by major parties

  • usually united around the feeling that other parties do not respond to their demands

Economic Interest Groups

promote and protect members’ economic interests, including business groups and labor groups

Public Interest Groups

nonprofit groups organized around a set of public policy issues, including consumer, environmental, religious, and single-issue groups

Government Interest Groups

localities like states and cities which have lobbying organizations in DC, including mayors, governors

amicus curiae

“Friend of the court”: someone who is not a party to a case, but offers information that bears on the case, and has not been solicited by any of the parties to assist a court.

influence peddling

using friendships and inside information to get political advantage

1946 Federal Regulation of Lobbying

intended to allow government to monitor lobbying activities by requiring lobbyist to register with government and disclose salaries, nature of activities, and expenses

Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA - 1974)

allowed political action committees (PACs) to be formed by corporations, unions, and trade associations to raise campaign funds

• Set restrictions on contributions and contributors - must raise money from employees and members and not from treasuries

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold Act)

• regulated campaign finance + PAC donations

  • Prohibited soft money (unregulated donations) to national political parties

  • Limited corporate and union funding for ads about political issues within 60 days of general election and 30 days of primary

  • Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010): Supreme Court overturned BCRA limits on PAC funding for “corporate independent expenditures”

    • PACs that donate to certain candidates must have limits on their contributors and donations

    • PACs that do not donate to specific candidates have no fundraising limits as long as they do not coordinate with candidates

      • Unlimited PACs are known as super PACs - generally financed by the rich but can be difficult to locate donors

      • Vague on what coordination is

Hard Money

Regulated contributions to candidates

Soft Money

Unregulated, unlimited contributions to parties for activities; limited by BCRA

527 Groups

• Named after part of tax code

• Tax-exempt organization that promotes political agenda but cannot advocate for/against a specific candidate

• Not regulated by the FEC and not subject to contribution limits

  • Avoid regulations because they are political organizations but not registered as political committees

    • Issue advocacy vs candidate advocacy = disagreed

    • BCRA changed soft money rules to make establishing 527s more appealing than PACs and allowing outside groups to avoid hard money limits of BCRA

Incumbent advantage

• Representatives who run for reelection (incumbents) win ~90% of the time

• House incumbents have a greater advantage than senators

  • House members run in home districts, usually of one party due to gerrymandering

  • Victory in primary election nearly guarantees victory in general election

Superdelegates

Democratic Party grants automatic delegate status to elected party leaders (superdelegates), who generally support the front-runner.

McGovern-Fraser Commission

created in 1968 to promote diversity in delegate pool - recommended that delegates are represented by proportion of population in each state

Blanket Primary

voters can vote for one candidate per office of either party

Brokered conventions

• held when no candidate has received the pledge of a majority of delegates and conventions must decide the nominee

  • Party systems designed to avoid brokered conventions - divides party, can cost election

Split-ticket voting

• voting for a presidential candidate of one party and legislators of another

  • Leads to divided government (when one party controls the Senate and/or House and the other controls the executive branch)

    • Creates gridlock: two branches work against each other or can result in the creation of moderate policy

    • Encourages party dealignment because voters do not clearly align with their parties

Incrementalism

slow, step-by-step way of making policy

policy fragmentation

many pieces of legislation deal with parts of policy problems but never address the whole problem

Laisses Faire

• conomists think that the government should never get involved in the economy

  • Pursuit of profit benefits society

  • Free markets are governed by the laws of nature

  • Readopted by US since the Cold War ended

Keynesian economics

• the government can smooth out business cycles by influencing individuals’ income amounts and the amounts businesses can spend on goods and services

  • New Deal - 1930s

Federal Reserve Board

• How the government controls the supply of money in circulation and credit

• Can increase amount of money in circulation by lowering interest rates, which make borrowing money less expensive and inflate the economy (higher prices and wages)

• Raising interest rates deflates the economy (more stable/lower prices or wages)

Discretionary spending

• not required by law, programs include research grants, education, defense, highways, and all government operations