Campaigns and Elections- Final Exam

Folk theory of democracy

people have coherent preferences --> they vote --> elections produce responsive government

*Basically, democratic outcomes represent what a majority of the people want

2 models of democracy that support the folk theory

The Populist Model - democratic policies and decisions represent the preference of the majority and the will of the people

Key parts of this model: representative democracy, direct democracy

The Elitist Model - democratic policies and decisions are based on what elected leaders, or elites, want. People don't choose policies, they choose leaders

Key parts of this model: electoral competition, retrospective voting

What are the 3 types of electoral systems?

Majoritarian electoral system - party that gets the most votes gets the power

Proportional electoral system - distribution of power is spread out between multiple parties

Combined electoral system - tries to combine the benefits of both systems (decisiveness and proportional representation) into one

What are the advantages of a majoritarian (U.S) system?

1, Creates democratic accountability (because representatives serve the people)

2. There are definite elections with a clear purpose

What are the disadvantages of a majoritarian (U.S) system?

1. Can limit the power of the minority

2. System can't work if the public is deeply divided

5 different methods of judicial elections

1. Partisan elections

2. Non-partisan elections (Michigan belongs here)

3. Merit selection and Retention elections (gov or legislature picks from list of "approved" judges, then retention election)

4. Legislative appointment

5. Gubernatorial appointment (when people vote for their governor)

What type of judicial election does the Streb reading endorse?

Streb endorses partisan elections. They lead to higher voter turnout because people don't have to do as much research on the candidates. Also, when people are voting for their political party, they are more likely to hold the person representing them accountable.

4 ways parties can exploit redistricting

1. They can redraw the districts before the census

2. Gerrymandering

3. Racial gerrymandering

4. Bipartisan gerrymandering (both parties work together to draw districts that keep the incumbent)

5 main types of Michigan ballot proposals

1. Citizen Initiative (signing a petition to put a new law on the ballot)

2. Citizen Referendum (signing a petition to approve/reject a law that was passed)

3. Citizen Amendment (signing a petition to amend the MI constitution)

4. Legislative Initiative (a bill that needs 50% voter approval to become law)

5. Legislative Amendment (an amendment that needs 2/3rds support)

Adversarial Model

A democratic system where political parties, candidates, and interest groups compete to win power

Consensual Model

A democratic system that emphasizes negotiation and compromise to share power, rather than a "winner-take-all" majoritarian approach

What practices were used to deter black people from voting in the South?

1. Secret boxes (black people were steered away from putting their vote in the right box)

2. Voter registration was only available on certain days/times

3. Grandfather clauses (you could only vote if your grandfather was registered to vote)

4. Poll taxes (people had to pay a fixed tax to vote)

5. Whites only primaries

6. Literacy tests

Majority-minority districts

Districts where over 50% of the voting population is a minority racial group

The Fair Representation Act tries to reduce polarization by reversing a ban on these types of elections in Congress

Multi member district elections

The 3 criteria for electoral demoracy

1. Equality in voting (one person, one vote)

2. Equality in competition

3. Transperency

What were Streb’s criticism’s with judicial elections?

1. There is a false sense of voter empowerment. You think your vote matters more than it actually does.

2. Voters usually aren't informed on the candiates policies (voter ignorance)

3. Campaigns are starting to cost a lot of money and becoming very big

Gerrymandering

When someone draws electoral boundaries that favor one political party

Reapportionment

Number of seats given to each state

Cracking/Splitting

taking a specific party, class, or ethnic group and splitting them across multiple districts

Packing/Jamming

only putting a specific party, class, or ethnic gorup into one big district (like clustering)

Efficiency gap

this gap is found by calculating the difference in "wasted votes" between two parties and dividing it by the total votes cast

Mean median difference

If the median is lower than the mean, it means votes are being “packed” into fewer districts (which is gerrymandering)

Partisan asymmetry

When one political party consistently gets more seats in government compared to the other party

First past the post

the candidate who receives the most votes in a district or constituency wins.

4 components to the Fair Representation Act

1. Implement ranked choice voting for primaries and general elections

2. Implement multi-member districts in states with more than one U.S House seat

3. Draw districts with independent redistricting criteria

4. Use quota based thresholds

What four institutional features lead to lower turnout in elections?

When elections are:
1. non-mayoral and run by a council
2. Aren't district or ward-based
3. Non-partisan
4. Held in an odd year or not in November

What state lost another U.S. House seat by 89 residents in 2020?

New York

identify 7 goals to redistricting

1. make districts have roughly equal populations

2. Create small, connected districts

3. protect minority representation (VRA)

4. create a partisan advantage

5. protect people in office

6. keep communities of interest intact

7. promote electoral competition

What was the main goal the Supreme Court had when passing a series of rulings about congressional redistricting, establishing the "one person, one vote" standard of evaluation

establish districts of roughly equal populations

benefits of multi member districts

allows for diversity of candidates, minimizes redistricting issues, and minimizes competition

Do multi-member districts help gender and racial diversity?

Multi-member districts bring in a higher percentage of women representatives.

However, when a district is segregated, can lead to lower rates of Black and Latino representation.

What did the Voting Rights Act do?

It drastically changed federal roles in 3 key areas to help enforce the 15^th amendment:

1. Right to Vote- Prohibited states using registration standards that unfairly deny or hinder voting for black people (like literacy tests, poll taxes)

2.  Denial of Representation- Required that cities and states draw districts that DO NOT dilute voting power (however doesn’t require proportionality)

3.  Enforcement- Established a system of preclearance among select counties and states. This meant that the Justice Department had to approve any change in voting laws, voting practices, or redistricting.

Duverger’s Law

plurality electoral systems favor a country having only two major parties

Norris’s criticism of proportional representation

it makes elections indecisive

Referendum

when citizens (not representatives) get to directly vote for a political decision

How can MI legislature avoid facing a referendum on the ballot?

By passing a law that involves spending government money

How can MI legislature avoid facing an initiative on the ballot?

By passing the proposed law without modifying it

How can MI legislature avoid facing a referendum on the ballot?

By passing a law that involves spending government money

What 3 factors make the US House non-proportional?

1. Single-member district, winner-take-all (biggest)

2. Small-state bias (small states don't have as much representation)

3. Political party differences in different regions

States typically have their congressional and legislative districts drawn by

state legislature

Did the Department of Justice claim that the city of Eastpointe intentionally discriminated against black candidates?

No. But they did file a lawsuit in 2017 because they thought that at-large voting was unfair to black voters.

Why did the Department of Justice try ranked choice voting instead of ward voting in Eastpointe?

They chose ranked choice voting as a new system because the community was small, but also rapidly changing.

what laws does the MI Constitution forbid referendum on

1. laws that modify the state constitution

2. laws that take effectprior to the next election

3. laws that spend gov money

EOR principle of voter turnout

Voters tend to be more educated, older, and richer
** This happens because not every voter has the same access to resources, education, and the networks and connections

What two factors limit voter persuasion in campaigns?

1. Partisanship - Strong Republican isn't likely to vote Democrat

2. Low Attention and Low Information- Not paying attention to the election, or don't know much about whats on the ballot

What is the normal vote?

what the typical partisan split is

What proposed reform to ease voting rules may actually do more harm than good?

Early voting. It makes election day less noticeable and more expensive

What are the four common sense findings that inform the Voter ID debate?

Estimates of voter fraud rates are non-existent -- too small and unlikely

Estimates of voter suppression rates from voter ID are also small, but not as unlikely

Voter ID laws disproportionately target minorities, poor and elderly

Voter ID laws are pushed by Republicans

Do issues or party matter more to voters?

Party matters more

**People will change their opinion to fit the party's opinion, instead of changing their party to fit their opinion.

Are campaigns more successful at mobilizing or persuading?

Mobilizing

Persuading is not worth their time because voters are inattentive, partisan, and get little benefit from voting on issues

Achen and Bartels think there are two main concerns with retrospective voting

1. Retrospective voting is shortsighted in judging government outputs (Chapter 4- Fluoride example)

2. Retrospective voting is blind to actual responsibility (Chapter 5- Droughts and shark attacks

The incumbency advantage

People tend to support the party of a candidate who is already in office more than they would support a new candidate

Emily’s List

stands for Early Money is Like Yeast

The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that financial contributions to candidates and parties are:

equivalent to free speech and can be capped

Does Jacobson think voters or candidates are the main cause of retrospective voting trends?

He thinks that candidates are the main cause because party competition increases when times are tough for the incumbent party

What elements of MICRC make it unique?

1) Random selection of all qualified candidates

2) Bans politicians and their families from participating and bans future runs for 5 years

3) it pays a salary (1/4 of governor's)

4) forbids favoring incumbents

Pocketbook voting vs Sociotropic voting

Pocketbook: relying on personal past performance (like how it affects your pocketbook!) to assess performance; less important

Sociotropic: relying on national or group past performance to assess performance; more important

What's a contingent election?

In the event of a 269-269 tie, states cast one vote in U.S. House for top three candidates

Why have voter turnout rates been lower compared to times past

1. Elections are less fun and more complicated

2. The electorate now has different types of voters

3. The media counts voter turnout incorrectly

why did the court rule that the michigan independent rdistricting comission had to redraw some of its state house and senate districts

they violated the voting rights act by predominatly considering race

Arrow’s Theorm

There is no way to count votes in a multi choice election that is fair and logical

Median Voter Theorem

the policies adopted by a democratic government will reflect the preferences of the median voter (the individual whose views are exactly in the middle of the overall voter distribution)

Do Americans support Congress as a whole more or just their own representative

Americans consistently show much higher support for their own representative than for Congress as a whole

Australian ballot

Sometimes referred to as a secret ballot. Defined by 2 requirements:

1.   Government issued standard ballot for all votes

2.   Voters are allowed to select choices for each contest

The consequences of the Australian ballot

* The Australian ballot weakened parties by shifting the power away from the political parties themselves and more towards the candidates

* It also increased the personal vote and the incumbency advantage

Types of primary elections

Closed - Voters must already be registered with party in order to vote in that parties primary

Partially open - Voters have choice of party primary, but then their choice becomes matter of public record

Open to Unaffiliated - voters without a party registration can vote in either primary, but registered voters cannot vote in other party's primary

Open - voters may choose to vote in privately, the choice is not public record nor does it register voter with party

Top-Two/Four - Open, but top two or four vote getters advance to the general election, regardless of party.

Where are felon disinfranchment laws the strongest?

The South

Super PAC’s

Super PACs are political groups that can raise/spend unlimited money to support candidates, but they cannot give money directly to the candidates or coordinate with their campaigns.

Dark money

when groups are giving money to campaigns but its very secret and hidden

Soft money

political donations that aren’t given directly to a candidate’s campaign, but instead help with “party-building” activities

Delegate Theory

Representatives act as direct mouthpieces of their constituents, voting exactly as the majority of their district prefers.

what party reform has made parties more democratic, but also more extreme

Party primaries have caused candidates to often adopt more extreme positions that resonate with activists and core supporters.

parties help make politics work by

mobilizing people for collective action, coordinating candidates for election, structuring legislative agendas, etc.

paradox of voter particpation

many people vote in elections despite their vote not mattering

Edwards identifies this as a reason why the founding fathers didnt create a direct election for president

fears of voter parosocialism, their belief in intermediares, slavery, etc

Delegate theory

Representatives are supposed to cast their vote based on district opinion

what kind of election was the Corrupt Bargain of 1824

contingent election

Trustee theory

Representatives make decisions based on their own knowledge, conscience, and judgment

what is the support for replacing the electoral college with national popular vote

Steadily high by a 2-1 ratio

what is the number 1 factor for how candiates raise money later on in the campaign

the popularity of the candidate

\What impact does retrospective voting have on congressional elections

voter responses to presidential approval

What would make Americans more satisfied with electoral democracy

Achen and Bartels argue that Americans have overly idealistic expectations. They suggest satisfaction would improve if people understood the limits of electoral democracy and accepted its imperfections.

Factor that fluctuates with incumbent party performance (wars, scandals, etc.)

presidential approval