PubPol 301 Test 2

Political participation

Activities geared toward influencing the government

Eleven forms of political participation

Voting, contacting elected officials, volunteering for a candidate or political organization, contributing money to a candidate or political cause, protesting, canvassing, attending ga political meeting, displaying a button/bumper sticker/yard sign etc., discussing politics with others, trying to persuade others to support a candidate or cause, and running for office

Amendment that allowed women to vote (and year)

19th (1920)

Amendment that allowed African Americans to vote (and year)

15th (1870)

Amendment that allowed those age 18-20 to vote (and year)

26th (1971)

Four common traits of voters

Older, well-educated, higher income, and employed

Five factors shaping the politics of voter turnout

Competitiveness of election, political alienation, intensity of political views, party organization/”Get out the Vote,” and logistics (registration/voter ID/weather etc.)

Typical turnout of presidential elections

60%

Typical turnout of midterm elections

33-40%

Typical voter turnout in most European countries and western democracies

70-90%

Five reasons for declining voter turnout

Voter fatigue, registration requirements, voter disenfranchisement, apathy, and alienation/declining trust

Political efficacy

The ability to influence the government and politics

Internal efficacy

The idea that you can influence government

External efficacy

The idea that government response to people like you

Mobilization

The process by which large numbers of people are organized for a political activity

Two implications of mass-level participation for policy

Participation determines who gets elected and whose policy preferences are prioritized, and unequal participation in politics is a serious threat to democracy

Descriptive representation

Representatives resemble their constituents in terms of demographic characteristics

Substantive representation

Representatives act “on behalf of” a group, advancing their policy priorities

Political knowledge

A citizen’s understanding of political figures, institutions, and processes, crucial for effective democratic participation

Implication of having more political knowledge

Better able to get what they want from the government

Implications of having less political knowledge

More likely to be influenced by others, major source of political weakness

Political socialization

The process through which political values and beliefs are formed

Three major sources of political socialization

Families, schools, and other social institutions

Five things shaping public opinion

Values, political knowledge, government, private groups, and the media

Public opinion polls

Scientific instruments for measuring public opinion

Five major issues of public opinion polls

Sampling techniques/selection bias, sample size, survey design, push polling, and illusion of saliency

Five traditional sources of media

Radio, television, newspapers, magazines, and internet/social media

Framing

The power of the media to influence how events and issues are interpreted

Three groups who shape media content

Journalists, news subjects, and consumers

Cause of mismatches between public opinion and policy (often)

An intensely committed minority can defeat a more apathetic majority

Policy Implementation

The set of activities directed toward putting a program into effect

Three things shaping policy implementation

Institutional capacity, politics, and budgets

Three activities of policy implementation

Organization, interpretation, and application

Organization

The establishment of resources, offices, and methods for administering a program

Interpretation

Translating the program’s elements into language that those can understand

Application

The routine provision of services, payments, or other agreed upon program objectives or instruments

Two components of policy organization

Assigning new responsibilities to existing organizations and creating new organizations

Central player of policy application

The Executive Branch

Who more responsibility gets delegated to from Congress and the President as society becomes more complex

The bureaucracy

What bureaucracy has the power to do when it implements policy, despite not being a constitutional power

Deciding policy questions

Policy sustainability

A program’s ability to maintain its structural integrity over time, guide its interpretation, and fend off pressures for debilitating changes

Four challenges to policy sustainability

Withstanding time, demographic/social shifts, political shifts, and unforeseen consequences

Three ways to help sustain policy

Undercut support for opponents of the policy, reconfigure institutional authority and/or change the venues in which future decisions are made, and encourage citizens, businesses, and interest groups to buy into new ways of doing things

Policy feedback

Public policies are important inputs into the political process that can reshape social, economic, and political conditions in dramatic ways

Two mechanisms through which policy feedback makes an impact

Resource effects and interpretive/cognitive efffects

Resource effects

Providing incentives for political actors

Interpretive/cognitive effects

Sending messages to political actors and acting as a source of political learning

Two main types of resource effects

Cash payments and goods/services

Two main types of interpretive/cognitive effects

Messages and experiences

What our experiences with policy (shaped by policy design and implementation) teach lessons about

The nature of government

Structural inequality

Social, economic, and political inequalities that result from patterns in the social structure

Two things that social structure can include

Institutions, such as public policy, and ingrained status hierarchy

Seemingly “neutral” policy

Policies that are ostensibly neutral but have discriminatory effects or reinforce existing disadvantages

Path dependency

The importance of focusing on formative moments for policies, institutions, and organizations

Lock-in effects

Policies may create incentives that promote the emergence of formidable social and economic networks that make change costly

Four reasons for court intervention

To resolve disputes, to protect rights, to preserve democratic legitimacy, and to ensure fairness and due process

Three ways that courts shape policy

Interpreting statutes, judicial review, and creating new legal rules

Interpreting statutes

Determining what the law means in practice

Judicial review

Invalidate laws that violate the Constitution

Creating new legal rules

Courts can essentially establish new policy frameworks through precedent

Three stages at which courts can shape policy

Agenda setting by the courts

Litigation can push issues onto the legislative agenda

Policy design by the courts

Can help clarify policy boundaries, such as establishing federal floors or ceilings

Policy implementation by the courts

Courts oversee compliance with rulings

Three explanations for how judges decide

Based on the law, based on ideological preferences, and based on institutional or strategic reasons

Three components of the law that judges use to make decisions

Legal statues, the Constitution, and legal precedent

Institutional or strategic reasons for how judges make decisions

Considering reactions from the other branches, other courts or public opinion and considering the legitimacy of the court

The three ways through which political actors try to shape the court

Nominations, confirmation hearings, and elections