American Politics - Exam 2

Parliamentary System

a system of government having the real executive power vested in a cabinet composed of members of the legislature who are individually and collectively responsible to the legislature. [A parliamentary system is a system of democratic governance of a state in which the executive branch derives its democratic legitimacy from, and is held accountable to, the legislature (parliament); the executive and legislative branches are thus interconnected.]

Political Party

organization whose purpose is to win control of govt; an organization whose purpose is to monopolize governmental power by winning as many elections as necessary to control the
principal institutions of government; organized teams whose goal is legitimate political power.

Political Equality

is when every citizen has equal influence over the political process.
• most fundamental value.
• Disturbed by resource bias in the electoral and group system
• They recognize problems associated with Madison’s model of elections
• Politics is remote and ambiguous hard to hold elected officials accountable
• Paradox of collective action must be solved,
• Tension between instrumental and economic SI should be reduced
• CF to Madison who introduces massive inequalities into the system
• Consider the US Senate

Electoral Democracy

means one person one vote; Each citizen must have an equal part in deciding the fundamental direction of society through elections.
• No other mechanism beside electoral competition can produce representative
democracy based on equality
• It is the only place where all voters are equal, so why would you devalue them (CF
pluralists)
• Elections embody the principal of political equality, so electoral democracy naturally
flows from the value of political equality.
• Disturbed by resource bias in the electoral and group system
• They recognize problems associated with Madison’s model of elections
• High information costs. --let’s solve it!
• Millions don’t vote. --let’s solve it

Responsibility

meaning accountability, leaders should be held responsible for their actions at both the individual and institutional level
• To be responsible, parties must be strong and wield power in order to get
things done.
• Responsible parties, the majority party, has concentrated power, full control
of the institution
• Responsible parties link the political careers of its members to the failures
and successes of the institution, creating collective responsibility for the
actions of government (collective outcomes)
• Makes it easy for voters to determine who is responsible and vote accordingly
• Members of the majority party share responsibility for the outcomes of government.

Winner take all system of representation

“Winner-take-all” is a term used to describe single member districts and at large election systems that award seats to the highest vote getters, the plurality candidate. Only the winner in each district or states gets the seat in the House or Senate. The losing party, gets no representation.

Proportional Representation

allocates seats in the legislature in proportion to the votes each party receives

Strategy of Convergence

when most citizens are at or close to the center of the ideological space and only a few are at the extremes, the two parties will converge or move to the center where most of the voters are

Rationality Crisis

where rational party behavior, seeking to win the election, makes rational voting behavior of the individual harder, voting for the party closest to one’s position on the liberal conservative scale

Party Discipline

Party organizations must be strengthened so that they may have the resources to punish the people who serve in government and run as candidates on their behalf.
• We care about discipline because it promotes party responsibility, esp collective responsibility.
• Legislators shouldn’t represent factional interests, but should be committed to the national political party and its interests. They should represent the party’s program to constituents

Interest Group

An organized number of individuals who members share common objectives.
• IGs actively attempt to influence government policy through direct and indirect methods including public opinion, lobbying and electioneering.
• Any group that on the basis of one or more shared attitudes makes certain claims upon other groups in society for the establishment, maintenance, or enhancement of forms of
behavior that are implied by the shared attitudes.
• Simply: are private organization that try to influence and shape public policy.

Noncumulative Nature of Group Resources

critical element in Pl theory that an interest group’s resources are not cumulative. Therefore, the resource bias in the interest group system, though it exist is not crippling to representation.
• Pluralist argument that you cannot simply add up group resources. Some resources are not better than other resources. Groups have different resources and depending on the kind of resource they have will choose the appropriate channel to access and hopefully influence government.
• Pluralists argue different resources mean different strategies – one resource isn’t necessarily better than another. They don’t sum up to some greater resources. Group relatively poor in 1 resource likely have others that compensate.

Multiple points of access

the federal system and separation of powers establishes decentralized and more or less independent centers of power at the national, state and local level from which a group can secure privileged access to them

Non Political Groups VS Political Groups

Non Political groups –factions or groups that people join for social, professional, or economic reasons even those these groups also pursue political ends.
• This is the most common group affiliation nonpolitical

Political groups have an express political interest, the the motivations people have for joining them are in agreement with the stated political goals of the group.

Political group is a bargain about politics between the participant and
representative (NARAL, NOW, Moms for Liberty)
• Nonpolitical groups don’t have to represent, bargain is not political
• Nonpolitical groups are supporting something, and it may help its members (university – student), but the bargain is not politica

Political Representation as a By-Product

Political Representation as a by-product of social and economic life even (especially) when people join groups for non political reasons. Therefore everyone is represented. Although many people do not participate actively in public life, they participate passively through the
groups they belong to.