American Politics

Politics

a means— other than force or fraud— that people use to settle disputes and coordinate the production of public goods

Liberal

not “left wing”

prioritizing individual freedom and natural rights

Democratic

not the democratic party

citizens have a say in how they’re governed

Republic

not the republican party

decisions are generally made by representatives

Political Science

an academic discipline focused on politics where people find out things about politics and report them through descriptive claims and thorough explanations

Local Politics

based on local gov. in the US

local govs. are comprised of many types - towns, cities, special districts, counties, etc. - with different sizes, functions, organization with some overlapping boundaries; therefore, they fight

comprised of part time politicians and full time bureaucrats

Traits of Local Government

low citizen participation, low citizen knowledge, highly decentralized, power is divided among many

no constitutional power; power is delegated from the state. If they’re created by the state, they can be changed, taken over, or destroyed by the state

Information Asymmetry

some people have more information about rules, institutions, and policies than others

Preference Intensity

some people care more than others, which motivates them to take costly actions

Path Dependence

most of the rules, institutions, and policies we work with are inherited, and require costly effort to change

Interest Groups

a non-governmental org. that acts collectively to achieve some shared goal. It solves collective action problems for people/groups with shared preferences

around 16k in the US, US has more per capita

doctors, lawyers, fossil fuel companies, good gov. idealists, etc.

Collective Action Problems

when everyone would benefit from a costly action, people free-ride

interest groups solve collective action problems for people/groups with shared preferences

Public Sector Unions

a powerful type of interest group active in local politics. Overcome collective actions problems by delegating to leaders (collective bargaining) and mandatory participation

due to their ability to elect the leaders they negotiate with and policy feedback, they have more political influence over time

teachers, police officers, firefighters, etc.

Policy Feedback

policies have winners and losers. It can make the winners better equipped to defend their wins in the future

Public Opinion

the aggregation of views of private citizens

a latent concept; you can’t measure it directly, you believe it exists and it is useful in understanding the world

new issues tend to be more volatile

often irrational: transitivity violations and inconsistencies 

somewhat structures: some attitudes and underlying beliefs can predict preferences in politics

Transitivity Violations

preferences are inconsistent

True: a>b and b>c therefore a>c

What Occurs: a>b and b>c but c>a

Structure in Public Opinion

some attitudes predict others. Attitudes about immigration, crime, education, etc., tend to be correlated

some underlying beliefs predict preferences. Views about race tend to predict many preferences about public policy

Priming

giving a respondent some stimulus that impacts their subsequent response

Issue Framing

a kind of priming that defines what an issue is about

Types of Opinion

Performance Assessment: do you approve or disapprove of the job the current pres. is doing

Sentiment: how do you feel about the current pres. on a scale of 1-10

Preferences: for which pres. candidate do you intend to vote for

Ideology

Liberal: “progress'“, interventionist, social welfare state, policies to support women, racial/ethnic/sexual minorities

Conservative": “status quo”, limited gov., market forces, anti-regulation, identity-neutral policies

“New” Conservatives: “return”, interventionist, protectionist

Who Has Political Knowledge

people who tend to have more political knowledge are white, older, higher income, and have a higher education

Elite Cueing

when voters don’t know or are ambivalent, they’re influenced by elites they trust

Affective Polarization

people increasingly dislike people from the other party

stems from partisan identification, mainly the psychological attachment definition

shows up in surveys, but importance is context dependent; explanations are also context dependent

Partisan Identification

Psychological Attachment: feeling “at home” with people who vote for the same party and like an outsider with people who don’t

Preference Similarities: sharing similar preferences as the people who call themselves Democrats or Republicans

Tally of Experiences: over time watching how Republicans or Democrats behave makes me like them more or less because of how they behaved

Mass Media

diverse, decentralized, and pretty good

relieves information asymmetries on both sides: voters give info on policy to politicians and voters learn what politicians are doing

desired outcome: better policy and more accurate rewards and sanctions

Types of Media

Newspapers: old and slow, most editorial checks

Broadcasters: newer and faster, fewer editorial checks

Social Media: newest and fastest, almost no editorial checks, and often is repackaged news

Media Bias

systematic inaccuracies in representations of what happened, not a simple mistake

deviations can be explained by something, not chance

for every source of bias there’s a different set of solutions

Selection Bias

what journalists decide to devote their time and attention to

Israel-Palestine or Trump

Framing and Priming Bias

how do journalists cover what is decided as news; the images and wording used to cover the topic

Promotion Bias

what do news platforms decide to promote; difficult to answer systematically because of proprietary data

Consumer Choice Bias

media tends to sensationalize things to grab your eyes and click on their content or interact with their platform

Echo Chambers

the idea that people only see media that aligns with their own ideology

there are problems with the exact definition and evidence

empirical evidence suggests that they don’t exist: most see media with differing ideology

Explaining Media Bias

these incentivize systematic misrepresentations of the truth

Competition: the introduction of a new newspaper increases competition and ideological diversity as newspapers tend to differentiate their product

Nationalizations: big media stations purchasing local news orgs. leads to an increase in stories about national politics; therefore, it leads to less ideological diversity

Bureaucrat

public servants who hold unelected offices

civil rights attorneys, scientists, soldiers, street level: teachers, police, firefighters

20 mil at the state and local level, 4.5 at federal level but many more if you count contractors

Bureaucratic Power

bureaucrats get their power through delegation. Congress creates legislation to give them power using wording to say what they can do but not specifying the actions they need to take, ambiguous statute

Cabinet Departments

head nominated by the president, approved by the senate

department of state, defense, commerce, etc.

Independent Agencies

leadership usually serves for fixed terms, exempt from many presidential directives

equal employment opportunity commission, consumer product safety commission, etc.

Government Corporations

like any other corporation but with bosses that impose burdensome rules

AMTRAK, USPS, FDICS

differs from private sector counterparts because they don’t prioritize profit, and the service would otherwise limit itself if only ran by the private sector

Bureaucracy Generalizations

agencies missions are ideologically charged (gun regulation)

the law is often ambiguous, and someone has to decide what it means

the principal-agent problem

Principal-Agent Problem

core issue of bureaucracy

issues that arise when the interests of 2 actors in an agency relationship do not align

happens when congress delegates powers to an agency

occurs with info. asymmetry because bureaucrats know more than politicians

ex: how much you want to spend when you go to the mechanic vs. how much the mechanic wants you to spend

Presidency

a political office: public official with responsibility and accountability methods

course accountability methods

unitary: all decision making happens between the president’s ears

few formal powers- veto, commander in chief, nominations- but many informal

elected by the electoral college