gov unit 5

Political Participation

The different ways in which individuals take action to shape the laws and policies of government

Political Action Committee (PAC)

An organization that raises money to elect and defeat candidates and may donate money directly to a candidate's campaign, subject to limits

Soft Money Loophole

No limits are placed on donations that are made in support of a candidate but that are separate from the candidate's campaign

Linkage Institution

Channels that connect individuals with government, including elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media

Social Movement

The joining of individuals seeking social or political change with the goal of placing issues on the policy agenda

Franchise (Suffrage)

Right to vote

26th Amendment

- Lowered voting age to 18
- Had the quickest ratification time of any amendment (3 months)

24th Amendment

Abolished poll taxes

Poll Tax

Payment required by a state or federal government before a citizen is allowed to vote

Voter Turnout

- Number of eligible voters in an election as a percentage of the total number of eligible voters
- 58% of eligible voters showed up at the polls in 2016

Demographic Characteristics

Measurable characters of a population, such as economic status, education, age, race or ethnicity, and gender

Socioeconomic Status (SES)

- Measure of an individual's wealth, income, occupation, and educational attainment

Is voter turnout among members of labor unions higher of lower than turnout among non unionized workers?

Higher

Political Efficacy

A person's belief that they can make effective political change

Obama Effect

The high level of voter turnout among African Americans in the 2008 and 2012 elections

Which way did women vote in the 2016 election?

- Women voted for Hilary Clinton
- White non-educated women voted for Trump

Political Mobilization

Efforts by political parties to encourage their members to vote

Registration Requirements

Set of rules that govern who can vote and how, when, and where they vote

National Voter Registration Act

- "Motor Voter Act"
- Allows Americans to register to vote when applying for or renewing their driver's licenses

Absentee Ballots

Voting completed and submitted by a voter before the day of an election without going to the polls

Rational Choice Voting

Voting based on what a citizen believes is in their best interest

Retrospective Voting

Voting based on an assessment of an incumbent's past performance

Prospective Voting

Casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to enact politics favored by the voter in the future

Party-line Voting

Voting for candidates who belong only to one political party for all of the offices on the ballot

What are the two phases official campaign phases?

1. Nomination
2. General election

Electoral College

- Constitutionally required process for electing the President
- Electors in states vote for a nominee
- Need 270 to win
- \# of Reps + 2 Senators \= Electors
- Minimum \# of Electors is 3
- Framers were scared of tyranny from below
- Favors smaller states because it gives them a disproportionate influence by giving them 3 votes instead of 1 or 2

Winner-Take-All System

System of elections in which the candidate who wins the plurality of votes within a state recieves all of that state's votes in the Electoral College

Which states don't follow the winner-take-all system?

Maine and Nebraska

Faithless Electors

Electors who don't vote for the candidate supported by the majority of voters in their states

What happens when no nominee wins a majority of electoral votes?

Election goes to Congress with the House choosing among the top 3 electoral vote winners

Battleground States

A state where the polls show a close contest between the Republican and Democratic candidate in a presidential election

Swing State

A state where levels of support for the parties are similar and elections wing back and forth between Republicans and Democrats

Why do people criticize the Electoral College?

- Claim its undemocratic
- Doesn't reflect will of the majority
- Discourages voting

Get Out the Vote (GOTV)

Efforts to mobilize supporters

Buckley v. Valeo

- Ruled that private campaign contributions have limits
- Struck down part of the Federal Election Campaign Act that set limits on the amount of money candidates could donate to their own campaigns

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)

- Placed stricter limits on campaign contributions by individuals and PACs
- Independent groups aren't allowed to run ads 30 days before a primary or 60 days before the general election

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

- Struck down portions of the BCRA
- Ruled corporations and unions are "persons" under the law protected by the 1st Amendment

Super PAC

- Independent committees are unaffiliated with any political party
- Are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts
- Major donors are corporation and unions
- Still required to reveal their donors
- Can't work directly with specific candidates

Political Party

An organized group of party leaders, officeholders, and voters who work together to elect candidates to political office

What roles do parties play? (3)

- Recruit, nominate, and support candidates for office
- Provide labels that voters use as shortcuts to identify candidates closer to their ideologies
- Enact policy positions of its members and act an an opposition to the majority party when it is in the minority

Party Identification

The degree to which a voter is connected to and influenced by a particular political party

Straight-Ticket Voting

Voting for all of the candidates on the ballot from one political party

Split-Ticket Voting

Voting for candidates from different parties in the same election

Party Platform

Set of positions and policy objectives that members of a political party agree to

Anti-Masonic Party

- Short-lived party
- Gave party platforms and nominating conventions

Recruitment

Process through which political parties identify potential candidates

Party Coalition

Group of voters who support a political party over time

Realignment

When the groups of people who support a political party shift their allegiance to a different political party

Critical Election

Major national election that signals a change in the balance of power between the two parties

Party Era

Time period when one party wins most national elections

Era of Divided Government

One party controls one or both houses of Congress and the President is from the opposing party

How did Nixon win in 1968? (3)

1. Southern Strategy
2. "Silent Majority"
3. Law and Order

Southern Strategy

Appealing to former Democrats in the South who left because the Party was being too nice to African Americans

Reagan Democrats

White working-class voters who had supported the Democrats in the past but switched to Republicans and voted for Reagan

Who won back the Reagan Democrats?

Bill Clinton when he styled himself as a "New Democrat"

Neoconservatives

- George W. Busch
- Left Democrats in 60s and 70s because of anti-Vietnam protests

Election of 1800

- "Revolution of 1800"
- Jefferson (DR) beat Adams (F)
- Influenced by Three-Fifths Clause

Election of 1824

- "Corrupt Bargain"
- JQA beat Jackson
- JQA made a deal with Henry Clay to make him President
- Clay became Secretary of State

Election of 1840

- "First Modern Election"
- Both sides actively campaign
- William Henry Harrison beats Martin Van Buren
- Harrison becomes 1st Whig President
- Democrats pay for Jackson killing the Bank and passing Specie Circular

Election of 1876

- NY Governor Samuel Tilden (D) v. Rutherford Hayes (R)
- Tilden got more votes but Hayes won
- Hayes was given the election since he agree to remove troops from the South to clear the way fro those states to be "redeemed" (Compromise of 1877)

Election of 1896

- Major issue was tariffs and money
- William Jennings Bryan (D/Populist) v. William McKinley (R)
- Bryan ran on his "Cross of Gold Speech"
- McKinley ran on high tariffs, big business, and gold standard
- McKinley won

Election of 1912

- Teddy ran as 3rd party
- Republicans split votes between Teddy and Taft
- Allowed Woodrow Wilson to win
- Eugene V. Debs and Socialist Party of American won 900,000 votes

Election of 1948

- Harry Truman (D) v. Thomas Dewey (R)
- Truman won unexpectedly
- Biggest election upset
- Southern Democrats voted for Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond who won 4 states

Election of 1960

- JFK (D) v. Nixon (R)
- Nixon was Eisenhower's VP and defended American way of life against Nikita Khrushchev in the Kitchen Debate

Election of 1964

- LBJ (D) v. AZ Senator Barry Goldwater (R)
- Goldwater ran on "uncompromising conservatism"
- LBJ won out of sympathy for JFK

Election of 1968

- Hubert Humphrey (D) v. Nixon (R)
- Nixon won but was hurt by his ties to LBJ and Vietnam
- AL Governor George Wallace was the last third-party candidate to win electoral votes

Election of 1976

- Jimmy Carter (D) v. Gerald Ford (R)
- Ford lost because he pardoned Nixon for Watergate

Election of 1980

- Carter (D) v. Reagan (R)
- Reagan won because of Carter's failures during his presidency (Iran Hostage Crisis, Oil, Stagflation)

Election of 2016

Libertarian Gary Johnson got 4.4 million votes (3.3%) which was the most for a third-party candidates since Ross Perot ran on the Reform Party

1st Party System (1792-1824)

- Federalists: Washington, Adams, Hamilton; nationalists, manufacturing
- DRs: Jefferson, Madison; states' rights, rural, farming

2nd Party System (1824-1854)

- Whigs: Clay, JQA, Webster; nationalist, broad construction, urban, manufacturing
- Democrats: Jackson, Van Buren; states' rights, strict construction, rural, farming

3rd Party System (1854-1896)

- Republican: Lincoln; North, oppose expanding slavery, nationalist agenda of Whigs
- Democrats: Andrew Johnson; South, states' rights, Jim Crow, oppose Reconstruction
- Republican Party founded in opposition of the Kansas-Nebraska Act

4th Party System (1896-1932)

- Republicans: McKinley, Teddy; urban, nationalists measures like Tariffs, big business
- Democrats: William J. Bryan; rural, want regulation of RR and business, Free Silver

5th Party System (1932-Mid 1960s)

Republicans: Eisenhower in 1950s; lose control after Depression, laissez-faire
Democrats: FDR, Truman, JFK; New Deal Coalition, reform and social change

New Deal Coalition

- Created by FDR in 1932
- Included Democrats, unions, minorities, and people on government welfare
- Didn't include Republicans and big businessmen

Moral Majority

- Founded by Jerry Falwell
- Designed to mobilize Christian support for Reagan in Election of 1980

Nomination

Formal process through which parties choose their candidates for political office

Delegate

A person who acts as the voters' representative at a convention to select the party's nominee

Primary Election

Statewide voting process in which voters cast secret ballots for their preferred candidates

Open Primary

- Primary election in which all eligible voters may vote, regardless of their party affiliation
- Criticized for allowing nonaffiliated voter dilute the voices of party faithful

Closed Primary

Primary election in which only those who have registered as a member of a political party may vote

Caucus

System of local gatherings where voters decide which candidate to support and select delegates for nominating conventions

Why do some states hold caucuses?

Caucuses give political parties more flexibility and power over the nomination process

Which state holds the first caucus?

Iowa

Which state holds the first primary?

New Hampshire

Superdelegates

Usually a party leader or activist who isn't pledged to a candidate based on the outcome of the state's primary or caucus

Front-loading

Decision made by a state to push its primary or caucus to a date as early in the election season as possible to gain more influence in the presidential nomination process

National Convention

A meeting where delegates officially select their party's nominee for the presidency

What happens when no candidate gets the number of delegates required to win?

- More rounds of votes are held until someone does
- Election becomes "brokered" or "contested" with a lot of behind-the-scenes courting of delegates to switch their votes

Candidate-Centered Campaign

A trend in which candidates develop their own strategies and raise money with less influence from the party elite

Two Party System

System in which 2 political parties dominate politics, winning almost all elections

Proportional Representation System

Election system for a legislature in which citizens vote for parties, rather than individuals, and parties are represented in the legislature according to the percentage of the vote they receive

Single-Member Plurality System

Election system for choosing members of the legislature where the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, even if the candidate doesn't receive a majority of the votes

Third Parties

- Have agenda with a narrow focus
- Receive backlash for pulling votes away from one of the major parties
- Agendas are incorporated into the platforms of one of the major parties
- Last 3rd-Party candidate to win electoral votes was George Wallace
- Single-issue parties are typically defined by their name (Prohibition, Right-to-Life, Green)

How do candidates get qualified for national televised debates?

Candidates must be supported by at least 15% of the respondents in 5 national public opinion polls

Interest Groups

Voluntary associations of people who come together with the goal of getting the policies they favor enacted

Social Movements

Diffuse groups that educate the public and put pressure on policymakers in an effort to bring about societal change

Theory of Participatory Democracy

Citizens can impact policymaking through their involvement in civil society

Civil Society

Groups outside the government that advocate for policy

Pluralist Theory

- Fed. 10
- Political power is distributed among many competing groups, which means that no single group can grow too powerful