Unit 5: Linkage Institutions - Political Parties, Elections, Mass Media, Interest Groups

Linkage Institutions:

• Channels or access points through which issues and people’s policy preferences (public opinion) get on the government’s policy agenda.

  • Connects the public and the government.

  • How the public influences public agenda

• Four linkage institutions in the United States: Political Parties, Mass Media, Elections, Interest Groups

• Linkage institutions provide a means for the American people to participate in government

  • Conventional Participation: Voting, joining Political Party, Campaigning, collecting signatures for petitions, Donating Money to Political Candidates

  • Unconventional Participation: Protesting, civil disobedience, violence (i.e. Montgomery Bus Boycott, Birmingham March, Kent State)

Political Party:

• An organized effort to control government

  • Organized effort to pursue common interest by gaining power and exercising power through the electoral process

• Roles of Parties:

  1. Recruit Candidates and Run campaigns ( Finance and Media Strategies)

  2. Mobilize Support (GOTV) and educate voters on what is going on/ issues

  3. Forces of Stability and Moderation - Rational Choice Theory - appeal to large numbers of the public

  4. Accountability and Loyal Opposition

  5. Help voters make decisions

  6. Policy Formation and Promotion - Party Platforms

  7. Committee and party leadership systems in legislature

Third Parties:

• Why does the United States have a two-party system?

  • Winner - take- all electoral system vs. proportional representation (need broad support)

  • Single member Districts - one person wins that district

  • Laws + Regulations - Balloting and Debate Restrictions - make it hard for third parties to win

  • Tradition

• Types in United States History:

  1. Ideological - Socialists (1901-1960), Libertarians

  2. One - Issue Party - Free Soil, Know Nothing, Prohibition

  3. Economic Protest - Populist, Reform

  4. Splinter (Factional) - Progressive ( Reps -1912), American Independence Party (Dems -1968)

Impact of Third Parties:

• Raise issues and bring up new ideas - Populists

• Signal to major parties that it is time to change - people want something different

• Serve as a safety valve for voter discontent

• Cause a shift in party platforms and alignments - Parties must adapt to the changing ideas

• Act as “spoilers” in election- 1912, 1992

• Wasted votes?

Political Party Organization:

• Political Parties are not organized in the United States. It is kind of everyone for themselves

• Founders - vehicles of ambition and self- interest - hated political parties

• National Committees: The central body in each political party - recruits candidates and raises money

• US parties are decentralized - sponsor candidates with similar ideas (candidates run own campaigns), organization is separate from politicians in government, federal and state level operate independently

• US parties have no control over their members- No formal membership - no cards, no dues

• Constituency Groups: Groups that tend to support a party

• Party Bases: People who each party counts on voting for their candidates

• Party membership in the United States - Dealignment and Independents - Split Ticket Voting - Blue States with Republican Governors, Red States with Democratic Governors, Presidential elections vs. House of Senate (divided government)

• Split Ticket Voting - when you vote for some people of one party and some people from another

Changes to Political Parties:

• Parties have changed with critical elections and regional realignments

  • Party Systems - time period when two parties control elections

  • Critical Elections - and electoral earthquake where new issues emerge, new coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party - supporters and platforms are realigned

• Parties modify their policies and messaging to appeal to various demographic coalitions

• Changes in communication and data management technology - use communication technology and voter data management to control and clarify political messages - enhance outreach and mobilization efforts

• Parties have adapted to candidate-centered campaigns and their role in nominating candidates has been weakened

Political Parties as Linkage Institutions:

• Encourage people to vote

• Provide opportunities to contribute to campaigns ( Run for office, volunteer for campaigns, contribute money)

• Inform people about platforms and policy ideas

• Use public opinion to create platforms and policies - try to implement them

• Give voters cues during elections

Elections in the United States:

• Three categories:

  1. Primary Elections and Caucuses

     • Used to nominate candidates to run for office

     • Caucus: Meeting of party members who vote openly

     • Primaries: voters show up and cat vote

       • Open Primary - Any voter can cast a ballot in any party’s elections (allows independents to vote)

       • Closed Primary - Voters can only cast ballots for the party they are registered to (prevents other parties from spoiling election)

  2. General Elections

     • Race between the nominees from each part to determine who winds the office/seat

  3. Policy Elections - Ballot Measures

     • Allow the public to pass legislation directly

     • Referendums (let the people decide) and Initiatives

Presidential Election:

• Four Step Process

  • Announcement (1-2 years before election)

  • Presidential Primaries (Feb-June) - each state has either a primary or a caucus

  • National Convention (July/ August/ September)

  • General Election (First Tuesday in November after the 1st)

Presidential Primary Trail:

• Every states gets the opportunity to vote in the Presidential Primaries - vote on a given day between Jan. and Jun. - candidates earn delegates to the convention - which ever candidate gets a majority of the delegates wins their party’s nomination for President

• Purpose of the Primary System - allow voters to get time to know the candidates and ensure nominees are chosen democratically

• Difference between Democrats and Republicans

  • Democrats - proportional elections and super delegates (4765/714)

  • Republicans- winner take all (now after March 15) (2550/110)

• January/ February - Iowa - First Caucus, New Hampshire- First Primary, South Carolina,, and Nevada

• Super Tuesday - 14 states hold their primary elections. These states account for roughly one-third of the total delegates available in the presidential primary

• The importance of momentum and the exceptions game

Criticisms of the Primary System

• Importance of early states

• Time and money

• Low voter turnout - 25%

• Media has too much power

Solutions?

• National Primaries or Regional Primaries

The National Convention:

• Week-long infomercial for the Party and the Presidential Candidate - July/August/September

• Reward the faithful and energize the party

• Choosing a location

• Delegates to the convention - campaign workers, wealthy, educated, and politically active

• Set platform, official nomination of Presidential and VP Candidate (complete the ticket), acceptance speeches

General Elections: The Electoral College

• The Electoral College

  • Each state gets the number of electoral votes that matches the number of representative and senators

  • 538 total electoral votes (435+100+3)

  • Winners take all in each state (except Maine and Nebraska you win district)

  • Majority (270 votes) needed to win

• Criticisms of the Electoral College

  • Small states have too much power - one man, one vote

  • Focus on swing state or battleground states

  • Presidents have won the electoral vote, but lost the popular vote - 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016

    • 2016 - Trump (306) - 62,979,879 (46%); Clinton (232) - 65,844,954 (48%)

• Proposed Solutions and likelihood for change

  • Proportional System and District System

  • Bayh-Celler amendment - popular vote - most supported but still had not happened due to the review

Congressional Elections:

• Congress (House) - every two years, Senate - 1/3 every two years

• Incumbents ( Person already in office) usually win reelection (“Two Congresses’ Phenomenon)

  • Advertising and Visibility - Travel Allowances and Franking Privileges

  • Credit Claiming - Casework and Pork Barrel

  • Weak opponents (more House than Senate)

  • Campaign Spending and Paid Staffs

• Senate = 2 per state

• House of Representative - Based on population

Modern Presidential Campaigns:

• Political campaigns are complex undertakings - time and money

• Campaign Manager - Professional Campaign Staff and Volunteers - Polls, Strategies, Media, Events

• National Committees (DNC, RNC) - help establish campaign offices and headquarters in every state, hire staffers, and recruit volunteers

• Getting out the message

  • Incumbent Advantage: national name recognition, the ability, to promote actions at the president during the campaign, and the opportunity to appear on national televisions whenever you want

  • Staffers and Volunteers - standardized activities, door - to door campaigning, and organize campaign events on the ground

  • Stump speech - standardized speech that a presidential candidate delivers repeatedly at campaign events and rallies, highlight most of a candidate’s important political viewpoints and beliefs

  • Campaign Slogan - short phrase that characterizes the overall sentiment of their candidacy and why they chose to run for office in the first place

  • Campaign events, political rallies, town hall meetings

  • Political surrogates - Political allies of a presidential candidate - appear alongside candidates or have separate events - elected officials, family members, famous celebrities.

  • Presidential Debates - televised - usually three to four and one VP

  • Free media (debates, talk shows, sound bites, internet and social media)

  • Paid Media (direct mailing, advertisements)

Campaign Trail:

• The location and order of the stops during a Presidential campaign

• Town halls, rallies, and other events

• Focus on key states and districts, swing states and battleground states

Presidential Election Years vs. Midterm Elections:

• Presidential Elections Years -

  • Higher Voter Turnout - significance and media coverage of presidential elections

  • Candidates of the winning presidential candidate’s party tend to win

  • Coattail Effect - Candidates for other states who are of the same party of the winning presidential candidate also do well.

• Midterm Elections -

  • Elections in the middle of a President’s term

  • 15-20% lower vote turnout

  • Winners tend to be from the opposition party - voters from that party are more active and more likely to vote

  • Serves as a referendum on a president’s first two years

Primary vs. General Elections:

• Primary Elections -

  • Run against people from your own party

  • More positive

  • Candidates move to the poles (Cons, Lib)

  • Lower turnout rates

• General Elections -

  • Run against people from the opposite party

  • More negative

  • Candidates move to the center (Independents)

  • Higher turnout rates

Campaign Finance:

• Cost of running modern campaigns has skyrocketed

  • Average campaign for a seat in the House is more than 5 million dollars, Senate is 30 million dollars

  • 2020 election cycle - spending on all elections exceeded 14 billion dollars

• Cost of professional consultants - public opinion polling, fundraising, marketing and media

• Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974 - Created the Federal Elections Commission (FEC)

  • limits campaign contributions, mandates reporting of all campaign contributions and expenditures, monitors and publishes reports.

• Hard Money ( direct contributions to campaigns) vs. Soft Money ( Contributions to interest groups or parties) - growth of soft money contributions after 1974

McCain - Feingold Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002

• Ban on soft money contributions to political parties

• Ban on electioneering within 60 days of elections by corporations, unions, interest groups and Political Action Committees (PACs)

• Limits on individual and PAC contributions ($2300/$5000)

• Political Action Committee- raises and spends money on political candidates and causes

Citizens United Decision:

• Buckley v. Valeo - 1974 - money is speech - can limit contribution to avoid corruption, but cannot limit expenditures

• Citizens United vs. FEC - 2010 - ruled that restricted political communications by third parties within a certain amount of time before primary and general elections violated the freedom of speech, also lifted restrictions on the amount of soft money that both PACs and corporations can contribute

• Super PACs - allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts if money from corporations, unions, individuals and associations; cannot coordinate with candidates; 2012 - $1.03 Billion, 2014 - $565 Million, 2016 - $1.4 Billion, 2018 - $1.1 Billion, 2020 - $2.6 Billion

• Dark Money - political contributions to nonprofit groups and Super PACs whose donors do not need to be legally disclosed - Corporations

• 2019 FEC uncovered money from foreign countries was used to influence 2016 election (Russia)

• 2024 - Trump outsources his campaign to corporate donors

• Disclose Act - would require Super PACs and nonprofit groups to disclose the source of contributions greater than $10,000, failed to pass in 2022

Voting Qualification and Registrations:

• Originally - Property owing white males 21 and over could vote

• 15th Amendment, 19th Amendment, 24th Amendment, 26th Amendment

• Voter Registration - 18 years old, citizen, resident

• Easing Registration Requirements - Motor Voter Act, Same Day registration - 23 states

• 48 States ban voting from prison, 21 States restore right after release from prison, 16 States after completion of sentence and parole and/or probation, 11 States require felons to apply to courts or the governor for restoration of rights or have longer waiting periods

• Many states have introduced bills to either restrict or expand voting since 2020

  • Expansive bills - ease voter registration, improve access to mail voting, restore voting rights to people with past criminal convictions, establish early voting, increase from acceptable IDs

  • Restrictive Bills - limit access to mail voting, Voter ID laws, voter purges, restricting early voting, close polling places, limit polling hours

Voter ID Laws:

• 35 states require some form of identification for voting

• 23 states require photo IDS and the rest require non photo IDs

• 14 of these states are strict, not allowing candidates to case a regular ballot without ID, in strict states voters must return to the board of elections within a few days to show ID in order for a provisional ballot to count

• Since 2010 the number of states with Voter IDs have increased substantially, with most being proposed by the Republican Party, 8 states passed more strict voter ID laws after the 2020 election.

• the Argument: Pros vs. Cons of Voter ID Laws

• For Voter ID Laws:

  1. Protects from voter fraud

  2. Avoid double voting

  3. Increases confidence in election results

  4. Use photo IDs everyday for all kinds of things

  5. Illegal votes have decided elections

• Against Voter ID Laws:

  1. 11% of Americans do not have a photo ID

  2. Lower turnout - minorities

  3. Discrimination is who is asked for IDs

  4. Takes away a fundamental right

  5. Discriminate against elderly, poor, and minorities

  6. IDs are expensive -$75 -$175

  7. Some voters must travel up to 170 miles to get an ID

  8. There is almost NO voter fraud that exists - Republican wedge issue

Voting behavior in the United States:

• Turnout is higher in Presidential elections than in midterm elections

• Older people have a higher voting turnout, while younger people have a low voting turnout

• White American have a higher voting turnout, Black Americans have the second highest voting turnout, Hispanic Americans have an average voting turnout, Asian Americans have the lowest voting turnouts

• Women vote more than men

• People with higher income vote more, while people with low incomes vote less

• College Educated Americans have a higher voting turnout, while people without a college education vote low

Why is voter turnout so low?:

1. Registration Requirements - Motor Voter Act (Registration Problems)

2. Difficulty of Absentee Ballots (Illness, Disability, Out of Town)

3. Election Day Problems - Photo IDs, Lines, Hours

4. Number of Elections - Voter Fatigue

5. Political Attitudes - Political Efficacy (You think your vote is important and that voting matters) v. Political Apathy ( Have negative attitude towards politics and voting), Distrust of Government, Length and Negativity of Campaigns ( Don’t know/ Refused, Don’t like the Candidates, Not Interested - 44%)

Possible Solutions:

• Ease Registration Requirements - Same Day Registration - Automatic Registration

• Lengthen Voting Times - Early Voting, Mail-in Ballots and online voting, Absentee Ballots, Extend Hours

• Change Election Day - National Holiday or Saturday/Sunday

• Electoral Changes - Rank Choice Voting - Eliminate Electoral College

• Other Ideas - Proportional Voting, Tax Credits, Compulsory Voting, Lottery

American Voter Decisions: Political Models:

• Rational - Choice Voting: Voting based on what is perceived to be in the citizen’s individual interest

• Retrospective Voting: Voting to decide whether the party or candidate should be re-elected based on the recent past

• Prospective Voting: Voting based on predictions of how a party or candidate will perform in the future

• Party-line Voting: Supporting a political party by voting for candidates fro one political party for all public offers access the ballet

Other Factors:

• Party Identification

  • Most powerful predictor of voter behaviour (particulaurly at local and states levels)

• Partisanship decreased for most of the 1900s - independents and ticket splitting

• Recent Polarization and Partisanship

Candidates Personal Image:

• Candidate Centered Campaign - Competence, Reliability (flip-flop), Leadership, morality and honesty

Policy and Issue Voting:

• Election of 2088 - Economy v. Terrorism

• Mandate Theory - when a candidate runs for president they say their idea and believe that they are mandated to finish that idea because they were picked by the “people”

Elections as Linkage Institutions

• Politicians present their platforms to the people - campaign events and mailings

• People voice their preferences by voting - most common form of political participation

• People can contribute to campaigns and volunteer to help

• Policy Elections allow people to voice opinions on laws

Sources of Media:

• Print Media - Newspapers and Magazines

  • Penny Press and Yellow Journalism, Muckrakers

  • Declining Sales - Conglomerate

  • 10% of adults under 65 report a daily newspaper

• Broadcast Media

  • Radio and Television - Fireside Chats, 1950 - presidential debate, Vietnam

  • Network News (1960s - 50%, Today - 6%)

  • Cable News - Fox News, CNN, MSNBC - Profit Driven

    • Narrow casting (Television programs target specific audiences -political ideology)

    • Less on investigating and reporting the news and more on interpreting and discussing the news - rely on pundits ( experts called on to give an opinion) to fill time. Less reports, less new information, more repetitious

    • Infotainment - create political content for entertainment; outrage - appeal to people’s emotions - try to get visceral reaction - use sarcasm, insults, exaggerations, and conspiracy theories

    • More negative news coverage

• New Media - Internet and Social Media

  • 50% of American and 75% of Americans under 30 get their news here

Internet and Social Media: Pros and Cons

• Pros:

  • Access to information - more information available - news is instantaneous because people are always on their devices - people are more engaged and more informed 

  • Allows for better communication between politicians and the people - people feel like they better understand politicians

  • Citizen Journalists - Open Source - anyone can record and report on what is happening in their community

  • Encourages Political Activism - social media and Black Lives Matter, MeToo

• Cons:

  • Selective exposure - people tend to choose new sources with viewpoints that match their own

  • Confirmation bias - programming that confirms their beliefs

  • Follow people they agree with on social media, and block people with different views

  • Communications from politicians on social media is rarely thoughtful - tweets cannot handle the complexity of issues

  • Americans tend to ignore content that does not match what they already believe is true - increases polarization

  • More knowledgeable about one subject (what they are interested in), less knowledgeable about everything

  • Fake News - the interest has increased the amount of and access to fake news, it makes it more difficult to differentiate between reputable news sources and those based on rumor, false information can spread very quickly thanks to social media

Regulations on Mass Media:

• Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - 1934 - Independent Regulatory Commission - (Budget set by Congress, appointed by President)

• Regulates broadcast media (radio, television, satellite, cable) but not print media

• Three ways the FCC can regulate media:

  1. Ensures Competition: No company is allowed to control more than 35% of the stations in a market

  2. Licensing: All stations need a license to broadcast and must serve the public interest to get one

  3. Equal Time Rule: Must sell advertising at the same rate to nay political candidate and must offer the same amount of time on non news shows to candidates of all parties.

Mass Media’s Relationship with Washington

• Journalists rely on the government for the news and the government relies on the media to report it to the people and measure their reactions

• High tech politics an era in which technology affects the behavior and opinions of both citizens and government officials. Mass Media and social media play a large role in people’s opinions

• Media’s coverage of Government

  • Coverage of the President, Congress, and the Supreme Court

  • Coverage of Federal vs. State and Local Governments

  • Press Release, Press Briefing, and Press Conferences

  • Media Events and Trial Balloons

    • Trail Balloons: Say something and see how the people reacts

  • Campaigns - debates and the expectation game

    • The issues v. the horse race - horse race journalism=covering the polling numbers and strategies of candidates instead of the issues

Mass Media’s Impact on Government:

• Since the 1960s the media has:

  • Become more negative (1960 3:1 favorable, today 3:1 negative)

  • Aired shorter soundbites (1960 - 43 seconds, today - 7 seconds)

  • Become more interpretive (1960 - 90% of stories descriptive, 2000 - 80% of stories were interpretive - 10% time filled with actual news)

Investigative journalism and Agenda Setting - Death Penalty in Chicago, Watergate

• Agenda Setting = Power of the media to focus the public’s attention on issue - designed to get government to put the issue on their policy agenda

• Policy Agenda = set issued/policies that is weird as important or gets attention from government officials

• Watchdog - checks and balances

  • Media is a “watchdog” against the government to find the truth is the government is lying to the people

• Inform about Public Opinion - Scientific Polls - Cover citizen protests, rallies, etc

Bias in the Media and Public Opinion

• Bias is one of the big concerns about media today

  • Prevalent in cable news and online

  • trying to generate a loyal audience for their content- appeal to a particular ideology through their interpretations (confirm bias)

How does bias show up in the news?

• Reporting v. Interpreting

• Routine Stories v. Feature Stories, Investigative Stories, Editorials, Pundits

• Agenda Setting: Power of focus the public attention

• Priming: Media chooses what information to present and what to leave out

• Framing: How the information is presented

What impact does this have on public opinion?

• Media does not regularly change people’s opinions but reinforces their beliefs on certain topics - selective attention and confirmation bias

• More likely to influence what Americans think is important - direct the conversation

• Has increased polarization

• Media does create cynicism and negativity

Mass Media as Linkage Institution:

• Government relies on the media for news

• The informs the people on the action of the government ( Government used the media to connect with the people) - cover campaigns, speeches, and policy actions

• Informs government of public opinion by conducting polls and reporting on unconventional participation (protests)

• Influence Public Opinion and Policy Agenda through agenda setting and framing

Interest Groups:

• Organization of people with similar policy goals that enter the political process to try to achieve those goals

• Interest groups vs. Political Parties

  • Interest groups do not try to win elections - try to influence those in government and who wins elections

  • Policy specialists not policy generalists

  • Only try to satisfy their members, do not try to appeal to everyone

Democratic Theory and Interest Groups

• Pluralist (Group) Theory -

  • Support interest groups

  • Provide linkage between the people and the government - People get the governments attention

  • Alexis De Tocqueville - democratization of American Society - Women and African Americans

  • So many groups that it guarantees that influence is dispersed - no one group will become too dominant (James Madison and Federalist No. 10)

  • Check on the power of the government

Elite Theory - Against Interest Groups -

• Real power is only held by a few key groups - influence of money - i.e. large corporations, pay for votes

• Power is not equally distributed between all the groups

• Interest Group can buy votes and sway elections

• Astroturfing - paying people to attend rallied or protests, creating fake social media accounts

Hyper-pluralist theory - Against Interest Groups

• System is out of control - so many interest groups with so much power that the government tries to please them all

Successful Interest Groups

• Small groups are more successful than large groups due to organization

  • Mancur Olsen’s Law of Large Groups - principle stating that “ the larger the group, the further it will fall short of providing an optimal amount of collective good.”

  • Free-Rider Problem - Problem faced by unions and other groups when people do not join because they benefit from the groups’ activities without officially joining. The bigger the group, the more serious the problem - hide and let others do the work

• Intensity - how deeply members care about the issues, single issue groups

• Leadership and Membership - Good CEO and influential members

• Financial Resources

Methods Used by Interest Groups:

• Lobbyists - Professionals that work for interest groups and try to influence government - 40% are retired Congressmen/Senators

  • Source of information and expertise

  • Help with political and campaign strategies

  • Source of new policy ideas

  • President, Congressman, Senators, Staffs, and Agencies - “ wine and dine”

• Laws regulating lobbyists

  • Lobbying Disclosure Act - 1995 - lobbyists must register and file expenditure reports

  • Honest Leadership and Open Government Act - 2007 - bans on gifts, tougher disclosure laws, length times in between retirement from government and hiring by interest groups.

Methods Used by Interest Groups

• Iron Triangles and Issue Groups

• Electioneering

  • Political Action Committees (PACs)

  • Candidate Endorsement

  • GOTV Drives

  • Candidate and Office Holders Rating Cards

  • Advertisements and Super PACs (Citizen’ United)

• Courts and Litigation

  • Amicus Curiae Briefs

  • Court Appointment - Choice and Ratification

  • Class Action Lawsuits - NAACP and Brown

• Grassroots - Public Opinion

  • Grassroots - from the people/for the people

  • Petitions, Marchers, email/letter campaigns, protests

  • Use of Mass Media

Interest Groups as Linkage Institutions

• Express groups memeber's’ preferences to politicans