Unit 5: Political Participation

# Citizen Participation

## Political Models of Voting Behavior

* **Rational choice**: what is in the citizen’s individual interest
* **Retrospective voting**: whether or not a party/candidate should be reelected based on their performance
* **Prospective voting**: the potential performance of a party/candidate
* **Party-line voting**: voting for candidates from a single political party for all offices

# Political Parties

* Organizations with similar ideologies that try to influence election outcomes and legislative problems
* Play a formal role in both
* Not mentioned in the Constitution
* Parties formed to unite people who had the same political ideals to elect similar-minded representatives and have similar legislative goals
* Endorse candidates and help them in elections
* Parties expect candidates to remain loyal to party goals
* Two major political parties: Democrats and Republicans
* **Two-party** or **bi-partisan system** reinforced by electoral system
* Difficult for more than two major parties to get on the ballot

## Party Characteristics

* Intermediaries between government and people
* Made of activist members, leadership, and grassroots members
* Raise money, get candidates elected, and have positions on policy
* Develop **party platforms**: list of goals that outlines party’s issues and priorities
* Major purpose is to get candidates elected
* Since 1960 more states have required parties to choose candidates through **primary elections**
* Reduced power of parties - the people must choose candidates
* Candidates raise their own money and campaign by themselves

## Functions of Modern Political Parties

* Three major subdivisions:
* **Party among the electorate**: voters identify with and enroll in parties; vote for candidates from their party
* **Party in government**: officials belong to parties, pursue goals together (sometimes there are ideological/regional differences)
* **Party organization**: group of people, political professionals, who recruit voters and candidates, organize events, and raise money for the party
* Functions:
* **Recruit and nominate candidates**: find candidates to run in primaries
* **Educate and mobilize voters**: try to persuade voters to vote for party’s candidates; advertisements, rallies, and mailings; target regions with strong support, campaign to persuade voters to vote
* **Provide campaign funds and support**: dedicated committees that raise funds for campaigns; state parties raise money for state and national candidates; help candidates (although they mostly rely on their personal campaign staff)
* **Organize government activity**: House, Senate, and state legislatures organize leadership + committees along party lines
* **Provide balance through opposition of two parties**: each party checks the other; minority party critiques majority party (*loyal opposition*)
* **Reduce conflict and tension in society**: promotes negotiation/compromise: parties encouraged to accommodate voters and voters encouraged to accept policy compromises
* National and state and local party organizations have different functions, not hierarchical
* Party committees organized by geography
* Local committees coordinate get-out-the-vote (GOTV) drives, canvassing door-to-door, and distribution of leaflets
* Mostly made of volunteers
* Work concentrated around election time
* County committees coordinate local election efforts and committee efforts on the precinct level, send representatives to polling places to monitor voting
* State committees raise money, provide volunteers, provide support to candidates for offices
* Senatorial and congressional district committees are part of national party organization; involved in legislative elections when a seat may be lost or gained (incumbents often reelected easily)
* National party plans **national conventions** every four years to nominate presidential candidate; sponsors polls

## Are Parties in Decline?

* Some believe that parties aren’t as powerful/significant as they were before
* Before 1968, one party controlled legislative and executive government branches
* More Americans are voting split ticket than before
* Consider positions and merits of a candidate than just party affiliation
* No one party dominates government, officials with different agendas work together
* Modern candidates control their own campaigns more, appeal directly to public through Internet and television

## Party Coalitions

* Political parties of made of multiple groups made of multiple individuals
* larger coalition = candidate is more likely to win
* Candidates and positions on policy are made to attract more voters, creating a winning **coalition**
* Tend to rely on certain groups as bases of support

## Ideological Differences Between Parties

* Both try to be centrist
* **Party bases**
* Liberals in Democratic Party
* Conservatives in Republican Party

| Democrats | Republicans |
|:---:|----|
| Want to spend money on welfare programs | Want to spend more on defense |
| Want to use government money for public education | Want to use vouchers for private/charter schools and give government aid to religious school |
| Want to grant tax relief to targeted programs | Want to grant tax relief to everyone |
| Against private firearm ownership, supportive of regulations on firearms | Don’t want to regulate firearms |
| Pro-choice | Pro-life |
| Support collective bargaining and efforts to unionize | Oppose collective bargaining and support laws intended to limit union powers |

## Party Realignment

* Occurs when coalitions making up parties split off
* Ex. groups making up the majority party defect to minority party
* Rare, occur usually as a result of a major negative event
* Signaled by a **critical election** - new party dominates politics
* Occur over period of time and show permanence
* Trend toward **dealignment**: results from party members becoming disaffected because of a policy position taken by the party, disaffected members join no party and vote for candidate instead of party

## Third Parties

* Form to represent constituencies that feel disenfranchised by major parties
* Known as **splinter/bolter parties**, usually united around the feeling that other parties do not respond to their demands
* Can form to represent ideology major parties consider too radical
* **Doctrinal parties**
* Ex. Socialist Party, Libertarian Party
* **Single-issue parties** formed to promote one principle
* Ex. American Independent Party
* Can have major impact on elections
* Different from **Independent candidates** (run w/o party affiliation)

## Why Third Parties Fail

* Result of electoral system designed to support two parties
* Campaigns require large amounts of money and large organizations
* Third party/independent candidates do not have name recognition or support to win majority of votes
* Platform issues of third parties often incorporated into party platforms
* Most states have winner-take-all electoral vote systems

# Interest Groups

* Organizations dedicated to particular political goal/goals whose members lobby for the issue, educate voters + office holders, write legislation, and mobilize members to work w/legislators and government agencies
* Often share a common bond: religious, racial, or professional
* Can also share common interest
* **Lobbying**: trying to influence legislators
* Lobbyists are professionals, many are former legislators
* Categories of interest groups:
* **Economic groups**: promote and protect members’ economic interests, including business groups and labor groups
* **Public interest groups**: nonprofit groups organized around a set of public policy issues, including consumer, environmental, religious, and single-issue groups
* **Government interest groups**: localities like states and cities which have lobbying organizations in DC, including mayors, governors

## How Interest Groups Influence Government

* Tactics:
* **Direct lobbying**: meet privately with government officials to present arguments supporting suggested legislation, often give congress members a great deal of information
* **Testifying before Congress**: provide witnesses at committee hearings
* **Socializing**: hold social functions and members go to other functions to meet government officials
* **Political donations**: donate to candidates and parties, corporations/trade groups/unions form political action committees (PACs) and super PACs
* **Endorsements**: announce support for candidates
* **Court action**: file lawsuits or **class action suits** for their interests, submit ***amicus curiae*** (friend of the court) **briefs** in lawsuits where they aren’t a party so judges can consider their advice
* **Rallying membership**: engage in grassroots campaigning by contacting members and asking them to contact legislators in support of program/legislation
* **Propaganda**: send out press releases and advertisements promoting their views

## Limits on Lobbying

* Most are ineffective
* 1946 Federal Regulation of Lobbying intended to allow government to monitor lobbying activities by requiring lobbyist to register with government and disclose salaries, nature of activities, and expenses
* Laws prohibit certain lobbying activities by former government officials for limited amounts of time
* Meant to stop **influence peddling** (using friendships and inside information to get political advantage)
* Former House members must wait one year and senators must wait two years before directly lobbying Congress but may lobby executive branch immediately after office
* Law prevents executive officials from lobbying for five years after office
* Some groups complain of “revolving door” that puts former government employees into jobs as consultants and lobbyists
* PACs help corporations, unions, and trade associations avoid federal laws prohibiting campaign contributions

# Political Action Committees and Super PACs

* **Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA - 1974)**: allowed **political action committees (PACs)** to be formed by corporations, unions, and trade associations to raise campaign funds
* Set restrictions on contributions and contributors - must raise money from employees and members and not from treasuries
* Other interest groups and legislators form PACs
* **Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002** **(McCain-Feingold Act)**: regulated campaign finance + PAC donations
* Prohibited soft money (unregulated donations) to national political parties
* Limited corporate and union funding for ads about political issues within 60 days of general election and 30 days of primary
* %%***Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission***%% **(2010)**: Supreme Court overturned BCRA limits on PAC funding for “corporate independent expenditures”
* PACs that donate to certain candidates must have limits on their contributors and donations
* PACs that do not donate to specific candidates have no fundraising limits as long as they do not coordinate with candidates
* Unlimited PACs are known as **super PACs** - generally financed by the rich but can be difficult to locate donors
* Vague on what coordination is

| **Hard money** | **Soft money** |
|----|----|
| Regulated contributions to candidates | Unregulated, unlimited contributions to parties for activities; limited by BCRA |

* Regular PACs: donations from single-candidate committees to individual candidates must be less than or equal to $2500, $5000 for multi-candidate PACs
* Donations to national political committees must be $15000 or less from multi-candidate PACs and $30800 from single-candidate PACs

# 527 Groups

* Named after part of tax code
* Tax-exempt organization that promotes political agenda but cannot advocate for/against a specific candidate
* Not regulated by the FEC and not subject to contribution limits
* Avoid regulations because they are political organizations but not registered as political committees
* Issue advocacy vs candidate advocacy = disagreed
* BCRA changed soft money rules to make establishing 527s more appealing than PACs and allowing outside groups to avoid hard money limits of BCRA

# Elections

* Run federally every two years
* New Representative each year
* Every other allows voters to select president
* Each Senate seat is elected every six years, state voters choose senator 2/3 of federal elections
* States usually hold their elections at the same time as federal elections to encourage voter turnout and save money
* Voters choose federal officials, judges, state legislators, governors, and local officials
* Also may be asked to vote on state bond issues or referenda
* **Incumbent advantage**
* Representatives who run for reelection (incumbents) win \~90% of the time
* House incumbents have a greater advantage than senators
* House members run in home districts, usually of one party due to **gerrymandering**
* Victory in primary election nearly guarantees victory in general election

# The Election Cycle

* Two phases:
* **Nominations**: when parties choose candidates for general election
* 39 states use primary elections to select presidential nominees
* Voters also choose **delegates** pledged to a presidential candidate
* Winners go to party’s national convention
* Some select delegates at **state caucuses** and **conventions**
* Local meetings of party members select representatives to send to statewide party meetings
* Fewer participants - more informed, more politically active
* All states use a form of primary to select state + legislative nominees
* Candidate who receives **plurality** (greatest number of votes) or majority (more than half) in each primary is the winner
* **Runoff primary** held between top two if no candidate gets the required number of votes
* Most often occurs when many candidates run for an open office
* Democratic Party grants automatic delegate status to elected party leaders (**superdelegates**), who generally support the front-runner
* **McGovern-Fraser Commission** created in 1968 to promote diversity in delegate pool - recommended that delegates are represented by proportion of population in each state
* Held between February and late spring of election year (Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary first)
* Each state has its own rules
* Several types:
* **Closed primary**: only registered members of a political party can vote
* **Open primary**: voters can vote in one + any party primary which they choose
* **Blanket primary**: voters can vote for one candidate per office of either party
* **General elections**: when voters decide who will hold office
* Held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November
* **Presidential elections**: elections when the president is being selected
* **Midterm elections**: elections between presidential elections

## First Steps Toward Nomination

* Most officials receive the endorsement/nomination of a major party
* Usually have backgrounds in government
* Gubernatorial (governor) experience allows candidates to claim executive abilities and are able to run as outsiders
* Candidates with little-no government experience can be pursued
* Usually well-respected and popular
* Ex. military figure
* Must begin up to two years before first primary
* Most candidates campaign and prepare full-time
* Presidents running for reelection and vice presidents running for presidency benefit from fame of offices
* Must seek support among party organizations
* Donors to election/campaign
* Early stages: meeting w/potential donors, creating PACs, campaigning for endorsements of political groups/leaders
* “Testing the waters”
* Year before first primaries: attempt to increase public profile
* Public appearances, media coverage by taking positions on issues and discussing goals of presidencies
* Vulnerable to media - negative reports or media spin can damage a campaign
* Primary season: raise money, get votes in primaries
* Those who can’t raise their own money and don’t get enough votes are forced out of the race
* Begin to assemble campaign staff who will help manage campaign
* Wealthy candidates have tried to run for presidency without needing federal matching funds


## Financing Campaigns

* Successful campaign needs large staff, transportation, and resources to hire advertising agencies, pollsters, and consultants
* Raising money is very important
* Presidential candidates who meet certain guidelines may be federally funded
* Primary candidates who get >10% of votes can apply for **federal matching funds**
* Double all campaign donations of $250 and less by matching them
* Candidates must agree to obey federal spending limits
* Candidates lose eligibility for receiving