· May argue that interest groups are so popular because they can achieve progress much more quickly than political parties because interest groups need to focus on only one issue

· Free-Rider Problem

Direct lobbying: Congress

· Strategies for congressional lobbying

o Personal contacts

o Campaign contributions

o PACs: recent regulations and loopholes

· Use of professional lobbyists

o Revolving door: tendency of public officials, journalists, and lobbyists to move between public and private sectors

· Providing expert testimony

o Accurate information to Congress

Direct lobbying cont’d

· The president

o Target president and executive office of the white house

o Office of Public Liaison

o Revolving door exists here, as well

· The bureaucracy

o Lobby to get laws implemented favorably

o Strong relationship with regulators and private sector

o Iron triangles

· The Judiciary

o Lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs

Grassroots VS Astroturf political campaigns

· Grassroots lobbying: indirect efforts that spring from widespread public concern

In contrast to:

· Astroturf lobbying: indirect lobbying efforts by interest groups that manipulate or create public sentiment, astroturf being artificial grassroots

· Pure grassroots lobbying is becoming increasingly rare, but astroturf public interest lobbying is growing

· Lobbying moving away from Congress to public, but this may not be any more democratic

Voting

Voting in a democratic society

· The Constitution reflects the founders’ fears of citizens judgement about politics

· Senators were not directly elected

· The president was not directly elected

· Only members of the House of Representatives were directly elected

Functions of elections

· Select leaders

· Direct policy

· Citizen development

· Inform the public

· Contain conflict

· Legitimacy and system stability

Elections and Voting

Basic schedule of generic election

· Pre-primary (the vetting process)

· Primary

o Open VS Closed

· General election season

· Election day

· Swearing -in / inauguration

Voting in America: Who doesn’t vote and who doesn’t

· Age: younger Americans vote less frequently, although younger Americans are starting to vote more

· Income: poorer Americans vote less frequently

· Education: Americans with less education vote less frequently

· Race and ethnicity: minorities vote less frequently

Why Americans don’t vote

· Legal obstacles

o Registration, Tuesday voting, frequency of elections

· Attitude changes

o Lower efficacy, increased apathy, decreased party identification, the electoral college in non-swing states

· Voter mobilization

o Mixed level of effort by parties

Riker and Orde shook’s “A Calculus of Voting”

· Article came out in the American Political Science Review in 1968

· Highlights a Rational Choice Perspective

o Not all political scientists subscribe to this perceptive

The Formula

· R= PB – C + D

· R= reward

· P= probability that the citizen’s vote will be beneficial (0, 1)

· B = the benefit the voter receives from the success of the chosen candidate

· C = the cost to the voter

· D = the voter’s sense of duty

So, can your vote matter?

· Some elections are very, very close (Franken Senate race 2008)

· Dependent on your sense of duty

· There are so many races, it’s plausible

o Some races are that close

Does nonvoting matter?

· Unlikely that non-voting significantly affects election outcome

· Consequences for democracy

o May question legitimacy of election if so, few vote

o May deepen loss of efficacy of those who don’t vote

How the voter decides

· Party identification is the biggest factor accounting for how people vote

o Directly influences the vote

o Indirectly influences the vote by affecting the perception of issues and candidate evaluations

· Social groups sometimes benefit one candidate

How the voter decides, cont’d

· Issues and policy

o Reliance on party labels; easy VS hard issues; media coverage

o Prospective voting: based voting decisions on well-informed opinions and consideration of future consequences of a given vote

o Retrospective voting: based voting decisions on reactions to past performance; approving the status quo or signaling a desire for change; evaluate economy, foreign policy, or domestic issues

o Prospective voting is idealized model of policy voting, but retrospective voting is more realistic

How the voter decides, cont’d

· The candidates

o Voters from clear opinions about candidate qualities that are relevant to governing

o Voters perceive differences between candidates on issues and on how they would handle aspects of presidency

Issues in the general election campaign

· Valence issue: an issue on which most voters and candidates share the same position

· Position issue: an issue on which the parties differ in their perspectives and proposed solutions

· Wedge issue: a controversial issue that one party uses to split the voters in the other party

· Issue ownership: the tendency of one party to be seen as more competent in a specific policy area

Money and general election campaigns

· Sources depending on period of campaign:

o Government matching funds

o Hard money (direct giving)

o Soft money (indirect giving, PACs)

· Issue advocacy ads: advertisement paid for by soft money (and thus not regulated) that promote certain issue positions but do not endorse specific candidates

Presidential campaigns

· Pre – primary season: raise money, raise credibility

· Primaries and caucuses

o Party caucus: local gathering of party members to choose convention delegates

o Presidential primary: an election by which voters choose convention delegates committed to voting for a certain candidate

o Open primary VS closed primary

Presidential campaigns, cont’d

· Primaries and causes, cont’d

o Front loading: the process of scheduling presidential primaries early in the primary season

o Front runner: the leading candidate and expected winner of nomination or election

o Momentum: the widely help public perspective that a candidate has gained electoral strength

Role of national conventions

· Conventions play changed role from past

o Nominee is already known; merely make it official

o Choose vice presidential candidate

o Approve party platform

General election campaign

· The Electoral college defines strategy

o Visit large and competitive states

· Who runs the campaign?

o Professional campaign managers

· Presenting the candidate

o Convey clear understanding of candidate’s strength

The electoral college

· There are 538 votes

· To win the presidential election, 270 votes are needed

· When you vote, you’re voting for a committee if electors

· Most states are winner- take all, but few split their votes (Nebraska)

Debates

· Usually there are 3 debates between presidential candidates. No obligation to have them, and could hold more or less if the candidates

Election night and beyond

· Might reports on elections and uses polling data to project elections

· Candidates make concession and victory speeches

· Candidates do this after calling the other candidate and conceding the election

· President

The role of law in democratic societies

· Provide security (Hobbes and Locke)

· Provide predictability

· Resolv conflict

· Reflect and enforce conformity to society’s values

· Distribute benefits and rewards society ha to offer and allocate the costs of those good things.

Kinds of law

· Substantive law vs. procedural laws

· Substantive – define what you can / can’t do

· Procedural – how laws are applied and enforced

· Criminal law vs. civil laws

· Criminal – laws that prohibit “unacceptable” behavior

· Civil (torts) – laws that regulate interactions between individuals

Source of law

· Constitutional laws- come from both state constitutions and the US constitution

· Common law- from cases (stare decisis)

· Statutory laws – from legislature, both the US congress and state legislature

· Administrative laws – from bureaucracies and agencies

· Executive orders – from presidents and governors

Characteristics of the American legal tradition

· Primarily based on common law instead of civil law

· Adversarial instead of inquisitorial

· Americans are litigious

A jury of your peers

· Guaranteed by the constitution

· Jury selection

· Should celebrities be picked for a jury?

Structure of the courts

· Courts are tiered (Dual court system)

· Jurisdiction – the court’s authority to hear a given case

· Appeal – rehearing the case at the next tier, because the law was not tried correctly

· About 90% of the losers in court cases accept their verdicts without appeal

U.S. District courts

· Lowest level of federal court system

· 94 district courts (each state has at least one)

· Hear both criminal and civil cases

· Juries responsible for verdicts

U.S. Courts of Appeals

· Arranged into 12 circuits

· Solely appellate jurisdiction

· No new evidence or witnesses

· Pannel of three judges makes ruling, not a jury

The U.S. Supreme Court

· Nine justices, but has not always been nine

· Appointed by the president, confirmed by the senate

· Serve during good behavior for “life”

· Can be impeached

How can you tell which court has jurisdiction

· Is the federal government involved? Does the case pertain to the constitution?

· Who are the parties in the case? (Defendant, Plaintiff)

· Where did the case arise?

· How serious is the offense?

Who are our Judges?

· Some are elected

· Some are appointed by Governors

· Some are appointed by the President

· Senatorial Courtesy

Deciding cases

· Judicial activism vs. judicial restraint

· Judicial activism vs. judicial constructionism

· External factors

o Public Opinion

o Executive branch

o Amicus briefs

The Supreme Court: Practice and controversy

Writing opinion

· Chief justice, if in the majority, will assign this option to someone in the majority

· If chief justice is in the minority, senior- most justice in the majority assigns the option

· Concurring opinion

· Dissenting opinion

Four criteria considered for Supreme Court appointments

· Merit

· Political ideology

o Strict constructionism vs. judicial interpretivism

· Reward

· Representation

Selection of judges

· States

o Method varies by state (appointment, nonpartisan election, partisan election

· Federal

o all federal judges are nominated by the president and confirmed by the senate

o Senatorial courtesy is often invoked for lower- level federal courts

Supreme Court Nomination process

· Arise when there is a death or resignation

· Long, arduous process

· Senate hearings

· Many phot-ops, meetings

· Asked a battery of questions

· Senatorial courtesy

SCOTUS Nomination Process

· What sort of questions get asked?

o Political Stances

o Employment History

· Sometimes nominees withdraw their name from the process

o Harriet Meiers in 2005

Normal coverage of Supreme Court

· Visible in the SOTU address

· Major decisions in June

· Vacancies, Retirements, and Confirmation

· Consequential Rulings

The citizens and the courts

· Equal treatment by the criminal justice system

· Equal access to the civil justice system

· Controversy over low long it takes cases to move up to an appellate court

· Controversy of appointment of judges instead of elections

Why is there controversy specifically with the Supreme court in 2024?

· There are several issues occurring at the same time, and I’m going to do my best to give you a broad view of the issue

· The issues can be boiled down to several issues:

o Public Disclosures of Conflicts on Interest

o Amicus Briefs and “Court Shopping”

o Judicial Ethics

o “Shadow Docket”

A vacancy in early 2016

· Sudden death of Antonin Scalia in Feb. 2016

· Obama nominated Merrick Garland in 2016

· Refusal to fill seat by Senate by Sen. Majority leader McConnell

· Eventually filled by Neil Gorsuch in April 2017

The Nominations of Kavanaugh and Comey Barnett

· Trump nominates Brett Kavanaugh via vacancy (2018)

· Ruth Bader Ginsberg dies in September 2020

· Trump nominates Amy Comey Barnett, and she is not endorsed by many legal organizations. Confirmed 9 days before the 2020 Election

· The balance of the court has gone from being somewhat balanced, to very conservative in several years

Disclosures (or lack thereof)

· Federal employees are required to disclose, but SCOTUS has had a lot of security for not being strict on enforcement

· Thomas went on vacations with Harlan Crow who had cases argued in front of court

· Alito accepted a trip to Rome, same issue

· All justices have outside reportable incomes, and some have been better disclosed

Other known disclosure

· Jackson Brown and Gorsuch just released a book this year, which they will make money off.

· Elena Kagan rents out a parking spot in DC

· Sonia Sotomayor rents out an apartment in Bronx, NY

· Kavanaugh had large known credit card and student loan debts

· Robert’s partner works for a pro-life interest group

· Amy Comey Barrett had a book deal for a reported $1million

· Other disclosures are made public by the fact of being public employees and disclosure requirements

Behavior

· SCOTUS members are expected to be publicly neutral

· Alito flag controversy in May 1014, hot mic issue in June 2024

· Thomas’s wife has connections to conservative organizations and some that have connections to January 6 inquires

· Chief Justice Roberts sees his legacy as preserving the image of the court

How do we reform the court

· Biden Administration has offered some thoughts

· Recent proposal by Sen. Wyden (D – OR)

· Supreme Court Ethics Changes

Is It Important to think of the Supreme Court as fair?

· What does it mean if the court isn’t trusted?

· Is the Court fair in the first place?

Recap

· The supreme court has seen a lot of attention from the public over controversies over the past 5 – 10 years

· The result of these controversies has created a perception of the court that isn’t neutral

· Conflicts of interest may be apparent with the sitting justices, and those controversies have been playing out in the media and in the political system

10/10/24

What is a bureaucracy

· An organization characterized by hierarchal structure, worker specialization, explicit rules, and advancement by merit

· Goal is neutral competence; the principle that bureaucracy should be depoliticized by making it more professional

What is bureaucracy, cont’d?

· Classic definition from Max Weber highlights

· Hierarchy: clear chain of command and responsibility

· Specialization: tasks divided by expertise

· Explicit rules: rules rather than preferences govern decisions; have standardization, predictability

· Merit: hiring based on exams and experience, not politics

The spoils system

· Nineteenth- century practice of rewarding political supporters with public office

· Patronage was undone by civil service reforms, such as the Pendelton Act ( 1993) and the Hatch Act (1939)

· Bureaucracies no longer staffed by patronage

· Please note that, despite the existence of civil service, many argue that governmental jobs are still obtained via nepotism and a more modern version of patronage

Why is bureaucracy necessary?

· Large tasks require organization and specialization

· Bureaucracies exist in private sector, too

· Because expertise is required in many decisions; democracy not the best way to make every decision

· Certain tasks that need to be done would not be supported by private industry because they would not make a profit

Possible drawbacks of bureaucracy

· Consequences in a rule-based system

· Decisions are fair, but there is a lot of red tape

· Outcomes can take a long time

· Bureaucratic procedures can frustrate average citizens

· Accountability with rules, but less clear in public bureaucracy

Evolution of American federal bureaucracy

· Design of federal bureaucracy less like a coherent structure and more like a patchwork quilt

· First departments served essential government functions (State, War, Treasury)

· Newer departments were responses to changing public needs, for example, western territories = interior, industrialization = labor

Evolution of American federal bureaucracy, cont’d

· Departments created to respond to demands of clientele groups

· Clientele groups: groups of citizens whose interests are affected by an agency or a department and who work to influence its policies

· E.g., agricultural interests pushed for Dept. of Agriculture and veterans for Dept. of Veterans affairs

Organization of the federal bureaucracy

· Departments: major subdivisions of the federal government, represented in the president’s cabinet

· E.g., Defense, State, Treasury, Homeland Security. The cabinet has 15 divisions

· Independent agencies: government organizations independent of the departments but with a narrower policy focus

· E.g., EPA, CIA, Peace Corps

Organization of the federal bureaucracy, cont’d

· Independent regulatory boards and commissions: government organizations that regulate various businesses, industries, or economic sectors

· E.g., FDA, FCC, National Labor Relations Board

· Government corporations: companies created by Congress to provide goods or services to public that private enterprise cannot or will not provide profitably

· E.g., Amtrak, Postal Service, FDIC

Roles of federal bureaucracy

· Bureaucracy as administrator: implement laws passed by Congress

· Bureaucracy as rule maker: Congress relies on bureaucratic discretion

· Bureaucracy as judge interprets laws within department or agency

Who are the federal bureaucrats

· Rank- and file members of agencies and departments; not department or agency boards

· Usually reflect public accurately

· Countless employees because we have more than 500 bureaucratic entities in the US

Politics inside the bureaucracy

· Bureaucratic culture: the accepted values and procedures of an organization

· Policy commitment: believe agency’s issue is most critical facing country

· Bureaucrats speak bureaucratese and defer to authority

Politics inside the bureaucracy, cont’d

· Specialization and expertise: know more about policy than politicians and public

· Identify with agency: committed to and protective of agency

· Consequences of bureaucratic culture

· Positive: commitment helps agency to make policy

· Negative: resistant to suggestions of change, even to the extent of covering up problems- Challenger disaster

· Whistle blowers are often the only check against these negatives

Presidential appointees VS Career civil servant

· Conflicting agendas

o True believers in agency’s mission may conflict if appointees’ ideology is different

· Conflicting time frames

o Appointees have short term outlooks, so civil servants can just wait until appointee leaves office

· Presidents often start new agency rather than change existing one

External bureaucratic politics

· Interagency politics, competition between agencies for budget and resources

· Constituency building

o Build groups of supporters in public and Congress

· Guarding the turf

o Guard own programs and don’t let others duplicate traditional responsibilities

The bureaucracy and the president

· Appointment power

o Presidents appoint heads and next layers of departments

· Budget proposal

o OMB can cut a department’s budget

o Presidential veto of agency funding

o Power of persuasion

The bureaucracy and Congress

· Iron Triangles

o Alliance of congressional committees, interest groups, and agencies working together for mutual benefit

o Issue networks: more complex relationships

· Congress controls bureaucracy through committees that have influence and bureaucracy responds

The bureaucracy and the courts

· Courts may deal with cases against agencies or departments, but rarely

· Congress often protects agencies and departments from courts

· Bureaucratic rules may hinder speedy resolution in court

The Citizens and bureaucracy

· Public seems unable to check bureaucracy

· Avenues for citizens to control bureaucracies:

o Citizen advisory councils, but typically people are biased toward the policy

o Sunshine laws allow citizens to see when meetings are held

o Freedom of Information Act - gets copies of agency info

o Privacy Act (1974)– access to agency files on oneself

Knowt

0.0(0)

Generate Practice test

Chat with Kai

undefined Flashcards

0 Cards0.0(0)

Explore Top Notes

Introduction to Management

Studied by 189 people

5.0(1)

REVIEWER FOR INTRO TO PHILO

Transaction processing

Note

Studied by 9 people

5.0(1)

ap euro midterm that idk

Note

Studied by 55 people

5.0(2)