AP Gov Unit 5

5.1 - Voting Rights and Models of Voting Behavior

How do the Constitution and legislation protect voting rights, and how do models relate to voting behavior?

Redefining “We the People”

• the most common form of political participation is voting

• people who go to vote are known as the “electorate”

• over the nation’s lifetime, the “We the People” allowed to vote has expanded from just white, land-owning men to include the working class, African Americans, women, residents of D.C., and young adults.

Expanding the Electorate

• States extended the franchise (right to vote) to white working-class men much earlier than most other countries did.

• The first election had no popular vote, only the electoral college. They all voted for George Washington

• all states had a popular election by 1823

• states did not grant suffrage equally

• constitution forbade religious tests for federal office but did not prevent such tests in determining who could vote

Political Ideologies

• Ideologies are beliefs about the role of government and its relationship with society. In the U.S., the two main ideologies are liberalism and conservatism, with libertarianism and populism being other significant ideologies.

  • Liberals typically advocate for a more active role of government in economic regulation, social programs, and addressing inequalities. They support policies like universal healthcare, environmental regulations, and progressive taxation.

  • Conservatives generally favor a limited role of government, especially in economic affairs. They prioritize free-market solutions, limited government intervention, lower taxes, and traditional values.

• Political Beliefs and Values: U.S. citizens’ political beliefs are shaped by a variety of factors, including:

  • Political socialization, which is how individuals form their political beliefs, is typically influenced by family, education, media, and peers.

  • The American Dream reflects the belief in individual opportunity, economic success, and mobility.

• Demographics and Ideology: People’s political ideologies often vary based on their demographics, including factors like age, race, gender, religion, and socioeconomic status. For example, younger people may lean more liberal, while older individuals might hold more conservative views.

• Political Parties: In the U.S., the two main political parties are the Democratic Party (more liberal) and the Republican Party (more conservative). These parties reflect the ideological divide and help organize and mobilize voters.

• Ideology and Public Opinion: Public opinion on political issues is influenced by personal experiences, demographics, and ideological leanings. Polling is a key tool for measuring public opinion, which can shape government policy and political campaigns.

5.2 - Voter Turnout

What roles do individual choice and state laws play in voter turnout?

• Factors that affect an individual’s choice to vote

  • Type of election (presidential, local, etc)

  • Voter Apathy

  • Political Efficacy (feeling that the vote makes a difference)

  • Gender- women tend to lean more liberal by approximately 10%

  • Age- younger voters have low turnout and tend to be liberal

  • Race- African Americans and Hispanics tend to vote for Democrats, except Cubans

  • Religion- Evangelicals vote Republican, Jews vote for Democrats

  • Business Affiliation- Salary, white-collar workers tend to be republican

• States with lower barriers to voting tend to have a higher young voter turnout

• States can deny people voting for different reasons

  • Voter registration, ID laws, time period, voting locations, number of polling places, number of weeks of early voting, format of ballot, provisional ballots, absentee ballots, drawing of congressional district lines, certifies election results

5.3 - Political Parties

What role do linkage institutions play in political parties, and what effect do political parties have on the electorate and government?

• purpose of political parties is to get people elected to public office

  • connect with and persuade voters

  • vet candidates

  • motivate volunteers

  • mobilize voters

  • educate voters

  • register voters (more so for Democrats)

  • train candidates and volunteers

• Federalism causes our political parties and elections to be decentralized

  • National, state, county, and precinct party conventions and chairs

• Democrats tend to want hands-on economics and hands-off with social ideas, Republicans vice versa

• Both parties discuss the economy, jobs, education, and healthcare

• fewer people back stricter gun laws in recent years than in 2019

• Parties in Government

  • Construct policy

  • pass legislation

  • work to maintain power

5.4 - How and Why Political Parties Change and Adapt

Why and how do political parties change and adapt?

• Federalist vs Anti-Federalist → Federalists and Democratic-Republicans

• James Madison, a Federalist who became a Democratic-Republican

• Parties can disappear

  • federalists became Whigs, who then disappeared because they refused to take a stance on slavery

• Critical Elections- the makeup of a political party changes and stays that way for a long time

  • 1800 Thomas Jefferson

  • 1828 Andrew Jackson

  • 1860 Abraham Lincoln

  • 1896 William McKinley

  • 1932 Franklin D Roosevelt

    • Democrats before 1932 were known as the party of limited government

    • After the great depression, people wanted the federal government to take more of a role in regulating the economy so it wouldn’t happen again (nobles oblige)

  • Trump 2016

• Candidate-centered campaigns have become more common over time

Changing Political Parties

• original “parties” were Federalists and Anti-Federalists, but they acted more like interest groups

• States rights vs strong federal government were one of the first splitting topics

• The Whig party died in the 1850s when the country was disunited. They created the Republican Party. originally branded as the “Free Soil Party”

Candidate Centered Campaigns

Party Systems and Realignment Periods

5.5 - Third-Party Politics

• Why only two parties?

  • History- Federalists vs Anti-Federalists

  • Structural Barriers- Single-member districts and Winner-take-all voting

  • Money- Financing, Ballot access, exposure

  • Reactions from major parties- Adopting minor party views

• Ralph Nader- Green party who ran with environmental issue stances

  • Republicans and Democrats started adopting stances and addressing those ecological concerns with their platforms

• Why Third Parties?

  • Ideological Parties

    • Libertarians- want the government hands-off in all areas

  • Splinter Parties

    • Factions split off from a major party

  • Economic Protest Parties

  • Single-Issue Parties

    • Attempt to take in money and put forth candidates, but ballot access makes it difficult

• Third parties can play a spoiler role- cause problems by “stealing “votes from major party candidates

• there have been no minor party presidential wins since Lincoln in 1860

• There have been third-party congress members

5.6 - Interest Groups Influencing Policy Making

what are the benefits and potential problems of interest-group influence on elections and policymaking?

• interest groups are a linkage institution

• can represent specific or general interests

• educate voters and officeholders

• exchanging of information from interest groups to people and Congress, the president, and the courts

• Lobbying Congress/policymaking

  • inside lobbying- direct contact with policymakers

    • legislative testimony

    • assistance in bill writing

    • direct contact with executive agencies

  • outside lobbying- indirect methods to influence decisions (talk to voters)

    • educate members on key issues

    • increase general public awareness of key issues through media efforts

    • organize and coordinate “grassroots lobbying” efforts to contact policymakers to influence decision-making

  • Monitor government programs

    • evaluate effectiveness

    • suggest changes

• Lobbying the judicial branch

  • Direct sponsorship

  • filing amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs

    • brief that informs the court of the group’s policy preferences, generally in the guise of legal arguments

• Benefits of interest groups

  • Reflects pluralism and encourages voices in all 3 branches

  • Encourages lobbying

  • Educate the public and legislators

• Drawbacks

  • They promote their interest only

  • “Astroturf” is deceitful (claim that they have more support than they do)

  • Iron triangles lead to inequality of resources and access over time

  • Groups with more power and influence can smother smaller groups

• Iron triangle

  • when a group has a strong influence on bureaucracy and congress

  • other interest groups are not getting their voices heard

  • courts tend to break up these triangles

5.7 - Groups Influencing Policy Outcomes

• interest groups make money by donations

  • Free-rider dilemma- if people can benefit for free why would they pay?

• There have to be benefits for paying members

  • Informational

    • Conferences, professional contacts, training programs, publications, coordination among organizations, research, legal help, professional codes, collective bargaining

  • Material

    • travel packages, insurance, discounts on consumer goods

  • Solidarity

    • friendship, networking opportunities

  • Purposive

    • advocacy, representation before government, participation in public affairs

• AARP is an interest group with material benefits

• How do IGs enact change?

  1. Social movements and protest groups

     • NAACP pivotal in ending segregation in schools and developing the Civil Rights Act of 1964

     • Women’s groups earned the Equal Pay Act in 1933

     • Environmental groups got the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts

  2. Institutional groups

     • Intergovernmental lobby- groups such as police, firefighters, and EMTs fight for policies that protect them and their jobs

     • Professional Associations like teachers’ unions seek fairer benefits

     • Think tanks conduct research to fit their ideological interests

  3. Single-issue groups

     • Examples include AARP, NRA, ACLU

     • Their singular interests are often masked with “common good” rhetoric

5.8 - Electing a President

• elections are a linkage institution

  • allow us to choose who holds office

• Presidential elections consistently have the highest voter turnout

• Can facilitate and impede democracy

• Many voters are confused by the Electoral College

• Two phases of elections

  • First phase

    • Party primary/Caucus across States

    • identifying the party’s nomination at the national convention

  • Second phase

    • general election across the country

    • Electoral College to elect the president

• The Electoral College makes it so that the candidates don’t need just a majority vote, they need to win states

• same number of electors for each state as they have representatives in the house

• The census is how they recount the population and decide how many seats each state gets

• Facilitate democracy-

  • Primary elections (open v closed)

  • National Conventions

  • the Electoral College meant to temper the masses and elect a consensus candidate

• Impedes democracy

  • Incumbent Advantage

  • Swing States

  • Five Electoral College “Failures” in US History

  • Plurality (not majority) required to win a state’s electoral votes

  • Winner-take-all system

5.9 - Congressional Elections

• Midterm elections

  • All house members and 1/3 of the senate

  • Lower voter turnout

• Incumbency advantage

  • House members (95%) - Senate members (80%)

  • due to name recognition, war chest, and franking privilege

  • PACs are more likely to donate to incumbents

• Coattail effect

  • If the president is popular, their party’s seats in Congress usually rise

• “safe” district

  • Determined by at least 60% margin for one party

  • primaries more important

  • 1 in 4 seats are from safe districts

  • Democrats hold a majority of those

  • Ideological migration + partisan gerrymandering are to blame

MASTERY CHECK NEEDS A CONCLUSION AND A CONCESSION OR REBUTTAL TO COUNTERARGUMENT FROM 5.8. I DID CONGRESS IS MORE IMPORTANT IN UPHOLDING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY. RESEARCH FED 78 FOR THIS.

5.10 - Modern Campaigns

• elections have changed a lot since the founding of the system

• It used to be weird to talk about your own candidacy

• Election spending has increased greatly over the years

• 14.4 billion spent on the Trump and Biden campaigns (2016), much more than recent past and it keeps getting bigger

• Biden said that 384 days before election day was too late to start campaigning in 2015/16

• Campaign professionals- modern campaigns require professional consultants to run them

  • campaign manager

  • public relations expert

  • dedicated fundraisers

  • social media consultants

• Canvassing- paid and volunteer positions to raise funds for a candidate.

• increased reliance on social media

• The biggest proportion of funding goes toward ads

• Most advertisements criticize the opponents

5.11 Campaign Finance

explain how the organization, finance, and strategies of national political campaigns affect the election process

• 1974- Federal Elections Campaign Act (FECA)

  • created a new federal commission called the Federal Election Commission

  • FEC was created to oversee and regulate the money being spent on political campaigns

    • Established limits for:

      • How much money a person could give to a political candidate

      • How much money candidates could spend on their campaign

• Buckley v Valeo

  • Ruled that spending on campaigns is directly tied to free speech

    • Advertisements

  • Restricted donations from supporters but did not restrict how much a candidate could spend on their own campaign

• If there are no limits on spending, then the person with the loudest voice and the most money wins

• Animal Farm “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”

• Hard Money

  • Contributions given directly to a candidate

• Soft Money

  • Money donated to a party or interest group who can buy advertising on the candidate’s behalf

  • Not subject to campaign finance laws

• Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act

  • Increased the amount of Hard money that could be given

  • Made transparent and regulated the amount of soft money that could be given

  • “Stand by your Ad” Provision: “I’m ___, and I approve this message.”

• Citizens United v FEC

  • The court ruled that limits on contributions from individuals and corporations was a violation of free speech

  • Corporate funding of ads and broadcasts cannot be limited

  • Political spending by corporations, associations, and labor unions is a form of protected speech under the First Amendment

    • goes back to the problem that the political conversation will be dominated by the richest

• Political Action Committees (PACs)

  • Connected PAC

    • Formed by corporations or other entities like labor unions

    • Only collect funds from the members of their organization

    • Money can be donated directly to candidates in limited quantities

    • Can raise unlimited amounts of money provided the individual limits are obeyed

  • Non-connected PAC

    • Formed independently of an organization, usually around a specific public interest

    • Donations are limited by law

    • Can accept donations from the public and donate directly to candidates

  • Super PAC

    • can be formed by anyone

    • can accept unlimited donations

    • Cannot directly coordinate with a candidate

5.12 The Media

explain the media’s role as a linkage institution

• media’s reporting of what the government does influences the way citizens engage in politics

• Protection of free press

• Watchdog agency- holds government responsible

• Newspapers, telegraph, radio, television, internet, social media

• Television news created a gap in the trust of the government because the news did not show what the government was telling people about the Vietnam War

• News Consumption has become a socially engaging and socially driven activity, especially online

• People choose what news to consume and algorithms show us what we want to see

• News Events

• Investigative Journalism

  • Progressive Era

  • Revealing corruption

  • Muckrakers

    • Led people to urge their representatives to pass certain laws

• Election coverage and political commentary

  • Horse-race journalism

    • polling numbers fluctuating causes a popularity contest and bandwagon effect