Notes on Linkage Institutions

Institutions that link people to the government. Examples include political parties, elections, interest groups, and the media.

Fill Government Offices: Elections are a mechanism by which people elect/choose candidates to determine who will fill a government office.
Influence policy: By electing a particular candidate, citizens are signaling policy preferences which they expect to be implemented and defended.
Accountability: Elections allow citizens to hold government officials accountable by refusing to re-elect those individuals they feel have failed to live up to their expectations, honor their promises, and/or steer the country in the right direction.

Simplify the choice of voters: Political parties make it easier for voters to choose among the candidates.
Inform: Political parties inform voters about what is taking place in the government.
Policy Proposals: They provide possible policy positions on issues and how to understand them.

Vehicle for Organizing and Advocating for issues to be made into public policy: Interest groups serve as a means by which groups can organize and leverage their numbers to have their interests made into public policy. These voluntary associational groups allow for like-minded individuals to gather in number and channel their intense interest in a topic/area of policy toward the effort to have that interest become part of public policy (passed into law).
Lobbyists: Lobbyists are hired by these groups to represent their interests directly to members of Congress and/or the government (executive branch/bureaucracy).

Informs: The media informs people regarding what is happening in the government and also informs the government as to what the people want, think, or feel.
Shape: The media also shapes public opinion by agenda setting and issue framing. By determining the stories/issues to be discussed, the media sets the agenda as to what receives attention and is talked about. It is most likely these issues that have any real chance of being addressed by the government. Also, the media can frame the discussion of these issues in a way that shapes people’s opinion about them.
Accountability: The media holds the government accountable through investigative reporting that seeks to unearth corruption, scandals, and incompetency within the government.