Gov U3

Chapter 15


What is a Political Party?

  • Political Party: A group that is seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election

    • Linkage Institution: Connects the public to the government


  • Interest Group: an organized group of people sharing common objectives who attempt to influence government policymakers through direct and indirect methods

    • Not the same as Political Party


Difference
Political Parties: consider a large number of issues, run candidates for office

 Interest Groups: Promote a handful of key policies, well funded, tightly organized, do not                                       

 compete for public office


Why are there two parties?

  • The Historical basis: the nation started out with two parties: the federalists and antifederalists

  • Force of Tradition: America has a two-party system because it has always had (unitary) form of government

    • “Winner-takes-all system” vs “Proportional representation system” (ranked-choice voting)


Major Functions of Political Parties

  • Nominate candidates

  • Inform and activate supporters


Parties can be thought of in 3 parts

  • Party in the electorate: the active party voters can identify with 

    • Base: voters that support the party

  • Party as an organization: viewed as party’s structure

    • Ex. committees

  • Party in government: party that has control


How Americans Vote

  • Rational Choice Theory: when the voters act in their best interest for government

    • Political efficacy: voters believe their vote makes a difference

    • Party Identification: voter heavily identifies with party’s ideals

  • Motor Voter Act (1993): americans can register to vote at DMV

    • Get out the vote (GOTV)


Third Parties

  • Three Types

  • “Single Issue”- focus heavily on one issue

  • “Splinter” Party- broken away from a major party

  • Ideological- focus on addressing role of government 

  • Importance: willing to bring up issues major parties won’t

  • Consequences

    • Party realignment: Major parties realign values to keep votes


Constitutional Provisions of Political Participation

  • 15th amendment : No voting discrimination based on race, color, previous servitude

  • 17th amendment : popular or direct election of senators

  • 19th amendment : no discrimination to vote based on gender

  • 24th amendment : outlawed poll tax

  • 26th amendment : established voting age of 18

  • Voting rights Act of 1965: outlawed poll taxes and other barriers to voting


Election Features

  • Primaries: consist of candidates from same party

  • General: between different parties

    • Ticket splitting: voter selects candidates for multiple parties

    • Split Vote: 

      • Two candidates only: fair election

      • More than two: divided and conquered


Three Ingredients for a successful campaign: , campaign organization, media attention


The Campaign Game

  • Three ingredients for a successful campaign

    • $

    • Campaign organization

    • Media attention


Money in Campaigns

  • Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974: Legal limits on campaign contributions and spending

    • Federal election commission: nonprofit groups that support politicians

  • Political Action Committees (PACs)- limited by spendings

    • Super PACS have unlimited spending due to citizens united case


Money in Campaign- Landmark Cases

  • McCain-Feingold Act of 2002, 2004 a.k.a

    • Bipartisan Campaign reform act: Government should not limit how much a person spends

  • Citizens United vs FEC (2010)


The Electoral College

  • Located in Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution

    • Expanded in 12th amendment

  • Winner-takes-all system

    • Except maine and nebraska

  • Electors meet in December