AP GOV unit 4 & 5

Political Socialization

Biggest factors:

  1. Family (most important)

  2. gender/ethnicity

  3. News media

  4. Peer groups

Conventional Participation

  • Voting

  • Running for office 

  • Volunteering for a campaign

  • Joining a political party

  • Giving money to candidates

Unconventional Participation

  • Protests

  • Civil disobedience (nonviolent and violent methods)

IDEOLOGY ☆

Liberal/Democrat: belief in progress, and autonomy of the individual, and standing for the protection of civil liberties, national government should be very active in helping individuals and communities promote health, justice, and equal opportunity

Moderate/Independent (not a political party, contributes to the rise of third-party): an individual who generally holds the middle position between those generally classified as liberal and those seen as conservative

Conservative/Republican: tradition and social stability believes the role of the government in society should be minimal and that individuals should be responsible for their own well-being (smaller government), the community can achieve this together 


Public opinion polling

  •  tell us what people think the government should focus on, how likely they are to vote for a candidate, or whether they pay much attention to politics at all

  • Random sampling is the goal

Benchmark Polling: taken before the election 

Opinion polls: analyzing different polls

Exit Polls: predicts election results

How the United States suppressed voting:

White primaries - preventing black people from voting in primaries to only have white candidates

Grandfather clause - people with ancestors who voted before 1870 can vote - aka not black people

Literacy tests - impossible tests for black people because one they were very difficult and 2 they were likely to be illiterate


Important Amendments:

15th Amendment - not restricted by race or color to vote

19th Amendment - allowed women to vote

24th amendment - abolishment of polling tax

26h amendment - reduced minimum voting age from 21 to 18


Different types of Media: Print media, broadcast media, social media, newspaper, radio

Trial Balloons:  information sent out to the media to observe the reaction of an audience

Press Conferences: media events in which notable individuals or organizations invite journalists to hear them speak and ask questions

Staged Appearances/media events: a staged event by candidates to make them look like they’re involved

Horse-Race coverage: focus primarily on who’s winning or losing instead of policy issues 

Sound Bites: A piece of a person speaking during a video or speech, to make the person look bad/good

Watchdog: authors or publishers of a news publication fact-check and interview political and public figures to increase accountability in democratic governance systems


Linkage Institutions: 

Interest Groups: uses various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy

  • Uses lobbying*- influencing government officials

  • Electioneering (campaigning/funding)

  • Grassroots work/mass mobilization (going public)

  • Litigation: interest group in court 

*lobbying is defined as the act of attempting to influence legislation or government decisions by directly contacting lawmakers, government officials, or their staff, often through persuasion, information sharing, or advocacy on behalf of a specific interest group or cause


Political Parties:  designed to send political “cues” to voters and articulate policies and platforms on various issues, work to elect candidates to office, to win control of government

  • nominate candidates

  • mobilize voters

  • write a party platform

  • create advertisements

  • give money to candidates/campaigns


Caucus vs Primary

Caucus: 

  • participants are divided into groups based on what candidate they support, the candidate with the most votes moves on to the country convention

  • Must be registered as either a Democrat or Republican to vote

Primary (general election)

  • Voters anonymously vote for the candidate they favor

  • Who can vote: varies from state to state

Types of Primaries

Closed primary: only people registered with a party (Democrat or Republican) can vote

Open Primary: anyone can vote, and doesn’t have to be affiliated with a political party

Runoff Primary: 2 highest candidates will run for the first primary

Nonpartisan primary: all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party

Blanket primary: only qualified voters can vote, party doesn’t matter


Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, 2002

  • Wanted to eliminate the use of soft money

  • raised the amounts of permitted, lawful “hard money” contributions by individuals from $1,000 per candidate per election, where it had remained since 1974, to $2,000 per candidate per election

  • parties were prohibited from donating funds to so-called tax-exempt “527”* groups

  • Prohibited political advertisements that were intended to influence federal elections

  • prompted the rise of “527 groups” which are unlimited because they do not directly endorse candidates, Encouraged the spread of PACS (Political Action Committees)  

        *527 groups have no spending limits

Four Types of Elections:

Primary Elections: Those which select party nominees for a particular elected office (i.e. governor, representative, senator, president, etc.)

General Elections: Those which select office holders from among the different party nominees . . .

i.e. Democrats vs. Republicans (or other parties)

Issue Elections: Elections held on specific issues in which voters engage in making or ratifying legislation on these issues

Realignment Elections: takes place when there is a major shift in the political party that American citizens support


Factors that influence voters:

  • Income

  • Education

  • Age 

  • Religion 

  • racial/ethnic background

  • Campaign issues

Motor Voter Act, 1996:  requiring states to allow people to register to vote at the same time they apply for driver’s licenses


Electoral College:  people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president


Super PACs - can spend unlimited amounts of money but can’t align with a specific party



Hard Money: contributions given directly to a candidate, disclosed, limited

Soft Money: money donated to interest groups or parties who can buy advertising on the candidate’s behalf

PACS (Political Action Committees): they raise money to influence the population to vote for their candidate




COURT CASES:

Citizens United vs FEC, 2010

  • A few weeks before the general election, citizens united released a movie about Hillary Clinton and showed bad things about her. 

  • Citizens United challenged that BCRA’s policies was a violation of the freedom of speech (1st amendment)

  • Court said that people with more money technically have more power in speech because of campaign finance

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)

  • WANTED TO ELIMINATE the increase use of soft money

  • increased the amount of hard money

  • Raised the amount of hard money that could be spent 

  • Prohibited funding ads 60 days before the general election and 30 days before the primary



Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA - 1974): 

  • Set contribution limits to individuals, parties, PACS, and candidates from their own campaigns

  • Soft money was not limited