Unit 9: Vote Choice

Wedge Issues: Politicians use to persuade ambivalent voters to change their prioritization of party identification and salient issues.

• you can't change one's preconceptions of attitudes, but you can convince them of importance.

• wedge issues don't cater to a candidate's base of support, but convince potential voters and draw away from an opponent's coalition

Minimal Effects Doctrine: elections are determined far in advance of the campaign by the social structure of the electorate.

• Campaigns have little effect on persuasion but do affect mobilization.

• the accuracy of forecasting models reinforce this

Electoral College: the method for indirectly electing the President through a college of 538 electors, with 227 needed to win.

Each state's allotment of electors is equal to the number of house members and senators they have, and are chosen by popular vote.

"Identity Crisis" by Sides et al

Clinton Underperformed in some states and out-performed in others, polling errors were not consistent. While Obama and Romney didn't campaign on matters of race, Trump activated groups with strong opinions. This gave him a key advantage in swing states with non-college educated white voters - a measure of Educational Polarization.

"Choosing The Velvet Glove" by Frasure-Yokley

While Ambivalent Sexist Attitudes positively predicted support for Trump among white women, they had no significant effect on Women of Color. White women can prioritize their racial identity over their gender identity to maintain the racial status quo, it takes an intersectional approach to understand how Black women are "doubly bound" to democrats.

The 2016 Election

• Trump's campaign activated identity issues and racial attitudes unlike past elections.

• Cross-Pressured Partisans returned to the Republican party

• Educational polarization gave Trump an advantage in key swing states with large rural populations

• Ambivalent sexism in women towards other women caused white women to vote for Trump, they prioritized their racial identity.

• The way voters viewed economics was through a racialized lens

• The groups who did support Clinton had low levels of in-group identity and didn't turn out.

The 2020 Election

• Trump was unpopular and had chronically low approval ratings, his loss was predictable by campaign fundamentals

• People largely voted for who they voted for in 2016, but there was higher turnout.

• Higher turnout due to voters having an easier time aligning themselves with a candidate. There was a closer mental association between ideology and partisanship - Trump was perceived as further right and Biden as further left.

• External events like the pandemic and reemergence of the BLM movement had little effect on Trump's approval rating

Calcification: The difference between 2016 and 2020 electorate is due to the growing congruence between ideology and partisanship. There was an increasing calcification in people's choices.

Unit 10: Voter Turnout

The Calculus of Voting Model - Anthony Downs

Vote = (P.B) - C

• P = Probability of casting a decisive vote

• B = benefit derived from voting

• C = costs associated with voting

Costs outweigh benefits for most people

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Most people have a rational incentive not to vote

Resource Model: People don't vote because they can't

• Socioeconomic Status is intrinsically tied to civic engagement; time, money, and civic skills make voting easier.

• Civic Skills: a voter's ability to inform themselves on issues relevant to civic engagement. (highly tied to available resources)

• Resources: church, education, jobs requiring civic skills, engagement groups.

Socioeconomic Status measured by a consideration of a person's income, occupation, and education.

Psychological Engagement: people don't vote because they won't

• some people get more enjoyment and psychological benefit from politics than others and are thus more willing to engage in politics.

• political interest and efficacy

• Civic duty: Belief that civic action is a responsibility of being a good citizen.

Voting

• driven by civic duty

• provides intrinsic and psychological benefits

• mobilization has a modest effect

Other Political Participation: financial contributions, going to rallies, hanging yard signs

• driven by resource availability

• provides extrinsic and social benefits

• mobilization has a strong effect

Social Pressure: people don't vote because nobody asked another effective method of incentivizing people to vote by providing extrinsic motivation.

• experiment conducted by Gerber et al utilized different levels of social pressure to determine their effect on voter mobilization

• proved that social pressure does mobilize voters

• highly effective and most cost-effective method to date.

Rather than using the Voting Age Population, turnout is better measured using the Voting Eligible Population.

• increased number of non-citizens due to immigration

• rise of mass incarceration.

"Punishment and Democracy" by Manza and Uggen

as levels of criminal punishment have risen, there is a higher number of nonincarcerated felons who are disenfranchised due to policy around convictions.

• It perpetuates activism

• Disproportionately affects African-American citizens

• Indirectly benefits the GOP

• Reinforces social alienation and could lead to higher rates of recitivism

"Perverse Consequences of Electoral Reform" by Berinsky

Reducing the barriers to voting via Ballot Reform does not stimulate incentivization but increases retention.

• most current vote reforms exacerbate economic disparities

• To expand the voting pool & include at-risk voters we need to increase education and political interest

• voters who take advantage of Ballot reforms are already politically engaged

• Doesn't solve the problem of lack of interest

Unit 11: Congress

The Rules Committee: Coordinates the efforts of standing committees to streamline Congressional business.

• Determine the jurisdiction of a bill before it goes to a committee.

• Determine the rules of debate before a bill goes to the floor.

• Originally designed to propose and enforce permanent rules governing the house.

Centralizing the house's agenda power within the rules committee presented an opportunity to link the party and committee structures within congress.

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Speaker of the house effectively controlled the entire legislative agenda through the rules committee and could push a highly polarizing partisan agenda

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Joseph Cannon placed himself as chairman of the rules committee and wielded near total authority by appointing the chairmen of other committees.

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Cannon's Revolt (1910): a coalition of Democrats and progressive Republicans revolt against Cannon.

• House insurgency drafted a resolution removing Cannon from the Rules Committee and stripping him of his unilateral authority.

• The following year Democrats retook control of the house and removed Cannon as speaker

Reforms that separated committee leadership from party leadership.

• Committee consolidation and jurisdictional reform

• Seniority Rule for committee chairmanship

"Conditional Party Govt" by Rohde

There are strong political parties as long as there is interparty homogeneity and out of party heterogeneity.

• Party strength shifts over time

• Committee strength is inversely proportional

In the 1960s a series of reforms returned power to party leaders.

• Committee chairs were no longer selected on the basis of Seniority and had to share power with subcommittee chairs

• Speaker gained authority to name all members of Rules committee and refer a bill to multiple committees

modern era: strong parties, weak committees

"Definitive Case Against The Filibuster" by Klein

In order for effective democracy to occur there must be accountability. The existence of the filibuster in Congress creates non-action, which means politicians can easily deflect responsibility.

• Voters elect candidates who support their interests and are effective, the filibuster encourages politicians to prioritize messaging for re-election

"Insecure Majorities" by Lee

Partisan conflict in Congress has very little to do with ideology and is a function of pursuit of political power.

• Trade off between messaging and legislating

• each party is constantly concerned with majority/minority dynamics and party branding.

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• Reflexive Politics: when politicians respond to opposing ideology and undercut their credibility as leaders, even at expense of their personal stance on policies.

• legislative obstruction, deny policy advancement

Fenno's Paradox: The phenomenon where congressional approval is constantly low but members of congress are frequently re-elected - due to people viewing their representatives as separate from the congressional body.

House Reapportionment: Shifts in national population require that Congressional seats occasionally be reapportioned among the states according to population size and density.

Redistricting: the redrawing of Congressional district lines within the individual states.

• districts should be compact and contiguous

• they should connect communities of interest and maintain political sub-divisions

Gerrymandering: A form of redistricting where Congressional boundaries are purposely manipulated to benefit one group and dilute the vote of another.

Unit 12: The Presidency

The Pacificus-Helvidius Essays: Madison and Hamilton debate the scope of Presidential power after Washington declared neutrality in the French Revolution.

• Madison envisioned a modest presidency with only enumerated powers that would preside over the govt and could check Congress when needed.

• Hamilton believed that the power of the presidency could grow over time. He envisioned an energetic president with broad inherent powers who served as a national leader.

Unilateral Powers: Ways the President has used the ambiguity of the constitution to take action without Congressional Support.

Executive Orders: directive issues to require/authorize an action from executive agencies, and a way that the President can bolster their policy credentials.

• "Divided Govt, Strategic Substitution, Presidential Unilateralism" by Kaufman and Rogowski.

  during periods of divided govt the President is more likely to use less visible forms of action in order to avoid political consequence.

"A Broader Understanding of Presidential Power" by Canes-Wrone et al

There are two Presidencies, whether presidents exercise more power over foreign or domestic affairs.

• Most of their power is expressed in foreign affairs due to informational asymmetries, first mover advantage, and differing electoral incentives.

"Dividers Not Uniters" by Lee

• The President's role as a highly visible party leader tends to exacerbate partisan tensions in Congress.

• Members of Congress have a collective stake in the success or failure of Presidential initiatives

• This is Executive-Centered Partisanship

Unit 13: The Judiciary

The Federal Judiciary Act (1789): passed in the 1st Congress, laid out the structure of the federal judiciary to this day.

• established a chief justice of the supreme court and 5 associate justices

• Created 13 judicial districts, each with a district and circuit court.

• Created the office of the Attorney General and US Marshall

Marbury vs Madison (1803)

Justice Marbury served under Jefferson and Adams refused to honor his commission (which he never received).

• He sought redress with the Supreme Court, giving them original jurisdiction.

• does Marbury have a right to his commission and does the Supreme Court have the power to deliver it?

• Supreme Court couldn't deliver it because it exceeded beyond their enumerated powers - claim the Doctrine of Judicial Review.

• Constitution can't be overwritten by legislation

• laid the groundwork for the Supreme Court to play a pivotal role in balancing the inherent tension between govt power and individual liberty.

The Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty: How can one sustain a vibrant Majoritarian Democracy with existence of a supreme court composed of unelected and unaccountable judges?

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Judges must make decisions carefully in order to not stray too far from the will of the people.

Doctrine of Judicial Review: requirements a case must have before the court will give it article III review.

• WHO may litigate a constitutional claim

• WHAT constitutional claims may be litigated

• WHEN constitutional questions can be litigated (ripeness and mootness)

Legislative Reorganization Act (1970): Passed by Congress to improve the operations of the legislative branch.

• Made processes more transparent by encouraging open committee meetings/hearings and radio/TV broadcasts

• Increased the powers of minority party members and decreased the power of the Chair.

• Reduce the number of standing committees

• Strengthened legislative oversight of administrative/executive agencies.

"Getting Borked": The Judiciary Committee's refusal to appoint Robert Bork was the first time that someone was denied an appointment to the Supreme Court on the basis of ideology.

"Contemporary Ratification" by Brennan

The Constitution is a living document with principles. Judges should represent the opinions/interests of their community rather than trying to understand the intentions of the founding fathers

• Individuals have human dignity.

Legal Realism/Non-Originalism

• No single intention of the framers, and the constitution includes a lot of ambiguity to cover up disagreements.

• The amendment process is overly cumbersome to meet the needs of a changing society.

• The framers never wanted originalism - they intended for constitutional interpretation to be guided by a framework that was adaptable to contemporary social norms and values.

"Originalism is The Lesser Evil" by Scalia

Politics should be left to elected branches of govt, judges must simply interpret the law.

• Personal interpretations undermined by opinions

• acknowledges unable to know founders' intent

Originalism

• Constitutional interpretation is limited to the text and framers intentions.

• Constitutional evolution occurs through amendments

• Restrains the power of unelected judges in a democratic society

• Textual ambiguity in the Constitution can be clarified through democratic processes.