Unit 2 Test - Study Guide

American Political Ideologies and Beliefs

Citizen beliefs about the gov’t are influenced by people’s different interpretations of…

  • individualism, equality of opportunity, free enterprise, and limited gov’t.

Things that contribute to people’s political ideologies (political socialization) include family, schools, peers, and media.

Public opinion polls impact voters and policy makers. i.e., opinion polls, benchmark or tracking polls, entrance and exit polls. Sampling errors, type and format of questions, mass survey or focus groups, sampling techniques, and identification or respondents often affect polls.

Fiscal Policy is congress’ method to fix economic problem through taxing and spending (guns v. butter).

Monetary Policy is the FED’s method to fix economic problems through interest rates, money supply, and the buying and selling of bonds.

Political Participation

Amendments that expanded voting rights (suffrage): 15th, 17th, 19th, 24th, and 26th. These amendments impacted the electorate by expanding suffrage groups, which increased liberal ideologies.

4 types of voting behavior:

  • retrospective: voting based on the past e.g. economy

  • party-line (straight-ticket voting): voting based on party lines; party ideologies; partisanship

  • prospective: voting based on the future

  • rational: how people vote when they focus on personal interests

What Affects Voter Turnout?

  • demographics (religion, gender, race)

  • political efficacy

  • people’s engagement in politics

  • structural barriers (how, when, and where)

  • state registration laws

  • party identification/ideologies (Democrats more liberal, more gov involvement. Rep more conservative, less gov involvement.)

  • political issues

  • candidate characteristics

Types of Linkage Institutions

  1. Political Parties (Two Party System):

- Win elections, nominate candidates, motivate voters.

- Parties have responded to candidate-centered campaigns

- Structure of parties are influenced by critical elections, regional realignments, campaign finance law, and changes in communication and technology.

- Winner take all districts prevent third parties from success

- Third parties influence the platform and policies of the Dem/Rep parties.

  1. Interest Groups

- Goal is to win their issue

- Educate voters and officeholders, draft legislation, motivate members to apply pressure on the government.
- Influence the gov’t with party coalitions, iron triangles, and issue networks (less specific than iron triangles).

  1. Elections

- Elections are affected by incumbency advantage, open and closed primaries, caucuses, party conventions, congressional and state elections, and the electoral college (is the electoral college democratic?)

  • The winner-take-all system (except for Maine and Nebraska) under the setup of the electoral college compared with the national popular vote raises questions about the electoral college.

  • Dependence on professional consultants, rising campaign costs and fundraising, long election cycles, social media all affect modern campaigns.

  • Campaign Finance: There is ongoing debate over the role of money in political and free speech.

  • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (B.C.R.A.) aka, McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 Which banned soft money and reduced attack ads with “Stand by Your Ad” provision. (I’m ___ and I approve this message)

  • Citizens United V. F.E.C ruled that political spending is protected by the 1st Amendment freedom of speech.

PACs: Hard money (can contribute directly to candidates

Super PACs: Soft money (can raise unlimited funds for independent political expenditures)

Absentee Ballot: Allows a person to mail or submit their vote remotely rather than attending a polling place in person. Typically used by voters away from their registered voting location on election day.

Motor Voter Law: A law that allows individuals to register to vote while applying for or renewing their driver’s license or state ID card.

  1. Media

- The goal of the media is to make a profit

- Changes in news media w/ social media for example has profoundly changed how citizens acquire political information and how political candidates communicate.

- television is the #1 source of mass media, other forms include newspapers, radio, and the internet.

- the role of the media is a gatekeeper, scorekeeper, and watchdog.

Political information is affected by the following:

  • increased media choices

  • ideologically oriented programming such as MSNBC (Liberal) and Fox News (conservative)

  • Consumer-driven media outlets and social media

  • uncertainty over credibility/reliability of the news sources and information

The benefits and drawbacks of modern campaigns are represented by:

  1. rising campaign costs and intensive fundraising efforts

  2. duration of the election cycles

  3. impact of an reliance on social media for campaign communication and fundraising

  4. dependence on professional consultants

U.S. Congressional and Presidential elections in the U.S. are impacted by:

  1. incumbency advantage phenomenon

  2. open and closed primaries

  3. caucuses

  4. general (presidential and mid-term elections)

Review

  • The campaign and election process to run for President of the U.S. takes a year and a half before the election. Candidates conduct polls, make appearances and speeches to see if they should run, similarly to congress.

  • A positive for this long campaign process is that citizens get to know the candidates and stances on policy issues better, while a negative might be that people don’t always remain loyal (free riders); voter fatigue, and campaigns cost could become too much.

  • Primary elections take place from January to June, the first 6 months of the election year are the primary elections. Primary elections are a party election (Rep v. Rep, Dem v. Dem), General elections are party against party: Top republicans v. top democrats.

  • A few front loading/early states in the primary election include New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa, and South Carolina.

  • The difference between a primary and a caucus is: In a primary, people vote on computer screens individually, in a caucus people get into groups and then they vote.

  • In August, a big event called the Party Convention takes place where parties nominate candidates and VP’s are chosen. The conventions unite each party because in primaries, they are divided.

  • Conventions usually take place in swing states in order to get the most support and votes.

  • Around October and September the debates take place.

  • If you go to college out of state, the ballots are called absentee ballots.

  • In order to vote in the United States, the 3 big requirements include citizenship, must be 18, and must be registered.

  • The “election day” for the general election takes place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Other elections that take place in November include mayoral elections and elections for the state legislature.

  • The difference between an initiative and a referendum is that an initiative is the first step where people vote on an issue and get it on a ballot for a later election. A referendum is the second step where people vote yes or no on that topic. People decide on issues rather than congress.

  • The lame duck period is when the candidate that loses or cannot run for reelection has their influence weakened

  • The electoral college votes in December after thanksgiving week. The electoral college vote counts, not popular. 270+ needed to win.

  • Congress counts the votes from the electoral college during the first week of January.

  • The inauguration day is January 20th. On this day, the president takes an oath of office and gives a speech.

The M’s of politics in presidential elections

Money, Media, Mobilization of voters, Mo’Money, Momentum, and getting the candidates mentioned.

Incumbency is the current politician running for reelection, highest in the house of reps.