Political Participation Notes

Political Participation

• Political participation: Ways voters get involved in the political process.
• Factors influencing participation: ideology, efficacy, structural barriers, and demographics.

Amendments to Know

• 15th Amendment: Voting rights to Black males.
• 17th Amendment: Popular elections of US senators.
• 19th Amendment: Suffrage to women.
• 24th Amendment: Declared poll taxes void in federal elections.
• 26th Amendment: Lowered voting age to 18-year-olds.

Legislation

• Voting Rights Act 1965: Helped end formal & informal barriers to voting for Black people.
• National Voter Registration Act 1993: "Motor Voter Act" - makes it easier for voters to register by requiring states to allow citizens to register when applying for/renewing driver's licenses.

Voting Models

• Rational choice voting: Voting based on what is perceived to be in the citizen's best interest.
• Retrospective voting: Voting on whether a candidate should be re-elected based on their recent past performance.
• Prospective voting: Voting based on predictions of how a candidate will perform in the future.
• Party-line voting: Voting for candidates of one party for all public offices at the same level of government.

Voter Turnout

• Compulsory voting: Laws that require citizens to register & vote in local & national elections.
• Midterm elections: Congressional elections that occur in even-numbered years between presidential elections.
• Political efficacy: A citizen's belief that their vote matters & can influence government policies.
• State voting registration laws can affect voter turnout by removing or adding structural barriers.
• Political scientists use demographics of a voting population to predict voter turnout.
• Demographics are associated with political engagement & political efficacy.
• Party identification is the strongest driver of voter choice.

Linkage Institutions

• Linkage institutions: Groups in society that connect people to the government & facilitate turning people’s concerns into political issues.

Political Parties

• Party platform: Goals outlining a party's position on issues & political priorities.
• Parties made up of: party organization, party in government, party in electorate.
  • Party organization: Creates platform, helps elected officials, manages campaigns, educates, proposes debates.
  • Party in government: Elected officials.
  • Party in electorate: All citizens who identify with party & mobilize voters based on platform's goals and donating money.

Campaign Finance

• Campaign finance: Funds raised to promote candidates, parties, or policy initiatives.
• Candidate-centered campaigns: Focus on candidates, their personalities & issues, rather than parties they represent.
• Critical election: Election leads to major party realignment, shift in # of key supporters from one party to the other party.
• Dealignment: Individual loses their loyalty to one party without developing loyalty for another.
• Direct primary: Current process by which parties choose their party's candidate for national office.
• Micro-targeting: Using computer models to identify voters who might support a candidate.
• Political Action Committees (PACs): Organizations representing an interest group or corporation that raises $with goal of supporting or defeating candidates.<ul> <li>Limits to the amount of$ a PAC can donate to a candidate each election.