Government 2305 –
Unit 2 Lecture Notes
This unit mostly comprises
information about participation in the political process, and the variety of
inputs to the political system (refer back to Figure 1-4 on page 29 of your
textbook that shows the American Political System).
Inputs to the system include
(in the order that we will discuss them):
Public
opinion (Chapter 6)
The
media (Chapter 10)
Political
participation and voting (Chapter 7)
Political,
candidates, and campaigns (Chapter 8)
Interest
groups (Chapter 9)
Chapter 6 – Public Opinion and Political Socialization
Public Opinion
We begin this unit by trying
to understand the nature of public opinion.
The concept of public opinion
refers to those opinions held by ordinary citizens that they are willing to
express openly. The essential question
we have to ask ourselves is how, and whether, public opinion affects public
policy. This is important because we do
not live in a direct democracy (remember the theory of political power – majoritarianism – where the majority also prevails in the
determining public policy), rather, we live in a republic, where we have
representatives who make policy decisions for us.
To measure public opinion,
decision makers today use the practice of polling. This involves contacting citizens to get
their opinions of a variety of issues. They
type of polling that is considered most scientific is called a probability sample. The key to this type of polling comes in what
is known as a random sample. This means that everyone who can possibly be
polled (called the population) has an equal chance of being chosen. The accuracy of the poll is expressed in
terms of sampling error. For example, for years the
Another type of polling that
is not scientific at all is the non-probability sample. This typically is something like a news
reporter asking people on the street what they may think of something. This is rarely used in any type of public
policy making process.
Political Socialization
The question we must now ask
is how do people get their opinions and beliefs regarding politics? Your textbook defines political socialization as the process by which people acquire
their opinions, beliefs, and values. It
also points out that socialization is a lifelong process. There are three theories of learning that help to explain how this process:
1)
The primacy principle refers to the fact
that what is learned first is often lodged most firmly in one’s mind. Those ideas and opinions that we learn early
on are the ones that we tend to remember the longest.
2)
The structuring principle refers to the
tendency of earlier learning to structure later learning. One thing to note here is that the learning
process is cumulative. We continue to
learn but we rarely change our ideas and opinions. This principle helps to explain why people do
not change, because as they get older, they tend to look at things from the
perspective of what their previous ideas and opinions were.
3)
If there is going
to be a change in how people change their ideas and opinions, if it occurs at
all, is based on what is called the age-cohort
tendency. This holds that if a
significant break in the pattern of political socialization it is almost always
concentrated among younger citizens. The
older we get the less likely we are to change our political ideas and opinions.
Your book then discusses a
variety of what it calls agents of
political socialization. These include
the family, primary and secondary schools, peers, the mass media, political
leaders and institutions. In addition to
these, I think that there is one additional factor that we have to consider
today, and that is the role of the Internet.
The family: This is considered to be the most important
agent of political socialization. The
reason for this is a learning theory we mentioned above, the “primacy principle. Our families are where we tend to first learn
our political ideas and opinions. Most
children tend to accept uncritically the political attitudes of their parents. We simply absorb those things that our parents
discuss, and they tend to become our own ideas and opinions. Since this is what we learn first, this is
what stays with us the longest.
Primary and secondary
schools: These tend to act as
reinforcing agents. At this level we are
rarely challenged in the beliefs that we bringing to school from home. Indeed, most of the time at this level we are
taught nothing more than to respect government institutions rather than
question them. As an example, most primary
and secondary schools often start the day with the Pledge of Allegiance, which
helps to foster a sense of patriotism that does not allow for questioning of
government actions. This is in large
measure because they reflect the values already in place in society.
Peers: Again, this tends to be a reinforcing
agent. We tend to associate with
friends, neighbors, and co-workers who share the same ideas and opinions that
we already share.
The mass media: This agent can, at times, challenge our
thinking. It presents information that
we do not necessarily have control over, thus it can challenge our
perceptions. What is
interesting is a fairly recent phenomena of cable news channels and how some of
these channels take on a biased approach to journalism. What we see happening now is that citizens
can pick and choose among a wide range of media outlets, and tend to listen to
those that reinforce their own ideas and opinions. In this context the media does not challenge
thinking, but reinforces previously held ideas.
We will discuss the role of the media further when we discuss
information presented in Chapter 10.
Political leaders and
institutions: What we see happening here is that both of these serve as guides
to opinion through their ability to shape political debate and opinion through
the symbols and slogans they use.
Political leaders are getting much more adept at what is known as spin, which is the
attempts of politicians to change the public’s perceptions of news
events. We will discuss further in the
chapter on the media.
The Internet: This is very
new, and the ramifications of how it will affect ideas and opinions remains to
be seen. One thing about the Internet
that I think is very important to understand, it offers a platform for
virtually all citizens to have a forum to express ideas much more openly, and
readily available to other citizens, than any other group or institution that I
can think of. Almost everyone today has
the ability to create their own web page from which they can offer opinions of
their own, thus making the Internet perhaps the ultimate in democratic
expression.
Frames of Reference: How
Americans Think Politically
Your textbook discusses a
variety of ways that we (political scientists) classify how Americans think in
terms of political beliefs. Among these
are cultural thinking, ideological thinking, group thinking, and partisan
thinking. The one that seems to be most
prevalent in our society today is ideological thinking, which I would like to
spend more time discussing in depth. You
should read your textbook to be aware of the other classifications of American
political thinking.
We all have certain ideas and
beliefs about a wide variety of things, including political ideas and
beliefs. Typically, we refer to these
ideas and beliefs as “ideology”.
Ideology
(per textbook): a consistent pattern of opinion on particular issues that stems
from a core belief or set of beliefs.
Political rivalry is based upon ideological
differences.
The two most dominant
ideological groups in
Liberalism is often
identified as being “left wing”, while conservatism is often referred to as being
“right wing”.
How do we classify
ideology? This can be VERY confusing.
Book simplifies this issue
based mostly along economic policy and social policy, but today it is much more
difficult to understand what the differences really are.
Our analysis on ideological
types is based upon looking at ideology on these four policy areas:
1)
economic issues
2)
social issues
(government’s role in resolving complex social problems: school desegregation,
health issues, etc)
3)
government’s role
in deciding moral issues
4)
position on civil
liberties
Conservatism:
1)
Economic issues:
basic belief in laissez-faire, but in practice tend to be pseudo laissez-faire. That is, the theoretical assertion that an
unregulated economy produces the best results coupled with practical support
for government policies that help business to overcome problems in the
marketplace. Commonly referred to as the
“right wing” of the political spectrum.
Conservatives often argue that economic problems are caused by
over-regulation by the government.
2)
Do not
necessarily believe that government has a role in solving social issues.
3)
Do tend to
believe that government should support “traditional values”, including
morality, and teaching respect for institutions. Believe in government having a role in the
regulation of religion, sexual activity (except that government should NOT
distribute condoms), and drug use. This
tends to come from a very pessimistic view of how people behave. Have to save people from themselves. One thing to note here is that there seems to
be a bit of a division among today’s conservatives in this area. At this point we have to make a distinction
between what I call “classic
conservatives” and “neo-conservatives”. Classic conservatives in many ways are like
libertarians in that they seek limited government in all areas. They are uneasy about the expansion of
government’s role on morality based issues.
The neo-conservatives, on the other hand, seem to feel more comfortable
in using government as a tool to implement moral values upon all of society.
4)
Civil liberties:
complex! Believe government has no role
in regulating ownership of handguns, but then support things that would limit
freedom of expression in certain areas (including religion). Also tend to be “tough on crime”, to the
degree that they do not fully support all Bill of Rights issues involving
rights of the accused.
Liberalism:
1)
Economic issues:
more apt to blame “market failure” for economic problems and to place more
faith in the ability of government to direct economic activity. Commonly referred to as the “left wing” of
the political spectrum.
2)
Do tend to
support government involvement in solving social problems (expansion of voting
rights).
3)
Prefer that
government NOT be involved in moral issues.
This primarily stems from belief that each individual has right to
determine their own destiny.
4)
Civil liberties:
also complex! Tend to support
restriction of gun ownership rights, but otherwise they are considered “civil
libertarians”, strongly supporting freedom of expression, religion, and rights
of accused.
In addition to the liberals
and conservatives, your textbook also discusses libertarians and populists. These are two ideological types that have a
certain amount of influence in policy areas.
Generally speaking (and very simply), libertarians distrust government
influence in just about every sector of policy issues. We cannot consider them as simply anarchists,
because they do view the role of government as being somewhat legitimate, but
very limited. Populists are the polar
opposites of libertarians. In general,
they view the role of government as being very active in virtually all policy
areas.
REMEMBER: all
of the above are to a degree generalities. Even within ideological types there can be
wide variation on policy issues.
The Influence of Public
Opinion on Policy
Public opinion does serve as
a guiding force in public policy. In general,
we can say the following about the influence of public opinion on public
policy:
1)
It is difficult
to substantiate that the majority prevails on public policy issues.
2)
Politics includes
a battle over the control of public opinion.
3)
People’s views
are neither fixed nor simply a product of personal circumstances.
4)
Public opinion is
dynamic and can be changed, activated and crystallized through political
action.
Chapter 10 – The News Media: Communicating Political
Images
The media can simply be
defined as those business organizations that exist to provide us with “news”,
information about what is happening in the world around us. We generally separate the media into two
types: broadcast (television and
radio), and print (newspapers and
magazines). Your textbook doesn’t say
much more about the media other than it tends, in Texas, to be pretty
conservative, primarily because the media more often than not relies on
advertising revenues from other businesses in the local areas, thus tending to
reflect the business point of view on most issues (hard to bite the hand that
feeds you). Many people today feel that
the media is becoming even more conservative in light of the fact that many
large media corporations are purchasing news outlets and thus controlling more
of what gets distributed as news.
With regard to the political
process, the media serve an important function because they provide us with a link to our political institutions and
leaders. This is one of the important concepts from this unit: linkage institutions (political
parties, interest groups, and the media).
Because we do not often have direct access to our leaders today we rely
on these groups to carry our “message” to our political leaders.
The media plays four
important roles, three of which it does pretty well with, and one that it is
not well equipped to handle.
1)
signaler –
it alerts us to important events when they occur
2)
common carrier – it serves as an open channel to our political
leaders. Our leaders attempt to use it
to bring us information about important issues.
Most officials try to get favorable news coverage, but today’s press is
less deferential to political leaders than in the past (
3)
Watchdog role
– the media often acts as a protector to us of deceitful, careless,
incompetent, and corrupt officials.
4)
Public representative – does not do too good in
this role. This is when the media attempts
to act as a spokesperson for and advocate of the public. It is hard for the media to know exactly what
it is that the public thinks.
For many of us the media is
important because it is a primary source of information.
What is important for out consideration
here is the ability for educated voters to get reliable information about what
politicians think on various issues, as well as how they behave (from the
standpoint of voting behavior) when they are in office. This is a major emphasis of mine in terms of
the goals I have for this class. More
than anything else, I want you to become informed citizens. To accomplish this is not easy, and it
requires that you be able to conduct some research that will help you find
answers regarding politicians and their behavior. This is the principle goal of your research
project. It is hoped that you will be
able to remember these skills in the future so that you will continue to seek
out information on political candidates and policy issues in order to make the
best possible decisions that you can.
Earlier we defined power as the ability of persons to
control policy decisions. There is a
common saying today that “information is
power”, and I think that this is very true.
Thus, I would like to re-define power
as follows: the ability to control one’s
own destiny without the influence from others, or to exercise influence over
others. The more you can know about
something the better off you are at making wise decisions about it. My main concern with the media is that a lot
of the information you get through it tends to be superficial. That is why I have provided you with the
Internet links from my web site (click on “Information and Important Links”
near the top of my web page) that has a lot of Internet sites on it with
valuable information. The Internet
offers a lot of opportunities to gather information about the political process
that were not there even ten years ago.
It has tremendous potential to further democratic ideals. It gives virtually everyone a forum from
which to speak their ideas on the political issues facing our society. One word of warning, however, the Internet
also can easily be misused, so be very cautious of the information you gather
here.
Another modern concept that
has become very popular to discuss in recent years is that of spin.
Spin can be defined as the
attempt of politicians to manipulate the news stories so that the news event
appears favorable to the politician’s point of view.
Chapter 7 – Political Participation and Voting
Political participation is an
involvement in activities designed to influence public policy and
leadership. A main issue of democratic
government is the question of who participates in politics and how fully they
participate. One thing that we can say
for certain, voting is the most widespread form of active political
participation among Americans.
The right to vote is known
simply as suffrage. Today, the only qualifications for voting are
that you be 18 years of age on election day, and that
you are a citizen of the
Historically speaking, the
ability to vote in the
Since that time a major trend
in this country has been the expansion of voting rights. The expansion of suffrage has been a major
struggle for primarily two groups: women, and African-Americans.
Women were eventually given
the right to vote in 1920, with the adoption of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution (the right “to vote
shall not be denied on account of sex”).
To put this into perspective, this is approximately 130 years after the
first elections in this country, and only 84 years ago. Women struggled mightily to obtain their
rights and had to wait a long time to obtain them.
For African-Americans, the
course to obtaining voting rights has not been as “easy” as it was for
women. Following the Civil War three
important amendments were added to the Constitution. The first, the 13th Amendment (1865), simply put an end to
the practice of slavery. Next, the 14th Amendment (1868) was
passed. This is a complex and wordy
amendment, but for our purposes here the important thing that it did was to
establish citizenship for ex-slaves.
Finally, the 15th
Amendment (1870) declared that the right to vote shall not be denied “on
account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”.
In theory, this should have
provided African-Americans the rights necessary to not only vote, but also take
a place in society. Unfortunately many
states (mostly Southern states) came up with a variety of “gimmicks” designed
to limit the involvement of African-Americans in the electoral process. Among these were:
Poll taxes – a requirement to pay a tax in order to vote
White only primaries – primary elections in which only
whites were
allowed to run and participate.
Literacy tests – tests that were required to prove that you
were
competent enough to vote. The thing to note about these were that
whites were considered competent,
so they were not required to take
these tests.
Grandfather clauses – persons were disqualified from voting
simply
because their grandfather had not
been eligible to vote.
It took a long time,
essentially 100 years, to put an end to a lot of the racist practices of
excluding African-Americans from voting.
The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s (refer back to Chapter
5 in your textbook) helped to put an end to many of these practices. It was a gradual and difficult process. The first important step towards equal rights
for African-Americans came with the Supreme Court decision in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of
The next major event in the
Civil Rights movement was the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This granted all persons equal access to public places (theaters,
restaurants, bars, hotels, etc.), as well as bar discrimination in the hiring,
promotion, and wages of personnel in medium to large firms. These were major steps in trying to end the
discrimination of African-Americans, but they only indirectly applied to the
political process. Also in 1964, the 24th Amendment was adopted,
which put an end to the poll tax. As
interpreted by some states, this applied only to national elections. A Supreme Court ruling in 1966 extended this
ruling to all elections. With regard to
voting rights, the main piece of legislation that ended all other forms of
discrimination (literacy tests, etc.) was the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act forbid any discrimination in the voting and
registration process. It empowered the
U.S. Attorney General with the ability to go into states and take over the
registration process, if necessary, to ensure that all persons had the ability
to properly register to vote. The thing
I wish to emphasize to you that this act occurred 100 years after the end of
the Civil War. Another way of looking at
it is that is happened only a little over 35 years ago. That is a long time to have to suffer from
being unable to exercise a very basic right that is fundamental to any
democracy.
In order for any citizen to
be able to vote the first step is that they must register. This is part of every political system, and
is necessary in order to prevent fraud and justify the legitimacy of who is
elected. Today you are allowed to
register in person or by mail, and your registration remains in effect as long
as the voter remains qualified. Voters
may register at anytime and vote in any election, provided they have registered
30 days prior to an election. In order
to try to engage more people to register to vote, in 1993 Congress enacted what
has become known as the “motor voter”
law. This requires states to ask
persons who are applying for or renewing their drivers license if they would
like to register. If the person
indicates they would, then they are given a voter registration card.
Voter Participation
Voting is a form of political
participation, a sharing in activities designed to influence public policy and
leadership. Political participation involves
other activities in addition to voting, such as joining political parties and
interest groups, writing to elected officials, demonstrating for political
causes, and giving money to political candidates. It is especially important in democratic
societies for ordinary people to be involved in meaningful political
activities. There are several things we
can note about the patterns of voting within the
1)
A historical
trend in the
2)
Voter turnout in
the
3)
With regard to
registration requirements, citizens in the
4)
Americans have
more elections more frequently than any other democracy in the world. This tends to make voting burdensome. In addition to this, many elections are held
during the work part of the week thus making it difficult for some people to
get to the polls. In other democracies
election days are either held on weekends or are declared to be a holiday.
5)
Long ballots play
a role in low voter turnout because citizens are often not aware of all of the
offices for which they can possibly cast votes for. Although having so many political offices
does help to engage more citizens in actively participating in the political
process, it places a huge burden on the voter, who may not understand the
office or what the candidates running for the office stand for.
6)
Low voter turnout
in the
What motivates people to
vote? There are certain factors that
help explain why some Americans do vote in all or nearly all elections while
other Americans are apathetic, meaning they seldom or
never vote.
1)
Frequent voters
in the
2)
Voter turnout is
influenced by the degree to which people believe that their participation will
make a difference. People who feel
alienated from government tend to withdraw from politics.
3)
Other differences
in voter turnout are associated with age, education, and economic class. Middle-aged and senior citizens
voter in higher percentages than citizens under the age of thirty. The higher the level of a person’s education,
the more likely that individual is to vote.
Americans from lower economic levels are less likely to vote than their
European counterparts due in part to the lack of labor or socialist parties to
activate. The two major parties seldom
seek out voters of lower socio-economic classes since they know that they do
not often vote. This is something that
is unique due to our two-party system.
We will discuss this further in the next chapter, but the problem stems
from government representatives who come from distinct geographical areas. In other democracies proportional
representation helps to produce representation that involves citizens from a
wider range of interests including virtual all socio-economic classes.
We generally look at two
types of voting patterns here in the
1)
Prospective voting is the less prevalent form of voting which requires that voters know
the issue positions of candidates and choose the candidate whose proposals best
match their own issue preferences. This
is a more difficult approach for voters to take since they are usually not well
informed about campaign issues; sometimes they do not know the names of major
candidates and are unable to link candidates with issues.
2)
Retrospective voting is more prevalent and occurs when voters support the incumbent party
or candidate when they are pleased with their performance, and reverse their
position when they are displeased.
Economic conditions can become a key factor in retrospective voting
since voters tend to hold the incumbent party responsible for the state of the
economy. Asking voters if they are better
off now than previously plays into this approach to voting. It forces public officials to pay more
attention to voters’ policy preferences.
Conventional Forms of
Participation Other Than Voting
There are other forms of
political participation besides voting that offer a greater opportunity for
personal influence or involvement. These
may include campaign activities, community activities, lobbying group
activities, and attentiveness to the news.
1) Campaign
related activities include working for a candidate or a party, attending
election rallies or meetings, contributing money and wearing a candidate’s
campaign button. Campaign participation
is higher in the
2) The U.S tradition of community participation goes back to colonial days. Many Americans participate in public affairs
through local organizations such as parent-teacher associations, neighborhood
groups, civic clubs, church-affiliated groups, and hospital auxiliaries.
3) Americans can participate in lobbying group activities to pressure government officials or
attempt to influence public policy.
4) Passive
political participation, such as reading newspapers and watching television
news is important if people are to participate effectively and intelligently in
politics. Though most Americans rely on
television for news, only about a third of them pays
close attention to political news.
Unconventional Activism:
Social movements and Protest Politics
Social movements, or
political movements as they are sometimes called, refer to broad efforts to
achieve change by citizens who feel that government is not properly responsive
to their interest. Examples of unconventional
protest activities used to draw attention to grievances are street
demonstrations or civil disobedience.
1)
Most citizens
believe that the proper way to express disagreement over public policy is
through voting, not protesting.
2)
Americans
especially disapprove of protests over war.
3)
Participants in
social movements tend to be younger and emphasize nonmaterial values more than
non-participants.
Chapter 8 – Political Parties, Candidates, and
Campaigns
The political party is the
one institution that aims to develop broad policy and leadership choices and
then presents them to the voting public to accept or reject. This process gives citizens the opportunity,
through elections, to influence how they will be governed. Political parties are one of what we have
already discussed as a “linkage institution”,
an institution that provides a link between ordinary citizens and elected
officials. Political parties are
organized around various interests. A single interest is something of value or
some personal characteristic that people share and that is affected by
government activity. Because our
political system is dominated by two political parties, they must appeal to a
wide range of people across many interests in order to place their candidates
in office.
Party Competition and
Majority Rule: The History of
Party competition in American
today takes place primarily between the Democratic and Republican parties. Competition between these two major parties
narrows the choices of options to two and in the process enables people with different
opinions to render a common judgment. In
electing a party, voters choose its candidates, its philosophy, and its
policies over those of the opposing party.
1)
The first parties
in American originated from the rivalry between those who favored a strong
national government that defended commercial interests (Federalists) and the
supporters of states’ rights and small landholders (Jeffersonian Republicans,
which eventually became the Democratic party).
2)
Emergence of
grass-roots political parties during the Jacksonian
era strengthened the power of popular majorities.
3)
Dissention over
the issue of slavery, resulting in the Civil War, ended nearly three decades of
competition between the Whigs and the Democrats.
4)
After the Civil
War, the nation settled into a pattern of competition between the Republican
and Democratic parties that has prevailed ever since.
Durability of the two parties
is due not to the ideological consistency but to their remarkable ability to
adapt during periods of crisis and remake themselves with new bases of support,
new policies and new pubic philosophies.
The post Civil War era
brought political change to parties known as “realignment”. A party
realignment disrupts the existing political order because a significant
proportion of voters favored one party over the other. Realignment results in an enduring change in
party coalitions which forces the government to take new policy
directions. There are 4 elements of
realignments:
1)
The disruption of
the political order because of the emergence of one or more unusually powerful
and divisive issues.
2)
An election
contest in which the voters shift their support strongly in favor of one party.
3)
A major change in
policy through the action of the stronger party.
4)
An enduring
change in the party coalitions, which works to the lasting advantage of the
dominant party.
Keep in mind that
realignments are relatively rare, there has to be major changes in existing
political order for these to occur. Your
textbook (pp 237-238) discusses the history of realignments, which you should
read.
A dealignment
offers an alternative explanation for electoral change. This has come into use in more recent
times. It suggest that the U.S.
electoral system, rather than undergoing a realignment favorable to one party,
has been in the process of moving a partial but enduring number of voters away
from partisan loyalties. The dealignment thesis portrays a wavering sector of voters as
shifting its support from one party to another, arguing that parties have a
weaker hold on the voters than in the past.
Increases in split-ticket voting and in numbers of voters who label
themselves as “independents” are indicators of this trend. Please keep in mind that much of this theory
is based on the decline of partisanship, which did indeed seem to be evident
from the 1960s through the early 1990s.
However, since the mid 1990s, we have seen a renewal of heavily partisan
activities among policy makers in
Electoral and Party Systems
While the
1)
The primary
factor that helps to perpetuate the two party system
in the
2)
European
democracies use proportional
representation and multi-member districts, which encourages smaller parties
to compete for power. They can draw support
from minority factions and take more decisive stands on issues.
3)
Historically, the
American two-party system encourages both parties to stay near the center of
the political spectrum and avoid divisive issues in order to attract the most
voters. Both parties tend to follow
shifts in public opinion.
4)
Groups that support a party are collectively
referred to as a party coalition.
European parties tend to divide along class lines while American parties
must attract broad coalitions since they have to accommodate a wide range of
interests to gain the voting plurality necessary to win elections.
5)
In a general
sense, the American Democratic and Republican parties appeal to different
coalitions of the electorate and vary somewhat in stands and priorities for
policy.
The most important thing to
remember about political parties is that they
exist to get candidates elected to office in order to influence public policy. Thus, political parties sometimes sacrifice
ideological consistency in order to simply win an office.
In order to appeal to the
broadest possible number of voters parties attempt to create platforms (statements of what the party’s
position is on a variety of issues) that will appeal to a coalition (wide and varied groups) of
interests. It is impossible to make
everybody happy, but the party attempts to make enough people happy so that its
candidates are successful and can win office.
NOTE! Because of the shortage of time, below is the
remaining information that I want you to know about political parties and
campaigns. It is not organized
logically, nor is it fully written out.
These are from additional study notes that I use in teaching the
Campaign –
the period of time before voting day begins when candidates attempt to
influence potential voters to support them.
Successful candidates follow
two simple rules of campaigning:
1)
get your name
recognized in a popular way
2)
keep your
arguments simple and emotional
Campaign resources – two primary resources: people and
money.
People are comprised of professionals and volunteers. Professionals plan, organize, manage, write
speeches, and raise money. Volunteers
distribute literature, register and canvass voters, and get supporters to the
polls.
Volunteering can be a very
rewarding experience for those who participate.
Publicly funded campaigns – money comes from a central pool that is shared
equally by all candidates. The
Privately funded campaigns – money comes entirely from private citizens or
groups. Reform of campaign funding has
primarily focused on restricting how much individuals can contribute to a
campaign.
Buckley v. Valeo (1976) – Supreme Court ruling that held that restrictions of
the Federal Campaign Act of 1972 suppressed 1st Amendment guarantee
of free speech. Impact was important for
individuals who wished to fund their own campaigns (Ross Perot, for
example). This protection was also
extended to Political Action Committees (PACs).
“hard money” – contributions that go directly to a candidate. This money has been, historically, very
limited and very tightly controlled.
“soft money” – contributions that go to political parties or PACs. This money is very difficult to track and has
largely been unlimited.
Negative campaigning – the practice of using personal attacks on candidates by their
opponents. Harmful to democracy for four
reasons:
1)
some elections
are being decided on the basis of inaccurate or irrelevant charges
2)
discussions of
public policy are being pushed aside
3)
many good people
may not enter public life for fear of being publicly humiliated
4)
citizens are
disheartened and thus more apt to stay home on election day
Primary – an
election held within a party to nominate candidates to the general election or
to choose delegates to a presidential nominating convention. States hold their primaries in the Spring of general election years. In
1)
Open primary
– any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary. The only restriction is that the voter may
only participate in runoffs of the party they originally voted in during the
primary. Many states have recently moved
toward this type of primary in order to engage more voters in the party
nomination process.
2)
Closed Primary
– only registered members of a party may participate in that party’s primary. In the past most states had this type of
primary. The purpose was to make sure
that people from another party would not “cross over” and vote for weaker
candidates, thus making it easier for their party to win the general
election. By law
3)
Blanket primary
– all candidates of all parties run on one list and any registered voter can participate
(used in only two states).
Super Tuesday
– started in 1988, this is the date that 10 southern states, including
Administration of primaries is the responsibility of
each party. Most of the duties fall upon the county
chairperson who is responsible for arranging for polling places, voting
machines, and counting votes.
General elections – held in even numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to choose state and national executives and legislators, and state judges.
Special elections – may be called to fill vacancies in Congress or the state
legislature, or to vote on proposed constitution amendments. Most cities choose their councils in special
elections.
Absentee or early voting –
Campaigns have changed
significantly with the advent of the mass media. Modern campaigns emphasize the candidate
rather than the party. This raises
issues of accountability, because the candidate is not necessarily bound to the
party’s platform. Candidates often are
able to raise their own money independently of the party. Most candidates for national offices today
tend to be career professionals. The stakes
are quite high and it takes a lot of money to be able to run for any
office. This leads to what is known as
the money chase. It is a relentless cycle in which the
office-holders are virtually campaigning all the time.
In terms of party politics,
this is very different from “old politics”.
Here organization was the key.
The parties had rallies, members often went door-to-door, and
information was spread by word of mouth.
In the “new politics” it is much more media centered and less
personal. Money is used to hire
consultants (hired guns), pollsters, professional fund-raisers, connections and
influence. Often the task is to put
together the “image” of a candidate (“image is everything”). The job of the consultants is to make their
candidate look good, and to make the other candidate look bad. It is your instructor’s opinion that this
leads to more divisiveness in modern politics and campaigns. With the advent of sophisticated polling,
candidates are often groomed to tell the voters what they want to hear, rather
than actually have fixed positions on any issue.
Chapter 9 – Interest Groups
Pluralist theory of American politics holds that
society’s interests are most effectively represented through the efforts of
groups. Sometimes special interests can
wield too much power, wrongly prevailing over the general interest. Single-issue politics occurs when separate
groups organized around nearly every conceivable policy issue press their
demands and influence to the utmost, at whatever cost to the broader society.
An interest
group can be defined
as a set of individuals who organize to promote a shared political
interest. Also called a “faction” or
“pressure group” or “special interest”, an interest group is characterized by
its formalized organization and by its pursuit of policy goals that stem from
its members’ shared interest. Interest
groups promote public policies, encourage the political participation of their
members, support candidates for public office, and
work to influence policymakers.
Political interest groups – groups that try to influence public policy to their
member’s advantage.
Interest groups differ from
political parties in the following respects:
1)
the focus of
parties is broad, encompassing many interests, while the focus of a group is
narrow, comprising just one interest
2)
parties attempt
to gain power by running candidates in elections while groups merely try to
influence officeholders
3)
parties must
appeal to citizenry for support while groups may work entirely behind the
scenes
Interest groups are usually
classified into five distinct types of groups: economic groups, spiritual or
ideological groups, artistic-recreational groups, public interest groups, and
ethnic groups.
The two most important things
to understand about interest groups are that not all interests are organized,
and that organized interests are much more powerful than unorganized interests.
There are three general rules of interest-group
formation:
1)
economic
producing groups are more likely to be organized than citizen’s groups
2)
regardless of the
type of group, people with more education and income are more likely to join
than are people with less income and education
3)
citizens who join groups out of personal involvement (as
opposed to economic stake) tend to feel very strongly about the particular
issue that is the group’s reason for existence.
Interest groups attempt to
persuade both public and individual government officials to take a particular
point of view on specific policy issues.
In doing so they perform important functions in the political process:
1)
they furnish
information to officeholders in all branches of government
2)
they politicize
and inform members of their groups as well as others
3)
they mediate
conflict within their groups
4)
they engage in
electioneering, especially the contribution of money to the candidates
5)
they help to form
public opinion by disseminating information supporting their own policy stands
to citizens
Interest groups are involved
in a wide range of activities:
1)
interest groups enhance democratic government in many ways,
such as providing information, getting people involved in politics, and
contributing to debate about issues.
2)
Although they do
offer some positive influences in government, their efforts to skew the process
of government to benefit themselves can make a corrupting influence and deflect
public policy-making into private channels.
3)
Interest groups
also involve themselves in electioneering through supporting candidates for
public office. Some of this influence is
accomplished through political action
committees – a committee formed by an organization, industry, or individual
for the purpose of collecting money and then contributing that money to
selected political candidates and causes.
4)
Lobbying – to lobby is to attempt to influence policy
makers face-to-face. Lobbyists are individuals who are hired
by specific interest groups to directly work with policy makers (inside lobbying) in order to gain
favorable legislation or rulings for the group who hired them. Lobbyists generally feel that making direct
contact with legislators is the best lobbying technique. Contributing money to politicians is the best
way to ensure personal access to legislators.
However, the power of money in the interest-group system brings up
uncomfortable questions about democracy in
5)
Interest groups
also work to persuade the public. Some
interest groups attempt to influence the government indirectly by “educating”
the public. This can help by increasing
the amount of information on public available to citizens on pubic policy. However, citizens have to be cautious in that
the viewpoint may tend to be one-sided.
Citizens should always questions the accuracy
of information from these sources.
6)
As society has
grown more complex, administrative agencies or bureaus have been created to
regulate various private interests to protect the public. These agencies often exist within the
executive branch of government. Since
the administrators who run these agencies have considerable latitude in
interpreting laws, the executive branch of government may be an interest group
target. Though regulatory agencies are
intended to be independent, the often become dominated by the interest they
were created to control. Co-optation is the transition of an
agency from guardian of the public interest to a defender of private
interests. This results from several
factors:
a)
those who serve
in regulatory agencies tend to come from (and later return to) the regulated
industry
b)
even the best
intentioned regulators may develop personal ties to people associated with the
regulated interest that make it difficult to remain independent
c)
once needed regulations are in place, public awareness of
the regulated interest declines, making it easier for the industry involved to
co-opt the regulators without public scrutiny.
7)
Because courts
make policy by interpreting and applying the law, interest groups are active in
the judicial process. The NAACP provides
and outstanding example of an interest group that was able to press its case in
the courts after having been unsuccessful both in electoral politics and in
lobbying the legislative and executive branches.
Iron triangles and issue
networks describe two patterns of group influence through which most public policy
is decided. An iron triangle is a stable set of bureaucrats, legislators, and
lobbyists who seek to develop and perpetuate policies beneficial to their
common purposes. An issue network is a less formal grouping of officials, lobbyists and
policy specialists who are brought together by their shared interest and
expertise in a particular policy area.
Participants may leave or join the issue network as policy
dictates. One the issue is revolved, the
network disbands.
Pluralist theory holds that
organized groups provide for the representation of society’s many and diverse
interests. The pluralist account of
interest group influence falls short when the question of equal representation
of interests in society is raised.
1)
The positive
aspects of contributions of groups to self-government are that they can convey
to policymakers popular sentiment regarding desired policy. The provide minorities a way to call
attention to their needs. In this way
diverse interest in society can be accommodated. Lastly, interest groups can raise issues that
are neglected by the party system.
2)
The negative
aspects of pluralist interest group theory focus on interest group liberalism
and economic bias.
a.
Interest group
liberalism describes the tendency of officials to support the policy demands of
interest groups that have a special stake in a policy. They may use society’s resources to benefit a
minority.
b.
The group
representation system gives advantage to
c.
Middle class
interests are favored over those of less advantaged sectors of society.
3) James
Madison described the dilemma inherent in group activity. In a free society, open advocacy of
self-interest is desirable even though government could fall under the control
of a dominant interest, whether of the majority or of the minority. In order to protect Americans from the
potential threat of tyranny from the numerical majority,