Government 2306 Williams
UNIT 1 LECTURE NOTES
Foundations and Political Participation
In this initial unit we will discuss two primary ideas, the
foundations of
Chapters 1 and 2 of your textbook, along with the lecture notes, will help to provide us with the foundations we need in order to understand government and politics, not only in their relation to Texas, but also the our country’s system of government.
Chapters 3, 4 and 5 will discuss how we as citizens
participate in our system of government.
These chapters cover what are essentially the “Inputs” to the political
system. Among the inputs to our
political system we include political parties, voters, campaigns and elections,
and finally interest groups. In our
discussion of these chapters we will also take a look at public opinion and the
media to examine their impact on our political system.
Chapter 1- The Context of
Politics
The process that determines whose values will prevail in
society. Political scientist Harold
Lasswell defined it as the struggle to determine “who gets what, when, and
how”. It involves conflict and the
struggle for lesser resources. Political
conflict is rooted in two general conditions of society: 1) scarcity, society’s
resources are finite, but people’s appetites are not; 2) differences in values, people see things
in different ways.
In very basic terms, those that have “it” want to keep “it”,
those that don’t have “it” want to get “it”.
Government
A public institution with the authority to allocate values
in society.
Two aspects to government:
1) the institutions in a society which make decisions
that affect the whole society
2) it also involves the processes by which decisions
are made.
Know this: government is deeply involved in politics, but
politics is also found in other aspects of society.
Public policy
What government formulates.
Laws, rules, regulations, ordinances - all these things are examples of
public policy. There is seemingly no end
to the policies that government formulates.
This is largely in response to what you, the tax-paying public,
requests.
Power
Those who decide political issues are said to have power,
a term that refers to the ability of persons or institutions to control policy
decisions.
Authority
Power exercised through the laws and institutions of
government is known as authority. Authority
can be more strictly defined as the recognized right of an individual,
organization, or institution to make binding decisions.
Sovereignty
The ultimate authority to govern. Under modern theories of governing power, each individual has the authority to govern themselves. They concede some of this sovereignty to a government to help make an orderly society. This is the basis of what is called the “social contract”.
Legitimacy
The belief people have that their government is based upon
morally right principles, and that therefore they should obey its laws. All governments, in order to be effective,
must have this. Somehow, the people must recognize the right
of the government to govern.
Democracy
The form of government based upon the theory that the
legitimacy of any government must come from the free participation of its
citizens. It is simply a set of rules
determining who will exercise the authority of government. It is based on the idea of the consent of the
governed, which has come mostly to mean majority rule.
Theories of Power in
Modern Democracies
Essentially, there are three different theories of modern
democracy in
1) majoritarianism. This is the concept the that numerical
majority prevails not only in counting votes but also in determining public
policy. This is sometimes referred to as
classical democracy. The problem with
this form of democracy is that sometimes minority groups can get overlooked
when considering public policy.
2) pluralism. This holds that policies are effectively
decided through power wielded by special interests that dominate particular
policy areas. It helps to protect the
rights of minorities. It tries to assure
representation for all segments of a diverse (pluralistic) society. The problem with this form of democracy is
that many times the will of the majority is thwarted.
3) elitism. The holds that policy is controlled by a
small number of well-positioned, highly influential individuals. It is NOT democratic at all. In most theories of elitism the elite is an
economic elite who controls the principal economic resources and products in
society. The elite uses its economic
power to gain and hold political power, sometimes openly and sometimes
covertly.
No one of these theories
completely explains how decisions are made, but each has its merits, and, as we
shall see during this semester, helps to explain how things happen within our
government institutions and processes.
Federalism
This is the sharing and/or division of power and authority
among more than one level of government.
It helps to diffuse authority, yet can also be confusing when trying to
determine accountability. We will
discuss this more fully when studying the second chapter. Federalism makes an
impact on
1) a
significant portion of state revenue each year comes from federal grants
2) the U.S. Congress can appropriate funds through military bases, highway funding, etc.
3) the
Constitution and laws of the
Political Culture
According to your textbook, political culture can be defined
as a shared system of values, beliefs, and habits of behavior with regard to
government and politics.
The authors’ of your textbook point out that
a) geographic size
b) relative geographic isolation (until 20th century), and, in keeping with this, it was sparsely populated until the 20th Century
c) prior independence (a separate republic), which is fostered in an attitude of intense state patriotism (we often think of ourselves as Texans first, and Americans second)
d) part of the “old south” as well as being a frontier area (the “wild west”)
e) status as a former slave state, and the ramifications of our history of reluctance (along with other southern states) to grant citizenship rights to former slaves, as well as Hispanics
f) diversity of population (see Impact of Population on Political Culture below)
These factors combine to produce a very unique political culture. Since it can be stated that culture drives institutions, it is vital that you understand how this mix has created a culture that is considered very conservative. As stated in your textbook:
“The
historical heritage of White people in
Your textbook goes on to cite the studies of Daniel Elazar,
who identifies three broad patterns of political culture: moralistic,
individualistic, and traditionalistic. You
need to make sure you read and understand these patterns and how they come
together to affect
In reality and in practice, most Texans actually use pseudo laissez-faire economics. What this refers to is that most business people don’t want government interference with regard to regulation or taxation, but if they get into trouble then they want government to help them out.
A differing philosophical view of government is called liberalism. In general (and again, we will study this in
more depth later), liberals have a distrust of the free market. Liberals have often seen what they believe
are abuses of capitalism by either wealthy individuals or corporations. In their view government is justified in taking
a more activist role in not only the regulation of economic activity, but also
in the redistribution of wealth within society.
Another factor to note is that most Texans favor and follow
something of a belief in social Darwinism. People who succeed and prosper are worthy and
deserve to be at the top of the socioeconomic ladder, while those that sink to
the bottom are unworthy and deserve their poverty. This is exhibited by a resistance to
government aid. In conjunction with the
strong belief in capitalism, this leads to a belief in a trickle down theory of economics.
This rejects the liberal’s idea of using government as a tool of
economic redistribution, and accepts the notion that money will flow from the
“top down”, meaning that if wealth is accumulated at a higher socio-economic
status then when those groups spend it then it will ultimately trickle down to
the lower classes, thus making them better.
The liberals reject this notion in that they feel that the wealthier
classes tend to hold onto their money and not spend it. To a degree they may be correct, because
Impact of Population
on Political Culture
The population of
The 1990 Census gave
The 2000 Census gave
According to the 2000 Census numbers,
Race and Ethnic Information – Since 1850
Anglo-Americans +34%
Hispanic-Americans +111%
African-Americans +42%
As of the 2000 Census, minorities now made up 45% of the
population of the state:
Anglo-Americans 55%
Hispanic-Americans 41%
African-Americans 11%
Asian-Americans 3%
According to recently released Census studies, as of the
year 2005, Anglo-Americans will no longer be a majority population in the
state.
Urban and Rural differences – As of 1998, it was estimated
that 85% of the population of
Political Implications of Population Change
First of all, the economic differences between the
Anglo-American population (which tends to be wealthier) and the
Hispanic-American and African-American populations (which tend to be of lower
socio-economic class) creates political conflict. What political scientists believe will happen
is that as the population shifts from a single dominant group (Anglo-Americans)
to the Hispanic-American and African-American groups (we can see this from
above with these groups representing the largest increase in percent of
population growth) we will see the more “liberal” attitudes of these groups
becoming more of a force in Texas politics and public policy in the future.
Chapter 2 – The Constitutional Setting
Characteristics of
Constitutions
A constitution can be defined as the basic law of a state or a nation that outlines the primary structure and functions of government. There are, essentially, two types of constitutions.
Ideal Constitutions – constitutions that
set up the basic structure and functions of government, but allows the details
of those structures and functions to be worked out by another entity, usually
the legislature. An example of this type
of constitution is that of the
Statutory Constitutions – these are
constitutions that go into considerable length to specify what government can
and cannot do. It can be very detailed
and can actually spell out what would be considered laws within its body. This is essentially what the current
constitution of
There are, basically, four purposes of constitutions. These include:
1) Legitimacy. Essentially this is an agreement between those who govern and the governed. The people believe that their government is based upon morally right principles and that they should therefore obey its rules. We spoke before about “sovereignty”, the recognized right of someone to rule. As said here previously, the modern theory of democratic government holds that individuals are free to govern themselves, except that they give up some of their autonomy in order to form an orderly society. We agree to give up our individual sovereignty in exchange for certain conditions. That is the basis of legitimacy.
2) Organizing government. Governments must be organized in some way
that clarifies who the major officials are, how they are selected, and what the
relationships are among those charged with basic governmental functions. The key concepts to remember here are separation of powers and the concept of
checks and balances. The concept of separation of powers was first
postulated by a French philosopher named Baron de Montesquieue. His proposal was that the power of government
could better limited by separating governing authority into three branches,
which he referred to as kings, lords, and commons. This model was used by James Madison to
create the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. The theory is that by separating governing
power into three competing institutions it can help limit that governing
authority.
3) Providing power. This states specifically what government can do. In a way, it is also a limiting factor in that, if viewed this way, because government can only do the things stated by the provisions here. In the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8 spells out the specific powers that government has. These are referred to as enumerated powers. I do not expect you to know each of the powers listed, but I do expect you to know what this means.
4) Limiting power. In a sense this reflects the deep insecurity
our Founding Fathers of the United States Constitution felt with regard to
granting powers to government.
Essentially they sought to find ways to protect the rights of
individuals. They were keenly aware that
as an organization, government was far more powerful than any individual. They created the Bill of Rights specifically
for the purpose of protecting individual rights of citizens from arbitrary
government action. Indeed, perhaps one
of the most important aspects of government in the
a. Grants of power – even though it provides power to the government, strictly defining the powers of government, in theory, limits government power because those are the only powers that government has. As mentioned above, Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution spells out the enumerated powers that the government has (raising taxes, regulating commerce, providing for an army and a navy, creating postal offices and postal roads are a few examples of what is in Article I, Section 8), which is probably the best example we have of specific grants of power. The Texas Constitution also provides for specific grants of power, but they are spread out throughout the entire constitution and not nearly as organized.
b. Denials of power – the U.S. Constitution also has specific denials of power. The government cannot suspend the right of habeas corpus (produce the body) except during wartime. This is an important legal concept that forces governments to explain the reason they are detaining people in jail. Without this governments would be free to arrest and detain people with little or no reason. Another example of a denial of power is the concept of ex post facto (after the fact) laws. The U.S. Constitution strictly prohibits the creation of these. What this means is that when a person commits an act that is not considered illegal at the time they commit it, the government cannot then create a law forbidding that act and then charging that individual with committing a crime. Government can indeed create such laws, but they only apply to acts committed after the law takes affect.
c. Separation of powers – in designing the
government of the
d. Checks and balances – this concept was
created by Madison himself as a way to further control the power of the
government. Essentially what it does is
create an intricate relationship between the three branches where no one branch
can fully function without a check on it by another branch. For example, the legislature can pass bills,
but they do not become laws without the approval of the governor. In addition, the concept of the balance
provides that if the governor vetoes a piece of legislation that the
legislature can override that veto with a 2/3s vote of both houses. To a degree this system is somewhat
dysfunctional in
e. Bill of Rights – at the time that the
United States Constitution was written, most of the states had already
incorporated a Bill of Rights into their constitutions. The purpose of a Bill of Rights is to list
specific rights (liberties) that citizens have which government cannot take
away. Among these are freedom of speech,
freedom of religion, and freedom of the press.
Though we have come to focus more on national rights as described in the
first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, we have to recognize that all
states have included a Bill of Rights in their constitutions.
f.
Federalism –
this further provides a limiting factor on government in the
A final concept regarding the purposes of constitutions (not
mentioned in your textbook) is the concept of representative government.
When creating the U.S. Constitution, the Founding Fathers of our country
were reluctant to give direct power to the citizens. They feared what they referred to as the tyranny of the majority and proposed
to control the power of the majority.
(In actuality, they referred to it as the power of faction, and feared both majority and
minority factions.
1) In
a direct democracy the public decides issues directly.
2) In
a republic, or representative government,
officials elected by the public meet in representative institutions to decide
policy for the public.
3) The
Framers adopted the trustee theory of representation as proposed by the
philosopher Edmund Burke. Representatives
were trustees, not necessarily obligated to the majority.
It is important to note
that NO PROVISIONS WERE MADE FOR DIRECT POPULAR PARTICIPATION AT THE NATIONAL
LEVEL. In
Your textbook spends some time discussing the history of the
various constitutions that
What I do think is important is a thorough understanding of
the current constitution that we have and the reasons for its coming into
being. Therefore there are two
constitutions that you should know about and understand fully.
Constitution of 1869
The first of these is the Constitution of 1869, also
referred to in your book as the Radical Reconstruction Constitution. In many ways the constitution that we have today,
and the provisions of it, are a direct result of what this constitution
did. Immediately after the Civil War
ended, President Lincoln had intended on minimal penalties to be imposed on
states that had seceded from the union.
Unfortunately, President Lincoln was assassinated and the so-called
Radical Republicans came into power in
This group of politicians was very angry at the southern
states for having withdrawn from the union and sought to punish them for their
actions. Since the southern states were
already occupied by northern troops, it was relatively easy for them to enforce
new policies on
The Radical Republicans enforced their will on
1) they set aside the government already formed by Reconstruction in 1866
2) the enfranchised (grated voting rights) to former slaves and other minorities
3) they disenfranchised (removed voting rights) from former Confederate soldiers and other prominent whites in the state
4) the imposed military rule across the state
Once they had accomplished these things, they forced the state, in 1868, to write a new constitution to replace the one written just two years earlier. This new constitution was ratified in 1869. Among the provisions were:
1) it greatly centralized power in the state government, especially in the office of the governor, giving him considerable appointive power
2) it provided for generous salaries for state officials
3) it stipulated appointed judges
4) called for annual legislative sessions
5) took away considerable power from the counties and local governments, thus giving more authority for governing decisions at the state level rather than with local governments
This constitution was easily ratified because all former confederates were barred from voting. This constitution, and other ones forced upon other southern states, was deeply resented by most white southerners.
In the elections of 1869, immediately following the ratification
of this constitution, E.J. Davis was elected the new governor. Governor Davis had fought for the
Eventually the power of the Radical Republicans in
Constitution of 1876
By 1875, the Democrats in
The constitution that resulted from this convention was
dramatically different than previous ones used in
1) Limiting the term of office of the governor to two years.
2) Limited the legislature to biennial (every two years) sessions (if you are not able to meet in session, you can’t make laws, which were largely viewed as mischief). A constitutional amendment later limited legislative sessions to only 140 days in those years that it did meet.
3) Judges were chosen by popular election rather than being appointed.
4) The governor had very few appointments to offices that he could make. Indeed, there are five major political offices (the Lieutenant Governor, the Attorney General, the Comptroller, the Commissioner of Agriculture, and the Commissioner of the General Land Office) that exist in the executive branch that are elected independently of the governor. Also, two major policy making bodies, the Texas Railroad Commission and the Board of Education, that are elected independently of the governor. This greatly weakens the power of the governor to make or have influence over policy decisions within the state. Having so many elected officials other than the governor in our state’s structure is referred to as the plural executive.
5) the debt that the state could incur was limited to $200,000.00
When finally put to election by the voters in 1876, it was
overwhelmingly approved by a 2-1 margin.
Why was this constitution so dramatically different from previous
1) It was a strong negative reaction to the Reconstruction era. Keep in mind that most of the people living in the state during this time were of white heritage, as well as having supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. They strongly disliked what had been forced upon them by the so-called “carpet-baggers”, thus they did not want to allow their new government to have any of the provisions of the previous regime.
2) As well as being a negative reaction to Reconstruction, it was also a very negative reaction to the regime of Governor E.J. Davis. The corruption, lack of accountability, high salaries of government officials, all contributed to a strong distrust of government power. Thus the delegates sought to limit the power of all government officials as much as they could.
3) The Agrarian movement of the 1870s. Among other things, it sought to bring about greater participation of all citizens in government as well as a general feeling of further limiting the power of government.
It is this document that has now been our state constitution
for over 120 years. It has 17 Articles
(one has been stricken by an amendment), is over 81,000 words in length (only
Federalism
Why is this? It has to do with the historical origins of our country. Originally there were 13 independent colonies. After American Revolution, under the Articles of Confederation, they functioned mostly as autonomous states. Many people in the early days of our country were very suspicious of a strong, centralized government. One of the major compromises that led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution was to leave a lot of governing authority at the state level.
However, Article VI
of the U.S. Constitution provides that the “Constitution, laws, and treaties of
the national government take precedence over the constitutions and laws of the
states.” This is known as the “supremacy
of laws clause” of the U.S. Constitution, or, more simply, the supremacy clause. In other words, in the event of a conflict
between the U.S. Constitution, or the laws of the
As an attempt to counter-balance the powers of the national
government, the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution
states that “the powers not delegated to the
Specific Features of
the
Your textbook does a very good job of summarizing the specific features of the Texas Constitution (pp 41-46). However, there are a few things to note here.
Article I – the Bill of Rights.
What is a bill of rights? Basically, it tells you of your protections against government interference. Provides for equality under the law, allows for religious freedom, the separation between church and state, freedom of the press, etc. At the bottom of page 41 is an interesting note about the Texas Constitution’s Bill of Rights. In the Bill of Rights is a provision that calls for a “test” for people who wish to hold public office. In order to do so you must acknowledge the existence of God. This is not enforced however, because that violates the U.S. Constitution (see “deadwood” below). We will discuss the concepts of civil rights and civil liberties later in the semester when we discuss Chapter 12.
Article II of the Texas Constitution outlines the “separation of powers”. It is debatable as to whether this needs to exist here at all, considering that other articles establish the different branches of government and discuss their specific powers
Article III, establishes the legislature, its composition, qualifications, organization, and meeting time. It is extremely limiting! The legislature can only meet every other year (and since the 1950s, for only 140 days), unless called into emergency session by the governor. Salaries are also fixed, and can only be changed by constitutional amendment. It creates two houses, a Senate (31 members) and a House of Representatives (150 members).
Article IV specifies the executive branch. It is very IMPORTANT to note here is that the
governor has limited authority to appoint other members of the executive
branch. We will discuss the concept of
the plural executive more fully later in the semester, but basically it means
that other important executives are also elected independently of governor. These include the Lieutenant Governor,
Attorney General, Comptroller of Public accounts, Commissioner of General Land
Office, Secretary of Agriculture, and members of the Railroad Commission as
well as the State Board of Education.
All in all, the governor of
Article V establishes the judicial branch. This is extremely confusing! Distinct features include:
1) six different types of courts including two supreme courts
2) each level of trial courts has concurrent, or overlapping, jurisdiction
3) qualifications are such that no legal training is required for some positions (not required to have a degree in law)
4) all
judges in
Articles III, IX, and XI deal with various levels of local government. Local governments fall into 3 categories: counties, municipalities, and special districts (which we will discuss more in last unit of semester).
There are many interesting little features of the
Revision of the
The “deadwood” referred to above is one of the reasons that many people talk about the need to revise our constitution. As we mentioned last time, it is a complex and confusing document: long, wordy, with many mistakes. Rather than create only the essential structure of the state government, the delegates who wrote our constitution in 1876 implemented many legislative provisions within the body of the document. This has led to it being amended an inordinate number of times (432 as of today, and counting!).
In general there are five things that advocates of constitutional reform generally focus on:
1) the biennial legislative session
2) the judicial system
3) the fragmented executive branch
4) county government
5) detailed provisions of the constitution.
There have been several attempts at revising and/or rewriting the current constitution. As of this date, no major overhaul has been successful.
Why? In general, people seem satisfied with the way things are. Also, it is generally hard to get people to change things. Unless there is some major crisis, most people tend to resist change, especially Texans.
Amendment Process
Finally, I want to mention one final thing about our
constitution, how the
In
1) proposals must originate in the legislature, and can only occur during a regular or special session.
2) must
have a two thirds vote of both houses for an amendment a proposed change to be
put to the
3) Legislature specifies the date of the election, and then the proposed amendment(s) must be advertised in a paper in each county once a week for four weeks starting 3 months prior to the election
4) Voters only have to approve of an amendment by a simple majority vote.
This process does NOT include the governor, other than if an amendment is approved by the citizens of the state, the governor’s office makes an announcement indicating such approval.
Chapter 4 - Political Parties
In order for us to begin to understand how and why we vote,
we first must have an understanding of how and why we think the way we do.
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 system of beliefs and values about the nature of the good life,
society, the economy, moral values, and the role of the government.
It is very important to note: political rivalry is based upon ideological differences. This is what helps to explain how
organizations such as political parties or interest groups form. Thus, in order to better understand the
nature of political parties (and later on, interest groups), it is first
necessary to understand what specific political ideologies exist today, and what
their characteristics are.
The two dominant systems of beliefs and values 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.
Many sources simplify this issue based mostly along economic
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
Below are summaries of how each of these ideologies views
these different issues.
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.
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 liberals and conservatives, there are also
two other ideological types that deserve mention here: 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. In most circumstances, citizens can vary
widely in how they feel ideologically based on specific policy issues. For example, a person may find his or herself
strongly conservative when it comes to economic issues, but more liberal when
it comes to social issues. This is not
at all uncommon.
What is important to remember for our class is that
One thing to note: the Democratic Party in
So now that we know something about the specifics of
ideological types, we want to further understand how people come to believe in
these ideas.
This is a process called political socialization.
Specifically, it is the process by which we teach and learn our
political knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values and habits of behavior. These things tend to pass from one generation
to the next, thus this is how we explain the conservative nature of the
Essentially, there are five basic agents of political
socialization: family, peers, schools, churches, and the media.
The family. This is
considered to be the most important agent of political socialization. The reason for this is a learning theory from
education called the “primacy principle”. What this says is that the things that we
learn first are often lodged most firmly in one’s mind. In
There are two other learning theories that you should be
aware of. The second theory, structuring, states that early learning
“structures” later learning. In other
words, what we learn early in life tends to cause us to continue to learn in a
manner that supports what we already believe.
Thus we continue to behave in a manner consistent with what we learn at
an early age. The third learning theory
is called the “age-cohort tendency”. What this says is that if there is going to
be significant change in our behavior (from that of our parents) it is going to
happen at a younger age. It is very rare
that older citizens change their positions on political opinions.
Schools, peers and churches.
These agents help enable our conservative attitude. This is in large measure because they reflect
the values already in place in society.
We do not often associate ourselves with people who challenge the way we
think. What these agents tend to do is
reinforce these attitudes rather than challenge them (such as saying the Pledge
of Allegiance in grades schools, for example).
We are brought up to respect our government institutions and think that
we should not challenge them.
The media. 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 our 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.
Another thing that is important for you to know about with
regard to information is the growing practice of public opinion polling. Public
opinion refers to those opinions held by ordinary citizens that they are
willing to express openly. More and more
public opinion is measured through the practice of polling, which is interviewing a sample of the population chosen at
random to replicate the views of the
larger population they represent.
This is all based on concepts from statistics. The results are expressed in terms of
sampling error. With regard to how most
Americans feel about an issue, statisticians will usually poll perhaps 1,000
people. This, if proper methods are
followed, will give them a margin or error of plus or minus 4%. For example, let’s say that a poll showed
that 49% of the people polled were in favor of light-rail here in
So how do all these things we have been discussing relate to
what we refer to as a political party?
Ultimately, it comes down to something that is referred to
as an interest.
An interest is something of value that people share and that
is affected by government activity, thus they feel that it is important to
defend the interest. An interest may be
economic, religious, ethnic, racial, or perhaps even environmental. Whatever it is people feel strongly about it
and feel the need to do something about it.
All these things we have talked about so far discuss how and
why we think the way we do. Because we
have certain beliefs, we want our government’s policy to reflect those things
we believe strongly in. Thus we tend to
organize ourselves into groups that reflect our interests.
Ultimately some of these groups come together in what are
known as political parties. A political party can be defined as
electoral organizations seeking to control government. 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.
Thus, 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.
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.
A de-alignment
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
de-alignment 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
A one party system is not considered by political scientists
to be a viable electoral system. With
the lack of party competition there is often little serious debate over issues,
and voter turnout is quite low.
Beginning in the mid-1980s
Your textbook presents a good discussion of the development
of political parties here 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.
Party Organization
Political parties in the
The temporary party organization is focused on the spring
primary and the fall general election.
It attempts to choose attractive candidates and mobilize voters to
support them. In
In the 254 counties of
Both major parties hold their state conventions on a weekend in June during even-numbered years. The party state executive committee (SEC) decides when and where the convention is to be held. Depending on the year of the election cycle in which it occurs, the June convention performs some or all of the following activities:
1) It certifies
to the Secretary of State the party nominees for the general election in
November.
2) It writes
the party platform.
3) It selects
the members of the SEC.
4) It names the
5) During presidential years, it selects the “at-large” delegates to the national party convention (who are not committed to supporting any particular candidate, as opposed to the “pledged” delegates who are sworn to support specific candidates and whose identity depends on the support candidates received in the March primary election).
6) It selects a
slate of presidential electors to serve in the Electoral College in the event
the party’s candidates for president and vice president win in
Chapter 5 - Voting, Campaigns and Elections
With regard to the actual concept of voting, the term suffrage is simply defined as the
right to vote.
Today, in the
Originally the U.S. Constitution left it up to the states to
determine who had the right to vote. In
most areas this meant that you had to be a white male, own property, and be of
certain religious beliefs (usually protestant) to qualify to vote.
In many ways the history of the
For women, the 19th
Amendment to the
The end of the Civil War saw three important constitutional
amendments added that were designed to provide citizenship and voting rights to
former slaves.
The 13th Amendment to
the
The 14th Amendment to
the
The 15th Amendment to
the
Unfortunately, African-Americans still met resistance (principally in the south) to voting rights after this. Many “gimmicks” were devised to continue to restrict their right to vote. Among these were the following:
1) Poll taxes - a certain fee was required
to be able to vote, though it was not necessarily overly expensive
2) White-only primaries – since you must be a member of a party group to participate in a primary, the political parties were able to control who was on the ballots during the primaries, as well as who could vote in the primaries. The net affect was that when it came time to vote in the general election, only white candidates were on the ballots.
3) literacy tests – these were exams to determine if you were qualified to vote, at least from an intellectual point of view. The interesting thing to note from these was that they were not required for white people, who were already considered sufficiently intelligent to vote.
The Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s saw many new initiatives to try to remove these barriers to minority participation in the electoral system.
24th
Amendment to the
Voting Rights Act of
1965 – prohibited any government from using voting procedures that denied a
person the right to vote on the basis of race or color.
1966 – Supreme Court rules that 24th Amendment protections from poll taxes extend to all elections. Following this, the Texas Legislature passes a law that allows for registration of all people, but still restricts it to period from October 1 through January 31 in any year. This is overturned in a 1971 U.S. District Court decision that finds the practice of restricting registration to certain dates illegal.
After that ruling the state legislature then revises law so
that the registration procedures are now:
-
voters may register in person or by mail
-
registration remains in effect as long as voter remains
qualified (doesn’t move, no convictions, or register somewhere else)
-
voters may register at any time and vote in any
election, provided that they are registered 30 days before an election
Finally, in order to bring us up to date with voting rights,
the 26th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution is passed in 1971, which lowers the voting age to 18 years old.
To vote in
-
-
A resident of the state and county for the 30 days
immediately preceding election day
-
A resident of the election precinct on election day
-
Registered to vote 30 days before election day
Why should you vote? Essentially
there are three points of view. From the
standpoint of the individual, it may not seem logical or important, but
many people do because they have been taught that it is their civic duty. For candidates,
it is quite important that people vote. Candidates
cannot win elections without votes, and they must recognize each individual’s
reasons for voting. Finally, for the political system it is very critical
that people vote. Voting legitimizes
government, decreases alienation and opposition, influences public policy, and,
when done on a large scale, insures against dishonesty in elections.
Why don’t people in
1) Political
socialization – we don’t encourage it.
We are taught to accept government.
2) Political
party system – historically weak in
3) Socioeconomic
and ethnic status –
Other reasons – Americans vote too much. In
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 (see pp. 165-166 in text).
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 the 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
“soft money” –
contributions that go to political parties or PACs.
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. It is held on the 2nd Tuesday in
March in even numbered years in
The two types of primary elections that I want you to know
about are the following:
Open primary –
any registered voter may participate in a party’s primary.
Closed primary –
only registered members of a party may participate in that party’s primary.
By law Texas holds a closed primary, but voters may vote in
any party’s primary with the understanding that once they have voted in one
party’s primary they may not participate in the affairs of another party in
that same year.
Super Tuesday –
started in 1988, this is the date that 10 southern states agreed upon to all
have their primaries on the same day.
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. General elections are run by the
state governments (each state runs its own election). That is why it is often said that even though
we may be voting nationally, we are still having 50 separate elections. In
Special elections
– may be called to fill vacancies in Congress or the state legislature, or to
vote on proposed constitution amendments.
However, the most common use of special elections is when cities choose
their councils, or special districts (such as school districts) choose their
boards.
Absentee or early
voting –
Chapter 3 - Interest Groups
Interest –
something that has value and is considered worth defending, whether it is
economic, religious, ethnic, racial or anything else.
Interest group –
a private organization of individuals who have banded together because of a
common cause or interest.
Political interest
groups – groups that try to influence public policy to the advantage of the
members of the group.
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 consuming 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 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.
Because courts make policy by interpreting and applying the
law, interest groups are active in the judicial process. The NAACP provides an 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.