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Governance Focus Questions Section Two

Terms in this set (14)

Define political socialization. What are the major elements in political socialization?
Definition:
Process by which we acquire our ideas about about politics and the way politics ought to be.

Major Elements: (give six but you must have family, education, and religion/religiosity)

- Family: tend to absorb the political ideals of our parents

- Education: people with more education will see politics differently than those with less education

- Religion and Religiosity: gives individuals a sense of values/ involvement or support of or in ones church

- Age: older people tend to see more directly how government effects them; more likely to vote; more time to educate themselves. Younger people are more open; less likely to vote because they aren't settled in a specific area

- Region: south being socially conservative, justice issues among region die to traditions

- Urban vs. Rural: urban typically more liberal; rural more conservative

- Relationships/Friendships: influence of peers because of the impact of social media

- Class/Income: depending on profession government funds effect the opinion towards government changes

- Media/ News: only view news that you agree with; attitudes towards medias involvement with or in the government have heightened

- Race: different point of view on certain issues; ex) OJ Simpson trial

- Sex: different point of view on certain issues; woman typically vote democratic; men typically republican
What are the more substantial ways in which interest groups affect politics and the political process? Are these influences positive or negative?
-Provide Information both to members of congress and to the public: as long as that information is not skewed, it is a good thing

-Rally/build public support or opposition to an issue: usually they just try and layout their case; it is positive because it gives people clear cut alternatives

-Create and maintain PACs : PAC: political action committee
interest groups could not give money to candidates directly, so they created PACs who could ; legal funnel; they check in with the federal electoral committee with how much money they are receiving or giving; a PAC simply funnels money from interest groups to candidates legally; neutral influence

- Donate money, expertise, and recruit candidates: Very active in political campaigns; In congressional elections, about 35% of the money is donated from interest groups; Expertise can come in the form of polling data, hiring a campaign manager, etc ; Recruiting candidates is usually associated with political parties, but interest groups do it too; negative influence because it creates the impression that our government can be bought and sold

- Lobby the Government : Usually there is a lobbyist; Lobbyists are professionals who work on members of congress or others to try to achieve things; Big pharmaceuticals often do this; This is usually a good thing because members of congress always want to please the public so they can get reelected; Lobbyists have greater access to the government than the average citizen does
How has the franchise changed over time in the United States?
Franchise is the right to vote; Include dates

- Males; white; property/wealth; 21 or older; a small concise group
- 1840s; property requirement dropped
- 1865-1870; Civil War Amendments; black men can "technically" vote
- 1920s; 19th Amendment; Women's Suffrage movement
- 1924; Indian Citizenship Act
- 1965; Voting Rights Act
- 1971; 26th Amendment; lowers voting age to 18
What factors are associated with the likelihood that a person will vote?
- Income: more wealthy=higher turnout; more money you have the more the government receives; government effects you more directly

- Education: more educated=higher turnout; better understanding of the system, society, and personal opinion; tied to income because more money = a better education

- Race/Ethnicity: Hispanics= lowest turnout; used to be black vs white, but that is no more; income, language, and political traditions all tie to this

- Gender: women=higher turnout

- Age: older=higher turnout; they have more time, experience, and it directly effects them

- Community Connectedness: =higher turnout; know people who will be elected; are involved in community functions that are effected; feel as though your vote makes a difference

- Issues/Candidate Traits: certain importance on issues= higher turnout; like or dislike candidates; gravitate towards candidates who are personally admirable to you
What are the major functions of political parties in the United States?
- Advance a set of policies for governance: Known as the Party Platform; party's official stance on issues; Put together every 4 years

- Help organize public opinions

- Nominate candidates for office: Most important thing that they do; There are barely any people in congress that don't associate themselves with a party; major way they make decision is through wither democratic or republican ideals

- Organize the legislature: Pretty important too; Seating charts are arranged by party in the legislatures, even state legislatures

- Provide services to the people: Usually extremely small services ; Voting registration; Political machine politics: 1870's-1890's most politically corrupt era; Political parties would control city governments or county governments; Parties used to provide social services during machine politics era

- Govern the country: They don't always do it well; Partisan polarization; Government is often deadlocked because parties are further apart; Even when one party controls the government there are still problems
How are American political parties different than political parties found in other Western representative democracies?
Parties in other countries :
- more of them
- higher criteria for party membership
- more ideologically distinct
- more policy oriented
- more strongly organized
Summary: parties mean more in other countries; more consequential

- Numbers: US has two; other countries have four or more

- Membership: criteria for parties in other countries is higher than what they are in the US

- Ideological Distinct: more parties=more distinction; less overlap

- More Policy Oriented: found more in other countries than US

-More Strongly Organized: other countries are more organized when it comes to nominations; parties control the candidates; instruct its members on how to vote

-More Consequential: parties are more influential and mean more in other countries
Why do we only have two political parties in the United States?
There is no conclusive reason why but only partial explanations to why we only have two parties:

- Dualist Theory: giving just a yes or no; forgetting about "I don't know" etc.; explaining that Americans either take one side or another on issues

- Political Socialization: why we continue on with two parties; built in biased to the system
- Moderate Views: explains why we have fewer parties

- Electoral System: single member plurality elections; these systems result in fewer parties; doesn't necessarily mean only two parties but it does mean fewer parties

- Laws for Democrats and Republicans: they make laws that favor their own parties; ex) democrats and republicans make it very hard for independents to access the ballot

- No Socialist Party Emerges: to keep the labor union movement from radicalizing
What are the major differences between Democrats and Republicans?
Component One:
- Ideology: Most Americans are somewhere in the center between liberal and conservative
Democrats: Somewhere between moderate to liberal
Republicans: Somewhere between moderate to conservative ; Neither of them really overlap though; there is a clear differentiation

Component Two:
- Issues that classically separate the parties:

Size of government--
Republicans: favor small national government
Democrats: want a stronger national government

Social spending--
Democrats:favor higher levels of social spending
Republicans: favor lower levels

Military Spending--
Republicans: favor higher levels of military spending
Democrats: favor lower levels

Component Three:
- Groups which tend to support each party
Democrats:
Labor groups
Less well-off (although many voted for Trump)
Urban
People of color
Women
LGBTQ
Jews, Catholics (with some outliers)
Nominal, not religious
Pacific States (California, Washington, etc)
New England States

Republican:
Business
Well-off
Rural
Whites
Men
General
Protestant
Attend church regularly
South States
Rocky Mt. States
What advantages do incumbent members of Congress running for reelection have over their challengers?
Incumbents win at a very high rate due to these reasons:

- "By right of office": people who are elected to congress have figured out how to "gain the system"; electing certain individuals to help their campaign in the future
- Members of Congress have "franking privilege": so much of free mail to be sent out; gave them a $750,000 advantage
- Casework: members of Congress or staff do favors for potential voters; they return the favors with support
- Media Coverage: members of Congress have a certain level of superiority over/in the media; more news worthy
- Pork Barrel Project: Member of Congress brings home tax money in a tangible sense; able to claim credit for something
- Special Interest Group Money: they understand incumbents are reelected so they spend their funds accordingly
- Name Recognition: voter recognize their name out of a group due to the familiarity of it; new member names aren't as familiar to voters; all things listed above lead to name recognition
Describe the process by which we choose presidents.
- Both parties choose their candidates (July-August)

- Labor Day -- traditional beginning for fall campaign

- State political parties choose potential slates of electors (September)

-Fall Campaign -- debates, horserace (Labor Day- Election Day)

- Election Day people cast ballots for Republican or Democratic tickets; elected slate will represent the state in electoral college; winner take all system

- Electoral college meets in early December and casts one ballot for president and one vote for vice president

- Early January -- the votes cast by the Electoral College are actually opened and counted in front of Congress; it takes a majority of electoral votes to achieve the presidency (270 of 538); if no candidate wins majority, the house of Representatives chooses the president (each state has one vote) and the senate chooses the Vice President; each house ballots until a majority is achieved; only top three candidates from the presidential election may be considered
Describe in your own words what you see to be the strengths and weaknesses of how we select presidents. Be sure to address both sides.
The Electoral College is just something that we have to live with until we decide to amend the constitution

It is not democratic, but has democratic overtones
What do you think the impacts of women and minorities being underrepresented as political candidates?
Lawmaking does not always go in their favor

If more women were elected to congress, would we see more pay equity

Leadership tends to have masculine terms

Discussed almost completely from a male gender bias

Bringing small changes like more female bathrooms or changing tables in mens restrooms

If more people of color were in office there would be less disagreements between POCs and police force, for example
Assume that president Trump will be the 2020 republican candidate for president. What are the factors or qualities that the Democratic nominee would need to possess to best challenge Trump?
Opinionated

Give reasons why a specific trait is in contrast to Trump and how the new successful candidate would challenge those
If a third major party could be crafted compete with the system how do you think it would be constituted? What challenges would it face?
identifiable group you may be able to build around:
- low income people?
- national women's party? (party based on gender); obvious flaws
- based on color?; democrats take black persons vote for granted
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