pols 233 exam 2

-corporations are people too -free speech rights -they can contribute to candidates

Citizens United

who said: -political institutions won't fall, they just won't work as well (move from "clean democracy" to "dirty democracy")

Foa and Mounk

who said: -on some great and glorious day, the plan folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron

H. L. Mencken

inequality has increased more rapidly in the _________ than in _______

United States; Europe

-we're constantly updating our beliefs to what is going on -on balance, our beliefs will reflect what's going on in the world

accuracy goals

persistent insecurity and movement from: -risk to security (unwillingness to take risk) -achievement to equality (declining belief in meritocracy) -self to society -global to local -liberalism to activism

age of precarity

problem with the media

always reacting to something in the moment rather than taking a step back and referencing historical context

the groups that participate at the highest levels are groups with

an economic stake in political outcomes

if you think of something, it will change outcomes

anchoring

with polarization, no longer an incentive to appeal to the middle, you appeal to your

base

-people are not rational, they are predictably irrational -policy nudges and paternal libertarianism -decoy effects -anchoring -dunning kruger effect -framing

behavioral economics

democracy as enlightening (and rooted in the enlightenment), committed to individualism, liberty, the rule of law (and equality before the law), a market economy, and limits on government power

classical liberal democratic theory

politicians largely choose to play fair, acknowledge the legitimacy of opponents and the outcome of free elections

clean democracy

our view of the other party has grown more _____ over time

cold

we have a biased look at something, and we try to confirm only our knowledge (mostly happens with smarter people)

confirmation bias

trust is lowest in ______ (our most democratic political institution) and highest in the ______ (our least democratic institution)

congress; Supreme Court

-most legislation dies here -lobbyists sit at these to get what they want

congressional committees

favor own partisan interests, change electoral rules, make partisan appointments, amend legislative procedures

dirty democracy

public trust in government near ______

historical lows

-if we are ______ about something, we just don't know it -curing this in education campaign by getting people to care about

ignorant

-negatively affected wage group -willing to work jobs for lower wages than others

immigration

how much money you earn

income

the amount of money in politics has continued to

increase

the amount spent by winning campaigns continues to

increase

historically, when productivity increased, wages ________

increased

over time, the share of income (or wealth) earned by the top 1% in the U.S. has

increased

wages of wealthier Americans have ______ more rapidly and relative to lower income groups

increased

wages for higher income groups have _______, while wages for lower income groups have ______

increased; stagnated

republicans look more at _______ to explain economic inequality

individual factors

argument that inequality spurs _______ and _______

innovation/motivation; social mobility

small donors are

more ideological

___________ support the bipartisan infrastructure bill

more than half of voters

_____ are more likely to be young, racial minorities, less educated, and lower income

nonvoters

what did Drutman say about high voter turnout in 2020

not good for democracy

_______ is not always a guide to what we should do in policy because it changes all the time

public opinion

-feel good doing this -want to help the world and "make it a better place"

purposive - meaning

Americans see too little federal action on climate change, back range of policies to

reduce it effects

like the group they are a part of

social

-financial insecurities (as GM goes, so goes the nation) -emotional insecurity (single-parent households, depression, suicide rates) -social insecurity (social media, FOMO, social comparison)

sources of mistrust

support for a ruling party, leader, or regime (e.g., presidential approval)

specific support

in terms of purchasing power, wages have remained relatively _____ for most Americans over time

stagnant

-argue that the more we see the democracy, the more we dislike it -we have bad people occupying democratic positions

stealth democracy

as technology gets better, we need less people to assemble things

technology and automation

public opinion operates like a _______, becoming more liberal when Republicans control government and more conservative when Democrats control government

thermostat

over time Democratic fundraising became more dependent on the

top 0.01%

neighborhood identities helps create ______, and this allows you to make demands

trust

-recognition that decisions are rightful and compel obedience even if (especially if) we disagree with them -derives from the popular perception that the elected government abides by democratic principles in governing, and thus is legally accountable

trust as a measure of democratic legitimacy

once adjusted for inflation, average wages have remained largely _______ since 1964

unchanged

-businesses wanted more control over policy, so they didn't allow labor unions -unions lost bargaining power -this hurts income for the average Americans

weakening of labor unions (intentional and designed) and deregulation

how much you're worth

wealth

politics as driven by ______ and _____, not by democratic majorities

wealth; money

studies of policy mood find a strong connection between ______ and _______

what government does; public opinion

when economic inequality becomes a concern

when the game becomes rigged

-African Americans -middle class and working poor White Americans -younger Americans

who has low levels of trust

turnout is higher when

-elections are more competitive -campaigns invest in mobilization strategies (politics of the base) -voters perceive more at stake in the election

given the opportunity to self-govern, citizens will

-engage in politics (political participation) -become knowledgeable and informed about politics -be tolerant of opposing political views and political parties

who gives donations

-less than 1 in 5 Americans -with contributions more likely from older, higher income, and better educated Americans -Democrats were more likely than Republicans to donate in 2016

what is the responsibility for government in addressing the opioid epidemic and what does it teach us about American government?

-marketing opioid to doctors -influencing the academy through philanthropy, curriculum, and research -influencing patient advocacy organizations, professional societies, and civic organizations -influencing public health officials, legislators, and policymakers

incentives for participation

-material - selective benefits -purposive - meaning -social

techniques of influence

-political contributions and spending (electioneering) -political access (lobbying) -shaping the climate of opinion (CATO, heritage, american enterprise institute, americans for prosperity) -the advantage of playing defense in american politics

limited information rationally

-satisficing vs. optimizing -heuristics and cognitive shortcuts (party affiliation) -the miracle of aggregation (random vs. nonrandom error)

lessons from 2020

-the most productive way to increase turnout is to make elections more competitive -increasing voter turnout does not guarantee a higher-quality democracy -increased voter turnout does not benefit Democrats as clearly as both Republicans and Democrats had long assumed

according to Page and Gilens, wages increasing for higher income groups and wages remaining stagnant for lower income groups is a result of public policy - 4 things

-weakening of labor unions (intentional and designed) and deregulation of business -globalization and free trade (capital) -immigration -technology and automation

money is speech

Buckley v. Valeo

Page & Gilens and Bonica et al argue that the median voter theorem is because of the

American political system that advantages the wealthy in turnout and influence (as measured by campaign donations)

with voting and voter information, it is irrational to be misinformed and not participate

Anthony Downs: An Economic Theory of Democracy

increasingly, we're appealing to the support base of either ______ or ______

Democrats; Republicans

-we use our beliefs to frame the world -confirmation bias

directional goals (motivated reasoning)

-engineering of consent -manipulating behavior without people being aware of it (use it for areas of democracy)

Edward Bernays: Propaganda

a model for rebuilding trust can be found in _______, one of the most diverse cities in America

Houston

who said: -how do we get individuals to contribute to public goods absent coercion? -national defense, protection of natural resources

Mancur Olson: The Logic of Collective Action

as long as the ruling party knows they might be kicked out, they won't do certain things to the minority

Schumpeter: In Defense of Minimal Democracy

_______ usually own districts/redistricting because they focus more on controlling state governments

Republicans

who said: -money, not justice, won the day -victims' representatives were outnumbered in the process from the beginning by corporations, by lawyers and by governments

Ryan Hampton

-a lot of things we do, we don't understand why we do them -implicit bias theories

Sigmund Freud and the Unconscious

support for the basic political arrangement of politics and democracy

diffuse support

-the mass public lacks clear ideological beliefs (even if they identify with an ideological label) -beliefs lack constraint (meaning they aren't correlated) -beliefs are unstable across time

The Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics - Converse

-found voters largely as uninformed and misinformed -little effect of campaigns (or news media) on voter preferences -campaigns primarily reinforce vote preferences

The People's Choice and The American Voter

who said: -if the people can choose only from among rascals, they are certain to choose a rascal

V. O. Key

______ rather than _____ gives the most money in American politics

Wall Street; Main Street

-political beliefs as the results of stereotypes (the pictures in our heads) -public as uninformed and operating under prejudice -democracy sounds like a good idea, but doesn't work as well as it should -we need a bureau of experts that actually know what is going on to tell others what is going on in a democracy

Walter Lippmann: Public Opinion

-Americans take fewer risks and are much less entrepreneurial than they used to be -the rise of populism (group vs. group narratives, distrust of authority) -increase in political extremism (and a belief the other side is more dangerous and more extreme) -constructive vs. destructive -an age of precarity -social trust rebuilt in organizational "nitty gritty" of life (rebuild through organizations)

consequences of mistrust

Americans identify as

conservative

donations over all favor more

conservative politics

politicians are more responsive to

contributors

trust in government is higher among members of party that _______

controls presidency

what do Page and Gilens say about why public support for a higher minimum wage hasn't translated into a higher minimum wage?

corporate influence over the political process

-once you put an individual in a crowd, you cease to be rational -mob takes on its own life source and it's hard for individuals to resist it

crowd theory (mob psychology)

the demand for government is _____

cyclical

who said -without governments, would countries have more inequality or less -rent seeking

deaton

-new Supreme Court term -redistricting -debt limit (even worse than it looks)

decline in political and social trust

social mobility in the United States has

declined

declining trust in government corresponds to

declining trust in each other

-put a choice in that not many people will pick to get someone to pay more -we can affect a choice just how we structure it

decoy effects

share of wealth controlled by middle income Americans has ______ as income controlled by wealthier Americans has _____ over time

decreased; increased

Page & Gilens and Bonica et al conclude democracy hasn't fixed the problem because

democracy is flawed

-reciprocity -merging in traffic -high trust societies as more prosperous

democratic/social norms

-the focus of political actors shifts from winning public opinion to winning the "game outside the game" -electoral competition weakens (non-electoral competition increases) -violations of democratic norms becomes more frequent, not only by the party currently in office, but also (when they have the opportunity) by parties that are now in opposition -mutual tolerance between opposing parties has broken down (partisan polarization)

dirty democracy characteristics

______ makes problem solving harder

distrust

we go further and further down into distrust and dissatisfaction

distrust doom loop

-overconfidence -there are certain things we think we are better at, even when we're not (especially in politics)

dunning kruger effect

why economic inequality matters

economic equality (meritocracy) -> political inequality (economic winners control political rules and protect advantages) -> economic inequality (rules set in advantage R1 winners) -> political inequality (economic winners control political rules and protect advantages) -> economic inequality (economic winners control political rules and protect advantages)

a majority of Americans say there's too much ________ in the U.S., but relatively few see it as a top priority for federal government

economic inequality

no matter how you measure it, ________ is growing and challenges of an underlying

economic inequality

partisan divisions in whether or not there is too mcuh

economic inequality

if elites are united and understand what's good, we can convince other people

engineering of consent

not just an absence of trust or a sense of detached alienation - it is an aggressive animosity and an urge to destroy

explosive distrust

how we talk about a policy issue makes a big difference on how we think about a policy issue

framing

-Congress says globalization is good -people can now outsource production and sales to other countries, which has lost us jobs, etc.

globalization and free trade (capital)

but in closely connected winner take all elections, losers often express ________ with democracy

greater dissatisfaction

starting in the 1970s, wages ___________ productivity

have not kept pace with

_______ is one reason for increased inequality as it increasingly takes up a larger share of income (so wage and income gains go to covering medical expenses)

health care

high voter turnout as a sign of

healthy democracy

-people think they don't need to know all party politics to vote/not vote for them -people use other things (attractiveness, etc.) to decide who to vote for

heuristics and cognitive shortcuts

between 2006 and 2015, opioid companies spent $880 million on _______ and _______

lobbying; campaign contributions

page and gilens said that policy is responsive to

interest group alignments and economic affluence

why doesn't popular issues become law?

interest group and corporate influence in American politics

low trusters and high trusters have sharply different confidence levels in how Americans will behave in ___________

key civic situations

Americans tend to trust ______ in people who are running or hold office

less

during democratic administrations, we often want

less

as politics becomes more polarized, the idea about appealing to a median voter becomes

less appealing

on individual rights, the link is

less clear

as a result, the political system is ______ to nonvoters

less responsive

Americans are often more ______ when it comes to specific policies

liberal

most adults favor several actions to _____ drug costs

lower

biases in who participates makes policy less responsive to _______ and ________

lower income groups; majorities

page and gilens said that policy is not responsive to

majority preferences

what can be done to eliminate biases that makes policy less responsive to lower income groups and majorities

make voting easier, encourage voter participation

-do we ask too much from average citizens? -campaigns are armed with better data and an ability to target individual voters -the rise of digital media, increased choice in information, and the ability to spread misinformation

making political choice difficult

-do you get something from the group activity that you would not otherwise have? -free rider problem -best in terms of effective for participating if it only goes to group members

material - selective benefits

-posits that in a majority election, if (1) voter policy preferences can be represented as a point along a single dimension, if (2) all voters vote deterministically for the politician who commits to a policy position closest to their own preferences, and if (3) there are only two politicians, then a politician maximizes their number of votes by committing to the policy position preferred by the median voter -in theory, in a democracy, economic inequality should take care of itself -voters experiencing the negative effects of inequality should vote out the ruling party

median voter theorem

young adults are less confident in the _______, ________, _________, and ________

military; business; police; religious leaders

-people are ______ where they believe things that aren't true -we need to educate people and change a belief that someone already has

misinformed

less ________ through the generations

mobility

-historical cycle about every 60 years (revolution, Jacksonian Democracy, Progressives, civil rights) -people feel disgusted by the state of society -loss of faith and trust in political institutions threatens political system (distrust doom loop) -high-trust societies have what Fukuyama calls

moral convulsion

during republican administrations, we often want

more

______ is going through every option and evaluating them against each other

optimizing

most political/social things happen through _______ and we won't trust each other if we don't have one

organizations

views of the economy depend more on ______ than economic indicators

partisanship

-trust in institutions plummets -moral indignation is widespread -contempt for established power is intense

people feel disgusted by the state of society

_______ is correlated with increased economic inequality

polarization

across a range of issues, majority public opinion does not translate into

policy action

-insider vs. outsider groups (lobbying) -congressional committees (increased reliance on omnibus legislation) -federal agency regulation (pharmaceuticals and the FDA)

political access (lobbying)

democrats look more at the _________ to explain economic inequality

political and economic system

declining trust overall corresponds with declining trust in ________

political and social institutions

-Buckley v. Valeo -Citizens United

political contributions and spending (electioneering)

gap between the political parties is as wide as any time since the Gilded Age, which leads to _______ and _______

political gridlock; dysfunction

-through government influence, successful organizations protect status or increase their share of wealth without increasing overall wealth -the expenditure of resources by groups or individuals (usually via special interest groups_ to influence the outcomes of public policy in order to generate above-market returns, otherwise known as rent

rent seeking

examples of _______: -corporations increasing barriers to entry into the marketplace -licenses for specific professions to limit labor markets (taxis) -pharmaceutical industry and drug costs

rent seeking

Page and Gilens argue government is not ______ enough

responsive

_____ is just thinking something will work without knowing if it's the right choice

satisficing

who said: -the flaw in pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with an upper-class accent

schattschneider

-protests -court challenges -grassroots lobbying vs. astro-turf -investing in ideas (heritage foundation, CATO, american enterprise institute)

shaping the climate of opinion

-when we aggregate public opinion and vote choice together, it seems to work rationally -making a joint, collective decision is better than having a small amount of people making a decision

the miracle of aggregation

-too much choice leads to paralysis and dissatisfaction -raised expectations, opportunity cost, anticipated regret, self-blame

the paradox of choice

who are we redistributing the wealth between

the wealthy, not between the wealthy and the poor

-Republicans and many Democrats have experienced an ideological shift toward acceptance of a form of free market capitalism which offers less support for social welfare, lower marginal tax rates for those with high incomes, and deregulation of a number of industries -immigration and low turnout of the poor have combined to make the distribution of voters more weighted to high incomes -rising real income and wealth has made a larger fraction of the population less attracted to government for social insurance -the rich have been able to use their resources to influence electoral legislative, and regulating processes through campaign contributions, lobbying, and revolving door employment of politicians and bureaucrats -the political process is distorted by institutions like gerrymandering that reduce the accountability of elected officials to the majority

why hasn't democracy slowed rising inequality