Y103 Exam 4

Wedge Issue

- a controversial issue that one party uses to split the voters in the other party - position issue on which the parties differ and that proves controversial within the ranks of a particular party - EX: for a Republican, an anti-affirmative action position is not dangerous, since few Republicans can actively support affirmative action. For a Democrat, though, it is a very dicey issue because liberal party members endorse it but more moderate members do not. Therefore, an astute strategy for a Republican candidate is to raise the issue in a campaign, hoping to drive a wedge between the Democrats and to recruit to his or her side the Democratic opponents of affirmative action

Collective Good

- a good or service that, by its very nature, cannot be denied to anyone who wants to consume it ex: public safety, clean air, peace - when collective goods that can be enjoyed by anyone are involved, it is difficult to persuade people to join groups because they know they can reap the benefits either way

Political Party

- a group of citizens who elect a candidate for office that aligns with their ideology in order to control the government - Madison opposed to parties - parties are essential to democracy - gain influence by sponsoring candidates in competitive elections - give us a way of holding officials accountable for what they do collectively as well as individually

Party Platform

- a list of policy positions a party endorses and pledges its elected officials to enact - national party's campaign promises, usually made only in a presidential election year

Voter Mobilization

- a party's efforts to inform potential voters about issues and candidates and to persuade them to vote - efforts of politicians, interest groups, and especially political parties to make direct contact during campaigns has decreased since 1960s to 200s as our generation now has technology to replace the more effective original method of direct contact with voters

Conflict Extension

- a theory of party change that sees new issues reinforcing rather than supplanting existing party differences - gradual transformation of New Deal era has helped political scientists see party change as conflict extension rather than one of conflict displacement - earlier understanding of party change was that a new issue cleavage (one that split voters along the lines of businesses and corporations versus workers) would come along and displace older cleavages (one that divided Americans by industrial versus agrarian interests) - new scholars believe that the process involves new issues coming to be seen as an extension of the original issues - EX: controversies over race beginning in 1960s and social issues since 1970s have been incorporated into the long-existing Democratic-Republican economic cleavage dating from the formation of the New Deal era in 1930s

Party Discipline

- ability of party leaders to keep members voting together in a cohesive way - which was more typical of European parliamentary parties - changes have helped create conditions for greatly heightened partisanship in Congress as there is more ideological agreement within the parties and ideological separation between the parties

Governing

- activities directed toward controlling the distribution of political resources by providing executive and legislative leadership, enacting agendas, mobilizing support, and building coalitions - involves the two major jobs of controlling government by organizing and providing leadership for the legislative and/or executive branches and enacting the party's policy agendas

Issue Advocacy Ads

- advertisements paid for by soft money, and thus not regulated, that promote certain issue positions but do not endorse specific candidates - television or radio commercials run during an election campaign that promote a particular issue, usually by attacking the character, views, or position of the candidate the group running the ad wishes to defeat - EX: 527s can raise unlimited funds for issue advocacy or voter mobilization as long as they do not promote any candidate or openly try to defeat any particular candidate

Issue Advocacy Ads

- advertisements that support issues or candidates without telling constituents how to vote - encourage constituents to support or oppose a certain policy or candidate without directly telling citizens how to vote - as long as the ads did not specifically promote the election or defeat of a particular candidate, issue advocacy ads were not subject to any limitations, meaning a PAC could spend all the money it wanted on ads promoting and issue, and thus, the candidates of its choice

Presidential Primary

- an election by which voters chose national convention delegates committed to voting for a certain candidate - primary voters cast ballots that send delegates committed to voting for a particular candidate to the conventions

Critical Election

- an election signaling a significant change in popular allegiance from one party to another - majority of people shift their political allegiance from one party to another; marks the end of one party era and the beginning of another

Indirect Lobbying

- attempts to influence government policymakers by encouraging the general public to put pressure on them - mobilizes interest groups

Retrospective Voting

- basing voting decisions on reactions to past performance; approving the status quo or a desire for change

Prospective Voting

- basing voting decisions on well-informed opinions and consideration of the future consequences of a given vote - requires a good deal of information that average voters do not always have - primarily party activities and political elites who engage in the full-scale policy analysis that prospective voting entails

Selective Incentives

- benefits that are available only to group members as an inducement to get them to join and that are not available to the general population - many groups use this to overcome free rider problem

Negative Advertising

- campaign advertising that emphasizes the negative characteristics of opponents rather than one's own strengths - can turn off some voters and give the perception that politics is an unpleasant business, but the public accepts accurate attacks on the issues - an attack that highlights negative aspects of an opponent's record actually registers more quickly and is remembered more frequently and longer by voters than are positive ads

Hard Money

- campaign funds donated directly to candidates; amounts are limited by federal election laws - given directly to candidates by individuals, political action committees, the political parties, and the government - spending is under control of the candidates, but its collection is governed by the rules of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) which established the FEC to stop the flow of money from large contributions by corporations and unions

Political Efficacy

- citizens' feelings of effectiveness in political affairs - people who participate more, whether in elections or through other means, have higher senses of political efficacy - elections provide a mechanism by which individuals can move from passive subjects who see themselves pushed and pulled by forces larger than themselves to active citizens fulfilling their potential to have a positive effect on their own lives

Social Connectedness

- citizens' involvement in groups and their relationships to their communities and families - evidence indicates that people are loosening their ties altogether to the larger community, and this lower level of social connectedness has been an important factor in accounting for the low turnout in national elections

conservatives v. liberals

- conservatives look to government to provide social and moral order, but they want the economy to remain as unfettered as possible in the distribution of material resources - liberals look to government to solve economic and social problems but want government to stay out of their personal, religious, and moral lives, except as a protector of their basic rights

Faction

- defined by Madison as a group of citizens united by some common passion or interest and opposed to the rights of other citizens or to the interests of the whole community - Madison feared that factions would weaken and destabilize a republic, but also argued that a large republic could contain the effects of factions by making it hard for potential members to find one another and by providing for so many potential political groups that if they did find each other and organize, they would cancel each other out - Tocqueville noticed tendency of Americans to join forces with their friends, neighbors, and colleagues

Direct Lobbying

- direct interaction with public officials who are actual decision makers within government for the purpose of influencing policy decisions - Congress is the typical recipient of lobbying efforts, as well as the president, bureaucracy, and courts

Invisible Primary

- early attempts to raise money, line up campaign consultants, generate media attention, and get commitments for support even before candidates announce they are running - way of potential candidates to test the waters unofficially - they talk to friends and fellow politicians to see just how much support they can count on, and they often leak news of their possible candidacy to the press to see how it is received in the media

Interest Group Entrepreneurs

- effective group leaders who are likely to have organized the group and can effectively promote its interests among members and the public

Get-out-the-vote (GOTV) Drives

- efforts by political parties, interest groups, and the candidate's staff to maximize voter turnout among supporters - increasingly an important part of presidential campaigns - have turned to "get on TV" rather than tradition of "get out the vote" - have recently renewed efforts to contact potential voters face-to-face - mobilization efforts combine old-school door-to-door campaigning with modern technology. vast computer databases tell volunteers whose doors to knock on, and these volunteers often have hand-held personal electronic devices that have detailed information on each voter

Party Eras

- extended periods of relative political stability in which one party tends to control both the presidency and Congress - over the last two centuries, the U.S. has been marked by periods of relative stability lasting 25-40 years

Nominating Convention

- formal party gathering to choose candidates by delegates, party activists who support a candidate and run for the opportunity to go to this convention; delegates are elected by voters

Exploratory Committee

- formed to determine the viability of one's candidacy for office; activities may include polling, travel, and other communications relevant to the purpose - if the first step of invisible primary has positive results, candidates file with the Federal Election Commission to set up a committee to receive funds so that they can officially explore their prospects - legally allows the candidate to collect money to determine if he or she wants to run, but it is also useful as a form of campaigning itself

527 Groups

- groups that mobilize voters with issue advocacy advertisements on television and radio but may not directly advocate the election or defeat of a particular candidate - Ex: one group effectively attacked John Kerry during his campaign for presidency; able raise unlimited amounts of money from labor unions, corporations, and interest groups to mobilize voters as long as they do not directly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate

Economic Interest Groups

- groups that organize to influence government policy for the economic benefit of their members - players in the productive and professional activities of the nation: business, unions, other occupational associations, agriculturalists, and so on - they may seek high wages for a group or an industry, lower tax rates, bigger government subsidies, or more favorable regulations

Public Interest Groups

- groups that organize to produce noneconomic benefits that cannot be restricted to the interest groups' members or denied to any member of the general public - EX: the benefits of clean air are available to all, not just the members of the group that fought for them - people are drawn for expressive benefits - environmental groups, consumer goods, religious groups, second amendment groups, reproductive rights groups

Astroturf Lobbying

- indirect lobbying efforts that manipulate or create public sentiment, "astroturf" being artificial grassroots

Grassroots Lobbying

- indirect lobbying efforts that spring from widespread public concern - wielding of power from the bottom (roots) up, rather than from the top down

Lobbying

- interest group activities aimed at persuading policymakers to support the group's positions

Oppo Research

- investigation of an opponent's background for the purpose of exploiting weaknesses or undermining credibility - modern campaign's efforts to get and control the flow of information - astute candidates also have oppo research done on themselves knowing that their opponent will be studying them, so they work to be prepared to deal with attacks that might be coming

Valence Issues

- issues on which most voters and candidates share the same position - policy matters on which the voters and the candidates share the same preference, no one opposes them - EX: everyone is for a strong, prosperous economy, for fighting terrorism, for a clean environment, opposing crime and drug abuse, government waste, political corruption, and immortality

Position Issues

- issues on which the parties differ in their perspectives and proposed solutions - EX: there are those who are pro-life and those who are pro-choice; on military engagements, there are those who favor pursuing a military victory and those who favor just getting out - many of the hardest decisions for candidates are on position issues: a clear stand means that they will gain some friends and make some enemies - realistic candidates who want to win as many votes as possible try to avoid being clearly identified with the losing side of important position issues

Motor Voter Bill

- legislation allowing citizens to register to vote at the same time they apply for a driver's license or other state benefit - in 1990s, when Dems were in charge of Congress, made an effort to make voting more widely accessible - Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which requires state to take a more active role in registering people to vote, including providing registration opportunities when people are applying for driver's licenses or at the welfare office - reform has only marginally increased numbers of people voting, but on the whole the results have been a disappointment to Democratic reformers

Party Caucus

- local gathering of grassroots party members to choose convention delegates - they then vote for delegates from that locality who will be sent to the national convention, or who will be sent to the national convention, or who will go on to larger caucuses at the state level to choose the national delegates

Partisanship

- loyalty to a political cause or party - some citizens and critics may decry the partisanship, or taking of political sides, that sometimes seems to be motivated by possibilities for party gain as much as by principle or public interest - others see partisanship as providing the necessary antagonist relationship that keeps politicians honest and allows the best political ideas and policies to emerge

Party Machines

- mass-based party systems in which parties provided services and resources to voters in exchange for votes - organized at the state, city, and county levels that kept control of voters by getting them jobs, helping them out financially when necessary, and becoming part of their lives and communities - goal: taking advantage of the expansion of voting rights to all white men to elect more Democratic candidates - Martin Van Buren and Andrew Jackson created the country's first mass-based party to set the stage for the development of the voter-oriented party

Party Base

- members of a political party who consistently vote for that party's candidates - used as a necessary base of support during elections

Party-in-Government

- members of the party who have been elected to serve in government - comprises all the candidates for national, state, and local office

Government Matching Funds

- money given by the federal government to qualified candidates in the primary and general election campaigns - funds come from citizens who have checked the box on their tax returns that sends $3 to fund presidential election campaigns - the idea behind the law is to more easily regulate big money influence on campaign finances, to ensure a fair contest, and to free up candidates to communicate with the public - if presidential candidates accept this public funding, they may not raise any other funds or use any leftover funds raised during the primary campaign

the push toward moderation

- most voters tend to be in the middle, holding a moderate position between the two ideological extremes - the party that appeals best to the moderate and independent voters usually wins most of the votes

Party Primary

- nomination of party candidates by registered party members rather than party bosses - patronage viewed as representing favoritism and corruption - party-in-the-electorate rather than party bosses chose between competing party candidates for a party's nomination, and civil-service reform, under which government jobs were filled on the basis of merit instead of party loyalty

Equal Opportunity Interest Groups

- organize to promote the civil rights of groups that do not believe that their members' interests are being adequately represented and protected in national politics through traditional means - in most cases, these groups are economically disadvantaged - believe they are underrepresented not because of what they do, but because of who they are - organized on the basis of age, race, ethnic group, gender, and sexual orientation

Responsible Party Model

- party government when four conditions are met: 1. clear choice of ideologies: each party should present a coherent set of programs to the voters, consistent with its ideology and clearly different from those of the other party 2. candidates pledged to implement ideas: candidates for each party should pledge to support their party's platform and to implement their party's program if elected 3. party held accountable by voters: voters should make their choices based on which party's program most closely reflects their own ideas and hold the parties responsible for unkept promises by voting their members out of office 4. party control over members: each party should exercise control over its elected officials to ensure that party officials are promoting and voting for its programs, thereby providing accountability to the voters - fits parliamentary systems such as in Great Britain - valuable in the American system as it underscores the importance of voters - polarized parties in a system of shared powers leads to frustrations

Party Bosses

- party leaders, usually in an urban district, who exercised tight control over electioneering and patronage - Jacksonian Democrats enacted a number of party and governmental reforms designed to enhance the control of party leaders over candidates, officeholders, and campaigns - during nomination process, party bosses would choose the party's candidates for the general election

Party Activists

- people who are especially committed to the values and policies of the party, and who devote more of their resources, in both time and money, to the party's cause - the "party faithful"; the rank-and-file members who actually carry out the party's electioneering efforts - care more intensely about the party's issues - play a key role in keeping the parties ideologically distinct because one of the primary goals of their participation and support is to ensure that the party advocates their issue positions

importance of political parties

- political linkage: parties provide a linkage between voters and elected officials - unification of a fragmented government: parties help overcome some of the fragmentation in government that comes from separation of powers and federalism by providing some connection between state and national government, for instance - a voice for the opposition: parties provide an articulate opposition to the ideas and policies of those elected to serve in government

Open Primary

- primary election in which eligible voters need not be registered party members - at the polling place, the voter chooses the ballot of the party whose primary he or she wants to vote in

Closed Primary

- primary election in which only registered party members may vote - subset of this is the semi-open primary, open only to registered party members and those not registered as members of other parties

Open Primaries

- primary elections in which eligible voters do not need to be registered party members - party officials complain about this process because it allows members of the other party to get involved in the nomination process - can weaken political parties from those who are not loyal to a party

Closed Primaries

- primary elections in which only registered party members may vote - party primaries are the dominant means for choosing candidates for congressional, statewide, state legislative, and local offices

Electioneering

- process of getting a person elected to public office by recruiting and nominating candidates, defining policy agendas, and getting candidates elected

Social Protest

- public activities designed to bring attention to political causes, usually generated by those without access to conventional means of expressing their views - demonstrations and protests have frequently served an important function for those who have been excluded from the political process because of their minority, social, or economic status - EX: nonviolent civil rights protests in Alabama

roles of interest groups

- representation - participation - education - agenda building - provision of program alternatives - program monitoring

Party-in-the-Electorate

- represents ordinary citizens who identify with or have some feeling of attachment to one of the political parties

Material Benefits

- selective incentives in the form of tangible rewards - information is the most common - group activities, group benefit policies, gifts

Solidarity Benefits

- selective incentives related to the interaction and bonding among group members - interests group provide venue through which friendships are made and social interactions occur - for many, politics = enjoyable activity, and the social interactions occurring through group activities provide high levels of satisfaction, and are a strong motivating force - chapter meetings, lobbying missions to Washington or state capital

Expressive Benefits

- selective incentives that derive from the opportunity to express values and beliefs and to be committed to a greater cause - rewards that come from doing something that you strongly believe in, from affiliating yourself with a purpose to which you are deeply committed and expressing yourself

Realignment

- substantial and long-term shift in party allegiance by individuals and groups, usually resulting in a change in policy direction - coalitions of groups supporting each of the parties change to a new alignment of groups - realignments result in parallel changes in governmental policies, reflecting the policy agenda of each party's new coalition - due to major events such as Civil War or Great Depression

Patronage

- system in which successful party candidates reward supporters with jobs or favors

Interest Group

- term described by modern political scientists - organization of individuals who share a common political goal and unite for the purpose of influencing government decisions - difference between this definition and Madison's: political scientists do not believe that all interest groups are opposed to the broad public interest - interest groups play an important role in our democracy, ensuring that the views of organized interests are heard in the governing process - interest groups play a central role in pluralist theory: argues that democracy is enhanced when citizens' interests are represented through group membership as group interaction ensures members' interests are represented but also that no group can become too powerful - critics argue that interest groups have too much power, that they don't effectively represent the interests of groups that don't organize (the poor, the homeless, or the young) and ruin American democracy - plays a role in "who" gets what and how

Swing Voters

- the approximately one-third of the electorate who are undecided at the start of a campaign that most of the battle in a presidential campaign revolves around - open to persuasion by either side - logic used to be to run to middle by making less ideological appeals but now, tendency has been for a campaign to stay with the party's ideological message with there being fewer people in the middle

Free Rider Problem

- the difficulty groups face in recruiting when potential members can gain the benefits of the group's actions whether they join or not

Political Action Committees (PACs)

- the fundraising arms of interest groups - the increase in the number of interest groups accelerated after 1974, when the Federal Election Campaign Act was passed in an effort to curb campaign spending abuses - the law provided for PACs to seek regulation for the amount of money an interest group could give to candidates for federal office

Front-Runner

- the leading candidate and expected winner of a nomination or an election - early front-runner status is positive because it means the candidate has raised significant money, has a solid organization, and receives more media coverage than his or her opponents

Party Organization

- the official structure that conducts the political business of parties - represents the system of central committees at the national, state, and local levels - raise money for campaigns, recruit and nominate candidates, organize and facilitate campaigns, register voters, mobilize voters to the polls, conduct party conventions and caucuses, and draft party platforms

Electoral Mandate

- the perception that an election victory signals broad support for the winner's proposed policies

Front-Loading

- the process of scheduling presidential primaries early in the primary season to gain media maximum exposure and influence over the nomination

Regulating the Electorate

- the process of setting rules that define who can vote and how difficult or easy it will be to cast a ballot in an election - the rules of elections that either make it easier or harder for people to vote - these rules include requiring a citizen to register to vote - rules include requiring citizens to vote and restricting voting to a single weekday when most people have to work

Political Gridlock

- the stalemate that occurs when political rivals, especially parties, refuse to budge from their positions to achieve a compromise in the public interest - skepticism about political parties has been a major feature of American politics since the drafting of the Constitution

Issue Ownership

- the tendency of one party to be seen as more competent in a specific policy area - helps clarify the role of policy issues in presidential campaigns - because of their past stands and performance, each of the parties is widely perceived and better able to handle certain kinds of problems - EX: for example, Democrats may be seen as better able to deal with education matters, and the Republicans as more effective at solving crime-related problems. The voter's job then is not so much to evaluate positions on education and crime, but rather to decide which problem is more important. If education is more pressing, a voter might go with the Democratic candidate. If crime is more important, the voter might choose the Republican.

Revolving Door

- the tendency of public officials, journalists, and lobbyists to move between public-and-private sector (media, lobbying) jobs - public officials who leave their posts to become interest group representatives (or media figures), parlaying the special knowledge and contacts they gathered in government into lucrative salaries in the private sector

Momentum

- the widely held public perception that a candidate is gaining electoral strength - the perception by the press, the public, and the other candidates in the field that one is on a roll

Dealignment

- trend among voters to identify themselves as independents rather than as members of a major party - old period of stability gradually breaks down without a critical precipitating event which slowly re-forms into a new and different party era

Soft Money (read pg.456-457)

- unregulated campaign contribution by individuals, groups, or parties that promote general election activities such as voter registration and issue development but do not directly support individual candidates - both parties distributed money to candidates either by giving cash directly to the candidates or by supplementing the campaign efforts of candidates with television and radio issue advertising

Soft Money

- unregulated campaign contributions by individuals, groups, or parties that promote general election activities but do not directly support individual candidates - as long as the money was not spent to tell people how to vote or coordinated with a specific candidate's campaign, FEC could not regulate soft money

Party Identification

- voter affiliation with a political party determined by public opinion surveys - most inherit their party IDs from their parents, as we suggested in our discussion of political socialization in

Maine and Nebraska

Since electors are awarded to each state based on the number of House seats plus the number of Senate seats (always two), the congressional district method allocated one electoral vote to each congressional district. The winner of each district is awarded one electoral vote, and the winner of the state-wide vote is then awarded the state's remaining two electoral votes.