GOV FINAL

Partisanship and 2016 election

At end of the day, d voted for d and r voted for r as past elections

Executive Orders

- Executive orders and signing statements is an announcement by the president at the time of signing a bill into law - Directives that president issues that have the force of law. Doesn't happen too frequently anymore (travel band) Can be overturned like obama's guantanamo bay when congress said no and did not fund it to transfer the prisoners to jails in the us mainland

Key Roles of President

- Head of state- incarnation of the republic and representative of the country. President puts on a tux and meets with other country heads - Chief Diplomat- foreign affair duties - Party Leader; must visible elected official and head of their party. Ronald reagan reincarnated the republican party, Obama did not do such as good job with the democratic party and did not unify - Chief Legislator- single most powerful legislator because of veto

President Inherent Powers

- Inherent powers are not specified in the constitution but stem from the rights duties and obligations of the presidency claimed mostly during in war and national emergencies

Presidential Primary Process

- Invisible primary: First phase: before people declare their candidacy. The process of gathering money. Start to establish network. Soliciting endorsement finding politicians who tell you they will support you. Behind the scenes work. Donald trump did not do much of this the just hyped it up put did not get endorsement until late in the process - Primaries vs caucuses: The first mechanic of getting nominated Must states have primaries where people go to the polls to be the nominee and run by state government. Caucuses are run by party not state govt put is a meeting where the ppl that are must active hash out who they want in their national convention - Special status: IA and NH Iowa and new hampshire who are the first states They have traditional status and value because they establish people credibility in campaigners In 2008; obama baby kissed, went to the state fair to look like a person of the people - Winnowing: Narrows the field to legit potential candidates. As the process goes people start losing and never get off ground. R's were hoping that the winnowing would get trump Conventions- The party conventions are like coronation like you are the official declaration of whom the candidate is, but also for them to tell the people who they are; convention speeches set the tone of the campaign

Decision making models of Judges

- Legal: judges as umpires. Roberts: my job is to ball balls and strikes - Attitudinal model :politician in robes Ideology is v strong determination in ruling of case. Judges act in accord of their sincere preference. Everyone's set on political principles is an ideology. - Strategic model: Strategic model: anticipate reactions. Don't impose their ideology whenever. Judges have an ideology and want to promote but at a personal level they care job satisfaction, they care about getting promoted, their status and esteem, maintaining influence, and within the court need to convince their peers. + Congress has a certain amount of power over the judiciary as they can overrule and rewrite the law like Ledbetter where Supreme Court ruled against equal pay but Congress said no we want equal pay for overruled. And this is embarrassing to the Supreme Court

Effects of campaign contributions/ lobbying

- Like do conservatives vote for gun rights bc conservative or bc NRA contribution Contributions do buy access John Sides- campaign donors gain access to much higher access like members of congress or people up there and have your influence carry some weight but less for constituents. - Money can also buy activity, if you donate to congress who already agree with go, they will fight for it more than if they don't agree with you and slow down the process Overall don't buy votes but do buy access

Interest group activities

- Lobbying - intended to influence activities intended to influence the decision that public officials make - Public persuasion, get you to sign a petition - Direct action and litigations

TX Judiciary—Differences from Fed Courts

- Structure - more courts in Texas , not an equivalent of Supreme Court more like two. One is the criminal appeals and a separate court called the Supreme Court for civil case - Other difference is how judges are elected ; judges need to be perceived as independent and don't run the risk of being fired by president and Texas prioritizes accountability over independence by electing the judges

Ideology

A set of assumption about the work to help us organize our beliefs about politics. A coherent organized set of ideas and founded on basic principles about politics like Conservatism, Liberalism, Or like fascism and communism Related to party affliction but not exactly the same; the opposite of logic, we form the part affliction first and then

Sources of judicial independence

Independence: they are by the law, formally separate from the other branches and judges have several protection like salary, for life, and not fired, only impeached - Constitution Article III, Supreme court original jurisdiction: Cases involving two or more states Some cases go to Supreme court, put very few, and top of the appeal pyramid When fed and state law conflicts of citizens has objection it start at district appellant and then supreme court which is what article 3 says

Civil Service

Industrialization/expansion creates reform pressure to correct the spoils system - Civil Service Commision: govt employees are chosen by education background, examination, and experience so merit based not patronage like AJ Spoils System. Can only be fired for cause not because other party wins the election and wants to get rid of them

Incumbent vs. open seat elections (to Congress)

Most states choose their candidates in one primary prior to the general election Two types of primary election: open and closed (only members registered in specific party get to vote) Then the general election is that first incumbency advantage is massive 97 percent in House and 93 in senate. Strong incumbents get fewer and less competitive opponents. Some seats are safe, deep red and deep blue districts Other districts can be competitive districts

Liberalism (core features)

Liberals are persons are generally support political and social reform government intervention in the economy and expansions of federal Social Services and support on behalf of the poor minorities women in Greater concern over consumers and the environment

Partisanship (meaning)

Loyalty or psychological attachment to a political party. Individuals tend to be stable in their party identification. Party ID is the best predictor of vote choice. Independents are not all democrats or republicans some usually lean d and other

President as Agenda Setter

Most visible person and so has a stronger force to set the agenda like at state of union and can propose legislation. - Electoral calculus: The proposals by president and by congress reflect calculation that types of bills while lie between acceptable range and they always take into account this calculation to see if their legislation that is just not going to pass. "Doomed bills". Most of the time president opposes a issue, member in his party will filibuster and that why the veto isn't used as much anymore

Opinion-policy mismatch factors

Obama and same sex marriage Early in obama's career, he was against it but then evolved to for it in 2012 as public opinion changed with it. He is acting as a delegate since he is responsive to public opinion put labeled as a flip flopper and has no principles Public opinion may not be matched all the time like with sonsituent activity More vocal constituents can distort legislator understanding of public opinion Preference intensity can affect politicians Sometimes politicians think they are acting as delegates yet aren't ex. Polls can be difficult to match up opinion and policy. - Genuinely difficult to translate public opinion into public policy

Bureaucratic Drift

Often observed phenomenon of bureaucratic implementation that produces policy more to the liking of the bureaucracy then faithful to the original intention of the legislation that created it but without triggering a political reactions from elected officials

Political parties - key functions in government

Organizing and operating the government Choose congressional leadership Allocate committee assignments Support or oppose the president: mitch mcconnell in obama presidency is that the most important thing to achieve is that they get the president in office to get policies you like and filibuster the opposing president party and is increasingly important with accountability Implementing colinton affirming policy: tax cuts keep the party happy for R's

Political parties -- definition

Parties are a group of like minded people who band together to try to take control of government which diff from interest groups who just want influence Democracy is unthinkable without parties bc structure, make viable to participate in, coalition and way policies made, in general systems that lack parties are dictatorships or unstable

Partisanship and issue preferences

Wikileaks: net popularity as of 2013 when snowden was around was at -47 disapprove of wikileaks by republicans put then by the 2016 went to +27 approval rate by republicans and -28 by democrats Vladimir putin - never popular by democrats and then dramatic change by republicans bc trump said those nice things about him to a shift of 60 points to -10 percent 34-77% feeling good about their economic situation by republicans put nothing changed in the economy - Partisanship idea is stable, Issue opinions less stable and driven by partisanship

Reapportionment/Gerrymandering

Why does it occur? Result of changing population and states growing faster, every ten year, seats get moved around a little bit. Each decennial census followed by reapportionment. Following wesberry v. sanders most be nearly equal population Redraw district map Gerrymandering: drawing line of congressional districts in order to confer an advantage on some partisan or political interest Ex. we have two new seats, where do we draw the line to benefit out party 30 more republican seats

Role of Dissent

dissenting opinion is a decision written by a Justice who voted with the minority opinion in the particular case in which the Justice fully explain the reasoning behind their opinion

Countermajoritarian difficulty

is a perceived problem with judicial review of legislative (or popularly created) laws. As the term suggests, some oppose or see a problem with the judicial branch's ability to invalidate, overrule or countermand laws that reflect the will of the majority. -The argument that judicial review is illegitimate because it allows unelected judges to overrule the lawmaking of elected representatives, thus undermining the will of the majority. The problem stems from the understanding that a democracy's legitimacy arises from the fact that it implements the will of the majority

Nationalization of congressional elections

"All politics is local" you have to pay attention to your district, tailor behavior to desires of districts bc most important factor put is not the case for congressional election bc they vote for party instead of issues Split ticket voting: one party for president and different party for house member In mid 60 to 90;'s split voting was very common like 30 percent put has steadily declined and indicates that national politics and district level campaign debate more to national policy 85-90 percent vote same now - Increasing nationalization of congressional elections: election for congress used to be about local put now it is national issues dominate even in house of reps elections

President as Chief Legislator

- single most powerful legislator because of veto (the president's constitutional power to turn down acts of Congress within 10 days.) - Pocket veto occurs when Congress adjourns during the 10 days the president have to approve a bill and the president takes no action it

Types of interest groups

- Business sector Sectoral groups that represent the National - Federation of Independent Businesses, PhRMA seek to lobby on no price controls, Specific corporations that spend a lot of money and time in policy process like Exxon and Monsanto - Organized labor: Professional lobbies who seek best possible public policy but def have own interest - Public interest groups that have specific causes but don't have profit motivations like NAACP and NRDC - Research Lobby: think tanks universities

Redistricting criteria

- Equal population is each district - Contiguity: the districts can be far away from each other - Compactness - why don't you make squares? Put thats just one thing that could be said Like if there is natural boundaries in communities like mountain district and plain district bc you wouldn't want half i=and half - Communities of interest: live in same county have same community feel - Avoid dilution of voting power of racial minorities making sure some representation for minorities creates packing creates districts that insure a majority minority district yet it is conflict with others - Point is districts drawing conflict - there is no such thing as objectively fair district, one will always have to give in to the other criteria crates

Stability of party ID vs. stability of issue opinions

- Conservatives goes from 36 to 35 - basically stable in 25 years. Liberalism goes from 17 to 26 percent and has come from people identifying as moderates to becoming liberals - Partisanship and ideology shape attitudes The major difference between the too is stability/ party ID and opinion on given issue Partisanship is set in stone and issue preferences set in sand

Realignment

- Democrats change from Jackson to Obama Wilson made the progression and government activism in great depression with FDR and his administration expended the government White voters moved away from democrats and then the party began to lose elections. Minority votes shifted the tide as more vote for D's - Republicans change from Lincoln to Trumps 1854- whigs are divided on the issue of slavery and democrats all wanted slavery. Whigs against slavery is made after nebraska kansas act and is made into the republicans. Government spending during the war made businessman rich and they wanted to keep power and felt like they did enough to reform the south and let the region become

Political parties - core constituencies

- Democrats- organized labor racial minorities upper class middle class professionals poor - Republicans get support from businesses social conservatives, rural resident, suburban middle class whites working class - The big diff is R ideological movement - threats to the movement by running a race against incumbent, vulnerable to the values and goals like reducing the role of government and social change. Accused of being insufficiently conservatives - He thinks that the conservatives free market nationalists: his side has given up a lot and the the populist party has taken over. R's social conservatives still control the ideological party like the money people who fund campaigns have been running the party since the 90's the populous are more mobilized who go to elections and protests - Democrats are more a coalition of different groups seeking specific types of policy goals. As a whole there is no one philosophy that runs the party like women, young people with gun protest, poc, all make the coalition instead of unified ideological thing like R's

Lobbying and information provision

- Direct lobbying: Draft bills; (spend a lot of time on this to suggest legislative language) - congressional testimony: meet with officials -foreign government as well - provide information- all have in common because a lot of opportunities to manipulate the info officials have and manipulate the system but the information provision function is very important because congress and staff don't have the expertise and resources and information

Originalism v. Living Constitution Philosophy

- Originalism is the best known philosophy that laws meaning to don't change over the time and the constitution text should be understood at the time it was passed by the people who passed it (conservative justices) But, how do they know what they founding father who wrote the law meant that interpretation and that they wouldn't change their mind depending over the social change and evolution. - Living constitution: Excuse to apply whatever ideological ideas to the law, interpretation should change in response to national circumstance

Sources of Partisan Identity

- Parents political views strongly affect and play fundamental role of determining your views like if they are republicans you probably are too and Partisanship and ideology tend to very persistent If you are the child of lifelong democrats, you will be a lifelong democrat Ex. the south shift from democrat to republican people still voted for democrat even though there are registered as the other bc raised as such and that identity is very fixed - Friends or co-workers can act as cue givers - Life experiences matter like Military/College - Major world events: The great depression fundamentally changed people attitudes from how the government should be in citizens lives 9/11 had important role in PO of issues about privacy

Party ID and voter decision making

- Partisan loyalties: Party ID a person subjective feeling of affiliation with a party is number one determining factor of who you vote for

Post-1960s realignment/sorting and polarization

- Party of big business and then the depression hit and to fight them they opposed big government and still holds today. Civil rights act switches the voters and parties. Blacks switch from republican to democrats and whites opposing the civil rights act because too much governmental control go to republicans and are southerners - Parties used to have conservatives and liberals in each party but not anymore - Polarization is result of people sorting themselves into different parties creating gridlock no more swing voting.

Group Attachments

- People who are irrational in individual levels might be considered rational on collective level ie group interest sometimes trumps individual - Black rich people are more supportive towards democrats and welfare policy unlike to rich white - Linked fate idea: the fate of all AA and fundamentally linked together - Civil rights movement does represent group attachment but one could say that supporting better circumstances also has an individual component and has self interest element so it's difficult to pinpoint which one it is - Examples of group differences in public opinion. Weekly churchgoers have stronger position against homosexuality than non churchgoers.Pornography should be illegal- women support more than men Not all are tied to party affiliation

Importance of Approval Rating

- When is the presidential power highest? We notice that presidential approval when they first take office "honeymoon period" very important to maximize their effectiveness/implementation of their agenda. - On some issues the public opinion is very stable such as abortion but foreign policy is unstable and can be changed - Overall point is you want to keep power in perspective. When a president is popular, they can be very powerful and vice versa.

Political parties - Key functions

- Winning power: Parties have to find and recruit them for their team and develop governmental talent - Types of people: Find rich people so to save money and fund for other candidates. Or someone who has been in the military, smart and has the resume, or the classic self brander with entrepreneur and harvard law degree remarks and philanthropist. Keep out extremists and radicals that will never win political race - Orchestrating selection process: nominations Mobilizations: money, volunteers, voter contact. Huge amount of money to fund campaigns across the country 1 trillion dollars spent per party Informations shortcuts: simplifying the electoral system aka reduce the cost of engaging in every single candidate by knowing what the party stands for and voting for that - Focus accountability: focus on when the party does well or when the other party does bad - Raise and cultivate salient issues that are important to the electorate like lower taxes, stronger law enforcement, symbolism too which is the estate tax that extremely wealthy people pay on the assets of their inheritance over 11 million dollars which is very little applied to them and makes it sound like it will affect more than it does- cynical - Maintain and expand electoral coalition- have to evolve in order to maintain the coalitions from evolving places. D's targets diversity to be the party of those people while republicans is a little bit of the opposite and more emphasis on nationalism and white nationalism

Judicial Activism: Role of Judge

- activism is Judicial philosophy that the courts should see beyond on the text of the Constitution and consider the broader social implications of the decisions. Implied that there is a right to privacy and made the law conform to the desired outcome - both liberals and conservative tend to engaging in the judicial activism where they overrule a decision to another political side ie. Ruling is based on personal opinion, rather than on existing law. The definition of judicial activism and the specific decisions that are activist are controversial political issues.Overturning statutes passed by legislatures. Judges could be accused of JA if they insert themselves in lawmaking or undoing a long line of law meaning - judicial restraint is sometimes called the strict constructionist because they look strictly to the words of the Constitution-interpreting its meaning - the main two is that judges overturn past president or judges are inclined to strike down laws against their legislation party

Grassroots vs. astroturf lobbying

- an approach that separates itself from direct lobbying through the act of asking the general public to contact legislators and government officials concerning the issue at hand, as opposed to conveying the message to the legislators directly. A grass roots campaign, for instance, seeks to mobilize ordinary citizens to take part in an election campaign or a cause - The practice of creating the appearance of grassroots support for a position, as by hiring bloggers to promote that position or establishing ostensibly independent advocacy groups (fake) it may look like the real thing, but it is orchestrated and directed by a few well-placed interest groups.

Bureaucracy

- by implementing the laws and policies passed by elected officials bureaucrats and be seen as agents of Congress and the presidency - carry out what they see as the intentions of their superiors but when bureaucrats have to use interpretetation a law before implementing it there in effect engaging in lawmaking reflect their own in external or internal interest more than congress's plans - coordinated division labor to deliver government policies decided upon by congress and the president

President Delegated Powers

- co titutional powers assigned to one branch of gov but exercised by another with the expressed permission of the first like powered given by congress to the president; shall take care that laws be faithfully executed - Have to do with the the fact that congress passes laws, they can't anticipate every possibility so substantial is delegated to the executive branch and administers the laws and implemented. So x agency is in charge of this and will "faithfully executed"

President Expressed /enumerated Powers

- constitution explicit powers that cannot be revoked by congress but are shared - Military: Commander in chief of the military head of CIA NSA FBI - Judicial: grant pardons for offenses against the US except in cases of impeachment - Diplomatic: receive ambassadors and other public ministers - Executive: authorizes the pres to see to it that laws are executed and power to appoint, remove, and supervise all executive officers and appoint all federal judges - Legislative: power to participate authoritatively in legislative power like veto

Education and political socialization

- individuals learn opinions and attitudes from their family their friends their teachers religious or other than their social groups and networks - Education: greater political knowledge and other attributes - Political efficacy: The belief that one can make a difference in politics by expressing an opinion or action politically - Religions socialization agents: Shape world views and provides plausibility structures to what makes sense to an indv

Police patrols v. fire alarms (Congressional oversight)

- oversight is the effort by Congress through hearings investigations and other techniques to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies like standing committee system of Congress is well suited for oversight - Police patrols: Routine, systematic, proactive investigation of what agencies are doing - Fire alarms: Investigation after receiving complaints. For every agencies you can think of there are groups that "sound the fire alarm" because they watching them to seem when they mess up. Post facto bc happens after the fact. The knowledge of having people watching over them makes them/ prevents from them to mess up

Persuasion Tools

- professional reputation: what do the elites think about the president (not talking about the popular vote)? Is he a man of his word or "must be convinced in their own mind that he has the skills enough to use to his advantage. Ex. obama was able to convince skeptical democrats to vote for the legislation. He was skillful in convincing them that they were doing the right thing for everyone and for themselves but probably cost them their job. - LBJ's treatment he was really tall and would loom over people and that's what he was known for but was not effective at the end of the presidency because people had mobilized against him.

Organizational pathologies- Regulatory capture

1. Bureaucratics parochialism: Deep identity about it self and diverges from larger mission like DEA. Narcos show shows this get the jobs done and not worry about the suits back in DC and loose perspective and diverge from larger interests 2. Agency fighting: fighting the war on drugs is the responsibility of CIA, or other agencies? Spent time trying to find out whos it is 3. Bureaucratic rigidity: preferences of bureaucrats drift away from principles want. 4. Regulatory capture: is a form of government failure which occurs when a regulatory agency, created to act in the public interest, instead advances the commercial or political concerns of special interest groups that dominate the industry or sector it is charged with regulating.

Role of Courts

1. Dispute resolution: Arbiter role/dispute resolvers- Citizens vs state and interelite disputes 2. Checks and balances: act as a key mechanism for checks and balances 3. Courts as policymakers: Decisive interpretative power re constitutionality of laws The courts affect policy giving them an arbiter role along with the policymaker roles and check and balances role 4. Judicial review: the power to look at all laws and see if is a violation of statutory law or the constitution itself and can strike them down (JR is not in the constitution)

Packing and Cracking

1. Percent representation: 50 people in district, 60 percent are blue and 40% are red 2. Cracking: Compact put unfair, illustrates cracking which is dividing the minority party to dilute the power of their votes 3. Packing (and Cracking): puts as many blue votes in as little places as possible . you can pack as many red as possible and then crack the rest Examples of Partisan Redistricting Chicago as more red in urban and blue in suburban voters = cracking

Turnout (demographics)

2012-26 the percentage of white vote didn't change much put the country is becoming more minority so more whites voted. 1 percent drop in AA turnout and we know they vote democratic. Overall low; higher in presidential election than midterms

Principal-Agent Problem

Although agents should be to be responsive, they are looking out of their own principles instead. Interests may be misaligned. Bureaucrats seek to maximise their power and influence. Congress and president are principle and Bureaucrats are the agents - shareholders (principles) vs management (agents). Bureaucrats may seek to max their status and have different set of perspectives than the principles

Structure of Courts/Senatorial courtesy

Bottom of the pyramid is the federal district court Middle level is the US Court of Appeals (circuit courts) - Appellate jurisdiction for cases from federal district courts They have a lot of political power 1. All of their decisions are binding throughout the circuit, not the country, but still influential because their word is final 2. Who sits on these courts are judges (over 100) who are nominated by president and confirmed by congress. They have a lot of power and subject to senatorial courtesy= when president has to elect someone then they consult the texas senators there and solicit their opinion about to particular person. This also leads to different perspectives live liberal or conservative judges bc the senators tend to lean towards people in their party or ideology composition.

Going public

Bully Pulpit: the president does not have much power to change people minds of the overall public over a speech like going public - Power to persuade is for elites and going public is an attempt to go around the elites. - go around the gridlock to get issues and mobilize the american public to put pressure on the representatives - If you change public opinion, then they will call their representatives and tell them to act in a certain way. - Works well in the president's party but hardens opposition in the other party. Ex. version of republicans had been proposed to make a type of obama care but because obama was the one to popularize it, it sharpened the divide between them/against it.

2016 Fundamentals

Came down to 3 states where the margin was tiny PA, MI, and WI all won by Trump Major overhaul of political establishment? Probably not. High presidential approval rating. Extremely high incumbent reelection - Fundamentals (political scientists looked back at election that correlated to election outcomes like economic growth of the country, approval rating of incumbent power- disadvantage of your party running after 2 terms, indicated close race no one thing is to blame

Supreme Court Chief Justice

Conference: everyone has one vote, the chief justice (roberts) speaks first and if in the majority, they assign the opinion. It is strategic to explain the decision so in dicent of death penalty cases, a judge says it's unconstitutional and is a signal for lawyers to keep those type of cases coming. - The chief of Justice on the Supreme Court who presides over the courts public sessions There's eight justices plus the chief. It's just this cast one vote in the Chief Justice usually speaks first

Party systems

Constellations of parties at any given historical moment Balance of power between and within the parties Social and institutional bases Key organizing issues and policies

Devolution

Devolution is the policy of delegating a program or passing it down from one level of government to a lower level such as from the national government to state government and local governments to downsize the federal bureaucracy - Wanting services to be done but there is a resistance of growing the federal size and power

Partisan Concentration

Democrats naturally packed bc they are in cities geographically In 2012 presidential election, very few house district that had more than 40 points for romney Gerrymandering gets blamed for more than it actually does. Can't gerrymander in the state. Happens in between 10 years of redistricting Polarization is what causes

Solicitor General

Executive branch role: the solicitor general: signals that the attorney general or president want it to be heard and acts like a filter and can make the argument in front of the SC Amicus Curiae briefs: friend of the court - opportunity were people lay out what they think is valid

Tools of Presidential Power

FDR- Made more presidential power 1. Appointments!!! As the size of the state has grown, there is more appointees available There is about 3000 appointments a president can make put only ⅓ are confirmed by congress which is very different to other democracies Political appointees may be more accountable. The debate over whether this is a good idea. 2. Executive orders. Directives that president issues that have the force of law. Doesn't happen too frequently anymore (travel band) Can be overturned like obama's guantanamo bay when congress said no and did not fund it to transfer the prisoners to jails in the us mainland 3. Signing statements Not as important put signing a new bill into law. They announce the president's interpretation of the law. "He believes that the law in unconstitutional" and makes a written marker 4. Executive agreements Basically like a treaty without the congressional importateur power like deal with iran to stop its nuclear developments in exchange 5. Legal interpretation Prosecutorial discretion!!!: President believes that the administration has the power to defer something and take executive action. Law enforcement can emphasis on a task or de emphasize on another such as obama limited deportation of young kids brought illegally. Every case can't be processed to the max so they pick and choose when to apply. 6. Power of regulation Hard to anticipate possible outcomes so it helps to be vague and keeps interpretations and results in need to draw up rules the power of laws like eligibility of student loans, air and water standards, drugs etc

Administrative Procedure Act

FDR: Administrative procedure act established rules and procedures for writing regulations. Bureaucrats don't get to change things just cause, there is a whole series you have to do like public hearing and drafting language before who can write or eliminate a new rule

Pluralism

Founding father concept: james madison- all these groups and politics is the clash of these groups that represent in society and these will check and balance each other in compromise and moderation An optimistic view but still works

Swing Justice

Ideology in the court: 4 liberals and 5 conservatives (1 swing vote) There's always one person in the middle that has the most power because their vote chooses in favor of one direction

GerryMandering

Is blamed for: polarization/dysfunction Lack of congressional turnover Unrepresentative partisan makeup of HR Try to confer some benefit upon some party by making the seats safe for incumbent and also my maximising the number of seats Packing Is putting many other party voter isn few districts as possible Cracking taking rest of voter and spreading them across the other districts to ensure you party has the most Penn democrats can win yet republicans have 12 out of the 19 seats.

Retrospective/ prospective voting

Issues of government performance: Did the party in power do a good job: retrospective voting (past performance). Looking more to the future, does the promises from this party going to be able to do what they say: prospective voting (policy promises)

Marbury v. Madison

Judicial Review came from this case. John Marshall announced the principle of JR when thhe Court declared unanimously that a certain law passed by Congress should not be enforced, because the law was opposed to the Constitution.Very seldom used in pre civil war era: much more used in industrialization period

Interest groups - definition

Political parties seek to get people in congress but IG's seek to influence and engage on behalf of members. Ex sierra club represents lifestyle outside clean, and policy goals of preservation UAW- labor unions with democrats

Power to Persuade

Neustadt: "the power of the presidency is to power to persuade: - Not like me changing your mind. It's in the sense of persuading within the set of elites that actually run the country like congress. - Skilled presidents can overcome the weakness of the office. - Weak presidents can't exercise their power since they don't have leverage and bargaining powers. The president tries to get the congress to do something and not nothing all the time. - In order to get congress to do these things is. The president has a natural power and "are you really going to say no to me?"

Redistricting

No obvious answer about how to draw these maps like equal population and natural boundaries like splitting cities of municipalities. Community of interest like rich should be grouped with the rich. Avoid dilution were minorities aren't represented - packing effect in majority minority districts bc democratic

Proportional representation electoral system—inc. advantages and disadvantages

Parties are given seats in the legislature based upon the percentage of the votes. Generally MMD, but district size varies. You don't vote for individuals here. Leaders get picked beforehand who gets to be the nominee for each party No individual districts, 120 seats for the whole country. Elections whenever the government collapses , or every four or five years less More focus on inclusion of minority voices. PR is used in most other countries. More fairness. Fewer wasted votes A: fewer wasted votes which creates higher turnout because people feel unrepresented if not people they like is office A: highly representative of polity overall D: lines of accountability for constituent service is less clear. Maybe less clear that the party has interest in constituent service unlike someone who is your representative in your district Untable as well like italy and germany

Electoral College

Person who becomes president is the one who wins the most electors.The idea is to narrow choice, prevent demagogues from winning,. Votes are amount of House reps and senators put this causes disadvantage in smaller states PROS: - Arithmetic clarity to the electoral college. Both candidate may not get 50 percent of popular vote put - Ensures transregional appeal as no candidate can be just a southern candidate, you have to find a way to gain support in different areas to win. If no electoral candidate, democrats would just focus on urban areas - Messiness of close election: Imagine an election based on just popular vote, if candidate run by 100,000 would create chaos as everyone would be looking for recount votes in any state - Respects federalism: it's in our constitution bc it's a federal system CONS - violates spirit of majoritarian democracy: the reality that a candidate win the presidency while not getting the majority of votes - Votes in non swing state don't matter because your party's candidate does not win so why bother to vote and dycensentivies the election - wasted votes - Reinforces the 2 party system- 3rd party never gets the chance because electoral college works on state by state basis which emphasizes two party system

Bureaucrats

Political appointees( top level person) and civil servants (bulk of employees) - carry out the tasks - Regulation; rules to design to implement legislation passed by congress - Procurement: the govt spends billion of money on services procurement outside the government's spending the tax dollars - Research and development- NIH NASA: national institute of health for cancer research and space research in NASA - Management: do with managing what relationships with govt and outside contractors are doing in private sector - Services- TSA NPS : actual interaction with the public

Privatization

Privatization simply means that are formally public activity is picked up under contract by a private company or companies as an act of moving all or part of a program from the public sector to the private sector - aims to reduce the cost of government because private contractors can perform a task for less money so taxpayers win but often the losers of such situations are the workers.

Supreme Court and Redistricting

Problem is how to figure out when gerrymandering goes too far: supreme courts said they won't get involved Gill v Whitford in SC argued state districts in wisconsin 51 to D put only 39 on seats They came up with efficiency gap: ratio of how many voters are wasted relative to total votes cast in election Sc response is sceptical bc efficiency gap is arbitrary 13 states would be affected if gerrymandering law took place Courts order that some experts come in and draw up a map that is fair and not gerrymandered since it is against the state constitution Aside from other issues like wasted votes and all, states could just not do districts and have poel just vote for the party

Judicial Elections: Pros and Cons

Pros: Accountability: judges feel what they stand for and people decide if they want that and see if your behavior reflected what they stood for Greater legitimacy : more public support Cons: Less independence and impartiality like if there is a donor that comes upon the court and they can leave from the case but what if it's a family member of the donor Bias against defendant: there are cases where maximum punishment is different and gives 3 yrs over 6 yrs and then they get out and commit another offense and that can be used against them Less merit? people chose judges that accountability doesn't work: people don't even know who they are and just chose D or R or if you're name seems texan sounding

Candidate characteristics and voter decision making

Qualities of the candidate Personality: integrity, energy, honestDemographic feature:, religion, race, gender, Geography too - where they are from 2008 election Obama- appalachian geographic area voted more red because of the race of the candidate

Self-interest and public opinion

Self interest: economic interests are often correlated with political attitudes. individuals want government to take actions that will benefit them economically or in terms of their overall well-bein. - Self Interest where economic self interest is important driver of opinion but rationality (ranking your preferences and values may take priority over economic and your party) about ranking preferences not just economic interest - Below average income families are more likely to support welfare programs (democrat) - Wealthier prefer tax cuts and reduce government (rep) - But sometimes people have attitudes that seemingly conflict with their economic interests Hollywood are rich liberals

Writ of certiorari

Supreme Court Case selection docket control - Writs of certiorari: when granted is the supreme court saying yes we will hear this case Rule of four: four judges to the nine must vote for the case - Ripeness and standing: the case has to be a live issue- not hypothetical situation. Standing: You have to show some concrete harm that will apply to you

Interest groups and electioneering

The activities that candidates, parties, and groups engage in as they try to affect election outcomes are collectively called electioneering. These include recruiting and/or endorsing candidates, fundraising, phone banking, block walking, advertising. Interest groups use electioneering as one tactic to support the broader goals of the group.

Dangers of Interest Groups

The interest of whole nation is not equal to the sum that actually get heard Wealthier sectors have more interest and money to spend on political process and are also just more likely to participate and have the time Lower class groups have to organize in much bigger scale to be heard

Plurality electoral system—inc. advantages and disadvantages

The person with most votes wins. Can be single member districts (SMD) like D.C.. Or multi member district (MMD) like the senate. Prioritizes governing over incorporating minority views Other party vote is wasted basically unkile PR A: creates a manufactured majority: a SMD tends to led to two part dominating elections and gets a majority in government put produces an effective coalition. Majority in congress and the incentive is loosing the majorityy in congress and be good to your constituents A: you know who your reprentative is D: Minority within districts goes unrepresented: ex. You live in district were republican won to a 50-49 democrats and your views go unpresented and creates a bias against small parties D (or A?) bias against small parties

Judicial review

The power of the courts to determine whether the actions of the president the Congress and the legislators are or are not consistent with the Constitution the Supreme asserted the power to review Federal statutes in Marbury versus Madison - The supremacy clause say that laws and treaties approved by national government are the supreme law of the United States and Superior to any laws adopted by the state

Contemporary party characteristics

Voters don't have to listen to elite signals- voters chose trump anyways despite elites saying don't - Parties are weak and partisanship is strong Party organization well financed but lack control over candidates. Party give relatively effective: vote for president same way. Party in electorate relatively unified- no more ticket splitting= more polarization - Sorting: conservatives vote republicans and liberals vote democrat. Parties much more distinct and coherent. Reinforcing effect between party activists and elites. Geographic clustering: starting in the 70's people began voting with their feet- clusiter in communities with similar preferences in lifestyle and tend to share in same ideology - rural = r, urban= D's and suburban leans more r's Parties is the vehicle of polarization

Rational ignorance

We outsource to those who do know and that's why they represent us Why is this not a problem? The main justification is that there is an idea that we don't have to know the specifics, all we need to know is who we trust and we can rely on them to make the decisions We also trust the checks and balances and many levels of government It is rational to be ignorant and you don't need to know to go throughout your life It takes a lot of time to be up to date and informed when they have this other option to trust the system Response to rational ignorance (why is it bad) Leaves people vulnerable to manipulation You need to know your interest in order to defend them

Conservatism (core features)

conservatives are people who generally support the social and economic status quo and believes that a large and powerful government poses a threat to Citizens freedoms

Revolving door

interest groups and private sector lobbying will hire ex staffers and congressional peeps that have worked on past legislation and they move back in forth from public service and private lobbying and this gives it the rep and the need for it is why it is so hard to drain the swamp and don't have relevant info

Negative partisanship

jonathan shade article people forming strong voter loyalties based more on loathing for opposing party instead of the enthusiasm for your party candidate The thought of having democrats in power instead, that is unacceptable and that is why people overlooked DJ's traits Democrats who supported bernie all voted for clinton because the alternative would be DJ