political science exam #2

What kind of sponsors provide money for the start-up and maintenance of interest groups and how do they affect the collective goods dilemma?

A few sponsors that provide money for the start-up and maintenance of interest groups are wealthy citizens, nonprofit foundations, corporations, government agencies, and existing interest groups. The collective goods dilemma is a situation where everyone has access to something and they get access to it as long as it is wanted. These sponsors affect collecetive good because they use them as incentives that you get for joining that group. Such as Material goods: price, insurance, information Solidary goods: you want to be a member of that group that are interested in the same things as you Expressive: you want to be a part of a group because you care a lot about that issue and believe government that needs to act on this issue

Identify and explain the three different faces of political parties?

A political party is a group of citizens united by ideology and seeking control of government in order to promote their ideas and policies. The first face of political parties is the party as an electorate, which is self identification by voters. This means parties give a means of self-identification. The human brain wants to be a part of a group, so it feels better to part of a political party. The second face of political parties is parties as an organization. This means that parties are the ones who run elections at a state or local levels, the whole process is run by parties in which we participate in. The last face of political parties is party as the government. This occurs when parties serve as a shortcut to judge if you like what the government is doing, and if you don't, then you can vote for the other party the next election.

How does a single-member district, plurality-based electoral system lead to the development of a two-party system and why is it important for understanding the role of parties in the US system?

A single member, plurality, district is a system in which each district elects a single member as its representative, the winner in each district is the candidate who receives a plurality of the vote. This system makes it much easier to develop into a two-party system because when when electing representatives makes it much easier for a two bigger parties to win than it is for smaller parties to win. This is important for understanding the role of parties because it creates incentives for the two parties to win and doesn't allow the third parties to stand a chance.

Why do interest groups try to shape the governmental agenda and how do they do it?

Agenda is a list of things you need to do. Interest groups try to shape the governmental agenda by keeping their issues high on the agenda. One way they accomplish this is by the more organized the interest group is, the more effective they are in terms of politics. For example, there was a recent school shooting, school safety advocates use that event to make the issue high on the governmental agenda. Interest groups take their problem to the government and use recent events that are connected to their issue to try to persuade the government to put it high on their agenda and address that interests group's problem.

How does interest groups function of program monitoring?

An interest group is an organization of individuals who share a common political goal and unite for the purpose of influencing government decisions. A program is government actually implementing a policy, and program monitoring is interest groups watch government do this thing. By watching it, it makes sures the government actually is actually following the law and the you watch the people who you are trying to targeted with the policy to actually make sure to see people are following the policy.

What has happened to the number and composition of interest groups over the last 30 years? Include a discussion of the different types of interest groups

An interest group is an organization of individuals who share a common political goal and unite for the purpose of influencing government decisions. In the last 30 years, it has gone up- quadrupled the amount of interest groups. Spending so much more in political process for them. First groups were economic business/labor committees and moved to non economic committees form for political concerns. Maybe single issue committees like NRA (special interest groups) or grass rout (local groups) that go to national like environmental issues.

How do interest groups help citizens participate and be represented in the US political system?

An interest group is an organization of individuals who share a common political goal and unite for the purpose of influencing government decisions. Indirect way to participate. They are not all that bad. Group views to government -individual by proxy (not directly affecting but indirectly participating) staying informed and paying/going to meeting etc. more then just your vote participation.

How does the "disturbance theory" explain the formation of interest groups?

An interest group is an organization of individuals who share a common political goal and unite for the purpose of influencing government decisions. It doesn't say anywhere in the constitution that there has to be interest groups, so one of the theories is that there is a disturbance in the political environment, so people organize over what government wants to do about this thing. So this causes an interest group to form and once they find an answer to the problem, another group organizes and they all want to gather together and this causes a ripple effect and once you have enough people you are loud enough for politicians to start noticing because that changes votes.

How are primaries different than caucuses for selecting political candidates and how has the increase in primaries affect political parties?

Both primaries and causes are how you choose candidates for a political party Causues are a series of meetings held for the political party in how you choose the candidate for the election.the thing about causes is the process is controlled by a political party. In 1968, when the middle of the road pro-war candidate was chosen, half the party went nuts. In primary individual voters casting a ballot for the candidate they want. This moved power away from the parties. Two types of primaries are open and closed. Open primary is anyone can come in and vote that day, and closed you have to be registered to vote before hand. It changes where the power of an organization is.

Explain how third parties can be co-opted by the two major political parties?

Co-option is when the main party takes the ideas of the third party to bring supports back to them. This often happens when people leave their political party and join a third party because the party is talking about certain issues they care for. Then the original political party that was left also starts to talk about that same issue to get their supporters back. This has significance because this is taking power away from the third parties and bringing it back to the two main parties.

In cross-sectional studies of voting explain under what circumstances the categories of race and gender explain very little of voter turnout.

Cross-sectional explanations are taken at one point in time. Such explanations describe political, phenomena at a single point in time through a variety of variables. When you take into account like education, income, age, party identification, political efficacy, race and gender don't mean anything on an individual level. It is because of other factors that drive if they participate or not, not because of race and gender if people are going to vote. The combination of education, age, income, party identification, and political efficacy are much more significant than race and gender.

How does split-ticket voting support the idea that the public is de-aligning from political parties?

Dealignment is when people leave their original political party, but do not join another party. Since the 1960s, there has been a movement of dealignment, and often times it is found that for most of those people leaving their political party, they have a tendency to lean towards the party they were a member of even though they no longer identify with it. Split ticket voting supports the idea that the public is de-aligning because there has been a large increase in of people being in the middle, not identifying with their parties. This shows the flaw in having a two-party system in that it does not represent every and all their views.

How do interest groups get around the collective good dilemma to get people to join their interest groups?

Interest groups are an organized group of people that seeks to advance its interest through government.The main way that interest groups get around the collective good dilemma is by recruiting members with selective goods. These selective goods are incentives that you get for joining that group. There are many types of selective goods such as material goods, like price, insurance, and information. Solidary goods is when one wants to be a member of a group that are interested in the same thing as them. Expressive goods is when one wants to be a part of a group because they care a lot about that issue and believe that the government needs to act on it. This list of selective goods are used by interest groups to get around the "free rider" problem, and have citizens take part in interest groups.

Explain how interest groups help to educate different participants in the US political system. Include a discussion of the different approaches the interest groups use for different audiences.

Interest groups help to educate different participants in the US political system because they provide expertise in the interest and they give this education to congress. One way an interest group approaches the government is when congress is holding heart courts on issues, and interest groups will come to testify and bring knowledge. Interest groups will also try to educate the public in a different approach. A lot of ads are paid for by interest groups that will put information in the public's mind to remember for when they are voting. No matter the method of educating the citizens of the US, interests groups make it a goal to give the public and government knowledge over the issue they represent.

Explain in detail why issues effects can confound party identification in shaping voting choices. Include a discussion of the different types of issues that can influence voting.

Issue effect can make you confound influence of party id, which makes you vote for the other party. Retrospective vs. prospective issues can cause confound party identification because Retrospective is people will talk about what they are going to do about problems in the future and prospective is talking about issues in the past. Another set of issues is easy vs. hard issues. Easy issues are issues that are symbolic in nature. Where people have immediate reaction, issues where you can get an immediate reaction out of people. Hard issues are issues that usually have a lot of substances behind them. Like budgets are hard to understand and most people don't have knowledge about it. These issues can influence voters to vote not for their own party, which has an effect on policies and political parties actions.

Define party identification and explain in detail how it shapes voting choices.

Party identification is voter affiliation with a political party, which affects how you make political decisions. The first way that it affects voting choices is by, "Standing decision effects", which is if you are a member of a party and you are looking at candidates and you have no info about those candidates, you vote for the candidate in your party. Your default to choose the candidate from your party. The second way it influences voting choices is by, "Perceptual screening" effects: based on principle of cognitive dissonance. It means if I find information that makes me uncomfortable about party id, I dismiss it and just accept the good information about the party id. Party identification is significant because it shapes the voting in the United States and gives parties more power.

Explain how the increased importance of television in elections affects political parties?

People used to go to politically parties to learn about issues and who to vote for. Influence of party is now diminished because we can go online to learn whatever we want. We independently find answers without political party leaders help. Or we get our questions answered and news from the tv or website we choose.

Explain how education and political efficacy have a positive effect on political participation.

Political participation is any activity that shapes, affects, or involves the political sphere. Education has a positive effect on political participation because if you have more of it, you have more participation. If you have 4+ years of college it is more likely that you will participate in government, next you have high school education then you have lower level of participation in government, last f you don't have high school education then the have the lowest level of participation for the most part. Political efficacy is when some people believe that that participating in politics get them something. This causes a positive effect because the more someone participates in politics, they believe the more they get out of it. People who believe in political efficacy vote more because they believe their vote matters. Both education and political efficacy are significant because they increase political participation.

Define and explain the differences between the three different forms of political participation.

Political participation is any activity that shapes, affects, or involves the political sphere. First, conventional forms are what the government promotes you to go do, like go and vote. For example, as we go down types of Electoral Participation in the U.S. the numbers decrease so voting is a way to measure all other types of participation in the U.S. politics. Unconventional forms is when the government is tolerating but they are not promoting a certain activity, because they cost the system money. Things like civil disobedience like actions taken such as marches can cost a city a lot of money. Unacceptable forms is when the government doesn't tolerate a behavior and makes an effort to try to stop it. All of these political participation have government involved, even though the purpose of the government differs in each form of participation.

What is the main way that citizens in the US participate in politics? How do we measure it and why is it important?

Political participation is any activity that shapes, affects, or involves the political sphere. The main way that citizens in the US participate in politics is by voting. Proximity is the measure in how we look at participation in the US and how we look at voting. The proxy look at how many people who are registered to vote against the amoint of people who actually vote. We also use the proixy to find out ohter participation rates. As we go down types of Electoral Participation in the U.S. the numbers of participation decreases more and more after voting, so the voting is a way to measure all other types of participation in the U.S. politics.

What are the four main agents of political socialization and how do they shape political beliefs?

Political socialization is intergenerational transmission of values about politics. The four main agents of political socialization are family, schools, peers which are reference groups, and media. Family is important because they are the first people where one learns their value from. Next there is school, which is when as soon as when you start school that is where your value comes from. Peers are reference groups, in which you learn values because one wants to be a part of the some group. Last there is media, which is not where people learn the value in general, but it is where the value gets reinforced. The idea in how political socialization shapes our political beliefs, is because some level of socialization teaches you how to operate.

What are the differences between explicit and implicit political socialization?

Political socialization is the intergenerational transmission of values about politics. The difference between explicit and implicit political socialization is that it is the process that where someone learns their political values from is very different. Explicit political socialization is someone directly telling you what values to support and what values not to support. Implicit political socialization is when you learn your political values from those around you, without directly being told what to believe, which is much harder to measure. I Both explicit and implicit political socialization both have significance because both require socialization to learn political values and if you don't socialize it is more likely you will lack political knowledge

How does a solidary good differ from an expressive good?

Solidary goods differ from expressive goods because each good causes a different reason on why someone joins an interest group. A citizen may join an interest group for solidary goods, because if someone wants to be a member of a group, it's because others in that group are interested in the same thing as they are. Expressive goods are when a citizen wants to be a part of a group because they care a lot about a particular issue the group is associated with, and believe that the government needs to act on this issue. Although these goods both accomplish citizens to join interest groups, they differ in their reasons on why they attract citizens.

Explain how the Australian ballot, registration laws and women's suffrage had a negative effect on voter turnout.

The Australian ballot was a secret ballot that no one else knows how you vote. Prior to this time period, political parties made their own ballots so they could keep track of and mobilize people to vote and to distribute as many ballots as possible. Since the australian ballot was secret and people didn't know who you were voting for, there was less incestive of the political parties to go get you to vote since they didn't know who you were going to vote for. Since there is less incentive by the political parties, there was less voting. Registration laws had a negative effect on voter turnout because laws that make it harder to vote so fewer people vote. For example have to register to vote in a year in advance. Lastly, women's suffrage (1920s) was when the 19th amendment was passed which gave women the right to vote. This led to a decrease turnout because some men didn't vote because women could vote and also women had not been a pattern of voting so not all women were voting so the turnout dropped to half it was.

Define the "collective goods" dilemma and explain how it leads to the conclusion that it is irrational for an individual to join interest group?

The collective goods dilemma is a situation where everyone has access to something and they get access to it as long as it is wanted. For example, air is a collective good. The dilemma is when you have a collective good out there, it is hard to manage the good because it's difficult to influence people take what they just need and nothing more. There is no regulation and the collective good is taken advantage of. This leads to the conclusion that it is irrational for an individual to join interest groups because of the free rider problem. The free rider aspect asks the question why should you pay for anything if you get access to it no matter what? This way of thinking causes the problem of good that are given to every citizen to be taken advantage of.

Identify and explain the five functions of political parties?

The five functions of political parties are contest elections, propagate and ideology, form and run governments, promote accountability, and limit intensity of conflict. The first function of political parties is contest elections, which is when a party recruits candidates, nominates candidates, mobilize voters, and run campaigns. The second fun is propagate an ideology, which is parties offering and promoting a vision of goals, for example, ideology is a vision and if the party gets the vote, they will use the government to accomplish their vision. The third function is when parties form and run governments.This is the party coordinating government's structures, like communicating between congress and the white house. An example of this is when congress needs to pass legislation, so parties figure out ahead of time what the president will veto and congress will reshape their legislation. Another example of the function of political parties is to promote accountability. This occurs if you like what is going on in the government you continue to vote for your party, but if you don't agree with your party, you vote for the other party. The last function of political parties is to limit intensity of conflict. The is accomplished because the two-party system forces parties to compete for moderate voter. Through all all of these functions, the political parties are a major part of american government today.

How does the spatial theory of elections (median voter hypothesis) help to explain why the two US political parties are described as diverse, nonideological, and moderate?

The idea behind the spatial theory is that you can put candidates and yourself on a scale, and you vote for the candidate that is closest to you. There is a midpoint and everything to the left of the liberal candidate wins, and everything to the right of the conservative candidate wins. The median voter theory says to win the election if a candidate should place themselves closer to the middle. The spatial theory of elections helps explain why the parties want to be described as diverse, nonideological, and moderate because the parties want to be closer to the middle because that is where most voters are in which they are represented by those three words.

Explain how the increased number of interest groups affects political parties?

The public doesn't wanna have to think. We just want answers. Divide up publics attention and such volume of news its too hard to figure out what's important. So we pick a website or an interest group and listen to what they say is important. And that's how we decide what is important. The competition leads to parties having little control over things

Explain the socialization of the electorate makes it difficult for third parties to participate in the US electoral system.

When formal institutions talk about party in the us they just talk about two parties. Socialization is when you learn about politics, but in things like school you only learn about two political parties, so when you are voting you only have knowledge over the two parties.

Looking at the mix of factors that help to explain voter turnout, explain why turnout has declined in elections from 1960s to the present. Include a discussion of both positive and negative influence on turnout.

recent decline in turnout...1960s mix of positive and negative effects net effect is negative Increased turnout= -easier voter registration -higher education levels decreased turnout= -younger electorate -weakened social involvement -weaker attachment and evaluation of parties and candidates -decline in mobilization...moving from farms to cities...people less connected to each other then they don't vote as much ^^^ all of this led to an overall decrease college students never register to vote when they go to college