Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 Elections
 Major Irony; As the franchise expanded the percentage who vote declined
 Why?
 Progressive reforms
 The progressives had 2 goals
 1. Remove corruption from politics
 2. Eliminate lower classes from politics
 The Progressives instituted
 Secret ballots
 Voter registration
 Primary election system
 Denial of voting rights for aliens
 After Progressive reforms
 Political parties weakened
 Voting became more difficult
 1840-1896 77% voter turnout
 1920-1932 54% voter turnout
 Since 1964 turnout in presidential elections has almost continually declined
 1996 – lowest turnout since 1924
 Even lower in off-year congressional elections – average 37% turnout
 US has the lowest voter turnout of any western democracy
 Difference between states
 Northern plains & mountain states – high turnout / south – low turnout
 Why do people vote?
 People vote when they think that the benefits are greater than the costs
 1. If people see a difference between candidates they have reason to voe & can expect a benefit
 If they see no difference – no reason to vote
 2. Some will vote even if they see no difference out of a sense of civic duty
 3. A rational person considers the effect of the vote
 More likely to vote in a close election
 Costs of Voting
 1. Voter registration
 #1 impediment to voting
 15 states make it easy to register & they have much higher voter turnout
 Registration up to election day
 Registration in precinct or neighborhood
 Registration by mail
 Registration offices open weekends & evening
 No purging from voter registration lists for failure to vote
 Other ways of changing voter registration
 Register on election day

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 Opponents to this idea include

 Those who fear fraud, Republicans, those who don’t want the marginally interested voting.

 B. Canadian plan
 Door to door registration
 C. Motor Voter registration
 Agency registration
 2. Polling hours
 Elections are held on weekdays
 Most nations have election on weekends or national holidays
 Should we implement universal polling hours?
 East coast: 10am – 10pm
 West coast: 7am – 7pm
 3. Frequency and length of elections
 Do we not vote because?
 Elections are so frequent
 Too many offices are elected (500,000 elected posts)
 Elections last too long
 Is non-voting simply a result of voter satisfaction?
 Probably not, because those with the least reasons to be satisfied are the ones not voting
 Characteristics of non-voters:
 Young people
 Hispanics (Sleeping Giant)
 Manual laborers
 Those with little education and low income
 Voters
 Those with more education and income
 College educated 124x more likely to vote
 Why?
 College equips you to deal with bureaucracy
 College may still instill knowledge about government
 Government responds to people who participate
 Republicans vote the most
 Democrats vote less than republicans
 Independents are least likely to vote
 Political Participation
 Political participation is class based
 Rich participate more than poor
 Better educated participate more than less educated
 Participation requires time and money

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 Poor have lower sense of political efficacy

 Political efficacy – belief that you can affect the government
 Who participates the most?
 Middle aged, middle class and above
 If participation linked to class, what implications does this have for government policy?
 Presidential Campaigns
 Relatively recent phenomenon
 1896 William Jennings Bryan vs. William McKinley
 1. Nomination Campaign
 Make decision to run (3yrs before election)
 Establish campaign organization
 Establish committee to raise funds
 Plan strategies
 Create image/ theme
 Try to overcome weakness

 Win early primaries with large margins

 Frontrunners must win big
 Underdogs must win
 Incumbent Presidents have big advantage complete name recognition/ media
attention/ adopt rose garden strategy
 2. Election Campaign
 Don’t have direct election of president (electoral college)
 Must win a majority of electoral college votes
 A state’s electoral college votes = its representation in Congress
 GA – 13 in house, 2 in senate = 15 electoral college votes
 A states’ electoral college votes are given to the candidate who gets the most
popular votes in state – “winner takes all”
 Candidates focus their campaigns on Big States (win 11 largest states – win election)
 Need 270 electoral college votes to win
 If no one receives 270, the House of Representatives Selects the president

 Why keep it?

 1. Takes a Plurality(not 50% + 1) of the popular vote & turns it into a majority
 1992 Clinton – 43% popular vote – 68% e. c. vote
 2. Takes the majority of the popular vote and turns it into consensus
 1984 Reagan – 59% popular – 97% e. c. vote
 3. Without it small states would lose their slight advantage

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 4. Without it, large states would lose their large advantage

 5. Tradition, “if it ain’t broke…”
 Campaign Strategy
 1. Mobilize those within your party
 Key strategy
 More important to Democrats than Republicans
 2. Persuade the independent voters
 They are the “swing” voters
 More important to Republicans but can’t win w/o independent voters
 3. Convert the Opposition
 Republicans more successful at this
 4. Plan where to spend time and money
 Personal appearances
 Use of the Media
 Today’s presidential campaign is a mass media campaign
 Media includes ads and free coverage
 Free coverage – most people get their information from TV
 TV emphasizes the “horse race” aspect of political campaigns
 Candidates respond with visual
 Visuals – brief filmed episode showing the candidate doing something colorful by 3:00
 The visual is built around the day’s “sound bite”
 TV Producers are afraid of “talking heads”
 ADS – paid ads give public more information about a candidate and his/her stand on the
issues than do newscasts
 Voting
 DUH theory –
 People make decisions about voting by adding up the things they like about each candidate
and then vote for the candidate with the most “likes”
 If there is no
 If tied, and no party ID, they don’t vote
 Factors influencing voting

 1. Party loyalty
 Most important factor
 This has weakened since the 1950’s
 2. Candidate evaluation
 Candidates’ personality & style have become more important because of TV
 Character
 Competence
 3. Issues
 Prospective – looking ahead

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 Retrospective – looking back

 (have things gotten better or worse?)
 If the national income is growing before the election, the incumbent will likely win
 Remember party loyalty may influence views about candidates and issues
 Political Parties
 Major link between the people and the government
 They allow the public to determine who will serve in government
 A party is a group that tries to elect officials under its label
 2 main parties: Democrats & Republicans
 Elections & Political Parties
 1. Maintaining elections
 Maintain existing party strength
 Most elections take this form
 2. Deviating elections
 Temporary shift in popular support
 Usually happens when the minority party has an extremely popular candidate
 3. Realigning elections
 Permanent shift in popular support
 Rarely happens – usually follows a crisis
 Minority party become majority party
 Last realignment 1932

FDR put together new deal coalition (urban, labor, poor, Catholics, Jews, Blacks, and rural south)

 3. Realigning elections
 Permanent shift in popular support
 Rarely happens – usually follows a crisis
 Minority party become majority party
 Last realignment 1932
 FDR put together new deal coalition (urban, labor, poor, Catholics, Jews, Blacks, and rural
south)
 1932 – D
 1936 – D
 1940 – D
 1944 – D
 48’ – D
 52’ – R
 56’ – R
 60’ – D
 64’ – D

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 68’ – R
 72’ – R
 76’ – D
 80’ – R
 84’ – R
 88’ – R
 92’ – D
 96’ – D
 2000 – R
 2004 – R
 2008 – D
 Are we approaching de-alignment?
 De-alignment – rather than support a new party system, citizens may chose to be independent
 More call themselves independents
 More cast a split-ticket voting – voting for candidates from different parties in the same election
 Why a two party system?
 1. Historical Dualism of US political conflict
 2. Because of the moderate (centrist) views of the US public
 3. Structure of our electoral system (winner take all)
 In congress members are elected from single member districts
 Only one person gets elected (the loser gets nothing)
 Minor party candidates don’t win (these parties die off or merge)
 Compare our system to proportional representation
 Proportional Representation – seats in the legislature are allocated according to the % of
votes received
 37% of votes = 37% of seats
 Since minor parties have a change of winning, they have a reason to exist
 4. The two parties we have are flexible not ideological
 They can adopt programs suggested by 3 rd parties
 Political Party Functions
 1. Organize power in order to control the government
 Recruit people to work in political campaigns
 Provide people with a basis for casting their vote
 Serve to educate voters
 2. Organize public opinion
 Parties serve as channels of communication
 3. Serve to aggregate interests
 4. Incorporate changes suggested by 3 rd parties & social protest movements
 Adopted in a more moderate form
 Social Characteristics of party members
 Democrats:
 Race: Minorities

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 Gov Final Exam (Test 3)

 Religion: Jews
 Sex: Women
 Income – Working class
 Education: less, except at highest level
 Geography: northeast, urban
 Republicans:
 Race: White
 Religion: Protestant
 Sex: Men
 Income: Middle to Upper
 Education: Almost All College
 Geography: West, growing in sunbelt
 Ideological Differences:
 Republicans are more conservative
 Conservative – minimize the domestic role of government
 Philosophic Basis:
 Laissez faire – (leave it alone)
 Government should limit its participation in economic and social affairs
 Individuals are responsible for their own well being
 Support the status quo
 Republican Policies:
 Stress an unregulated economy
 Reduce government spending/cut taxes
 Avoid government intervention
 Support big business
 In Foreign Policy:
 Republicans spend more on “guns than butter”
 Harder line in foreign policy
 Believe peace comes from strength
 Democrats
 Democrats are more liberal
 Liberal – federal government more active in domestic affairs
 Philosophic Basis
 Changed with FDR
 FDR challenged the notion of laissez fair
 FDR said we can’t improve social and economic conditions without government Intervention
 FDR changed from laissez faire to social welfare