Partners in the Learning Experience Midterm Exam Study Guide, Jan.

12
1. Political Parties: A political party is an organized effort by office holders, candidates, activists, and voters to pursue their common interests by gaining an exercising power through the electoral process. G-wash warned us about political parties in his farewell speech. Democrats: The democratic platform protects civil rights. It also favors the application of governmentservice programs which more civilized countries have enjoyed for decades, such as education, mail service, police departments, etc. favor instituting taxes, so that all those who have an opportunity to utilize these services (as in everyone) pays for them. Republicans: They are basically the rich people, so they want to keep their money- no taxation. Green party: Libertarian party: Dealignment and Devolution: Dealignment: a general decline in party identification and loyalty in the electorate. People move towards nonpartisanship, causing the structure of the political parties to weaken Devolution: handing the power back to the states (more in FEDERALISM) 2. Federal Election Laws: IDK? 3. Elections: Patterns in voter turnouts: Highly educated people are more likely to vote Older people are more likely to vote Women are more likely to vote White people are more likely to vote People focus more on the background of the candidate than the issues of their policies Excuses for the low voter turnout: Too busy Difficulty of registration Too many elections to keep track of People dont think their vote will make a difference, so they choose not to vote. Political parties have a weaker influence now. Types of elections: Primary elections: voters decide which of the candidates within a party will represent the partys ticket in the general election o Closed primary: only a partys registered voters are allowed to vote o Open primary: anyone can vote even if they are from another party could possibly lead to sabotage General Elections: voters decide which candidate will actually fill the nations elective public offices Initiative, referendum, reform: o Initiative: citizens can propose legislation and submit it to the state electorate for approval. o Referendum: the state legislature submits proposed legislature to the states voters for approval o Recall: voters can remove an incumbent from office by popular vote. Voter Demographics: Race: o Whites vote republican o African Americans vote democratic o Hispanics vote more democratic o Asian and pacific Americans have a variety in their votes Gender: o Women are more likely to support democratic o Men support republican o Gender gap: women and men tend to support different parties, so there is a bias in the voting.

Religion: o Catholics vote more democratic o Protestants identify as republican Income: o Poor vote more democratic o Rich vote more republican Ideology: o Liberals vote more democratic o Conservatives vote more republican

4. Federal Election Campaign Act: it was made to put legal limits on campaign contributions. Candidates must give the name, address, and occupations of any donors who give $200 or more. It wanted to increase the role of Political Action committees in the process. 5. Federal Election Commission: It enforces the federal election laws. It also regulates the campaign contributions. That statute limits the sources and amounts of the contributions used to finance federal elections, require public disclosure of campaign finance information and provides for the public funding of Presidential elections. 6. PACs: political committee organized for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates. Most PACs represent business, labor or ideological interests. They can give money to the candidate committee or party committee. They work by raising money for the campaign from people who are in labor unions or a corporation. They seek to influence public policy by electing legislators who agree with their viewpoints. 7. Campaigns: Different kinds of political ads: Negative ads: attack the opponents character and platform Positive ads: stress the candidates qualifications, family and personal ties, and issue positions with no direct attack on the opponent. Contrast ads: compare the records and proposals of the candidates, with a bias towards the candidate who the ad is being sponsored by Spot ads: range from 10 to 60 seconds. Television ads on behalf of the candidate. Inoculation ads: an attempt to counteract an anticipated attack by the other candidate Propaganda techniques: Paid media: political advertisements purchased for a campaign Free media: coverage of the candidate by the news media- dont have to pay for it New media: any new technologies like the internet (facebook/twitter) that blurs the line between free and paid media. Getting the attention of the media is really helpful to put the candidates policy out there. Campaign personnel: Campaign manager: travels with the candidate and coordinates the events of the campaign Finance chair: handle and coordinate the fund raising for the candidates campaign Pollster: professional who takes public opinions surveys that guide political campaigns Communications director: develops the overall media strategy Press secretary: interact and communicate with the journalists and media Internet team: make web-based resources to publicize the candidates campaign to the voters. 8. Campaign finance: BCRA- soft money donations are now prohibited under this and a third party issue ads can be considered as campaign finance so they can be regulated by the FEC. Because of the BCRA, 537 political committees emerged. They are nonprofit and unregulated interest groups that focus on specific cause or policy positions and attempt to influence voters Citizens United vs. FEC-Individual donations are limited in a campaign but corporations can donate as much as the want. This goes against freedom of expression, plus corporations are not even citizens.

Hard and soft money: Hard money: 'Hard' money is contributed directly to a candidate. It is regulated by law and monitored by the Federal Election Commission. Individuals can give no more than $2,500 to each candidate or candidate committee per election.

Soft money: 'Soft' money is contributed to the Republican and Democratic National Committees, and to the party committees in each state. 'Soft' contributions are not as heavily regulated. The parties may use such money to promote candidates or finance party projects, such as political conventions

9. Media: Types of Media: Paid media: political advertisements purchased for a campaign Free media: coverage of the candidate by the news media- dont have to pay for it New media: any new technologies like the internet (facebook/twitter) that blurs the line between free and paid media. Mass media: the entire array of organization through which information is collected and spreads to the general public. News Media: media providing the public with new information about subjects of public interests Print media: anything printed like magazines, newspapers, print ads. Narrowcasting: targeting media programming at specific population within society. Interaction with press and public: On background: information provided to the journalists that will not be attributes to a names course Deep background: information provided to the media that will not be attributed to ANY source Off the record: information that will not be released to the public On the record: information that can be released and attributed to a named source 10. Interest Groups: Disturbance theory: the theory that interests groups form to counteract the efforts of another. For example, if there is an anti abortion group, there will be a pro-abortion group. Pluralist theory: political power is distributed among a wide array of diverse and competing interests groups. Free riders: Party that enjoys a benefit accruing from a collective effort but contributes little or nothing to the effort. They are part of the interest group but dont have to pay any dues like the other members o Causes the free rider problem: potential members fail to join a group because they can get the benefits south by the group without even contributing, so the effort just basically goes to waste
Interest Groups strategies: o Lobbying: trying to influence legislation and persuade the political leaders to support the groups position Grassroots lobbying: a form of interests group activity that prompts individuals to contact representatives directly in an effort to affect policy. o Litigation: basically to sue the group that opposes you and to bring the purpose to the attention of the court system o Advertising: getting the word about the interest group out so more members can join and make their cause stronger. When more than one interest group joins together, they make a coalition. Kinds of interests groups: o Public Interests groups: organizations that seek a collective good that will not selectively and materially benefit group members. o Economic interest groups: group that focuses mainly on promoting the financial interests of its members. Example: AFL-CIO o Governmental units: state and local governments are becoming very strong organized interests groups as they lobby the federal government or even other foundations for money so they can build up local programs. Earmarks: funds that are for a particular purpose within a state or congressional district.

11. Theories of Democracy: Elite class theory: only the top class controls political actions and influences government even though they are a very small portion Pluralist theory: majority rules minority rights basically. The majority influences government the most, but minority groups draw attentions that way and get some influence too. Hyper-pluralism: A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government is weakened. Sub governments consist of a network of groups that exercise a great deal of control over specific policy areas. 12. Compromises Great Compromise: taking the idea of the new jersey and Virginia plan, it: o Created a bicameral legislature with a House or Representatives that had reps based on the population of each state and a Senate with equal representation per state. o The house would have power to originate all bills for raising and spending money o National power would always be supreme. Three fifths compromise: o The south had commercial interests to keep slaves and actually count them as a person because they had so many slaves that their representation would increase. o The north didnt want to count the slaves because the southern states would have population advantage. o Slaves could not vote, but for the sake of representation, they were each counted as 3/5 of a person- enough to prevent an attack on slavery but not enough to promote the spread of it. 13. Reapportionment and redistricting: Reapportionment is Reapportionment is the process of re-dividing the 435 seats of the United States House of Representatives, based upon each state's proportion of the national population. Redistricting is drawing the district lines again to include equal population or equal representation of parties. Gerrymandering can occur during redistricting. It is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected districts. Basically, you favor one political party in a district over the other. 14. 6 Principles of the US Constitution: Popular Sovereignty: the people for the people receive power. Example: when there was slavery, each state got to vote weather they wanted it or not Limited government: the government is not all-powerful; they must obey the law too (rule of law). Government operates on constitutionalism, which is that all governmental actions must be based on constitutional principles. Separation of Powers: article 1 section 1 divides the government into branches and each branch has its own powers. This is so there is not one branch that overpowers the others. Checks and Balances: also prevents one branch from becoming too powerful. Each branch can check another if there is something wrong with the decisions. Prevents the majority from having too much power Judicial Review: the power to declare a government action unconstitutional. It was brought up in the case Marbury vs. Madison. Federalism: the division of levels of government and power: national, state, local. (More in-depth info below) 15. Federalism: the sharing of power and deriving the power from the people- separate branches and levels of government with its own powers. (National, State, and Local governments). Three types of governments: federal, unitary, and confederate govt. Federal system: nation government and states derive authority from the people. Unitary system: local and regional government derive the authority from the national government and the national government derives its power from the people

 Confederate system: national government derives its power from the states, which derive their power from the people. National powers under the constitution: Enumerated powers: found in article 1 section 8. They are the powers specifically for congress like taxing, coining money, and regulating commerce. Necessary and proper clause: congress can do whatever is necessary and PROPER in a situation. This is applied to the implied powers that are not specifically stated but inferred. Supremacy clause: Article 4. National law is always supreme to state or local laws. State Powers under the constitution: Tenth Amendment states all of their rights. Its the final part of the bill of rights that says the powers not given to the national government are reserved for the states and the people Reserved or police powers: powers ensured by the 10th amendment that lie at the foundation of the states right to legislate for public health and welfare. Powers denied under the constitution: Ex post facto laws: cant pass a law and convict someone who has broken the law before it was enacted Bill of attainder: cant convict someone based on relation to a crime. You need a judicial trial before you convict them. Full faith and credit clause: any judicial decrees made in one state are held up in another state. Privileges and immunities clause: citizens of each state have the same rights as each other o Extradition clause: states need to return criminals to the state in which they are convicted Dual vs. Cooperative Federalism vs. New Federalism Dual federalism: belief that having separate and equally powerful levels of government is the best arrangement. Used under the Taney court (layered cake) Cooperative Federalism: all levels of government act together to settle any problems. Rather than having separate and equal powers, they have common powers and solve common issues. Used under then New Deal. (Marble cake) New Federalism: returns administrative power to the states. This was used under the Reagan administration. o Devolution: transfer of power from the central government to the local government. Devolution Revolution was under Clinton administration. 16. Articles of Confederation: The Articles created a league of friendship in which states had more power than the central government. The states were independent. The articles set up a type of government called a confederation or confederacy, which is where the national government gets it power from the states. The AOC proposed: A national govt with a congress that makes peace, coins money, appoint officers, and negotiate with Indian tribes, BUT not be able to tax. Each states independence and duty is to govern within its boundaries One vote in the continental congress per state 9 states have to approve anything to have it passed The selection of delegates is made by state legislatures. The AOC eventually failed because the states got too powerful, so they scraped it and drafted the constitution. The constitution made the following upgrades and changes Checks and balances between the three branches of government- executive, legislative, and judicial. Separation of powers so that power was equally distributed among the branches o Legislative: passes laws, declares war, approves treaties, establishes courts o Judicial: interprets laws and the constitution and reviews the decisions of the court o Executive: enforce laws and court orders, nominate officers, and pardon people. Created a federal government, which is a plan of government in which power is divided between the national and state, governments and the independent states are bound together under one national government, which is supreme.

17. Federalists and Anti-Federalists: Federalists think that there should be a strong central government, so they favored the constitution over the AOC. They also believed in a large republic to guarantee the individual rights. They are supported by large farmers, merchants, and artisans. Antifederalists think that the states should have more rights and favored the AOC over the constitution. They also considered the Bill of Rights as essential to the nation. They favored a smaller republic to guarantee individual rights and they were supported by small farmers from rural areas. 18. Incumbency Advantage: Being in office or having been in office helps that person get reelected because of the various benefits that go with that position. The advantage includes extra perks in office, name recognition and predictability, access to the media because of being in office, and more and easier finance. People like the incumbent because they know what he/she has done in office so there wont be any surprises. The incumbency advantage causes there to be less fresh ideas in office, which could result in political stagnation.