U.S. Government Chapter 7
 

  1. Test Your Political Compass:
     
    • The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789 (nobles sat on the president's right and commoners on the left), are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape.
      • (left wing) - the liberal, socialist, or radical section of a political party or system.
      • (right wing) - the conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system.
       
    • In each question on this test, you're asked to choose the response that best describes your feeling: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree.
       
    • There's no right, wrong or ideal response. It's simply a measure of attitudes and inevitable human contradictions to provide a more integrated definition of where people and parties really stand.
       
    • Take the Political Compass Test

     
  2. Political Parties - A political party is a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections and to control and influence governments and their policies.
     
    1. Party Systems
      • In a one-party system, the party, in effect, is the government. One-party systems are usually found in authoritarian governments.
      • In nations with a multiparty system, several political parties compete to control the government and must often form coalitions to do so.
      • In the dozen nations with a two-party system, two major parties dominate to government.
       
      Left Democrat
      		Republican
      		Right
    2. Growth of American Parties
      • Although many of the Founders distruted factions, by the end of President Washington's second term, two political parties had formed.
      • The two-party system in the United States changed as political parties appeared and declined.
      • On the eve of the Civil War, the Republican Party was born. After the war, it dominated the national scene with the Democrats the minority party.
      • During the Great Depression, the Democratic Party gained pwer and remained the majority party for most of the next 50 years.
      • The Republican Party gained the presidency in 5 of the next 8 terms, starting in 1968, and in 1994 regained control of both houses of Congress.
       
    3. The Role of Minor Parties
      • Third parties have been part of the American political scene since the early years of the Republic.
      • All third parties have one thing in common: They do not believe the two major parties are meeting certain national needs.
      • In general, third parties fall into one of three categories;
        • The single-issue party
        • The ideological party
        • The splinter party
      • Occasionally, third parties influence the outcome of national elections by drawing enough votes to tip the balance to one of the major parties.
      • Third parties' ideas are often adopted by the major parties.
      • Third parties face many obstacles:
        • It is difficult for them to get on the ballot.
        • Most voters support the major parties.
        • Raising campaign funds is difficult.
       
    4. Membership and Organization
      • Both Republicans and Democrats are organized into 50 state parties and thousands of local parties, as well as a national party.
      • Voters may become members of a party when they register to vote, usually joining the party whose ideas and candidates, in general, they support.
      • Party membership involves no dues or obligations beyond voting. However, some members contribute money or do volunteer work.
      • Local organization
        • The basic local unit in the party's organization is the precinct, or voting district, and wards made up of several adjoining precincts.
      • County organization (Democrat) (Republican)
        • The county level is the one in which the party is most united, and the county chairperson usually exercises a good deal of political power in the county. Yet counties are the weakest link in the party's organizational chain because they are largely run by volunteers.
      • State organization (Democrat) (Republican) (Libertarian)
        • The state central committee, composed of members from the party''s county organizations, is the most important part of the party in each state. Its main function is to help elect the party's candidates for state office.
      • National organization (Democrat) (Republican) (Libertarian)
       
    5. Political Party Functions
      • Political parties recruit candidates to run for offices. Both parties are candidate-oriented rather than issue-oriented.
      • Political parties bring important issues to the attention of the public, publish the party's position on these issues, and help form public opinion.
      • Personal attacks against the other party's candidates sometimes obscure issues.
      • Since many Americans are not well informed on issues or the candidates, political party membership simplifies their choices.
      • Political parties play a key role in running the government. Congress and state legislatures carry on their work on the basis of party affiliation.
      • Political parties also dispense patronage, including jobs, contracts, and appointments to government positions.
      • The party out of power assumes the tole of "watchdog" over government.
      • Because parties need to draw support from many different and sometimes conflicting groups, parties encourage and adopt moderate policies with mass appeal.
     
  3. Nominating Candidates:
     
    1. Caucuses
      • 12 States hold caucuses to select candidates for public office.
      • As party caususes came under attack, the nominating convention to choose candidates became popular
       
    2. Primaries
      • The direct primary is the method most used by parties today to nominate candidates.
      • Most states hold closed primaries, in which only party members vote, but some states have open primaries in which any voter can participate.
      • Primary elections run according to state law and held at reular polling places, are used to select party candidates for the House, Senate, governor, and other state and local offices.
       
    3. Petitions
      • A person can file a petition, signed by a specified number of voters, to run for office and be placed on the ballot.
      • However, the caucus or convention candidate of the major parties has a advantage because of party backing and resources.
       
    4. Presidential Nominations
      • Every four years, each major party holds a nominating convention to choose candidates for president and vice president in the November general election.  
      • Presidential primary elections operate under a wide variety of state laws and party rules in selecting candidates.
        • Criticisms of presidential primaries include:
          • The precess extends over too long a period.
          • The primaries seem to focus on the image of a candidate more than on the issues.
          • Relatively few people vote in primaries, thus the winner may not be as popular as the victory would indicate.
          • Primaries often result in one-sided conventions and become simply rubber stamp operations.
       
    5. The National Convention
      • Convention Funding
        • Each major political party is entitled to $4 million (plus cost-of-living adjustments) to finance its national Presidential nominating convention.
        • A qualified minor party may become eligible for partial convention funding based on its Presidential candidate's share of the popular vote in the preceding Presidential election.
        • A party convention committee may not spend more than the amount to which the major party is entitled. Contributions may be accepted, however, for a special account maintained exclusively to pay for legal and accounting expenses associated with complying with the campaign finance law.
        • Certain supplemental services may also be provided by the host state and city governments and by local groups such as businesses and labor unions.
          • The host city may, for example, provide additional public transportation to and from the convention site.
          • A business may sell or rent chairs, podiums, tables or other equipment to the convention committee at discount rates.
      • Each party's national committee chooses the site and date of the convention, and decides how many votes each state will have.
      • Many of the delegates who assemble at the convention are already pledged to a candidate, though some are not.
      • On the evening of the opening day, an important party members gives a keynote address, a speech intended to unite the party for the coming campaign. In the next day or two, the delegates listen to committee reports and speeches about them.
        • Each party's rules committee governs the way the convention is run. In most cases the delegates accept the rules committee's report, but sometimes hard-fought battles may take place by delegates who oppose decisions made by the rules committee.
        • The credentials committee must approve the delegations from each state, and sometimes lively fights have occurred between rival delegations for a state's seats.
        • A committee on permanent organization selects the permanent chairperson and other permanent officials for the convention.
        • The platform committee is assigned the important task of writing the party's platform - a statement of its principles, beliefs, and positions on vital issues.
      • The highlight of the convention is the selection of the party's candidate for president. In recent years, front-runners have had enough committed delegates that it was known they would be the party's nominee, and they were selected on the first roll call ballot.
      • The vice presidential nomination sometimes creates some suspense because the presidential candidate's choice, who is always selected by the delegates, is not known in advance
        • The vice presidential nominee usually is chosen to balance the ticket, with a person who has a personal, political, or geographic background different from the presidential candidate's.
      • The convention adjourns after the presidential and vice presidential candidates have delivered their acceptance speeches, intended to unify the party and appeal to the national television audience.
     
  4. Election Campaigns:
     
    1. Electing the President
      • Serious candidates for president begin organizing over a year before the election, to compete in spring primaries.
      • After the nominating convention, the candidate runs an intensive campaign from early September until the November election.
      • To win a presidential election, a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes so candidates compete hardest in high-population states.
           
        • Given the distribution of electoral votes across the nation, it is possible for a presidential candidate to be elected President by winning less than one-fourth of the states. Out of 538 electoral votes, a candidate must win 270 to have a majority and the largest eleven states control 270 electoral votes.
         
         
      • The candidate must decide on the kind of strategy most likely to help achieve victory.
      • A strong organization, headed by a campaign manager, is essential in running a presidential campaign.
      • Because the candidate's image is extremely important for voter support, television and the mass media are widely used in commercials, speeches, and candidates' debates.
       
    2. Financing Campaigns
     
     

  5. Voting Rights:
     
    1. Early limitations on Voting
      • Colonial times
        • Before the American Revolution, women and African Americans; white makes who did not own property or pay taxes; and in some colonies, persons who were not members of the dominate religious group; were excluded from voting.
        • During the early 1800s, states gradually abolished property and religious requirements for voting, and by the mid-1800s, the country had achieved universal while male suffrage.
      • Woman Suffrage
        • By 1914 women had won the right to vote in 11 states.
        • The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified after World War I, granted women in all states the right to vote.
      • African American Suffrage
        • Enslaved African Americans were not allowed to vote and free African Americans could vote in only a few states until 1870.
        • The Fifteenth Amendment, passed after the Civil War, granted the vote to African Americans in both state and national elections.
        • Some southern states used literacy tests to disqualify African Americans from voting. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and 1970 outlawed these tests.
        • Poll taxes, or money payments required before voting, and grandfather clauses, excusing white voters from paying the tax, were devices used to discourage African Americans from voting. The Twenty-fourth Amendment banned poll taxes.
        • The voting rights acts, and later voting rights laws, brought the federal government directly into the electoral process in the states, ending discrimination against African Americans and increasing their political strength and participation in government.
       
    2. Twenty-sixth Amendment
      • This amendment lowered the voting age to 18 throughout the nation.
      • The amendment helped satisfy those young people who could be drafted into the military, but could not vote.
       
    3. U.S. Election Assistance Commission
       
    4. Oklahoma State Election Board
     

  6. Inflences on Voters:
     
    1. Personal Background of Voters
      • Voters' ages may affect their views and determine their voting decisions.
      • Education, religion, and racial or ethnic background affect voters' attitudes, but voters do not always vote in keeping with their background.
      • Cross-pressured voters, those caught between conflicting elements in their lives, may vote based on the issues and candidates.
       
    2. Loyalty to Political Parties
      • Because the majorty of American voters consider themselves either Republicans or Democrats, most vote for their party's candidates.
      • Not all members vote for their party's candidates. Some are strong party voters and others are weak party voters.
      • Independent voters, who have increased in numbers, do not belong to either major party, but are an important element in presidential elections.
       
    3. Issues in Election Campaigns
      • Many current voters are better informed than past voters because they are better educated, current issues have a greater impact on their personal lives, and telvision imparts information on issues. Still, most voters are not fully informed on campaign issues.
      • The 1980 presidential election demonstrated the importance of issues. The high rate of inflation, the high cost of living, and the high rate of unemployment were issues debated by the candidates that clearly helped Reagan win the election.
       
    4. The Candidate's Image  
    5. Propaganda
      • Political parties and candidates use ideas, information, and rumors in propaganda techniques.
      • Name calling, testimonials, and card stacking help to win votes.
      • Do negative campaign ads work?
       
    6. Profile of Regular Voters
      • Regular voters have positive attitudes toward government and citizenship.
      • Generally, regular voters have more education and higher than average income.
      • Middle-aged citizens have the highest voter turnout.
    7. Profile of Nonvoters
      • They may not meet citizenship, residency, and registration requirements.
      • The percentage of voters among those who are eligible has declined.
     

     
  7. Public Opinion:
     
    1. Political Socialization
      • Political socialization involves learned political beliefs and attitudes.
      • The parents' political part often becomes the party of their children.
      • Schools also play an important part.
       
    2. Political Culture
      • A political culture is a set of shared values and beliefs about the nation.
      • Belief in and support for liberty and freedom, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, political equality, private property rights, and individual achievement are part of United States political culture.
       
    3. Political Idelogy
      • A liberal believes the national government should be very active in helping invididuals and communities promote health, justice, and equal opportunity.
      • A conservative believes the role of government in society should be very limited and that individuals should be responsible for their own well-being.
      • Since the 1970s, most Americans consider themselves political moderates.
       
    4. Interest Groups
      • Members of interest groups share common goals and organize to influence government.
      • Interest groups are concerned only with a few issues or problems.
      • Interest groups draw their strength from the financial resources and number and expertise of their members.
      • Although membership is open to all, many people do not belong to such groups, even the people who might benefit most.
      • While interest groups have influence, their effectiveness is limited because many different groups compete, therefore no single group can control lawmakers or public officials.
      • A list of issues and groups
       
    5. The Work of Lobbyists
      • Many interest groups use lobbying to influence government policy.
      • Since 1995 lobbyists must register, report their activities, and disclose the amount of money spent to influence lawmakers.
      • Many lobbyists formerly worked for the government and know its politics and people. Other lobbyists are lawyers or public relations experts.
       
    6. Mass Media
      • Interest groups use the mass media to inform the public and create support for their views.
      • Print Media
        • The mass media has been called the government's fourth branch.
        • During the 1800s, newspapers promoted a sense of a national community.
        • After the 1960s, television increasingly became the major source of news.
        • Because of mergers, daily local newspapers in 98% of U.S. cities have no dompetition. Newspaper chains acount for 78% of daily circulation.
        • National weekly news magazines help set discussion agendas on national issues.
      • Electronic Media
        • Radio, television, and the Internet make up the electronic media.
        • Radio communicates political messages and provides a forum for opinion.
        • The Federal Communications Commission licenses broadcast stations and regulates the number of radio and TV stations any one source may control.
        • By the late 1980s, cable TV challenged the major networks' dominance in providing news and entertainment.
        • National public radio (NPR) and the public broadcasting system (PBS) in television provide alternatives to commercial network programming - depending on grants and donations for funding.
        • In the United States, print and nearly all broadcast media are privately owned.
        • All media have an obligation to serve the public interest. Thus they operate under rules set by government at various levels.
      • Setting the Public Agenda
        • The public agenda is a list of the societal problems that both political leaders and citizens agree need government attention.
        • The news media play a very important tole in setting the public agenda by highlighting some issues and ignoring others.
        • The news media's greatest power is to define reality for the American people. Issues that receive the greatest coverage are the ones people think are the most important.
        • The media also have a major impact on public opinion toward government and issues by influencing people's attitudes and values.
       
    7. Polling
      • In a scientific poll, the term universe refers to the group of people that are to be studied.
        • A representative sample is a small group of people typical of the universe.
          • Most pollsters use representative samples to measure public opinion.
        • Using a random sample gives everyone in the universe an equal chance of being selected.
        • A cluster sample is a group of people from the same geographical area.
      • A sampling error defines how much the results may differ from the sample universe.
        • Pollsters may weight their results for race, age, gender, or education.
        • The way a question is phrased can greatly influence people's responses.
        • Poll results can be influences by an interviewer's appearance or tone of voice.
      • Polls conducted through telephone interviews and questionnairs sent by mail are cheaper and more convenient than face-to-face interviews.
      • PollingReport.com
      • Are Public Opinion Polls Really Accurate?
       
    8. Types of Voting Systems
      • As part of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002, states received federal grant funding to implement new voting equipment that adheres to these minimum voting standards:
        • Notifies voters if they overvote, and gives them the opportunity to correct their ballots
        • Produces a permanent paper record with a manual audit capability
        • Provides disability access equal to the level of access, privacy and independence available to other voters
      • The law also mandates that states provide "at least one DRE or other voting system equipped for individuals with disabilities at each polling place." While many states utilize DRE technology to meet this requirement, many others use ballot marking devices or vote-by-phone systems for this purpose.
      • According to Electionline.org, the most widely-used technology in the 2008 presidential election was optical scan technology (56 percent of voters), followed by direct-recording electronic devices (31 percent of voters), lever machines (6 percent), hand-counted paper ballots (.52 percent) and punch card equipment (.14 percent).
         
        • Optical Scan System: Optical scan machines scan and tabulate the selections made on a paper ballot. Voters make their selection using a pen to fill in an oval or connect two lines.

          Jurisdictions in 49 states and the District of Columbia use optical scan technology in some capacity. Seven of these states use optical scan only to process absentee or mail ballots.
           

        • Direct Recording Electronic Voting Machine (DRE): DREs, often referred to as "touch-screen machines," display the ballot electronically and prompt the voter to make selections using a touch-screen or a dial. The machine then records the votes on a memory card.

          Thirty states currently use DRE machines in some capacity. Eighteen of these states have jurisdictions using DREs with a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT), while 17 states have jurisdictions that use DRE without a VVPAT. Additionally, seventeen states with jurisdictions using DRE machines as their primary voting system provide paper ballots in the event of equipment failure.
           

        • Punch Cards and Lever Machines: Lever machines are mechanical systems that tabulate votes after the voter pulls a lever. With a punch card system, a voter punches a hole in the ballot card opposite their choice and places the ballot in a ballot box or tabulating device.

          One of the goals of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was to eliminate the use of punch cards and lever machines. One state has jurisdictions that use lever machines, and one state has jurisdictions that use punch card machines.
           

        • Vote-by-Phone System: Five states (Connecticut, Maine, Oklahoma, New Hampshire and Vermont) offer vote-by-phone systems to permit voters with disabilities, the elderly and others to vote privately and independently at polling places. These systems allow voters to use a telephone keypad and audio prompts to mark a paper ballot, which is then printed out in an election office to be counted with the rest of the ballots on Election Day.
           
        • Ballot Marking Devices: As with the DRE machines, ballot markers display the ballot electronically and prompt the voter to make their selection on a touch-screen. These devices, however, do not record votes - they mark the voters' choices on an optical scan paper ballot, which is then tabulated by a separate optical scan machine.

          Twenty-nine states have jurisdictions using ballot marking devices.

         
      • National Association of Secretaries of State