Unit 5

• Linkage Institutions

  • Political parties, elections, campaigns, interest groups and the media
• American Voting Trends

  • Preisdential Elections: 55%-60% of eligible Americans
  • Midterm Elections: 30%-35% of eligible Americans
• Reasons for not voting:

  • Too Busy - 20%
  • Sick - 15%
  • Not Interested - 12%
  • Out of town - 10%
  • Didn't Like Candidates - 7.7%
  • Regisration Problems - 7%
  • Forgot - 4%
  • Other - 10%
• Steps to get Elected Pres.

  1. Announce Candidacy
  2. Fundraise
  3. Campaign w/ Party
  4. Campaign against other party's candidate
  5. Collect enough delegates through primaries
  6. Formal nomination. at party convention
  7. "Move to the middle" seeking indpendents
  8. Win at least 270 electoral votes on election day
  9. Be elected by electoral college
  10. Inauguration (Jan. 20)
• Flaws in the Electoral College System

  • Winner of popular vote does not always become Pres.
  • Nothing requires electors to follow the votes of their states
  • If no one wins majority of electoral votes, House of Reps. decides election
  • Big "swing" states become key to an election, and candidates spend all their time and money there
• Congressional Elections

  • Incumbents reign supreme
  • Most districts consider safe for one of the parties
  • Leads too many one sided elections - which decreases voter turnout and increases partisanship
• The Media

  • Basics of mass communication
  • Media is pural for medium, or the way the message gets from sender to reciever
• 4th Branch of Gov.

  Importance

  • Gov. uses media to get info to public

  Roles of Media

  • Gatekeeper - what topics become national issues
  • Scorekeeper - who is winning, losing in the game
  • Watchdog - investigate and examines for the people
• Media Powers

  Playing Favorites

  • Media is often tough on front-runners
  • Tolerant on underdogs

  New News

  • Internet, deregulation, social media and globalization have made the last decade a new era for media
  • Hard to predict the future of the industry
• Media Bias

  Comercial Bias

  • Higher # of viewers = higher ad fees

  Bad News

  • More viewers
  • Cover stress filled stories over a positive happy story

  Fairness

  • Not always giving both sides a say

  Being first to cover sorry trends to be more important than the accuracy of the story
• Interest Groups

  • Lately interest groups have become synonyms with "evil"
  • Interest groups hope to promote, persuade, or prevent something
  • In a typical day, senator can meet with 15 lobbyists in their office, plus those that approach them in the halls of Congress
• Two Views on Interest Groups

  Negative

  • Gov. is influenced by interest groups and this dilutes the power of the people

  Positive

  • Interest groups is the people
  • How else can you efficiently get the ear of your Reps. in a democracy of 300 million people
  • Free speech is most effectively practiced by interest groups
• Ticket Splitting

  • Voting w/ one party for one office and w/ another party for other offices
• Closed Primaries

  • Elections to select party nominees in which only people who have registered in advance with the party can for that party's candidates, thus encouraging greater party
• National Convention

  • The meeting of party delegates every four years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform
• National Committee

  • One of the institutions that keeps the party operating between conventions
  • The national committee is composed of reps. from the states and territories
• National Chairperson

  • Responsible for the day activities of the party and usually does a lot of the handpicking of presidential nominations
• Coalition

  • A group of individuals with a common interest on which every political party depends
• Critical Election

  • An electoral "earthquake" where new issues emerge, nw coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party
• Party Realignment

  • The displacement of the majority party by the minority party
  • Usually during a critical election period
• New Deal Coalition

  • A coalition formed by the Democrats, who dominated American politics from the 1930's to the 1960's
• Hard Money

  • Can be donated to a specific candidate
• Soft Money

  • Funds given to politica organizations in unlimited amounts