PSCI 2305 Week 5 Notes

what is Interest Groups?

 Interest Groups – group of people together for their similar policy goals and working together in many campaigns to achieve the goals.

 They work against other interest groups in lobbying efforts to propose specific pieces of  legislation to congress.

 The provide useful and specialized information to the public and government.  Interest groups are not political parties.

 Interest groups tend to have 1 goal while political parties have more than 1 goal.

 Interest Groups

 Political Parties

Policy Specialists - particular  subject and subject expert

Policy Generalists – vague and general  ideas on policies

Put more money into politics

Rarely welcome the support of interest  groups

 Theories of Government and Politics

 Pluralist Theory – many different groups compete for influence on the government  Each group has equal or almost equal power to compete with

what is Pluralist Theory?

 Hyperpluralist Theory – groups of organizations and interest groups competing for  influence.

 The groups are so powerful that the influence the government has been drastically  weakened.

 Elite Theory – upperclassmen and elite have the influence over government policies  Power is held by a select few

 Usually the ones to win the bigger elections and policy decisions.

 Generally resort to Lobbying

∙ See page 129 in We The People by Thomas E. Patterson for the definition.  Hyperpluralism

 Iron Triangle – a network of groups with different controls and influences on  government policies

what is Hyperpluralist Theory?

We also discuss several other topics like hnfe

 Critiques

 Groups are too powerful and government too weak

 Collective Action

 Actions taken by groups of people with shared goals to achieve a common change.  Public goods are usually what are gained

 No individual is excludable

 Problems

 There’s no incentive to join any group that’s already providing

∙ The Free­Rider program is one of the most successful interest groups PSCI 2305 Week 6 Notes

 No mention of parties in the Constitution

 The founders were weary of parties

 Federalist 10, Madison talked about the “mischiefs of factions”  Washington warned of the “baneful acts of party”

 Even though the founders were opposed to parties, they quickly rose  Republicans and Democrats

 E.E. Schatschneider (1942) wrote, “Democracy is unthinkable without  parties”

 Organizations seeking to influence the government by electing their members to important government offices

 Seek control, not just influence

 Broad-based parties in U.S.

 Representing basic political ideas to which highly diverse elements of society  may be attracted. We also discuss several other topics like andrea meltzer fsu

 Why Parties?

 Facilitate collective action

 In the electoral and policy-making process

 Rational for people to “free ride”: abstain from voting

 Parties help candidates mobilize their voters

 More difficult to “renege” on agreements

 Deal with the problem of ambition

 Individual ambition could undermine the bases for cooperation between  politicians

 Parties channel those ambitions such that they are not weakened by  ambitious politicians

 Tasks of Parties We also discuss several other topics like exceptions to zaitsev's rule

 Pick candidates

 Recruit people to run for office

∙ “Eligibility Pool”

 Formally nominate candidates to the ballot

∙ The Process of how parties select their candidates

♦ Process to how much support can be given

 Conduct election campaigns

 Provide information to voters about candidates and policy

 Run Campaigns

 Give Cues to Voters (Parties are a Heuristic)

 Articulate Policies

 Link government to public

 Give voters a coherent public expression on public policy issues  Define the public issues, creating a “public agenda” Don't forget about the age old question of hutton gradualism

 Govern

 Components of Parties

 Three parts:

 Party in the electorate

∙ These are the voters in an election; those who identify with a political  party

∙ Party identification: a citizen’s self-proclaimed preference for one party  or the other

♦ Republican, Democrat, or Independent

∙ Ticket-splitting

♦ Voting with one party for one office and with another party for other offices

♦ Independents most likely to split tickets

 Party as an organization

∙ National Convention: The meeting of party delegates to choose a  presidential ticket

♦ Formal send-of

♦ Approve the party platform

∙ National Committee: Keeps the party operating between Conventions ♦ They support the organization

 Fund Raising

 Party in government

∙ Party members elected to government

♦ Goal to change policy

∙ Candidates are less dependent on parties to get elected

♦ They still need help

 Help can be given through money

 Still does not win the election

 Also information can be helpful

 Recognition

 Credibility

♦ Once elected the party becomes very important to the candidate ∙ Coalition

♦ Group of individuals with a common goal which every political party depends on

♦ There’s diferent types of coalition depending on the reasons for  getting together

∙ Parties = platforms & politicians = promises

♦ Politicians need to keep promises for a higher chance of reelection ♦ Generally the promises are kept in office We also discuss several other topics like joanna lambert cu boulder

 Framers are skeptical about factions because they thought they would use  violence to achieve their goals. Don't forget about the age old question of east 240 study guide

 Interest groups are factions

 Political parties are factions

 Parties in American History

 Party Eras

 Historical periods where majority votes stay with the party in power ∙ Ex. Voters side with Democrats for a number of elections then shift to  other parties later elections

 Critical Election

 Massive change in electoral politics

∙ New issues + coalitions = emerge in 1 election

♦ When a candidate running for office talks about bringing God back  into politics

∙ Often occur at national crisis

 Party Realignment

 Periods, elections, parties and policy making dramatically shift  The Progressive Era (1896-1916)

 Wanted to undermine party machines by legislating away patronage and  voting corruption

 Advocated for:

 Direct primary

 Secret ballot

 Civil Servant Tests

 Direct election of Senators

 Recalls, initiatives, and references

 Progressives thought the party machines were undermining democracy  The Era of Divided Government

 1968-Present

 Party dealignment and neutrality: people are indiferent from the two  parties

∙ Movement towards more conservative practices

♦ Particularly with economic policy

 Since 1968, only 12 years of unified government

 Parties are still important

 Not as important as they used to be

 Party is not the chief source of info………..but

 PID is the best predictor of vote choice

 Majority of people still ID with a party

 Partisanship is increasing

∙ With both public and legislators

 State and national party organizations are getting stronger

 Parties are still integral to organization and operation of government  How parties influence opinions

 Parties act a policy heuristic for public

 Public = limited political knowledge

 Partisans take cues from party about policy positions

 Efective mental short-cut, but may contribute to underdeveloped policy  views

 The Downs Model

 Rational-Choice Theory

 Assumes individuals act in their own best interest

∙ Weighs costs and benefits of alternatives

∙ Assumes the individual has perfect info

 Downs Model

 Voters maximize chances that policies they favor are adopted by  government

∙ If you’re rational and goal is to maximize chances, a rational voter  would vote for the party with the same policies.

∙ Parties want to maximize the number of voters to vote

 Median Voter Theory

 Majority rule voting system that will select the outcome most preferred by  the median voter 

∙ Parties have an incentive to offer moderate ideological views ♦ To attract the highest number of voters 

 Why a two-party system? 

 4 usual PS explanations: 

∙ Dualist theories: continual duality of interests in the US leads to two  parties 

♦ Party in v. party out of power

∙ Cultural theories: compromise encourages two parties 

∙ Social consensus: general agreement on fundamental values ♦ Disagreements come second 

 Institutional Theory 

 Duverger’s law: 

 Single-member, plurality electoral systems (e.g. presidential systems)  produce two-party systems 

∙ Races where there is only 1 winner 

 Multi-member districts with proportional representation leads to  multiparty systems 

∙ Incentive to finish second, third, fourth 

♦ These still ofer some representation in parliament if first is not won PSCI 2305 Week 7 Notes

Campaigns  

 Series of planned events made to influence votes for candidates or policies  Why Campaigns are important

 Educational

 Candidates allow for discussion on their positions and important issues  they believe in

 Link voters to candidates

 Politicians have incentives for taking the position that voters support  Elections that follow are mechanism for evaluation

 Democracy is dependent on competition

 Democracy is defined by opportunity to vote and vote for meaningful  choice  

 Many benefits of Campaigns disappear in the absence of political competition  Politicians have 3 goals

 (Re)-Election

 Most useful

 Power in Congress

 Good public policy

 Goals of a campaign

 To get the most votes

 This does not mean that they convince people that one candidate’s  positions are better than the other to be efective

∙ People who are uninterested don’t pay attention

∙ People who are interested won’t change

♦ RAS Model

 Receive/Resisting

 Contingent on amount of political awareness

 Accepting/Rejecting

 Contingent on consistency w/ prior beliefs

 Sampling

 Contingent on current priority issues

 Unengaged people

 Won’t even try/do not receive political arguments

 Engaged people

 Do not typically accept political arguments contrary to their  beliefs

 What is a campaign really?

 Campaigns are a fight for issue primacy

 Issue ownership

 Makes a candidate’s perceived strongest issues at the forefront of the  campaign

 Doesn’t need to be policy-based

∙ Reputations based on policy or valence

∙ Candidates can have advantages

♦ Some advantages could be non-policy characteristics

 “Seems like a guy you’d have a beer with.”

 Primacy: Example

 What did Trump and Clinton want the 2016 general election to be about?  Trump

∙ Bringing jobs back to America, Wall, “Make America Great Again”  Clinton

∙ Healthcare, downplay sexism, youths, being friends with other  countries, “I’m not Donald Trump.”

 How are campaigns done?

 Direct appeals

 Meetings, lobbyists, via speeches, advertisements, media, and news  Microtargeting

 Making appeals on an individual basis

 Goal?

 Get most votes/motivate turnout for candidate

 Overcoming Diversity

 Homestyle

 “Although I may not be one of you, I understand you”

 Actions, Impressions as well as statements

 Designed to build trust with constituents through

∙ Qualification

∙ Identification

∙ Empathy

 Strategies for getting Votes

 Once voter preferences are identified

 Campaigns attempt

∙ Conversion

♦ Converting supporters from one candidate to another

♦ Value

 Simultaneously helps you and hurts opponent

♦ Most difficult to execute

 Think RAS

∙ Demobilization

♦ Identify those likely to vote for opponent and prevent them from  voting

♦ Value

 Reduces opponent votes

♦ In most cases this is illeagal

∙ Mobalization

♦ Identify those likely to vote for you and get them to vote

♦ Value

 Increases vote total

♦ Most often used

 Media coverage and campaigns

 They provide information that is related to campaigns

 Credible

 Focus on the issues citizens consider and the weights attached to them  Afect the tone of the race

 More competition = more critical coverage

 Political Advertising

 Persuade and motivate

 Not trying to change your minds

 Cognitive

 Reasons usually expressed through words

 Emotional

 Stirs feelings usually through symbols, graphics, imagery, music  Positive

∙ Hope and Enthusiasm

∙ More polarizing

∙ Motivate Participation

∙ Reinforces prior convictions

∙ Candidates go positive when:

♦ Incumbents

♦ Front Runners

♦ Party registration advandate

 Negative

∙ Fear

∙ Cognitive ads

∙ Why?

♦ Humans are sensitive to recognizing threats

♦ Challengers give reasons to vote against the incumbent

∙ Most common mechanism is trying to invoke fear

♦ Stimulates attentiveness to relevant info

♦ Encourages people to re-think their choices

∙ Candidates go negative when:

♦ Close races

♦ Open seat races

♦ Challengers

♦ Party registration disadvantage

∙ Going negative doesn’t last very long

 Most Ads use both cognitive and emotional aspects

PSCI 2305 Week 8 Notes

 Popular Sovereignty

 Governmental power lies with the people

 Government exists for citizen benefit

 Governments who don’t protect the people should be dissolved  Federalist #10

 Argued against factions and the “mischiefs of factions in an electoral system  Logic of Elections

 America = representative democracy

 Delegation of authority  principal/agent problem

 Regular, free, and competitive elections where all adult citizens can vote are  a hallmark of modern democratic governments

 Campaigns and Elections

 “Democracy is the worst from of government…Except for all the others” –  Churchill

 Citizens choose their agents based on performance

 Elections incentivize entrepreneurs/organizations to solve free-rider and PA  problems

 Election Basics

 3 types

 Referendums and Initiatives

∙ West coast

∙ State voters approve/disapprove proposed legislation put forth by  government

∙ Brexit, FARC Referendum

♦ Initiative

 Legislation proposed by citizens (interest groups, policy  

entrepreneurs, etc.) to be voted on, up or down

 CA Prop 187, AZ Prop 209

 Party nominations

∙ Primary

♦ Participants vote for preferred candidate at polling place  

(open/closed)

∙ Caucus

♦ Closed meeting of party members to determine nominations ♦ Super Delegate (Democratic Party) an unelected delegate free to  support any candidate for the presidential nomination at the party’s national convention

 General elections for office holders

∙ HOR

♦ First past the post

∙ Senate

♦ State legs until 17th Amdt

♦ First past the post

∙ President

♦ Winner take all

♦ Electoral College

 Elections

 States are in charge of running elections

 Historic Institutional Context of Congressional Elections

 The Great Compromise

 Bi-cameral Legislature

 The House was capped at 435 in the 1920s

 Why important?

 Before 1930, seats were only added after every census

 After this, reapportionment has meant Reps could lose their seats  Contours the possible choices for future action once a decision is made  Leaves uneven histories of enfranchisement/representation  State decisions afect Congressional Elections

 Congressional Elections afect:

∙ Responsiveness

∙ Resources

∙ Well-being

 Congressional Districts and Redistricting

 Decided by States

 Usually single member districts

 Usually drawn with widely diferent populations inside

 Redistricting

 Re-draw lines determining which voters are represented at each legislative  seat

 Federal

 State

 Local

 Why re-draw district lines?

 People move

 Lopsided districts where some votes are worth more than others  Constitutional mandate to redraw lines

 Baker v. Carr, 1962 “One person, one vote”

 Districts have to have roughly equal populations

 Census is to count the number of people we have

 Gerrymandering

 Particular type of re-districting

 Goal

 Have a particular type of representation

 Population must be equal in all districts

 Thornburg v Gingles

 Why Redistricting Matters?

 Politicians choose their voters

 Skewing political representation

 Prisoners as constituents

 Eliminating incumbents or challengers

 State Senator Obama 1999

 Diluting the votes of traditionally underrepresented groups

 Packing and Cracking

 Cracking – cracking up the power of a district, to dilute the power of a vote  Packing – pack a bunch of people in a district

 Deciding to Vote

 U.S. has low voter turnout

 Some argue it’s irrational to vote (Down)

 Political Efficacy

 Civic Duty

 Registering to Vote

 A system adopted by states requiring voters to register in advance of election day

 States have diferent registration laws

 Same day, early, absentee

 Motor Voter Act of 1993

 Voter registration laws afect electoral outcomes

 How Do Voters Decide?

 Past Performance/Incumbency

 Retrospective voting

∙ Incumbent performance

∙ Majority party

 Assessing Issues/Policy Options

 Personal experience

 News media (indirect experience)

 Single-issue voters

 Cues and Shortcuts

 New media

 Candidates’ campaigns

 Opinion leaders

 Party label

∙ PID best single predictor of vote choice

 Campaigns and Elections

 Political parties, interest groups, candidates’ campaigns reduce information  for voters

PSCI 2305 Week 9 Notes

 Media in Campaigns (10/23/17)

 Importance of mass media

 Primary source of info about politics for people

∙ Signaling

∙ Watchdog

∙ Common Carrier

∙ Partisan Advocate

 Traditional Views of Media Efects

 Expected

 Information

 Persuasion

 Selective Perception

 Tendency not to notice, more quickly forget stimuli that contradict prior  beliefs

 Agenda-setting

 Importance of issue on a national/state/local scale

 Efect increased by

 Lead story status

 Vivid story, emotional engagement

 Lack of political sophistication of viewer

 Priming

 Exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another stimulus  Manipulates which aspects of issues weigh most heavily in our opinion about  a candidate. (10/25/17)

 Cognitive misers

 Stereotypes

 Heuristics

 Framing

 Defines the an element of rhetoric to encourage/discourage certain  interpretations

 Goal

 To persuade a political audience of one side of an argument or another  “Framing” a story

 Reduces complex issues to simple parts

 Frames generated by

 Culture

 Elites

∙ Pro-choice vs. Pro-life

 Media

 Not just the news…

 Entertainment shows may also have efects

 Agenda-setting

 Priming

 Even “better” than the news

 Fake News

 Type of propaganda

 Consists of deliberate misinformation

 Spread via traditional print and broadcast news

 More recently via social media

 Not knowing is cognitively uncomfortable

 Humans are uncomfortable when they don’t know things

 Deliberate Misinformation

 Spreads because readers don’t take the time to properly verify  False Headlines

 A news headline may state as fact but body says diferent

∙ Clickbait

 Social Media Sharing

 Show a large number of news items in short time means users might not  take time to verify

 Popular + widely-shared ≠ true

 Satire

 Satire news or comedy news often begins with an aspect of truth then  purposefully twists it to comment on society

∙ EX. The Onion

 Why do we look at fake news?

 Confirmation bias (Zaller)

 Uncertainty is cognitively uncomfortable

 Little diference to our brain between looking at cute animals and consuming  sugar

 Dopamine and decrease in reward overtime

 Willing to put up with disappointment

 As long as there’s an occasional payout

PSCI 2305 Week 10 Notes

 Paul Manaford CNN video

 Indictment – turning self in

 Pay attention to story

 Public Policymaking

 What is it?

 Choices governments make in response to a political issue or public  concern

Type of Public Policy

Definition

Example

Congressional Statute

Law passed by congress.

Social Security Act.

Presidential Action

Decision by President.

U.S. Troops invade Iraq.

Court Decision

Opinion by SCOTUS.

SCOTUS rules school  segregation  

unconstitutional.

Budgetary Choices

Legislative enactment of  Taxes & expenditures.

The Federal Budget

Regulation

Agency adoption of a  regulation.

FDA Approval of a new  drug.

 Economic Policy

 Monetary Policy & Federal Reserve Board

 Manipulates the supply of money to keep inflation in check.

 Set discount rate, buy/sell bonds

 Fiscal Policy & the Federal Budget

 Keynesian: deficit spending to stimulate economy (i.e. demand side)

 Supply side: cut taxes

 Policy Processes Steps

 Problem Identification

 Agenda Setting

 Formulation

 Adoption

 And budgeting

 Implementation

 Evaluation

 Problem Identification

 What problem afects the public or specific group in society?  A problem arises when citizens think that a current condition that they  face is unreasonable.

 A policy problem

 A situation that produces needs and for which relief from government  action is sought

 A problem must be seen as appropriate for governmental action  Policy Agenda

 Issues that attract the serious attention of public officials

 Political issues arise when people disagree about a problem and how to fix it  Not all policy issues will be considered

 A government’s policy agenda changes regularly

 May take years to get item on policy agenda, then several more to act ∙ Healthcare

∙ Immigration

 Agenda-Setting

 To Achieve agenda status:

 Problem must become an issue that requires government attention  An issue reaches agenda status when there is enough support in a  competitive political environment

 Policy-making and linkage institutions can all afect the agenda  Presidents and media are primary agenda-setters

 Linkage Institutions

 In a democracy, the people’s concerns should afect policy

 But how does the public concerns reach agenda status?

 One way is through linkage institutions

∙ Political channels through which people’s concerns become political  issues on the policy agenda

 Types of Agendas

 Institutional (action)

 The problems which government officials feel obliged to give active and  serious attention

∙ Including, the legislative agenda, president’s agenda, or the Court’s  agenda

 Can be mandatory (the budget) or discretionary (health care reform)  Agendas are numerous

 President

 Look to presidential speeches, directives, memos

 Legislature

 Roll-call votes or committee hearings

 SCOTUS

 What’s on the docket? Oral arguments?

 The public, media, etc. agendas

 Loss of Agenda Status

 It is difficult to achieve agenda status, but relatively easy to lose agenda  status. Why?

 Decline in public interest or concern

 Realization of significant sots

∙ Political, monetary, or otherwise

 Issue resolution

 Summing up AGENDA

 Endless number of issues government could address

 Must be on the agenda to receive serious consideration

 Both president and media play primary roles in setting the agenda  What are some issues on the agenda today?

 Gun Control

∙ Do you support or oppose stricter gun laws in the United States? ∙ Do you support or oppose requiring background checks for all gun  buyers?

∙ No policy enacted

∙ Agenda is event-driven

♦ Virginia tech

♦ Sandy Hook Elementary

∙ Faded from agenda, even with news coverage of other gun events