Brandon Ice

POLI 220 Chapter 5: Political Parties and Interest Groups

June 9, 2015

The most important main ideas (list 3 to 5) in this chapter are:

1. Political parties are good for the election of local and statewide leaders. Political parties are also good for governance which means that a certain party wants to represent you as a citizen of a state and look out for your well-being and help pass laws that you elected them for to do his or her job. It give them authority it gives them a chance to put their name on a bill or something that could be beneficiary for the Americana citizen living in the state. Also the elected officer is protect and defend the territory he holds if he is like a senator, house of rep, governor, state senator, mayor of a town or etc. Also political parties are good for helping with policymaking. If citizens want to see certain laws passed then it’s up to the elected officer to make sure they get something started or work on passing that piece of legislation. However there are some pelicans who do not want to do any of these things and break their promise to the American citizens they represent.

2. Party characteristics including influence will vary by state. This means that the candidates will get together and talk about their positions on certain issues and will argue their points across to the citizens of the state while their campaigning and they might be from different parties like the Democrats, Republicans, Tea Party, Libertarian, and the Mountain Party.

3.There is organized interest among the candidates who are trying to influencing each and all state citizens they can get vote for them and they are taking every necessary precaution to make them the most like the most important and etc. this happens in state elections

4. The interest groups locally and statewide are speaking up or arguing in defense of different points of view of their group and other citizens and they push forth the policy of agenda for policymakers and the elected officers.

5. Interest groups statewide or locally can change or alter the entire political environment around them and their surrounding communities because they have so much influence on political leaders and politics statewide.

The key terms (list 3 to 5; include the page number of each for reference) and their

1. Direct primary pg. 117 – this is the election where voters narrow down the candidates who are running and usually narrow it down between two parties the democrats and republicans most likely to later run in the general election which takes place in November.

2. Party Colum Ballot pg. 128 – this is usually a ballot shown to voters that list all candidates and their parties this is also called straight party voting.

3. Lobbying pg. 134 – this is part of the state and local governments in which affects policy makers because they are heavily influenced to make decisions that would comport the government based on the interest of the group pursuing the desired action.

4. Electioneering pg. 138 - This term means the practice of fully supporting the candidates who are running and their parties.

5. In-house lobbyists pg. 135- these are people who members employees of membership groups, associations or even their own place of business/ institution who are for their own orgenaization and representing it.

The important people (list 3 to 5; include the page number of each for reference) and

their contribution to our understanding of the main ideas in this chapter include:

1. Austin Ramney pg. 126 – 127 - was a researcher on political parties and elections and created the idea that there were numerous ways to measure the party’s control and interparty competition of a state’s party system this became known as the Ramney Index. How the index works is that it measures competition of the party by: proportion of gubernatorial, votes won, the proportion of the state senate and state house seat won, and finally the proportion of the overall governorship and the two legislative chambers are controlled by a party.

2. Mancur Olson pg. 132 – 133 - was an economist who came up with a solution called free –rider problem which is the idea that a person will try to benefit public goods without paying for them. She states there are usually three reasons why people join groups and they are peer pressure, coercion or receipt of some type of selective benefit. With her hypotheses this was tested and some people joined groups and some didn’t.

3. David Truman pg. 132 - was a political researcher and scholar in the early 1950’s who came up with a theory called the disturbance theory the theory proposed states that there would shifts in interest groups and cause and big emerge to response. Truman argued that voluntary associations would help the human need. Potential interest would happen sometimes and Truman said when natural disasters occur or deaths or the demographics shift and the economy changes there will be new groups that will emerge in the status quo.

The concepts, ideas and facts I learned from this chapter (list 3) that I didn’t know before include:

1. I never knew there was so much stuff to know about political parties when it came to state and local government.

2. I learned that lobbyists do a lot more than try to influence political leaders in state and local government.

3 I learned that that interest groups do a lot of things with the state and local governments. There are so many groups and organizations out there for people to join that anybody can be part of an interest group which supports a specific cause.

The single most important question I have after reading this chapter is (describe):

The single most question I have from reading this chapter is why in most states is it always a republican and a democrat running for office? Don’t you think they could create a new party that isn’t too liberal or too conservative and is just right for the American citizens that everyone like it would make voting a lot more easier and government a lot more smoother don’t you think?