pol 324 with lown

8/10/2019 POL 324 With Lown

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http://www.fairvote.org/congressional-and-presidential-primaries-open-closed-semi-closed-and-top-two#.UmyI43AgfTo

The First Party System

Federalists vs. Republicans, 1790s-1810s

Federalists, led by Hamilton and Adams, wanted a powerful national government to

push for aggressive economic development

Republicans, led by Jefferson and Madison, wanted a small national government to

leave the citizens mostly free of taxation or government interference

Federalists controlled government through 1790s, Republicans dominated after 1800;

Federalists disintegrated as a national party after War of 1812

The Second Party System

Democrats (small national govt) vs. Whigs (government action to improve Americansociety), 1820s-1850s

Competing factions within the old Republican Party split into two new opposing parties

during Andrew Jackson's presidency

The Third Party System

Democrats vs. Republicans, 1850s-1890s

Sectional dispute over slavery led to collapse of Second Party System by 1850s

Whig Party collapsed, largely replaced in the North by the antislavery Republican Party

after 1854

Democrats became mainly a proslavery regional party based in the South

The Fourth Party System

Republicans vs. Democrats, 1890s-1930s

Democrats remained strong in South, also gained support from western farmers and

northern urban immigrant communities

Pro-business Republicans dominated presidential politics

After 1896, Democrats co-opted some of the farmer radicalism of the Populist

Movement

The Fifth Party System

Democrats vs. Republicans, 1930s-?

President Franklin Roosevelt built new Democratic voter coalition of union workers,

southerners, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, urbanites, and intellectuals

Republicans became more strongly identified as the party of business and the wealthy

The Fifth Party System
http://www.fairvote.org/congressional-and-presidential-primaries-open-closed-semi-closed-and-top-two#.UmyI43AgfTohttp://www.fairvote.org/congressional-and-presidential-primaries-open-closed-semi-closed-and-top-two#.UmyI43AgfTohttp://www.fairvote.org/congressional-and-presidential-primaries-open-closed-semi-closed-and-top-two#.UmyI43AgfTohttp://www.fairvote.org/congressional-and-presidential-primaries-open-closed-semi-closed-and-top-two#.UmyI43AgfTo


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Democrats vs. Republicans, 1930s-?

President Franklin Roosevelt built new Democratic voter coalition of union workers,

southerners, immigrants, Catholics, Jews, urbanites, and intellectuals

Republicans became more strongly identified as the party of business and the wealthy

Andrew Jacksons Spoils System?

The Great DepressionNotice that prior to this, in the 4thparty system, those on the progressive leftwanted:

1.Industry and labor regulation

2.Adjustments in currency policy

Franklin Roosevelt brought more to the Democratic Party than a coalition of

voters; he also charted its philosophical and policy course for the next several

decades. His response to theGreat Depression was theNew Deal;he redefined

the role of the federal government in American life.

****************************

******************************Elections in the House of Representatives

How many representatives are elected?

How do we decide who wins?

Elections in the SenateHow many representatives are elected?


Election of the President

How many representatives are elected?
http://www.shmoop.com/intro/history/us/the-great-depression.htmlhttp://www.shmoop.com/intro/history/us/fdr-s-new-deal.htmlhttp://www.shmoop.com/intro/history/us/fdr-s-new-deal.htmlhttp://www.shmoop.com/intro/history/us/the-great-depression.html


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Plurality ruleones in which the candidate with the most votes wins:

I.E. First past thepost elections

Does NOT need a majority

Majority formulacandidates MUST achieve a majority (50.1%) to win

May result in runoff elections

Alternative votevotes are transferred if no candidate is declared the winner

There are three types here as well:

The List PR system

The Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system

The Single Transferable Vote (STV) system

Duvegers Law:aplurality electoral system will always yield a two-party political system

The other piece that can be inferred from this is that a PR system will yield a

multi-party system

*******************Political Scientists likedparty governmentpartially because it made sense:

when in competition, two parties would converge to the median voter as predicted by Downs

They viewed this convergence as democratic, because which voter is the median is

determined by everyones preferences.

MORE ON PG

Voters do not vote on the basis of liking a candidate. Because the individual candidate isirrelevant in terms of policy.

Parties brand name is important for a number of reasons

Parties will act to protect it and tarnish that of the other party

Individual members have an incentive to change the label for their own benefit


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The party empowers its leadership in the House to hold all of the important positions to force

members to vote with the party, even if they dont want to!

Because of this, a party is responsiblefor the policies it does or does not implement. All

the members of the Partyshare the blame and praise resulting from the policies. It is

clear to the public who should get credit or blame also: the members of the majority

party.

o members of a party dont vote against their partys policies like in the current

Congress.

central focus of both Procedural Cartel Theory and Strategic Party

Government is that Parties work tirelessly to protect their own

reputation while tarnishing their opponents from quiz. And I know

that PCT is kinda of a subgroup of SPG.

SPG:

What does SPG add to PCT?

Helps us to understand WHEN the party leadership will exert influence on members

It also helps us understand the consequences, especially in terms of party unity and electoral

response

----------------------------------------------Teamsmenship (according to Lee):parties have begun to work against each other forthe sake of working against each other, not for legislative goals in and of themselves

when minority members who were on record in support of legislation,will then vote against it,

when their votes are needed to pass it. Changing vote last minute by minority party members

when majority party needs those votes.

This isnt much of a problem in the House where the majority party can usually pass

legislation.

In the Senate, however, this is a big problem because of the sixty (60)vote threshold

(3/5th majority ends fillibuters.) The minority party can easily stop the majority party

from passing legislation.

If the president is popular the president is much more persuasive in terms of getting members

of Congress to support his agenda.

The President is most popular in his honeymoon period.

This is the time period in which the President is most likely to get significant legislation passed

through Congress.

The president usually has major problems in passing his agenda after the midterm

election of Congress halfway through his term:


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Usually his core voters become complacent whereas voters that are opposed to his agenda

become motivated

This leads to hisparty nearly always losing seats in every midterm election

This means it is even harder for the president to persuade individual members of Congress to

support his agenda in the final two years of his terms.

The Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee are the national

branches of their respective parties.

They are made up of all the state party chairs, high ranking leaders, and leaders of

national Republican and Democratic organizations.

Party building involves setting up programs that try to enlarge the party and foster its activities

at all levels:

Long term Fundraising abilities

Candidate recruitment

Services for candidates

Building human capital in the Party

Outreach to new constituents

Party Predation involves ending or minimizing these programs and redeploying resources and

staff towards lobbying Congress for the presidents agendaand working to reelect the President

rather then long term considerations.

*Galvin finds that Democrats have tended to engage in party predation rather than partybuilding. In contrast Republican Presidents have tried to invest in the RNC and its capacities.

-because the Democrats were the majority party during much of the 5thparty

system. They did not need to build the party to have a natural majority. In contrast, the

Republicans needed to engage in long term activities to move themselves toward parity

with the Democrats.

-Clinton switched from party predation to party building in his relation to the DNC.

+Obama appears to have moved back to a predation role with the party

Closed Primary. You must register with a party in advance on your voter registration form.

Open Primariesor pick-a-primary ballots.Voters show up and pick which partys ballot they

wish to vote in on that day. Cross-over voting is allowed. However, you can only vote in one

partys primary.

Blanket PrimariesOpen and Closed primaries are the most common. Blanket primaries are

unconstitutional. These involve listing all the candidates on a single ballot.


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Non-partisan primaries are similar, except that party labels are not listed on the ballots. NO

LABELS Judicial and school board elections are often non-partisan. There is usually a run off.

Runoff Primaries Multiple candidates run, and the top two engage in a runoff election for the

nomination a few weeks later

**Parties would prefer to pick the candidates that they view as being the most likely to winoffice. This involves compromising the ideological purity of the preferred candidates.**

**Primaries can force Parties to sometimes accept candidates they dont likebc educated voters

vote for extreme (Bad according to Dow, bc need to appeal to median voters)**

**Primaries also prevent parties in Congress from implementing Party Government**

Because candidates can win primaries without the support of their party leadership, they

have little incentive to adhere to the party position as opposed to what their constituents

or donors might want

**Parties should also dislike primaries because they are costly in terms of campaigns and they often

end up damaging candidates prior to the general election

**Party primaries allow voters to have input into who will be running on the partys ticket, yet not all

voters turn out.

The Presidential Nomination System

Presidents are nominated by 50 very different states by state contests that typically occur from

January before a presidential election until right before a party convention.

The party convention is where the presidential candidate is actually nominated by his or her

party, based largely on the results of these contests. ([most candidates that are nominatedhave gotten 50%+1 delegates.. slim margin]

Primary Elections:

Voters vote for a candidate (ballots. one vote per person)

Candidates get delegates based on either one of two principles depending on the state and

party:

Principles of Delegate Assignment

Winner-Take-All (R)

Who ever gets the most votes wins all of the states delegates

Only in Republican Presidential Primaries

Proportional Representation (D/R)

Candidates get a certain number of delegates based on the proportion of votes they get in a

state or Congressional district

Every Democratic and some Republican State Primaries use this


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Caucuses: (groups of people/voters/citizens gather at each section of the room for respective

candidate, and candidates that do not meet certain threshold/certain number of people, they

get eliminated. Then whole process starts over, people regroup until idk..

Caucuses are more complicated and vary a lot by states.

Eventually groups of people get together in a precinct or county and elect delegates to a stateconvention pledged to a presidential candidate

This state convention then elects delegates to the national convention in the same proportion

as the state convention

However, there are many variations on the caucus

**Citizens hold caucuses

Caucuses decide delegates

Delegates decide nominees

nominees become presidents

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebP6GSy_6I

andhttp://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8485162

**party primaries become a balancing contest between:

1. Democracy, transparency, and free speech on one hand

2. Strategic selection, effective representation, and effective government on the other**

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A series of reforms democratized the process, which moved power from the party

bosses/State delegations/the party leaders to party voters and caucus goers after the 1968

Democratic nomination (also bc of watergate:

These reforms were recommended and implemented by the McGovern-Fraser commission

(happened because LBJs VP, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination without entering a single

primary)

There are four fairly established problems with the primary process:

1) Front Loading:

Because early contests have a disproportionate impact on future primaries, states try

to move their own primaries earlier and earlier in order to increase their influence

This has resulted in an earlier and earlier primary schedule

2) Media focus on expectations not actual results:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebP6GSy_6Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebP6GSy_6Ihttp://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8485162http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8485162http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8485162http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=8485162http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XebP6GSy_6I


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Candidates often focus on managing the expectations of media pundits views of their

chances of winning or losing different state contests rather than on presenting

appealing policies to the public

-The media tend to focus on close elections, but dont report on the large numbers of

uncompetitive elections.3)Bandwagon Effects:

Winning an early primary leads to a surge of activist support, financial support, and

media attention

This causes Big Mo or momentum as candidates find their chances of winning in

future state contests increase substantively

This makes early states not representative of the country very important

Iowa and New Hampshire

4) Super-delegate Controversies

Super-delegateswere created by the McGovern-Fraser commission so that the party

leadership would have some limited influence in picking a candidate in the partys long

term interests

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two types of financing:

Regulated amounts for campaign constitutes Hard Money (from individuals)

Parties could raise unlimited amounts of Soft Money nominally for party building

activities(from PACs)

Parties in the 1990s used these to support candidates through loopholes.

BCFRA banned soft money. It also created a stand by your ad rule meaning you can to say

who funded the ad and that you supported the message verbally.

Citizens United vs. FEC.

BCFRA banned corporations and unions from engaging in electioneering messages

(indirectly supporting candidates like 527s do) 60 days before an election.

o it is unconstitutional for Congress to limit the free speech of corporations and

unions in this way.o But unlike 527 organization (which had disclosure requirements), we dont know

where the corporate money is coming from So corporations based outside the

U.S.A., meaning foreign citizens could funnel money to U.S. elections in ways

that were banned before

It did not say that they can give unlimited funds to candidates, but that they can act in

the same ways that 527s could prior to the ruling.


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o This means that as long as they do not coordinate their activities with a

candidate, they can spend as much as they like.

The Nature of Electoral Competition

currently both sides of a political campaign usually engage in higher and higher levels of

fundraising and political activity. The more incumbents spent on their reelection, the worse they would do.

if two campaigns are fairly evenly matched in terms of funding and spending,

The effects tend to be a wash. They cancel each other out.

most of time incumbent members of Congress run against individuals who have no

institutional or financial support because the candidates who have these going for them

are smart enough to know when it is a bad time to challenge an incumbent

When they do run, however, the incumbent must raise their level of campaign

fundraising and spending significantly.

Even when incumbents get serious challengers, they tend to win reelection.

Election Prediction: Most Powerful Indicators in predicting election results-unemployment orinflation, the Presidents party affiliation, incumbency, and approval, and the current

breakdown of seats in Congress.

**************************************************************************

1The Local Parties

PRECINCT: The smallest unit of political geography (fundamental bloc of Party

Organization)

o Precinct Leader is voted in primaries

Competition varies between primaries in cities (very competitive) and

rural (least competitive)

o The collection of precinct committee people make up the local partys central

committee (County or City or Ward).

o This committee usually votes on candidate endorsements in primaries and elects

a local executive committee and the local party chair.

2The State Parties

Usually either local parties elect members to a state committee or members are elected

by legislative districts in the party primary to serve on a state party committee

o The state party committee then elects a state party chair and executive

committee and they engage in the same activities as the local party chair.

Like local parties, state parties vary in terms of their activity levels:

o Often in the Mountain West, Democratic Parties have lack basic staff and

(physical) office space

o Relationships with local and city parties vary also


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o Republican parties in the South prior to 1965 were in similar situations

State parties are also responsible for setting rules to determine how delegates to the

national conventions are selected based on the primary and caucus results in each state.

The State parties elect members of the Democratic and Republican National

Committees (The DNC and RNC).

3 National Committee

These national committees then (nominally) elect the national party chair and party

executive committee.


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The DNC and RNC establish the rules that govern their conventions, presidential

primaries and caucuses, and engage in activities to support their candidates at a variety

of levels

o The Executive Committees and National Chairs hire staffers to run these

activities, usually at their DC headquarters

The staff of the organization engages in:

Fundraising (and donating to candidates)

Recruitment of candidates

(Limited) Political research and Polling

Develops programs for building the local and state parties

Campaign training schools

Voter registration Drives and Activist Recruitment

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Contemporary Period of politics (post-1968)

Reforms killed party machines

Old fashioned Party Machines-

1.A Party Boss who picks candidates.

2.Patronage Workers(government employees) then campaign for those candidates at the

precinct level or face the lose of their jobs

3.The Party Boss has indirect control over their jobs through the candidates he selected

*REFORMS*>>>

Presidents prior to the contemporary period would be able to control many more jobs

(like the entire Post Office workforce (USPS)

o Today workers are banned from undertaking political activity during their

working hours

Candidates were increasingly responsible for their own elections-

o Candidate centered elections involve:

1.Primary push for election is on the candidate, not the party2.Candidates must raise most of their funds, not the party.

3.Candidates must learn themselves how to run a political campaign, not necessarily the

party. Or they can hire someone to do it

4.They rely less on the party labelbecause the candidate is the focus. However, this

means they must spend much more money communicating their political identity and

issue positions to the public.


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So Candidates turn to 1)Ideological Activists (money) & 2)Professional Campaign

Consultants (expertise) >>>>>>>>>

1) could target their appeals to these individuals in order to fund their campaigns (create donor

network)

These individuals from the 1960s onward would also provide free labor for candidates whichwas provided by patronage workers in the past

In states were a party is in a strong minority, this might be the only source of donations for a

party

2)These are people with experience running political campaigns. Often they began as

ideological activists and turned their love of elections into a career.

Recommend, provide a as many campaign activities as possible.

As one increases their fundraising and spending on consultants and campaign activities,

the other feels they need to increase their activity level (arms race)

According to Francis Lee, what kinds of votes have had the highest increase in polarization

within Congress over the last few decades?

b)Votes on procedural issues and others with no ideological content

##############################################################################

1. The Sociological Model: In this model,partisanshipcomes from group or socialidentities, like class, race, region, or religion.

By social group, we mean demographic groups:

Religion:

Catholics and Jews would often vote Democratic

Protestants would vote Republican

Class:

The Working Class would vote Democratic

The Middle Class and Upper Class would vote Republican

Individuals cross-pressuredwould vote in a mixed fashion, like working class Protestants or

middle class Catholics

2. The Economic Model (Rochester Model/Retrospective Model.. based on

rational choice theory. )


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1. Voters access if they are better or worse off since the last elections

2. If they are better off, they vote for incumbents and the Party in Power

3. If they are worse off, they vote for challengers or the Party out of Power

3. The Psychological Model

Partisanship was stable, but peoples positions on issues change heavily over time when

surveyed.

80%+ of Democrats would vote for the Democrat

80%+ of Republicans would vote Republican

Group or Social Demographics couldnt even approach this level of

success in prediction votes

a persons partisanship was learned through the family and early childhood socialization

People learn that they are Democrats or Republicans much as they learn that

they are Catholic or Protestant or White or Black

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Political Sophistication and Behavior

party identity, the strength of party identity and sophistication

branching question on the survey: [10 % of ppl consider themselves as true

independent.. The leaners tend to act/vote the same as weak ppl]

0.Strong Democrat

1.Weak Democrat

2.Leans Democrat

3.True Independent

4.Leans Republican

5.Weak Republican

6.Strong Republican

We can also fold this scale in order to create a 4 point measure of strength of partisanship.

Strong Dems/Reps would be 3

Weak Dems/Reps would be 2Leaners would be 1

True Independents would be 0

Instead of being the most sophisticated and knowledgeable voters, the survey research

actually showed -- independent voters were:

less likely to vote


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knew less about politics

were less stable in their opinions towards issues

usually held attitudes that contradicted themselves

For instance: Being pro-social security but against government

handouts.

Although the situation has improved since Convers study,the public has only a vagueidea what is actually going on in Washington

One of these contradictory findings is that the public will often identify themselves as

conservative when asked, but support liberal programs (like healthcare) at the same

time.

The over selection of conservative is highly concentrated among those who know little

about politics

Among those who know much about politics, the % of liberals and conservatives

is near equal

LECTURE 21

The RAS model:a model of survey response that attempted to make sense of the low

levels of consistent issue responses given by the public.--use our partisan

identities to sort through information

Receive-Accept-Sample or RAS

1)Information is received from the media, accepted by the individual, and sample from memory

to construct a survey response

2)A key point is that the information is never processed:

People almost universally hold contradictory information and never actually realize it

This is because they lack education and information to determine truth

Party enters into this model in a big way.

Eventually when information in memory gets one-sided enough, it congeals into a political

identification as either a Democrat or Republican.

When individuals receive information, they then evaluate it based on the identity of the

source (D or R).

If it coming from the opposite side, they Rejectit, instead ofAcceptit. It doesnt enter intomemory.

Chuck Taber and Milt Lodge (2006) reexamined Zallers notions of partisan one-sided

information processing and political sophistication:

Their results turned his theory on its head a bit:


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Political sophisticates are completely unyielding in their beliefs

They are resistant to, or actively avoid, new information that contradicts their existing views

In fact, they are skilled counter-arguers and are likely to also discredit the source of conflicting

information while accepting information that does not

This is built off what is known in social psychology as a confirmation bias

LECTURE 22

According to Francis Lee Votes on procedural issues and others with no ideological content

have had the highest increase in polarization within Congress over the last few decades?

What are two of the four problems that we discussed regarding primary

process?

Problems for parties:

Can force parties to select candidates they dont like

Can create difficulty implementing party government

Problems with the system:

Front Loading

Media focus on expectations not actual results

Bandwagon Effects

Super-delegate Controversies

*how political scientist measure attachment to a party is based highly on identification*

-Interpersonal Identity(their unique identity) vs.

collective or Social Identity--explains intergroup relations

Anonymization- Hiding individual identity (costume) and acting more true to self or group ?

The Minimum Group Paradigm- Experiment established the most minimal level of

groupiness-- split groups based on arbitrary bull. Members of group were still loyal to label:

They first wanted to determine what the minimum conditions were for group-based behavior

to occur. They constructed an series of experiments based on the minimum group paradigm.

Their thinking at the time was that the groups created in the minimum group paradigm

experiment were so minimal that they could serve as a control for other experiments.

Because both group members choose the maximum difference between the groups, the

researchers found strong evidence that it was very easy for group identities to be created and

used in behavioral decisions.


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-The strategy employed was called a max diff (short for maximum difference) strategy.

This was not the socially optimal strategy.

-meaningless and irrational group identities structure our social behavior

when they use their interpersonal identity in term of social behavior and whenthey use scripts associated with their social identities.

metacontrast principle (When the difference between individual in-group members

behavior on a dimension of behavior is low and the difference between out-group members is

high, the metacontrast is high. like in Congress PG) vsnormative fit(how much the social

identity matches the situation involving the behavior Like a police officer to act like a police

officer during a riot)

-When the metacontrast is high, individuals are more likely to act as a (stereo)typical

member of the social group, rather than as an individual.

Lecture 23 - Voters IV

Authoritarianism refers to blind acceptance of authority

Authoritarian regimes tend to form on the extreme Right and the Left of the political

spectrum.

o Places were ideological purity is valued, and ideological inconsistency is severely

punished.

Theodore Adorno/Freud--Fscale-- Determining Authoritarian Personality

o Key Findings: The book found that people who disliked one minority group

tended to dislike all minority groups.

o High scores on the F-scale tended to correlate with prejudice.o Key critics:

1)F-scale was one-directional

2)Theory was built on Freuds ascientific Psychoanalytics

3)Authoritarian Personality was too broad; complicated

4)Members of both parties equally authoritarian so doesnt matter for

contemporary politics.

Altemeyer showed that only three traits were key, not 9:

Aggression(to out-groups/minorities)

Submission(to legitimate authority)

Conventionalism(a tendency towards black and white or good or evil thinking and a dislike

of ambiguity.)

Authoritarianism is NOT, NOT, NOT Political Conservativism.


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Current research is starting to show that everyone has the potential to act in an

authoritarian fashion given the right external stimulation. Some individuals just always

seem to have this predisposition activated.

o The key item that activates Authoritarianism is a perceived threat from other

social groups or individuals or the economy. Having your safety, way of life, or

livelihood threatened activates peoples Authoritarian predispositions.

The following groups are generally found to have higher authoritarianism levels:

Those living in rural areas away from big cities

Those who have little formal education

Those in the working class

Those with small incomes

Those who regularly attend religious services, especially those who describe themselves as

evangelical or born-again Christians.

o It is not permanent.

o Education tends to lower authoritarianism and intolerance, having children

tends to raise authoritarian predisposition.

o Education helps people understand ambiguous world and raises the threshold

to fell threat from minorities and out-groups.

o

The Republican Party has employed issues that excite and activate peoples

authoritarian predisposition since the 1968 presidential election in which Nixon

defeated Humphrey

Since the 1960s, authoritarians, especially in the South have migrated to the Republicans

Lecture 24 - Voters V

Evolutionary Benefits from AP

Authoritarianism is a psychological mechanism for facilitating collective action in a

world where collective action is often individually irrational due to free-riding

o activating the Authoritarian Predisposition of those both low and high on Auth.

within the public strengthens in-group ties (nationalism/ patriotism) and leads to

the desire to empower a strong leader to deal with the threa.

o Also results in intolerant behavior toward the appropriate out-group responsible

(Al-Qaeda)

Individuals confuse all Muslims with Al Qaeda and this leads to intolerant

behavior towards the wrong out-group


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It turns out, when we analyze voting behavior, economic issues are nearly always more

responsible for the way people vote then cultural issues:

o Cultural issues polarize party activists and those who pay attention to politics,

not voters

o The media never reports on this

o It doesnt fit into their Culture War narrative, although that narrative does holdat the elite and activist levels of parties

ecological fallacy-- using aggregate data to infer individual behavior. \

For instance the early media interpretation of the tea party movement characterized them as

being working class

Data shows that the movement is composed less of working class individuals than the

upper middle class

PCT:

Parties brand name is important for a number of reasons

Parties will act to protect it and tarnish that of the other party

Individual members have an incentive to change the label for their own benefit

The party empowers its leadership in the House to hold all of the important positions to force

members to vote with the party, even if they dont want to!

SPG:

What does SPG add to PCT?

Helps us to understand WHEN the party leadership will extert influence on members

It also helps us understand the consequences, especially in terms of party unity and electoralresponse

Linked to the idea of PCT is the rise of teamsmanship (Lee) in Congressional Parties:

What does this mean?

It means that parties have begun to work against each other for the sake of working against

each other, not for legislative goals in and of themselves

What are the observable outcomes?

Hint: Which votes have become more polarized?

We can see that even procedural votes are voted along party lines now, and thatteamsmanship creates gridlock along the lines that would be predicted by PCT/SPG

What is the presidents relationship with the DNC/RNC?

What are the two main strategies a president employs vis--vis the party?

Party buildinginvest resources in expanding base

Party predationreinvest resources in passing agenda


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What problems due primaries pose for the party?

1.Primaries can force Parties to sometimes except candidates they dont like

2.Primaries also prevent parties in Congress from implementing Party Government

3.Primaries are costly in terms of campaigns and they often end up damaging candidates prior

to the general election

There are four fairly established problems with the primary process:

1)Front Loading

2)Media focus on expectations not actual results

3)Bandwagon Effects

4)Super-delegate Controversies

Different levels of Party Organization

Ideological activists helped to rebuild party infrastructure

Created donor networks which were ideological in nature to fund the parties

Started to invest in building campaign expertise in-house

Led to the eventual reemergence of party influence

Watergate led to reforms in campaign finance

Further reform was created under the McCain Feingold Act (BCRA)

Much of this was rolled back by the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court Case

------

How do political identities shape political behavior?

What is the basic framework of social identity theory?

What is the minimal groups paradigm?

Terms to know:

Self-classification

Metacontrast and normative fit?

What is the difference between an interpersonal identity and a social identity?

EXAM III

Lecture 25 - Social Movements I


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in the 1950s, Political Parties in the United States were weak

o The political party at the Congressional level, was just another group that

pressured individual members of Congress to vote in one direction on legislation

or another(not even powerful)

parties became stronger and stronger and less and less like other

pressure groups over the last sixty years Political Parties an pressure groups both:

1. They advocate for and against candidates

2. They draft and act to support legislation

3. They attempt to sway the public

Pressure Groups do not try to get formal control of the government through elections.

o If they do, they become a political party.

A Social Movement usually has a must broader and diffuse membership than an interest

group, which is more formal and bureaucratic in nature

SOCIAL MOVEMENTS1. Their members often have a shared identity or identification with the movement

a. This is similar to party identification for political parties

2. Often they have formal organizations associated with them in addition to their

psychological basis

. These are called Social Movement Organizations or SMOs

i. For instance the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s was a social movement which had

SMOs, like the NAACP .

These organizations often outlive the social movements that create them.

Individuals across the country did psychologically think of themselves as members of the

civil rights movement, but might not have been members of the SNCC and the NAACP Interest groups do not generally have this potential psychological identification in the

mass public.

3. Engage in Campaigns: sustained, organized public efforts making collective claims to

authorities

4. Have a SM Repertoire, which contains a number of political actions the movement can

engage in

5. Engage in WUNC displays (Worthiness, Unity, Numbers, Commitments) which

demonstrate themselves and their goals to the public

Mass Society Theory:(older Pre-1960s theory)

Under this theory, marginalized individuals come together to form socialmovements

get a sense of belonging and empowermentstrengthening their

attachmentto the group.

even if it doesnt have a chance of rationally accomplishing its

goals.

Movements are better characterized as self-help groups than political

organizations. so social movements are not viewed as being effective.


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Resource Mobilization Theory: Social movements do not emerge spontaneously, but require resources to form

Discontent is secondary

It is similar to resource mobilization, but treatspolitical opportunities as

crucial resources.

Political Process Theory: There are three vital components for a movements to form:

1. Collective identity consciousness

2. Organizational strength

3. Political opportunities

Some Political Opportunities:

Growth of political pluralism

Decline in effectiveness of repression

Elite disunity; the leading factions are internally fragmented

A broadening of access to institutional participation in political processes

Support of organized opposition by elites

It is difficult to mark when a social movement dies.

The Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA; Van Zomeran et al. 2008) is the

culmination of a number of different lines of research regarding social movements and

individuals:

Identity is central and key


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Also incorporates emotion, efficacy

Lecture 26 - Social Movements II

Issue Evolution is a theory of the effects of social movements on other components of

the political systemPoliticians pick issues and use them to serve their various goals

Issues that work the best stay on the political agenda

But eventually they burrow themselves into political system in either a rapid or gradual

manner

If this process is rapid, it looks much like a realignment

In issue evolution, an issue is triggered by a random event which result in party leaders

to promote polarization in a manner that will most benefit them

o Elite and activist polarization always appears prior to mass polarization.. Public

follows as Congressional parties present platforms then slowly polarize on issuefollowing RAS model

EI- Civil Rights: Election of 1958

o Many of the new Northern Democrats were elected based on the strength of the

African-American vote in North. African-Americans were swing voters from

1932-1964.

These liberal Senators had appealed to these voters on economic issues

They could easily lose these voters back to the Republican party if the

economy recovered though

They needed an issue to keep African-American voters in their column

o Other more confrontational groups became active (by NAACP standards, not by

todays standard). One of these was SNCC or the Student Non-violent

Coordinating Committee to put movement on democrats

o At this same time period Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) needed an issue to prove to the

country that he was not a white supremacist and also appeal to the same AA

voters that put Democratic Candidates over the top in Northern states in 1958

(for racial liberalism)

Nixon developed his Southern Strategy which involved moving the party

to the right on racial issues in order to win the South

o In the early 1970s, the effect of these events on party activists became clear

By the end of the 1970s, nearly all of the activists that formed the core of

the Democratic party were racially liberal Within the South, the core component of the Republican party became

solidly racially conservative

By this point, the race issue had thoroughly burrowed into the party

system at the elite level


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o As polarization on race broke out on elite and activists levels, it was only a

matter of time before the mass public shifted their attitudes to be more in-line

with elite messages.

*****************************************************************

Lecture 27 - Social Movements III

Despite the fact that it was originally designed as an experimental control, the Minimal

Groups Paradigm helped establish that people display many of the same group

behaviors for weak, arbitrary group identities that they do for stronger and more

important identities.

Policy change is most likely to occur when it is supported by High-income Voters

these are the individuals to whom Congress is most response, according to recent data.

From an evolutionary standpoint, authoritarianism has been thought to provide some

benefit in threatening situations because it can help facilitate Collective Action.

Three of the problems withpresidential primariesthat we discussed are related to each

other. Identify them and explain how.

The media tends to focus on the horse-race aspect of elections (media effects)

As a result, earlier primaries mean much more than later ones (bandwagon effects)

Thus, states want to have earlier primaries because they can be more influential in candidate

selection, as well as pick up a nice chunk of advertising money (frontloading)

We discussed a number of important consequences of

partisan identity at the individual level. Explain how

partisan identity factors into the RAS model and motivatedreasoning.

Receive, Accept, Sample Unsophisticated nonpartisan individuals accept any information that comes their way

because they dont know how to process it

Recall that partisans will accept information in a much more biased way

Motivated Reasoning Partisans will also accept information in a more biased way

However, this effect is largely contingent on sophistication

These individuals often seek out information sources that serve their existing opinions

(Confirmation bias)

They are also skilled counter-arguers

Where does the gridlock we observe in congress

today come from? How can PCT/SPG help us to

understand it? What would Lee say?


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PCT: Reputation is the center of Congressional action

SPG: However, MCs must consider the consequences of pivotal votes

Lee: Focus on teamsmanship, which jives nicely with the predictions made by

PCT/SPG

pol 324 with lown

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