• A. Pluralism
• B. Elite and Class Theory
• C. Hyperpluralism

The process by which one acquires their political orientation and beliefs

• Family
• The most important agent of socialization
• Kids usually end up voting like their parents
• Mostly informal

• Mass Media
• The “New” parent
• Elementary school kids spend more time watching T.V. than in school.
• Don’t watch political coverage
• New media – Internet, social media
• Has the growth of media options helped create fragmentation?

• School
• In the U.S. public schools promote basic values like loyalty and democracy, not a specific ideology.
• In other political systems, socialization in schools is much more overt.

Political culture are the beliefs a people have about the role and purpose of government

• Equality
• Legal – Americans believe in equal treatment under the law and freedom from discrimination
• Sources of legal equality include the 14 th Amendment, legislation such as the Civil Rights Act (1964), the Voting
Rights Act (1965), Title IX

• Equality, continued
• Political – The right to participate in the political system by running for office, voting, or engage in other forms of political participation
• Political equality has been expanded by the 15 th , 19 th ,
26 th Amendments as well as the Voting Rights Act (1965)

• Rights
• Freedom of Speech
• Most support in theory, but are often intolerant in practice.
• Fringe groups often targeted – like Communists during the Cold War

• Rights, continued
• Freedom of Religion
• Increased tolerance during the 20 th century
• Some groups still targeted – Muslims
• Religious Right tends to be intolerant of non-Christian belief.

• Comparison to Other Countries
• The U.S. has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among industrialized democracies.
• Below 50% in 1996, 55% in 2004, and 62% in 2008, 58% in 2012
• Turnout is even lower in midterm elections
• 2010=40%

• Reasons for low voter turnout
• Voting is not mandatory.
• Voter fatigue
• Party dealignment
• Weaker parties (less mobilization, etc)
• Declining trust in government
• Increase in minority groups and young voters
• Larger electorate
• NOT ACCEPTABLE – Apathy, cynicism, loss of efficacy

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS THAT
AFFECT VOTER TURNOUT
• Demographics – characteristics that can be used to divide a population into smaller groups
• Important demographic factors in the United States that impact voter turnout include:

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS THAT
AFFECT VOTER TURNOUT
• Age
• Older voters have greater turnout.
• Education
• The more educated one is the more likely they are to vote
• Region
• The area of a country someone lives in has no significant impact of voter turnout.
• Income
• The more someone earns, the more likely they are to vote.

DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS THAT
AFFECT VOTER TURNOUT
• Gender
• Women are more likely to vote than men.
• Race – BE CAREFUL
• When adjusted for other factors (income, education, etc.) minorities have a higher voter turnout than whites.
• Political Efficacy - Not a demographic characteristic, but citizens with a high political efficacy vote more often.
Political efficacy is the sense that your participation is important and makes a difference.

• Considering all elections at all levels of government, which of the following best describes electoral behavior in the United States?
• (A) Primary elections tend to elicit a higher voter turnout than do general elections.
• (B) The majority of the electorate does not vote in most elections.
• (C) Voter turnout plays an insignificant role in election outcomes.
• (D) Adult citizens under the age of 30 tend to have the highest rate of voter turnout.
• (E) Voters with strong party identification vote less regularly than do independents.

• Age
• Americans tend to get more conservative as they age
• Education
• Evidence used to show that the more education one had the more liberal they were. Evidence is not at strong today
• Region
• Rural and Southern voters tend to be more conservative; Urban, West coast and Northeasterners tend to be more liberal
• Income
• Working class Americans tend to be more liberal.

• Race – Again BE
CAREFUL
• African-Americans and
Latinos tend to vote liberal (Latinos less so).
• Gender
• Women are overwhelmingly liberal
• This is referred to as the gender gap
• Party Identification
• Even though the numbers of party identifiers has decreased it is the best predictor of how someone will vote.
• 2012
• 38% Independent
• 32% Democrat
• 27% Republican

• Voting is the most common form of political participation in the
U.S.
• It is easy to study and quantify.

• Litigation • Hold office
• Contact public officials
• Contact the media
• Work on campaigns
• Work on voter registration drives
• Contribute money
• Run for office
• Political discussion
• Join a political organization
• Protest
• NOT Violence

S
• Reasons
• Vietnam
• Watergate
• Iran-Contra
• Clinton-Lewinsky

• Divided government
• Since 1968, government institutions have often been controlled by different parties.
• More Partisanship
• Decline of the middle
• Political moderates are starting to be frozen out
• Politicians appeal to the base
• Congress more polarized now than anytime since the
Civil War

• Results
• Frustration
• Slows the confirmation process
• Gridlock

• Candidates spend too much time fundraising
• Increased power of interest groups and lobbyists (Abramoff
Scandal)
• Keeps good people from running
• Perception of wasteful spending

• More protest
• Decline in voting
• Increase in the number of independents
• Non-partisan community action
• APATHY does not count!

• Primaries
• More common than caucuses (38/50 states)
• New Hampshire is the 1 st primary
• Primaries weaken party control
• Increase in the number of primaries one result of the 1968
Democratic National Convention
• Increase the number of people involved in choosing the candidate – greater citizen input.
• Got rid of backroom deals and weakened party bosses

• Primaries, continued
• Primary voters more affluent, educated, and ideological than general election voters.
• Open vs. Closed Primaries
• Caucuses
• More participatory
• Iowa holds the first caucuses

• Conventions
• Held in the summer before the presidential election
• Mostly a reward for loyal party supporters
• Delegates again more educated, affluent, and ideological than the average voter
• McGovern-Fraser Commission
• Increased the number of female and minority delegates to the
Democratic convention
• The Democratic Party later added superdelegates to give part leaders greater control over the nomination process.

• Primaries and caucuses are nominating elections – they are the process used to select candidates for the general election
• A general election is the election in which voters select which candidate they actually want to serve in each office.

• How the votes are counted – Presidential election
• Electoral College forces presidential candidates to compete in “swing states”
• These are states that are competitive and have relatively large populations
• Winner Take All System helps create swing states
• Electoral College does give more weight to smaller states because of the 3 vote guarantee.

• Elections in the U.S. are First-Past-the-Post/ Single-Member
District contests
• Members of Congress represent a specific geographic area
• Winners do NOT need a majority, only a plurality in order to win
• This marginalizes third parties in American politics
• Candidates only need a plurality to win, not a majority

SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE
• An electoral system based on single-member districts is usually characterized by
• (A) strong, centralized political parties and a weak executive
• (B) higher rates of voter turnout than are common in other systems
• (C) legislative representation of each party in proportion to the number of votes it receives
• (D) domination of the legislature by two political parties
• (E) ideological rather than mass-based parties

• Incumbents enjoy a huge advantage in winning elections
• Advantage is greater in the House than the Senate

• Congressional Districts
• Redistricting
• District boundaries are drawn by state legislatures
• Usually done every 10 years after the census
• Gerrymandering is drawing districts to give one party an advantage over the other

SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE
• Congressional district boundaries are usually redrawn every ten years by the
• (A) Bureau of the Census
• (B) state legislatures
• (C) President
• (D) House Rules Committee
• (E) Federal Elections Commission

• Congressional Districts, continued
• The SCOTUS has created some basic rules about redistricting
• Districts should be roughly equal in population
• Districts should be “compact and contiguous”
• Race can be a factor but not the primary factor
• Should keep “communities of interest” together

SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE
• Which of the following is generally true of gerrymandering of congressional districts?
• (A) It results in more Democrats being elected in the House.
• (B) It results in more Republicans being elected to the House.
• (C) It guarantees that all minority parties will be equally represented.
• (D) It creates districts that favor one political party over another.
• (E) It violates the principle of one-person, one-vote.

• Congressional Districts, continued
• In districts with large numbers of non-English speakers, voting materials must be provided in native languages according to the Voting Rights Act (1965)

• Critical Elections
• Critical Elections result in party realignment
• Realignment is when the basic supporters of a party have changed
• For example, the South used to be controlled by the
Democrats. Today it is solidly Republican
• Proof of long term shifts rather than “nature of the times” shifts.
• Some critical elections include 1932 and 1968

SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE
• The concept of “critical elections” is most closely associated with
• (A) the electoral college process
• (B) elections during wartime
• (C) the nomination process
• (D) economic recession
• (E) party realignment

• Created the Federal Election Commission (FEC)
• In charge of administering campaign finance laws
• Led by a bipartisan commission
• Requires disclosure
• Candidates must file quarterly reports detailing where the money came from and where it went
• Political Action Committees (PACs)
• PACs are a tool to track union and corporate donations
• A PAC can contribute $5000/candidate per cycle
• The number of PACs has grown tremendously over the past 30 years

SAMPLE MULTIPLE CHOICE
• Which of the following is a correct statement about political action committees (PAC’s)?
• (A) The number of PAC’s has remained stable over the past decade.
• (B) Most PAC money is distributed to challengers in an effort to unseat hostile incumbents.
• (C) The amount of money that a PAC can contribute directly to an individual candidate is limited by law
• (D) PAC’s are illegal in most states.
• (E) PAC’s rarely attempt to influence legislation through lobbying activities.

• Created Matching funds for presidential campaigns
• Once a presidential candidate reaches certain thresholds, the federal government will match funds raised by that candidate
• If a candidate took federal money, they agreed to federal limits
• Recent candidates have not accepted federal funding
• Created limits on how much could be given to a candidate – hard money
• Did not address soft money
• Soft money was money donated to parties for GOTV and grassroots campaigns

BUCKLEY V. VALEO (1976)
• SCOTUS ruled that an individual could spend as much of their own money on their political campaign.
• SCOTUS said is was a free speech issue

• Spending independent of campaigns by outside groups, usually known as 527s, is also protected as free speech
• Circumvented the ban on soft money – spent $254 million in
2008
• These are called independent expenditures

C
• Eliminated soft money – money given to parties is now subject to limits - $32,400
• Was meant to create a more level playing field
• Required more disclosure and transparency
• Raised the limit on hard money to $2000
• Indexed for inflation - $2600 in 2013-2014

THE BIPARTISAN CAMPAIGN REFORM ACT (MCCAIN-
FEINGOLD) 2002, CONTINUED
• Limits on independent expenditures
• Could not identify a candidate for federal office 60 days prior to general election
• Corporation or unions could not use general funds to pay for independent expenditures
• These restrictions were overturned by Citizens United v. FEC
(2010)

• Nominees for the presidency of the two major parties are chosen by delegates at national conventions. How these delegates are chosen varies across states and between the political parties.
• a. Define each of the following methods used by states to choose delegates to party conventions.
• Open primary
• Caucus
• b. Republican Party rules permit winner-take-all primaries. Describe one consequence of this rule for the Republican nomination process.
• c. The Democratic Party has used superdelegates in the presidential nominating process since
1984. Explain why the use of superdelegates increases the influence of party leaders in the
Democratic nomination process.
• d. Explain why a candidate’s strategy to win the nomination is often different from the strategy developed to win the general election.

• 5 points
• Part (a): 2 points
• One point is earned for a correct definition of open primary: a primary election in which any voter can cast a ballot in any party’s primary.
• One point is earned for a correct definition of caucus: a meeting or gathering of members of a political party where members deliberate and choose from the list of those seeking the presidential nomination.

• 5 points
• Part (b): 1 point
• One point is earned for an acceptable consequence for a winner-take-all primary, which can include the following:
• Shortens the timeframe for candidates wrapping up the nomination.
• Affects strategic decisions (e.g., allocation of funds, time).
• Advantages those with more prominence or better name recognition early in the process.

• Part (c): 1 point
• One point is earned for an acceptable explanation of how superdelegates increase the power of party leaders, which can include the following:
• Party leaders are now assured a role in the nomination process, regardless of which candidate they support.
• Party leaders can cast the deciding vote in close nomination contests.
• Superdelegates are unpledged and therefore can change their minds on candidates as the process unfolds.

• Part (d): 1 point
• One point is earned for an acceptable explanation for why campaign strategies often differ between primary and general elections, which can include the following:
• The electorate in the primary election is different from the electorate in the general election.
• A candidate’s opponents in the primary are fellow partisans, whereas opponents in the general election are from other parties.
• There are differences in financing, media coverage and current events leading up to the general election.