Linkage Institutions
• Non Governmental activity that connects
the citizen/voter to the government
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Media
Political Parties
Campaigns
Polling
Interest Groups/PACs
Linkage institutions
Essential questions
•Is the Media the 4th branch of government?
•Are lobbyists and Political Action Committees (PACs) the essence of
Pluralism or a threat to democracy?
Are lobbyists too powerful?
•Are unlimited campaign contributions free speech or a threat to
democracy?
•Should campaign contributions be limited?
•Should the US care about voter turnout?
In what ways can VTO be increased?
Is low VTO a problem?
•Is a 2 party system the best system for democracy?
Why do 3rd parties rarely win?
Should the US move to a proportional representation system?
Campaign Challenges
The News Media
Campaign Financing
Televised Debates
Individual
Contributions
Handling the Press?
PAC Contributions
Personal Contributions
Party Contributions
Contributions and Expenses
• Campaigns are VERY expensive.
• House races can cost over $1 million but
usually cost $400-700,000 for incumbents, less
for challengers.
• Senate races cost much more.
• All political money is regulated by the federal
government under the Federal Elections
Campaign Act of 1971, 1974, and 1976.
Campaign commercials
• Livingroom Candidate
Soft Money
• Soft money is money with no limits or rules that is raised and
spent outside of federal election guidelines.
• Soft money is often used to pay for ads that do not expressly
advocate the election or defeat of a particular candidate.
• As long as these ads do not use the words “vote for,” “elect,”
“vote against” or the like, ads can be paid for with unregulated
soft money.
• Many argue that the huge infusion of unregulated soft money
has destroyed the federal campaign laws.
Personal Contributions
• In Buckley v. Valeo (1976) the Supreme Court
struck down limits on personal campaign
spending.
• Spending your own money on your campaign is
a free speech right.
• Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, and other wealthy
Americans have taken advantage of their
personal wealth in their quest for office.
Do We Vote for the
Candidate or the Campaign?
• The most important factor in any campaign is the candidate
(he/she is even more important than money).
• Campaigns are able (most of the time) to downplay a candidate’s
weaknesses and emphasize her strengths.
• However, even the best campaigns cannot put an ineffective
candidate in the win column – most of the time.
• Most people vote for a candidate not the campaign.
The Roots and Development of
American Interest Groups
• Federalist 10 Madison and Pluralism
• National Groups Emerge (1830-80)
• Progressive Era (1890-1920)
– Organized Labor – the American Federation of Labor (AFL) (1886)
– Business and Trade Associations – The National Association of
Manufacturers (NAM) (1895)
• The Rise of the Interest Group State (1960s and 1970s)
– Religious and Ideological Groups
– Business Groups, Trade, and Professional Associations
– Organized Labor
What Do Interest Groups Do?
• The most common and effective interest
group technique is lobbying or seeking to
influence and persuade others to support
your group's position.
• Lobbyists are hired by your college or
university, businesses, foreign countries,
trade associations, and anyone else wanting
their voice heard on policy matters.
• A lobbyist is someone whose task it is to
influence legislation or policymaking.
Interest Groups Techniques
Direct Techniques:
• Lobbying
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private meetings
testifying
drafting legislation
social occasions
providing political
information
– supplying nomination
suggestions
Indirect Techniques:
• Generating Public
Pressure
– groundswell of
public pressure
– using constituents
as Lobbyists
– building alliances
with other groups
What Makes an Interest
Group Successful?
In general three factors tend to lead to interest group
success:
1. Leaders – Having a prominent leader aids in the reputation
of the group and enhances a group’s ability to attain its
goals.
2. Patrons and Funding – Funding is critical. Without
money, it is difficult to get your message out.
3. Members – A group must have members to be successful.
Organizing members allows for strength in numbers and
pooling of financial support.
Interest Group Ratings of Selected
Member of Congress
Criticism of Interest Groups
Interest Groups have been criticized for
– ignoring the wider interest of society
– producing confusion and deadlock in
Congress
– generating so much emotion that they
make reasoned discussion difficult
– having too much influence
Interest Groups
Interest Groups
SEIU Advertisement
• Bush...but worse
• Swiftboat Vets
3.
Political Socialization and Other Factors
That Influence Opinion Formation
• Political attitudes are grounded in values. We
learn our values by a process known as political
socialization.
• Many factors influence opinion formation.
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The Family
The Mass Media
School and Peers
The Impact of Events
– Social Groups
•Religion
•Race
•Gender
•Region
5. How We Measure
Public Opinion
In order for a poll to be reliable, it must
have:
• Proper question wording
• An accurate sample
– contacting respondents – Since 95% of
Americans have phones, random phone calling
would be a valid method.
– How will the cell phone use impact polling?
Measuring Public Opinion
• In general, do not trust a poll that does not tell
you the question wording, the sampling method,
and the ways in which respondents were
contacted.
• Reputable pollsters will also tell you the number
of respondents (the 'n') and the error rate (+ or 5%).
• Any poll that tells you to call 555-5554 for yes
and 555-5555 for no is unscientific and
unreliable. This is not a random sample at all!
Types of Polls
• Tracking polls--continuous surveys that enable a campaign to
chart its daily rise and fall in popularity. These may be a decent
measure of trends.
• Exit polls--polls conducted at polling places on election day.
• Deliberative polls--a new kind of poll first tried in 1996. A
relatively large scientific sample of Americans (600) were
selected for intensive briefings, discussions, and presentations
about issue clusters including foreign affairs, the family, and the
economy.
• A deliberative poll attempts to measure what the public would
think if they had better opportunities to thoughtfully consider the
issues first.
• Push Polling
6. How Polling and Public Opinion
Affect Politicians, Politics, and Policy
• As early as the American Revolution, the
authors of The Federalist Papers noted that
“all government rests on public opinion.”
• Politicians spend millions of dollars per
year trying to define what the public wants.
• Public opinion is unsteady and constantly
changing, making reliable readings difficult.
• Polls can distort the election process due to
mass communications effects such as
“bandwagon.”
2. Different Kinds of Elections
• Primary Elections
• General Elections
• Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
– Initiatives allow citizens to propose legislation
and submit it to popular vote.
– A referendum allows the legislature to submit
proposed legislation for popular approval.
– Recall elections allow citizens to remove
someone from office.
Patterns of
Presidential Elections
• Party Realignments are rare
occurrences in which existing party
affiliations change dramatically.
• Secular Realignment is the
gradual shifting of party coalitions.
Incumbency
Incumbency advantage – the electoral
edge afforded to those already in
office…achieved through:
• Higher visibility
• Experience
• Organization
• Fund-raising ability
Who Votes?
• Income – people with higher incomes have a higher tendency to
vote.
• Age – older people tend to vote more often than younger people
(less than half of eligible 18-24 year olds are registered to vote).
• Gender – Since 1980, women have a higher tendency to vote
for Democrats than Republicans.
• Race – in general, whites tend to vote more regularly than
African-Americans (this may be due to income and education
rather than race).