Chapter 5 democracy and participation (elections and ECVs)

Question 1

why is the US a republic not a democracy

Answer 1

limiting the power and influence of factions

Question 2

what is the invisible primary?

Answer 2

the months leading up to primaries where presidential candidates drop out due to lack of money and stagnant position in the polls

Question 3

why did jebb bush suffer in the invisible primary

Answer 3

suffered criticism from trump on Twitter which affected his place in the polls and republican support

Question 4

in what ways can candidates get themselves ahead in the invisible primary period

Answer 4

• televised debates
  (2016 the republicans held 12 debates between candidates)
• attrack finance from direct donations, PACS or super PACs

Question 5

how much did clinton and trump spend on their campaigns. why is this different to other years?

Answer 5

usually winner is the one who spends the most

clinton spent 450 million compared to trump’s 225 million but trump one

however estimates suggest trump beenfitted nearly 2 billion worth of ‘free’ media attention due to contoversial nature

Question 6

what is a PAC (political action committee)

Answer 6

groups who pool campaign contributions from members and can donate up to £5,000 to campaigns for or against candidates

Question 7

what is a super PAC

Answer 7

independent expenditure committees and may therefore raise and spend unlimited and unrestricted amounts of money to advocate for or against candidates standing for elected office. but they cant fund straight to candidate

Question 8

why do incumbents have advantages in their second election

Answer 8

• name recognition
• national attention
• finance bases is secure
• succsessful past history
• voters want to avoid risk. stick to what you know

Question 9

what is a primary and where is the first one held

Answer 9

intraparty election to determine who will compete on the ballot for the party for president

first primary is in New Hampshire

Question 10

what is a caucus and where is the first one held

Answer 10

intraparty town hall-style meetings where voters exercise preference for who will represent the party

the first caucus is held in Iowa

Question 11

what is an open primary (caucuses are the same)

Answer 11

any voter can take part even if they arent a registered memebr of that party

• can only vote in one primary but have to decide if that republican or democrat
• democrats could go to republican primary to vote to tactiaclly weaken and vise versa

Question 12

arguments in favour of primaries over caucases

Answer 12

quick, less voter apathy
no peer pressure
high turnout more legitimate result

Question 13

arguments for caucuses

Answer 13

more co-operative

wider group of people supporting are candidate using negotiation

Question 14

what are delegates

Answer 14

delegates are the people selected to go to the national party convention after primaries to announce who won the vote for the decided candidate in the districts primaries or causacses

Question 15

how does the democratic and republican parties allocate delegates

Answer 15

democrats primaries and Caucasus select delegates proportionally to the vote that a candidate recieves

republicans more often than not winner takes all

Question 16

what is fontloading

Answer 16

moving primaries and caucuses forwards to have a more influential say as those states who are later in the calendar may not get an influential say as th decision of the candidate may have already been decided

April 2020 Bernie sanders dropped out leaving only Biden this left 22 states without voting+ illegitimate result

Question 17

what is super-tuesday and example

Answer 17

process of frontloading can lead to many primaries and caucuses happening on the same say ‘super Tuesday’

largest recorded was 2008 when nearly hald of delegates were decided on this day ‘super duper tuesday’

Question 18

what are the formal roles of the national party convention

Answer 18

• selecting party candidate and acknowledging vice president
• adopting the party platform and policies that the president campaign will revolve around

Question 19

informal role of NPC

Answer 19

• seeling the candidate gaining support
  (25 million people watcher republican convention in 2016)
• party unity and for the vice presideny candidate to back the presidential candidate (except for trump and Cruz in 2016)

Question 20

what were the battleground states in 2020?

Answer 20

Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

Question 21

what is the issue with bellweather states

Answer 21

in 2019 94% of events by trump, pence, clintion took places in just 12 bellweather states which effectivley decide the election

Question 22

how much did Biden spend on 2020 campaign?

Answer 22

1.69 billion

Question 23

what % do candidates have to have in the polls in order to be on a tele debate

Answer 23

15%

Question 24

what year did Perot stand as a third-party candidate?

Answer 24

1992 he polled enough to be in tele debate. usually third parties dont get enough support to be in this debate

Question 25

why are tv debates bad at predicting election outcomes

Answer 25

polling after tv deabtes in 2016 suggested that she had won

Question 26

what states use a more proportional election style

Answer 26

Maine and Nebraska who distribute electoral college more proportionally

main is worth 4 ECV but is split into 2 congressional districts each worth 1 ECV. whatever candidate wins over the 2 districts get warded the other two ECVs

Question 27

what voting system do all other states use

Answer 27

winner takes all

Question 28

why did founding fathers created ECV

Answer 28

• serves purpose of federalism by allowing high and low population states to have a say on a national level
• prevents a direct election by the population

Question 29

how are ECVs counted

Answer 29

the number allocated to each state is the number of representatives it has in congress
(each state has at least 3 due to having at least one rep and 2 senators)

therefore ECV are technically proportional as house of rep seats are proportional

Question 30

what is an elector

Answer 30

an elector is usually a faithfull party sctivists who are rewarded by beig allowed to cast the ECVs votes on behalf of the state in washington

20 states have a requirement that the eelctor cast the ballot for the candiate who won the state vote but the rest dont leading to faithless electors who can vote for the oppsotie candidate

Question 31

example of faithless elector

Answer 31

in 2016 there were 10 faithless electors, 3 of which were invaild due to state law and 7 were counted

Question 32

how many electorial college voters are up for grabs?

Answer 32

538

Question 33

why can the ecv wasted votes disadvantage candidates?

Answer 33

as most are done on a winner takes all basis it doesnt matter how many votes you get you just need to get the majoirty

hillary clinton got 4 million more votes that trump in califronia but this want represented in the ECV

these votes. are wasted meaning that the winner of the. popualr vote may not win the election

Question 34

why does the electioral system penalise thrid parites?

Answer 34

ross prot in 1992 got 19 milion votes but no ECV

in 2016 6% for 3rd party candiates. dropped to 1.9% in 2020

Question 35

examples of third parties influencing a lot

Answer 35

• can influence policy for example ross perots key policy was balecing a buget, an idea that we taken on by the winner bill clinton
• spoiler effect: third party canidiates can prevent someone form winning.
  ex in 2000 the green party candiate nader may have prevented al gore from winning

Question 36

how many presdients since ww1 havent been re-elected

Answer 36

4

ex donald trump due to sexism racism and badly handing covid-19

Question 37

example of advantage of incumbent:

making popular decisions

Answer 37

obama withdrew troops from afghanistan and killed bin laden . very popular decisions

Question 38

example of advantage of incumbent; media attention

Answer 38

2012 hurricane sandy interupted obamas election capign his swift handing of the situation boosted votes

Question 39

example of advantage of incumbent: electoral money

Answer 39

incumbents usually spend less money than competitor bush raised less than clinton

Question 40

example of disadvanatge of incumbency: expereinces

Answer 40

bush’s handing of hurrican katrina

Question 41

example of disadvanatge of incumbency: media

Answer 41

trump suffered in the media especially due to covid and being a racist

Question 42

example of disadvanatge of incumbency: money

Question 43

ECV over representing small states:

Answer 43

small sattes are over-reperented in ECV.
california is worth 55 ECVs with a population of 40 million
wehreas wyoming has3 ECV for only 500,000 poulation
meaning each ECV execised by wyoming represnts 3x less people than in californa