Lectures: Test 2 Flashcards
Of the 30 million people living in Texas, _____ millions of voting age.
18
What are the 7 legal qualifications of a voter in Texas?
- US citizen.
- Texas citizen: residence in Texas for 30 days is required before you can register.
- 18 years or older (per 26th amendment).
- Registered (must do a month before Election Day).
- A resident of a county for 30 days.
- Not a felon.
- Not declared mentally deficient.
What is the motor voter law?
Allows registration to vote when applying for or renewing a driver’s license.
What are the 8 unofficial qualifications of being a voter?
- Educated.
- Wealthy.
- Female.
- White.
- Religious.
- In moralistic subculture / region.
- Old.
- Socialized in politically active household.
__% of votes come from 240 counties in Texas (the rural), while __% come from 14 counties (the urban).
37%
63%
List the ways participation in Texas politics occurs.
- Voting
- Signing petitions
- Protesting
- Writing letters to newspapers and elected officials
What does VAP refer to? What about VEP?
- voting age population [18 years or older]
2. voting eligible population [of age and also fulfilling the legal requirements]
What is the rational voter?
Assumption that individuals behave in their rational self interest. That they have an equation of time + effort + money = power of vote, and they individually work out themselves whether it is worth voting.
What is the participation paradox?
The fact that ppl. come to different conclusions with the equation “time + effort + money = power of vote.” Some say it is worth it, others say it is not.
What is a free rider?
Someone who supports a candidate but didn’t do anything to help them win the election. If their candidate wins, they will benefit without putting any effort it into; a free lunch basically.
In the 2014 governor election in Texas, __% of people did not vote.
66.7%
What are the 8 factors that determine who you vote for?
- Prospective: campaign promises
- Retrospective: past performance
- Funny
- Good looking
- Gender [a man]
- Race background [some ppl. racist]
- Area–Texas loves Texans, etc.
- Name recognition–gets incumbents.
Only __% of ppl in a district have to speak a language for it to be required that they make ballots in that language.
5
What are the 6 ways to increase voter participation?
- Educate public about ballots being printed in a foreign language.
- Promote early voting.
- Allow voting by mail or online.
- Make high profile elections a national holiday.
- Make voting mandatory.
- Increase education: education correlates with voter participation.
What are the 8 legal constraints in Texas for voting?
- Poll tax (24th amendment outlawed it)
- Women’s suffrage (got it in 1918)
- White only primaries
- Stopped the military from voting
- Resident requirements: annual registration in a small window for whole year
- Jury duty used to be a requirement
- Voter tests (outlawed by Voting Rights Act of 1965)
- Voter ID law (made illegal in 2011): required driver’s license, US passport, Texas ID, handgun license, or military ID
What are the contemporary barriers to voting?
- Many cities have councils elected at large; there are no individual districts.
- Others:
- Reduced number of polling places.
- Broken voting machines.
- Misleading information provided to voters.
- Voter intimidation.
Explain reapportionment.
Process that determines how many congressional seats each state will have.
Explain Redistricting.
Process, occurring every 10 years, whereby districting lines are drawn and redrawn in TX.
What effect has the Voting Rights Act had on redistricting?
Introduction of the preclearance process.
Explain malapportionment
- Baker v. Carr and Reyrold v. Sims.
- Districts must be equal within only 5% variation.
- Congress members are not added. Instead, they are simply moved around and district lines are redrawn.
What is gerrymandering?
Redrawing of district lines based on political affiliation, not inherently any particular demographic.
List the three kinds of gerrymandering.
Cracking, packing, and pairing.
Explain cracking.
Crack one stronghold into a bunch of precincts and divide them so as to nullify the stronghold.
Explain packing.
Cram all of a strong together to give them just one representative.
Explain pairing.
Two adjacent districts have two reps; redraw it so both reps are now in one district; suddenly you get rid of that representative by moving the district line. Creates an “empty seat.”
In what month do primaries take place?
March
Explain runoff primaries.
Happens in May. Occurs when no candidate receives an absolute majority. The least of the candidates are dropped until someone receives a majority.
What is an open primary?
Allows voting in either, but not both, primaries.
What is crossover voting?
Vote for the opposite party in the primary as to sabotage the other party.
What is a closed primary?
Where one must declare one’s party affiliation; have to have your affiliation on registration card.
General elections take place in what month?
November
Major state officials are elected in _____ elections.
midterm
Midterms exist because _____
The presidential cycle tends to consume all the media coverage.
When do local elections take place and what kind of turnout do they usually get?
- Independent of any particular month.
2. Low
Explain special elections.
Special elections are those that are not held on a regular basis.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of running as an independent?
Advantages: don’t have to worry about primaries.
Disadvantages: tough to get on ballot, lack of party support; need 5000 signatures on a petition to get on a ballot.
What is the Australian ballot?
(aka secret ballot). Australians decided ballots should be secret. This is how they work in the US now.
What are the two different kinds of ballots in the US?
- Party column: everyone in one party is put together.
2. Office block: all the different offices are in different blocks. Also usually the incumbent is put at the top.
Incumbents regain their seat __% of the time.
80
What are the conditions where an incumbent is defeated or not present? That is, conditions favorable to new candidates.
- Retirement: incumbent retires
- Promotion: incumbent moves up the ladder
- Death: incumbent becomes death
- Scandal: incumbent has a scandal
- Resignation: incumbent resigns
- Spending: incumbent is outspent by competitor.
- Pairing: gerrymandering kicks them out of their seat.
In elections, __% of the time, the highest spender wins.
93
What are the three linkage institutions?
Parties, media, and special interest groups.
What are political organizations?
Buffers between the government and the people.
The main job of political parties is _____
- To get ppl. elected.
- Change government from the inside out.
- To promote their agenda: set of beliefs (aka as a political platform).
Party platforms are rewritten how frequently?
Every four years.
Explain political campaigns.
- Purpose is to win an election.
- Candidates run tend to have more political experience, especially in correlation to the prestige of the office.
- Enormously expensive
- Subject to finance laws (in TX, the Ethics Commission)
- Single largest expense is campaign media ads.
Explain Federalists.
- Pro Constitution
- 1820
- Hamilton and Adams
- Strong government
- Whig Party then Republican Party
- Strong national power
- North
- Industrial
Explain anti-Federalists.
- Pro Articles of Confederation
- Jefferson and Jackson
- Strong states
- Democratic Republicans and then just Democrats
- South
- Agricultural
Explain FDR and the New Deal
- Greatly expanded Federal power
2. Realignment: beginning of this process for Democrats and Republicans
Explain Democrats during the 50s and 60s
Democrats alienated voters with the Civil Rights movement. People like JFK were pressed about Civil Rights. Democrats finally capitulated and started to, on the national level, support Civil Rights Movement.
What are Dixiecrats?
When the Democrats began to support the Civil Rights Movement, they alienated their strong base in the South.
Explain Nixon and Reagan’s strategy of realignment.
- Nixon’s “Law and Order” strategy, expanding police and militarizing them, as well as increasing rates of incarceration, appealed to Dixiecrats.
- Reagan’s “traditional values” of “go back to the way things were in the 50s,” also appealed to Dixiecrats.
- Both of these led to strong base of Republicans in what used to be Dixiecrats.
Trace the evolution of Texas’ alignment from the 1950s onward.
- In the 1950s, TX votes Republican for President, but Democratic in local elections
- 1961: first TX Republican senator
- Ronald Reagan in the 80s gets support from TX.
- 1992: Kay Bailey Hutchison: another TX R senator.
- 1998: sweeping Republicans everywhere in TX.
Explain the role of political party in TX.
- States differ in strength of political party.
- State parties have less…power?
- “All politics is local politics.”
- Local issues are usually not ideological in nature.
Does Texas have party registration?
No
Candidates must either win _____
An absolute majority in their primaries or a runoff between the two top vote getters.
What is the organizational hierarchy of political parties?
Parties are organized in the precinct, county, and state levels.
What is elected for precincts during party primaries?
In each election precinct, a precinct chair is elected in the party primary.
Elections in the primary determine county _____, and this is head of _____
Elections in the primary: the county chair, heads of the county executive committee, which is composed of the chair and the precinct chairs.
What do primaries do at the state level?
At state level, a state executive committee includes a state chair and a vice chair.
What do precinct conventions do?
Precinct conventions send delegates to the county convention and may submit resolutions for the party platform.
What do county conventions do?
The county conventions (or in urban areas, district conventions) select delegates to the state convention.
Interest groups seek to influence _____
politicians
Interest groups are an example of a _____ institution
linkage
The process of dealignment refers to _____
The influence of parties decreasing in the past 40 years.
Interest groups work from _____-______
outside-in
The increase in the influence of interest groups has been fostered by ______
dealignment
What are lobbyists?
Lobbyists speak on behalf of interest groups; they interact with politicians and try to convince them to support things.
What are advocacy groups?
interest groups advocating on behalf of things that can’t speak for themselves.
What are the common characteristics of advocacy groups?
- Grassroots.
- Leadership is self-appointed.
- Local chapters aren’t everywhere.
What are the characteristics of successful interest groups?
- Dispersed geographically.
- Cohesiveness: focus on one thing / brevity.
- Prestige: have to be taken seriously.
- Leadership.
What are the reasons to join an interest group?
- Satisfaction
- Material benefits
- Networking
- Social pressures
- Become aware of new issues
What are the benefits of joining interest groups?
- Competition
- Participation
- Education
- Supports free speech
What are salient issues?
Things you don’t change your mind about.
What are the types of interest groups?
- Economic: to get more $ for businesses
- Non-economic: for betterment of society & public interest groups
- Hybrid or mixed: betterment of society & $
- Gov’t interest groups: small gov’t groups lobby bigger gov’t groups.
Explain inside strategies vs. outside strategies for lobbying.
- Inside strategies: personal contact with politicians & officials.
- Outside strategies: support with public.
What are the responsibilities of lobbyists?
- Provide information
- Testify
- Point out talking points to politicians
- Write bills
- No lying: it’s expected you will be biased, but no lying. If a politician catches you lying, they won’t trust you.
Explain astroturfing.
When lobbyists basically break all the responsibilities and purely, corruptly pursue partisan agendas.
You are legally considered a lobbyist if _____. This means you have to _____
- You make $3000 or more a year from lobbying
2. Register as a lobbyist and obey the legal rules.
What are the [legal] rules for lobbyists?
- Register
- Have to disclose clients
- Disclose areas of concern
- Disclose compensation
- Disclose information about assistants
- Disclose expenditures: only $50/hr per person you hire.
- Free travel: you get 3 days in the US, 7 days internationally.
- Gifts: you can’t give more than $50 in gifts to people, and those gifts have to be appropriate. Also applies to immediate family.
How do interest groups keep unwanted laws from passing?
- Present themselves as experts / present experts to testify against it.
- Testify.
- Sit on committees—in some states.
- Umbrella organizations
- Arm twisting & collaboration play into this as well.
What do interest groups do if unwanted laws are passed?
- Lawsuits: political. They need standing.
2. Bureaucracy: basically go to executive branch for enforcement; try to make the law unenforced.
What is standing in legal terms?
The right to sue.
What are the downsides of interest groups?
- They have narrow focus
- Secret communication
- Corruption
- Biased information
- Unequal representation: most lobbyists work for businesses and most of the money spent on lobbyists is from businesses.
__% of lobbyists are in public interest groups; __% are in unions.
35%
2%
What is the brand of Texas conservative
Christian
Highly right leaning / tea party.
How do parties help politics?
- Balance
- Elections
- Unite
- Responsibility
How do parties hurt politics?
- Not working together
- Limit minority rights
- Polarization
Why does the two-party system prevail?
- Stability
- Single member districts
- Plurality
- Moderate
- Majority parties on ballot
- Majority parties receive money
- Candidates narrowed in primary
- Duverger’s Law
Duverger’s law holds that plurality-rule elections (such as first past the post) structured within single-member districts tend to favor _____, whereas “the double ballot majority system and proportional representation tend to favor _____”.
- a two-party system
2. multipartism
What is plurality election?
winner takes all
What is proportional representation?
If A gets 25%, B gets 75% of vote, then A gets 25 seats and B gets 75 seats.
What is dealignment?
A trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan (political party) affiliation, without developing a new one to replace it. It is contrasted with realignment.
What are the main 3rd parties in the US?
Green, Reform, Progressive, [Libertarian].
What are the types of the third parties?
- Ideological
- Protest / sub-culture
- Single issue parties
- Splinter parties
- Anti-party party; like independents and moderates.
What do responsible parties do? [list]
- Adopt platform
- Recruit candidates
- Inform & educate
- Organize campaigns
- Organize legislature
- Hold officials responsible
List the factors contributing to the erosion of traditional party functions
- Campaign chests
- Media
- Political machines
- Candidates
- Control of actions
What is pragmatism?
Stance appeals to generalized positive stance, strong leadership, levelheadedness, centrism, moderation, civility, etc.
What does the term party electorate refer to?
Dems vote dem, etc.
The “sleeping giant” in Texas is ____
Latinos
Why are Latinos called a sleeping giant in Texas?
They don’t vote a whole lot, but if they did, it would significantly change TX politics
Latinos in Texas generally side with Democrats on _____ and Republicans on ______
- Education and immigration
2. Gay rights and abortion
The revolving door refers to _____
Politicians become lobbyists who become politicians who become lobbyists who…
The Texas ethics commission has how much power to regulate lobbyists?
Little
Efforts in campaign finance reform in the US have, so far, been largely _____
unsuccessful
The iron triangle refers to _____
relationship between gov’t agencies, congresspeople, and interest groups.
Reproduce the chart showing party organization.
Lowest: voters in party primary; connections are to precinct convention, precinct chair, and county chair, county executive committee.
Left branch, from lowest to highest: precinct convention, county/district convention, and state convention.
Right branch: precinct chair, county chair / county executive committee, and state chair / vice chair / state executive committee.
What is a PAC
Political Action Committee: interest groups & lobbyists use these to influence politicians. They pool their money together so that their influence makes a larger impact.
Explain 527 organizations
- Like “Texans against _____”
- Negative campaigning
- No specific endorsements
- Super PACs: Able to spend with no limits, have to disclose contributors eventually, no coordination, but can advocate.
What are politically active nonprofits
- Have to spend 51% of money on thing they want to do, and then rest they can (and do) spend on lobbyists
1. 501(c)4
What are the types of protests
Pickets, marches, and sit-ins
What are the demographics of protestors?
- Higher income and education
- Few resources
- No direct access to power
What is the most likely outcome of lobbying?
To maintain the status quo.
