Parties & Pressure Groups

Question 1

Organisation of US politcal parties reflects which structure of governement

Answer 1

Federal

Question 2

Are parties decentralised or centralised

Answer 2

Decentralised (organised at the state level) - 50 state democratic & 50 state republican parties PLUS a national committee for each

Question 3

What developments in party organisation have occurred since 1970’s - in general

Answer 3

There has been a strengthening of national party structures

Question 4

Why has there been a strengthening of national party structures since 1970’s - specifics

Answer 4

New campaign finance laws resulted in moeny going to national parties rather than state
TV provided a medium for candidates to appeal directly to voters thus cutting out state parties
Sophisticated opinion polls allow candidates to “hear” voters without meeting them
New tech allowed national parties to set up fundraising/direct mail operations
Parties became more ideaologically cohesive
National parties played larger role in recruitment/training of congressional candidates

All of these increased further with social media

Question 5

What is the current situation re party organisation

Answer 5

Each party has national committee offices in Washington DC
Members are representatives from 50 state parties
Headed by national chair
National party conventions held every 4 years (ie presidential year)
State party leadership inc committeees for policy making/campaigning
State parties headed by state party chairs - also hold state party conventions
Grassroot level - congressional district, county , city, ward & precinct levels

Question 6

Who or what is the GOP

Answer 6

The republican party (Grand Old Party)

Question 7

What is the main reason why US political parties are decentralised

Answer 7

Federalism

Question 8

What organisaition do the democrats and republicans have at the national level

Answer 8

National committee,
national chair
National convention

Question 9

Give 3 factors that have led to the strengthening of national party structures

Answer 9

New campaign finance laws
New technology allowing candidates to speak directly to voters (TV/direct mail/social media)
Better polling
Parties became more cohesive
National party had greater involvement in recruitment and training of candidates

Question 10

Who heads the national parties

Answer 10

National chairs

Question 11

What organisation exists below the national level

Answer 11

State
Congressional district
County
City
Ward
Precinct

Question 12

Define ideology

Answer 12

A collectively held set of beliefs

Question 13

What is the prevailing ideology of each of the two major parties

Answer 13

Democrats = liberal
Republicans = conservative

DO NOT USE CAPITAL LETTERS AT START OF IDEOLOGIES

Question 14

What is the difference between social & fiscal conservatives within the Republican party

Answer 14

Social - focus on issues like abortion, same sex marriage & guns
Fiscal - focaus on issues such as the national debt, federal budget deficit and tax

Question 15

Identify 4 policies over which the majority of Democrats and Republicans hold differing views

Answer 15

Increase social welfare spending
Death penalty
Gun control
High levels of defence speding
Stricter environmental controls
Stricter controls on immigration
The ACA (Obamacare)

Question 16

Which would you describe as the more progressive party

Answer 16

Democratic - now has strong faction within it who call themselves progressives (eg Alexandra Ocasio Cortez

Question 17

Which party places more emphasis on limited government

Answer 17

Republican

Question 18

What is the tea party

Answer 18

A movement associated with tax reduction and reduction in govt spending

Question 19

Identify 4 grops what gave a majority of their votes to the Republicans in 2016

Answer 19

Small town/rural 
Conservatives
White men
Over 65’s
45-64 year olds
High school educated (not college)

Question 20

Name 4 groups who gave the majority of their votes to the democrats in 2016

Answer 20

Blacks
Liberals
Hispanics
Asians
Women
City
18-29 year olds
Earning less than $30k

Question 21

Explain the term “the gender gap”

Answer 21

The gap between the support given to a candidate by women and the support given by men

Question 22

Give 3 reasons why democrats traditionally win a majority of votes among women

Answer 22

The democrats take policy positions more favoured by weomen on
Abortion rights
Capital punishment
Gun control
Lower defence spending

Question 23

Give 3 reasons why older white blue collar non college educated voters felt disillusioned going into the 2016 election

Answer 23

They felt neglected by washington politicians of both parties who had previously made promises but had not kept them
Effects of the 2008/9 economic crash - partic the fact that the govt had bailed out the banks but no individuals who were left unemployed
They believed that their values, way of life had been swept away and sneered by by the “liberal elite”
Felt that the america they grew up in (white & christian) was disappearing

Question 24

What was it about donald trump’s campaign that appealed to the white non college educated etc voter

Answer 24

His make america great again theme

He was not from a traditional political background

Question 25

Name 3 swing states

Answer 25

Florida
Ohio
Virginia
North carolina

Question 26

What pointers are there in religion regarding party support

Answer 26

Protestands and those who attend places of worship regularly tend to vote republican
Catholics and those who rarely attend places of worship tend to vote democrat

Question 27

What is a Regan democrat

Answer 27

Usually white working class voters, mostly living in the northeast and midwest who had been traditional democrats but supported regan in 1980 & 1984

Question 28

Give 5 characterisations of typical voters in “Red America”

Answer 28

Predominantly white
Protestant (esp evangelical)
Rural, small town or suburban
Fiscally and socially conservative
Pro guns
Pro life
Pro traditional marriage
Support limited role for federal govt
Opposed to obamacare
Watch fox news

Question 29

Give 5 characteristics of “Blue America”

Answer 29

A racial rainbow of white, black, asian & latino
Urban
Socially liberal
Pro gun control
Pro choice
Pro gay rights
Supporting an expanisve role for federal govt
Support obamacre
Watch CNN & saturday night live

Question 30

Define a two party system

Answer 30

One in which two major parties regularly win the vast majority of the votes, capture nearly all of the seats in the legislature and alternately control the executive

Question 31

Give 3 pieces of evidence that suggest that the USA has a 2 party system

Answer 31

Any 3 from
Popular vote - in all the last 7 presidential elections, two major parites have won more than 80% of the popular vote. On 4 occasions winning over 95%
Congressional seats - after 2016 two major parties controlled 533 of the 535 seats in congress
Executive branch control - every president since 1853 has been a democrat or a republican
State government - by 2017 49 of the 50 state governors were either democrat or republican

Question 32

Give 3 reasons why the uSA has a two party system

Answer 32

Electoral system
Broad party ideologies
Primary elections

Question 33

Identify 3 different types of 3rd parties, givig an example of each

Answer 33

National - green party/libertarian party
Regional - american independence party in 1968
State - new york conservative party

Question 34

Give 2 ways in which third parties might be said to have a significant impact of politics in the uSA

Answer 34

Any 2 of
Might be thought to have little or no impact as they rarely win a significant number of votes
But might have significant impact is they can either infulence the outcome even with a small percentage of the votes (eg 2000) or influence the political agenda of the major parties (eg green party)
Third parites can have some impact within certain states

Question 35

Identify three difficulties that face third parties

Answer 35

Any 3 of
Electoral system - first past the post makes it difficult for third party to win
Ballot access laws - third parties are disadvantaged by laws regulating how candidates must qualify for the ballot in each of the 50 states
Lack of resources - difficulties in raising enough money so less to spend on campaigning, get out the vote, advertising etc
Lack of media coverage
Excluded from TV debates
Co-option of their policies by major parties

Question 36

Give 3 pieces of evidence of the democrats elecotral decline between 2009-2017

Answer 36

They lost the 2016 presidential election - despite clinton winning 3million more votes than trump
Between 2008-2016
they lost 10 senate and 61 house seats. Loosing control of both houses
democratic governors went from 29 to 16
They lost nearly 1000 state legislatifve seats
In 2017 party was at lits lowest electoral level since 1925

Question 37

Explain why this decline led to conflicg within the party

Answer 37

Conflict between the liberal wing (bernie saunders & elizabeth warren) and the establishment wing (clinton/biden)

Question 38

What splits have appeared nwithin the republican party in the past decade

Answer 38

Tea party
Freedom caucus
Establishment v trump (Lincoln Project)