Poli Sci Final Flashcards
Voter Turnout Since 2000
about 60-65%
- voter turnout is higher in presidential elections
what happened:
- there’s a higher turnout in presidential elections because there’s more INFORMATION
- From 2000 on, campaigns have gotten better at getting out to vote (Ground game) – try to personalize messages/knock on doors to get people to vote
- Political parties now do more mobilization activities guided by analytic data (micro-target them)
Majority vs. Plurality Systems
Majority:
- a candidate needs a majority (more than 50% of the vote) to win
- if no candidate has a majority, they have a runoff
- runoff has only the top two candidates run
Plurality:
- most House and Senate contests do this
- the candidate who gets the most votes wins
Party Identification (PID)
which party someone affiliates with (loyalty to that party)
- Party ID doesn’t always stay the same throughout life
- responses to issues can be shaped by your party ID
Split Ticket Voting
when a voter votes for candidates from different parties throughout the ballot
ex: President (D) and senator (R)
Factors Affecting Voter Turnout
- minorities have lower rates of voting (Black and Latinos)
- education – higher education = higher voter turnout
- age – older people vote more because they care more about the community/local issues and are more experienced and aren’t as busy
- income – people with lower income don’t have time to read about politics
social factors: church goers, homeowners vote more
- how attracted you are to a party – if you’re strongly attached you vote more because there’s a higher stake for you
- easier to register to vote
Localization Techniques
they use info about you to learn about your consumer habits
- they contact you and read different script to you based on topics that you care about and they try to get you to vote for their candidate
Bad Factors For Voting
- younger electorate
- bowling alone – Americans are more lonely and less engaged in society, causing them to vote less
- efficacy – think there’s no consequence on the world (vote doesn’t matter)
- weakened attachment to parties
Why Negative Ads Work
you remember negative ads more because remembering the negatives is a survival tactic (evolution)
- negative ads have more information that positive ads
Prospective Voting
looking at campaign promises and seeing what will happen in the future
- voters make their decisions based on what they think will happen in the future and what the candidate would do
Retrospective Voting
you vote depending on how the last 4 years have been
- does the incumbent deserve reelection?
- how well has the incumbent done in the past – policies? promises?
Issue Voting
vote based on the information –
- people who are well-informed about their own policy preferences and knowledgeable about the candidates use this information to decide how to vote
Elections and Mandates
- Mandate – incoming presidency that has a large majority – using that as a way of saying because you have a large amount of support you can change the policies that you ran on
- Presidents say they have a mandate when they win, but large electoral victories get larger mandates – problem: just because the candidate wins, doesn’t mean the voters want
- Presidents say that have mandates but it’s unclear what the voters want
Why People Vote
elections hold politicians accountable
- politicians respond to elections – do things based on them to win reelection or win office
- we participate because it’s easy to find info on the election (media, news, ads…)
- info reduces the cost of voting
**it’s logical to not vote because your vote doesn’t really matter (matters more in local elections where voter turnout is lower — BUT people still vote)
Voting and Rationality
Voting should be rational
- You should vote for something about that serves your interest and something you know about — need to know which politician’s platform serves you
Some people don’t know what they actually want – are they just voting randomly
Negative Ads
ads used to attack the opponent candidate
- usually run by outside organizations
Contrast Ads
do both (negative and positive ads)
*need contrast ads because politics is about conflict
Positive Ads
ads that only talk about the candidate
Analytics
data drives what info you get
- informs what types of ads are being placed and where
Logic of Not Voting
- local election turnout is lower (probability of your vote mattering is higher)
- probability of your vote having an effect is 0%
- more people vote at the top of the ballot (skip the rest of the ballot)
- waiting in line to votes takes awhile
- learning about politics take awhile (especially if you don’t have time to)
**voting is a collective action problem
- people don’t want to vote because they don’t want to bear the cost when they think they have no affect on the outcome
*voting turnout is highest in presidential elections because people have the most INFORMATION even thought it doesn’t matter – easier to make decisions because you have a cue on the ballot (party ID)
*in local elections, they have less info which is why voter turnout is lower even though their vote matters more
- harder to make decisions because you don’t have the cue on the ballot (party ID)
Ground Game (GOTV)
effort to make sure supporters get out and vote
- volunteers may use canvassing, door-to-door knocking, phone banks, email, social media, etc.
Different Types of Primaries: Primary Election
primary election:
- citizens vote for a candidate they want on the ballot for the general election
ex: picking between Trump and Nikki Haley to run as the Republican nominee
Different Types of Primaries: Closed Primary
Closed Primary: only registered party members can vote in their party’s primary
ex: If you are registered as a Democrat, you can only vote among the Democrat candidates for the primary election
Different Types of Primaries: Non-Partisan Primary
candidates from both parties are on the primary ballot
- the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary compete in the general election, even if they are from the same party
ex: Hillary Clinton running against Kamala
candidates are listed on the ballot without party ID
Different Types of Primaries: Open Primary
any registered voter can vote in either party’s primary, regardless of voter affiliation
- they can’t vote for candidates in both parties (can’t vote for dem candidate and candidate in repub.)
Different Types of Primaries: Semi-Closed Primary
registered voters must in their party’s primary, but registered independents can vote in either party’s primary
Duverger’s Law
You have a bipartisan system
Single member district = if you win the majority, you win the state
In Plurality system = if you win 85% of the vote you win 5 seats, 45% you win 3 seats
If you win in a single-member district, 2 parties emerge
PR system = multiple parties
- Multiple parties have different shares of the seat
- This helps minority parties stay represented
Australian Ballot
voters use a uniform ballot to mark their choices in privacy
- old system (split ballot): used to have one ballot with one party and vote in public
- Australian ballots destroyed party machines because they couldn’t get people to vote a certain way
- reduced party unity voting
- harder to purchase votes (don’t know how people will vote for sure since they do it in private now)
Party Unity Voting
the degree of members of Congress in the same party vote together on party votes
Party Votes
the majority of one party opposes the position of the majority of the other party
- members of the party vote in alignment with thir party’s official position on a bill or piece of legislation
How Parties get Weaker
- strength of partisanship decreases
- parties get different ideologically
- When the parties become more extreme, it makes it hard for leaders to actually govern
asymmetrical polarization: republicans got more conservative which increased polarization
- fewer congressional districts
- more extreme dems. and repubs. because of gerrymandering
- Pendelton Civil Service Acts hurts parties
- Secret Ballot (Australian Ballot)
The New Deal (got rid of need for party machines)
- candidates engage in their own campaigns
- New tech
*gave more power to activists
*Polarization can make it harder for parties to run and organizarions to win elections
- The Repubs. who were too extreme won primaries
Why Decline of Parties?
- New Deal
- Progressive Reforms
- Rise of the New Media
- Candidate-Centered Campaigns
How Parties Got Stronger
- as parties have sorted ideologically, people also sort based on their identities
**Politics is more identity based
the big sort – people live in neighborhoods that are partisan and like them
Micro-targeting– politics focuses on anger politics (using online data to tailor ad messages to people)
Issue Advocacy
campaign ads used to raise awareness of certain problems (economy, environment…)
Campaign Finance Reform
there’s election laws on how campaign money can be spent
Parties in Electorate
the citizens who identify with the party
Parties in Organization
the political party’s leaders and workers at the national, state, and local levels
Third Parties
political parties other than the 2 majority parties (Dems and Repubs)
problems:
- Americans didn’t vote in 3rd Party because it’s pointless
- most successful 3rd party (actually the Republican party)
- 3rd parties absent in congress
what they do well:
- draw attention to issues that major parties usually neglect