short answers Flashcards
what is turnout? in what ways can we determine this?
turnout is individuals behaviors that engage with the political world. this could include running for office, sharing a post, and voting. interacting with the political sphere can be driven by economic interests, emotional interests, structural limitations and political mobilization. turnout can be determined by taking the total number of voters who cast ballots and dividing it by the total number of eligible voters.
what are the factores that determine an individuals decision to vote in elections?
there are four factors that influence individuals decision to vote. the first is economic interests. this could include higher turnout when the election is competitive. second, is emotional interests, this includes when people feel it is their ‘duty’ to vote. the third reason is that turnout can be driven or depressed by structural limitations. This includes people living far from polling stations or having to take off work. finally, the decision to vote can be driven or depressed by political mobilization. this would result in higher turnout in the areas where they targeted campaigning.
list and explain some challenges to achieving good representation in a democracy?
challenges for good representation is absent prefrences, tyranny of the majority, dynamic representation, and preference strength vs breath. absent preferences come from voters not actually knowing their preferences and therefore getting them from the elites. Tyranny of the majority happens because of the normalization of bad/dangerous preferences by the many. dynamic representation is when an elite wins and remains an incumbent there is then a lag in representation. preference strength is when a small group has strong preferences over a single dimension, the strong signal can overwhelm noisy signal from the electorate.
in what ways can we change turnout? explain.
turnout can be changed by increasing or decreasing the voting population, registered voters population, and the voting age population. elites have an incentive to change the voting population because some politicians will benefit over others. changing the registered voters population does not always mean there is an increased amount of voters, this can be seen in countries with mandatory registration. by changing to voting age population more people would be eligible and would increase the amount of potential voters.
explain 3 factors that determine an individuals vote choice
an individuals vote choice can be determined by political characteristics, policy issues, and partisanship. political characteristics can include age, gender, and income. This affects vote choice because younger voters have different preferences and opinions on candidates and voting in general. policy issues are an individuals preferences over a set of issues. the problem with policy issues is that voters need to understand issues to vote on them, which comes with the issues of priming and framing in media. partisanship is the alignment with a political party. Especially in the united states, politics are oriented around parties. parties have become a heuristic and helps bring voters to the polls.
whats the spatial model of voting
the spatial model of voting is a framework used to understand how voters make decisions in elections. in the model, we assume the voters are rational and have preferences over issues. for each issue, voters have an ideal point that is represented on a line. this ideal point is ideological. candidates take a position on the line, based on their preferences. voters then choose the candidate closest to their ideal point.
difference between retrospective and prospective voting? define and give examples.
the difference between retrospective and prospective voting is what you make decisions based off of. in retrospective voting, voters base decisions on events and policies that happened in the past. an example of this is evaluating an incumbents preformance when deciding who to vote for. Prospective voting is when voters base decisions on what they think the candidate would do if elected. An example of this is looking at a candidates stance on issues and seeing if you think they would make the same decision as you.
what is public opinion and how can we know this?
public opinion is an aggregation of individuals attitudes on various or specific issues. understanding public opinions helps policy makers make decisions in line with the public. public opinion can be known by asking directly, observing, or conducting field and lab experiments. public opinion polls are the most common way to collect data, unfortunately though this data suffers from desirability bias (changing answers based on what they think recorder wants to hear.) Field experiments can be expensive to conduct, but the data is usually reliable. Lab experiments usually use physiological equiptment to record responses that are not visible.
how do individuals develop opinions on policy issues?
opinions on policy issues develop at different stages of life based on socioeconomic changes, personal experiences, and personality traits. as society progresses, exposure to better opportunities leads individuals to embrace new ideas while discarding the old. personal experiences with an issue can influence their opinion on that issue, for example immigration, healthcare, and public goods from the state. personal characteristics can be based on gender, ethnicity, national origin, age, and more. These color opinions and influence experiences.
