Unit 8 Political Participation Flashcards
How does the media help connect the people to the government?
News outlets are the primary link to the people and create this link in a variety of ways:
-election coverage
-investigative journalism
-reporting on press conferences
-media events specifically organized by politicians or public officials.
How do media choices and debates over media bias influence political behavior?
Broad range of media outlets each tailored to a specific political ideology results in people being less informed about political issues.
To be well informed one must be able to discern fake news from real news, and the bias of the new outlet reporting the information.
Functions of Political Parties
-Mobiliing voters
-Increase awareness on key issues
-Provide funding and management for party candidates
How Parties Impact the Electorate and Government
-Congress / Majority party chooses leadership
-Each party has a party leader and whip in each chamber the encourage members to vote with the party on bills and issues
How Parties Change and Adapt
-Parties used to be regional - now there is not clear regional boundary
-Campagn finance reform weakened parties and strengthened cadidates
-Parties no longer control dissemination of information due to the internet
Barriers to Third Party and Independent Candidates
-too difficult for any minor party to rise up and challenge the position of either of the major national parties
-winner-takes-all method of election in America
-single-legislator districts
-minor parties are kept from gaining significant power because the major parties tend to absorb minor party issues in order to build a broader coalition of voters who support them
scientific poll
attempts to predict the opinion of an entire population by asking questions of a group that accurately represents the entire population.
The sample
The group of respondents in a poll
straw poll
newspapers or magazines would publish survey questions and ask readers to send in responses
tracking poll
poll that is repeated on a daily basis to measure little shifts in public opinion as the election gets closer.
Exit polls
conducted on Election Day by interviewing voters immediately after they vote
popular press
news that was most likely to attract more readers was the most likely to be printed
A political party’s positions on a set of important issues is called its ________.
Platform
1973 campaign finance law
bans soft money (donations from corporations and labor unions directly to national political parties, rather than to individual candidates) contributions has weakened parties and has helped lead to candidate-centered campaigns
“winner-take-all”
a candidate wins an election by getting the most votes, even if he or she does not get more than half of the votes
