Exam 3 Flashcards
Factors that Can Affect Election Outcomes
- Poll Opening and closing time
- Process (e.g. Absentee?, Early voting?, Mail-in?)
- Ballot format
- Voting Systems
- Dates of Election
- Redistricting
Reasons from move from party-centered general election campaigns to candidate centered campaigns
- Primaries
- Emergence of independent professionals
- New means of communication
- Arrival of direct mail and pacs
- proliferation of interest groups and other non-partisan political organizations
Reasons for Differences between Candidates and Parties
- Differences in message or messaging
- Different goals (i.e. candidate wants to win, first and foremost, for self. party wants to win, first and foremost, for party)
- Competing alliances
Where does the money for campaigns come from?
- Most comes from individual contributions
- Political Action Committees (some associated with companies, unions. some with individuals)
Why Pacs don’t buy votes?
- most don’t give max
- tend to follow power… give money to incumbents
- support ppl who already support you
- competition
What did Federal Election Campaign Act do?
Instituted…
- Contribution limits
- Spending limits
- Public disclosure
- Public funding of presidential campaign
Independent spending
-can spend unlimited amounts as long as not coordinating with campaigns
Issue advocacy ads
- can coordinate with campaign.
- issue advocacy ads educate ppl on issues, but can’t endorse or attack
Role of parties in governing process
- party leadership chooses leaders, determines who is on what committee in the legislature
- majority party sets committee agenda
- how congress functions (e.g. how power is distributed within congress) depends on which party is in power
Change in distribution of power in Congress over time
- before Canon. decentralized
- Canon’s congress. highly centralized
- after Canon. decentralized. power lies with committee chairs. power comes with seniority. Southern Dems very powerful because of this
Dem. changes committee system
- Dems change congress by changing criterion for committee chairs. No longer a matter solely of seniority.
- gave caucus power to challenge and remove committee chairs by secret ballot
- chair could only be chair of one subcommittee
- removed authority to appoint committee chairs from ways and means chair and gave it to leader
- decrease in efficiency. increase in accountability
Gingrich revolution
- Gingrich wants to centralize power in order to pass Contract with America.
- Gingrich chooses chairs based on loyalty, institutes 6 year term limit on chairs/ranking members
- can only be speaker for 8 years
- gave committee chairs authority to appoint sub-committee chair
- reduce staff by 1/3
- successful insofar as it allowed GOP to pass Contract for America in House, but unable to get much of anything through Senate
Reasons for Decline in Senate Collegiality
- Progressive wanted to shake things up… change country and how Senate functions
- Mass media meant senators able to develop power bases outside of Senate
- Creation of more subcommittees (i.e. greater access to power at earlier age)
- Use of Filibuster
Ways party can persuade legislators
- award, deny, or take away committee membership
- award, deny, or take away committee or sub-committee chairs
- offer or refuse campaign assistance
- promote or hinder passage of something you want
Types of issues where parties are most unified
- procedural issues
- presidential initiatives
- core party issues
