AP Review Session

1
AP Review Session 2

• Political Parties, Interest Groups the Media

2
Political Parties Generalizations

• Democrats
• Lower SES
• Lower ED Intellectuals
• Minorities
• Blue-collar/Union
• Urban
• Coastal
• Women
• Non-Christians
• Non-Church goer

• Republicans
• Higher SES
• Above Avg. Ed
• WASPs
• White collar
• Rural/Suburban
• Middle America
• Men
• Christian
• Regular Church goer

3
Purpose of political parties

• Nominate candidates for office
• Run campaigns
• Give cues to voters
• Articulate politics
• Coordinate policy-making (the party-in-govt.)

4
Party Structure

• National Level
• Chairperson various committees that plan the
  natl conventions fundraise for congressional
  candidates

• State Local Level
• Parties vary greatly from state to state (CA DEMs
  are much crunchier than AL DEMs)
• State local party machines have lost power to
  the national level in the last decades
• Think of it like a pyramid

5
Parties within Parties

• Democratic Party
• Helping Hand DEM
• Discouraged White DEM
• Determined Liberals
• Libertarian DEM

• Republican Party
• Liberal REPs
• Religious Conservatives
• Business REPs
• Neo-Cons

6
Why do we have 2 dominant political parties?

• Electoral system the Electoral College
• Electoral system- single member districts won by
  plurality vs. proportional representation
• Political socialization
• Practicality
• Commonality of view (Big-tent parties)
• British tradition (Tories cs. Whigs)
• Laws against third parties
• Signatures (over 700,000 required)

7
Third Parties

• Splinter parties potential kingmakers
• Bull Moose split the R vote in 1918
• Strom Thurmond the Dixiecrats (recd 29
  electoral votes in 1948)
• George Wallaces American Independent Party of
  1968 ( recd 46 electoral votes)
• Perot factor in 1996
• Nader the Green Party in 2000 (95,000 votes
  in FLA when 537 votes separated Bush Gore)

• Ideological Parties
• Socialists, Independents
• Single Issue Parties
• Greenpeace, Free-Soilers
• Economic Protest Parties
• Greenback Party
• Take Away Point Dissolve when major parties
  steal their issues
• Perots Reform Party

8
Why are parties getting weaker? Dealignment

• Drastic increase in Independents
• Ticket-splitting on the rise
• Cynicism political apathy on the rise
• Decentralized party structure (no more party
  bosses parties from state to state are so
  different)

• Mass media- image of candidates is stressed, not
  the party
• Decrease in importance of caucuses/conventions
  increase in power of primaries
• Interest groups have exploded
• Divided government

9
Party Realignment

• Typically occurs after one party has been
  dominant for a long period of time
• New issues combined w/economic or political
  crises allowing a new coalition to form

• Voters shift support from one party to another
  must last for many years
• New coalition gains dominant control of
  government (controls both Congress the White
  House)

10
Critical Elections

• The electoral earthquakes when realignment has
  occurred
• 1800 Jeffersonian Republicans
• 1828 Jacksonian Democrats
• 1860 Republicans

• Dont worry about memorizing these factstoo
  historical. Focus on 1932 whats happening
  now.

11
1932 Critical Election

• 1932 FDRs New Deal Coalition
• Comprised of unionized labor, urban ethnic
  groups, southerners, MC liberals
• Dominated the govt of politics of the US until
  1960s when it was shattered by conflicts over
  race, Vietnam govt policy
• Split the electorate into groups we associate
  with the DEM REP parties today

12
1980? -The Reagan Realignment?

• 12 years of White House control (Reagan Bush 1)
• Reagan won in 1984 carrying 49 states
• Breakup of Democratic Solid South
• Both houses of Congress controlled by DEMs for
  almost the entire 1980s and into the 90s

• Bush was at 91 approval rating in 1991, but lost
  in 1992 to Clinton
• 1994 REP Revolution captured Congress for the
  REPs, but their majority is tenuous
• Schism in REP party between fiscal conservatives
  social conservatives

13
Is there a Post-9/11 Realignment?

• Reasons For

• Reasons Against

14
Interest Groups What are they?

• Organization of people w/ similar policy goals
  who enter the political process to try achieve
  those aims BUT dont run their own candidates for
  office
• SIGs access many levels branches of govt no
  govt stone shall be left unturned!
• Other goals
• Education
• Agenda-building
• Program Monitoring (watchdog role)
• Political Parties MAKE policy, SIGS INFLUENCE
  policy!

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What do SIGs do?

• 1. Provide data to govt agencies. SIGs
  arepolicy specialists (Pol parties are party
  generalists)
• 2. Draft legislation via the Iron Triangle
  (issue) network of
• SIGS, Govt agencies, Congressional
  subcommittees

• 3. Lawsuits (amicus curiae, Friend of the court)
  class action court cases.
• 4. Education
• 5. Watchdogs of govt. . .
• 6. Lobbyists- hired guns or political
  persuaders, whose job is to promote the SIGS
  interests via. . .pressure (garnering votes,
  )
• Rating Legislators
• Wine Dine

16
Interest Groups Pluralism

• Linkage institution link people to their govt
  (like elections parties)
• Vast of SIGs
• Groups compete
• Not all groups are , but do have opportunity to
  influence govt
• Federalist 10 factions bad, so lets have lots
  of them 1st Amendment

17
Interest Groups Elitism

• Sure, there are lots of groupsbut many dont
  matter
• Real power access held by big biz interests
• Social class SIG membership
• Who runs the group?
• Does the leadership of the NRA reflect the belief
  of its rank-and-file membership?

18
Interest Groups Hyperpluralism

• Lowis interest group liberalism
• Refers to govts excessive deference to groups
  the govt tyring to advance the goals of too many
  groups
• In an effort to appease every interest, agencies
  proliferate, conflicting regulations expand,
  programs multiply, budgets skyrocket
• Sub-governments Iron triangles
• MIC
• Tobacco

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Interest Group Examples

• AARP
• AFL-CIO
• NAM
• Sierra Club
• NAACP
• NOW
• Leadership PACs
• GOPAC, Obamas Hopefund

• Right to Life
• ACLU
• ABA
• AMA
• NEA/AFTY
• Moveon.org

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What makes SIGs powerful?

• Size of the group- a mixture of many who could
  belong
• Potential groups (or large groups) suffer from
  free-rider status. i.e. all minimum wage
  earners benefit from minimum wage increases, so
  why work toward it. . .
• Intensity
• Single issue groups - NRA, NOW, Gun Control,
  abortion

• 3. Money -
• - 1974 corporations and unions cant directly
  fund political campaigns. . .BUT they can set up
  Political Action Committees (PACS) , the
  fundraising arm of SIGS, can fund candidates
  campaigns up to 5,000
• - Money goes overwhelmingly to incumbents
• - 527s groups can raise unlimited amounts of
  use it for voter mobilization, issue advocacy,
  but NOT for candidate advocacy or to be given to
  candidates

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More about SIGs and Money

• Hard money goes directly to candidates
• Soft money (1980) - Can earmark funds to a
  political party, unlimited contributions. . .
  400 million allocated in 2000 election to Dems
  Republicans
• Today soft money is illegal McCain-Feingold
  Campaign Finance Law.

22
The Media

• Media newspapers, television, radio, World Wide
  Web
• Most peoples knowledge of politics comes from
  the media
• Laws in the U.S. give the media substantial
  freedom
• There is a long tradition of private media
  ownership in U.S.

23
History of Media in Politics

• Yellow journalism 1890s
• FDRs Fireside Chats- 1930s
• Nixons Checkers Speech- 1952
• Nixon Kennedy Debates- 1960

• LBJ Political Ad (girl picking flowers)
• Woodward Bernstein H20gate
• Clinton The Great Communicator

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Now

• Shorter sound bites on the nightly news make it
  more difficult for candidates officeholders to
  convey their message
• 1968 43.1 secs
• 1996 8.2 secs
• Politicians now have more sourcescable,
  early-morning news, news magazine shows
• 40 of American households access the Internet

25
Role of the National Press

• Gatekeeper influences what subjects become
  national political issues for how long
• Scorekeeper tracks political reputations
  candidacies
• Watchdog investigates personalities exposes
  scandals

26
Media and Campaigns

• Traditional Ads
• Web-based Ads
• Talk radio
• Movies
• Narrowcasting- (focus on specific news or issues
  24 hours a day) may fulfill political junkies or
  spin issues out of control

• Humor Jib-Jab
• Popular Music
• Media Events - Get name or picture in print or on
  the tube!
• Horserace Reporting
• The New Media-
• Drudge
• Tabloid
• Blogs

27
The Media and Campaigns

• Equal access for all candidates
• Rates no higher than the cheapest commercial rate
• Now stations networks can sponsor debates
  limited to major candidates

28
Media Bias

• Members of the national media are generally more
  liberal than the average citizenor are they?
• Al Frankens Thesis Reporters might be liberal,
  but networks tend to be conservative
• Conservative media outlets have become more
  visible in recent years
• Talk radio is predominantly conservative
• Journalistic philosophy is that the news should
  be neutral and objective

29
Coverage of Government

• The president receives the most coverage
• Gavel-to-gavel coverage of House proceedings
  since 1979 (C-SPAN)
• Senatorial use of televised committee hearings
  has turned the Senate into a presidential
  candidate incubator

30
Washington is a Sieve

• on background
• a high placed government source
• Trial balloons
• Deep throat Mark Felt

31
Government Constraints on the Media

• Reporters must strike a balance between
  expressing critical views maintaining sources
• Governmental tools to fight back numerous press
  officers, press releases, leaks, bypass the
  national press in favor of local media,
  presidential rewards and punishments

32
Telecommunications Act of 1996

• Relaxed limitations on media ownership
• Own up to 35 of TV market
• Own unlimited of radio market Clear Channel
• Cable companies selling telephone, etc.

33
Media Conglomerates

• Concentrated ownership of the media
• Gannett owns USA Today and controls the biggest
  daily circulation in the nation owns 100
  additional newspapers
• Rupert Murdoch owns 124 radio stations, NY Post,
  Weekly Standard, FOX News

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Remember,.media

• Impacts WHAT we think ABOUT, not what to think!