Posi Exam 2 Federalist Papers

Front 1

Three different kinds of news stories and bias

Back 1

Routine Stories-covered same way by almost all media unless something dramatic occurs
Feature Stories-editors get to pick what people think ought be interesting
Insider Stories-same as feature stories

Front 2

Culture War combatants

Back 2

The clash between middle class liberal democrats (new class) and middle class conservative republicans (traditional middle class)

Front 3

Culture War issues

Back 3

Abortion,
affirmative action,
cause of crime and poverty, traditional family values vs. social experimentation

Front 4

At what times does the cultural war affect election outcomes?

Back 4

In sound economic times

Front 5

What is the "New Class"?

Back 5

That part of the middle class that has college and postgraduate degrees and works in occupations that involve using symbols (such as writers and teachers). It tends to have liberal views

Front 6

Four Ideologies

Back 6

Liberals-government intervention in economy, allow broad personal freedom

Conservatives-less government economic regulation, but more social regulation

Libertarians-economic conservatives but social liberals

Populist-liberal on economic matters, but conservative on social matters

Front 7

Problems with public opinion polls

Back 7

-Ignorance- people don't know about the issue they are being polled on

-wording of the poll- whether there is single statement or two, and the order of the options if there is two affect answers to the question

-instability on opinion of the the issue-firm beliefs are not always held about an issue.

Front 8

Origins of political attitudes

Back 8

Family-children are more independent then parents, partially because genes, influences political ideology to a greater extent than parental teaching

Religion-Affect moral or ethical issues more often the the others. Jews overwhelmingly democratic.Fundamental Christians more conservative

Gender-since 1960s women more likely than men to be democrat. Biggest difference over the use of force and confidence in the future.

Education-college graduates tend to be more liberal, influenced by professors. Being elite tends to push you to the extreme of your respective spectrum.

Race-Blacks single most liberal group within the Democratic party, great difference in preference to racial oriented policy like busing minorities, but some difference in well in areas such as the death penalty (whites favor) and health insurance (blacks favor)

Region-Social issues are affected by region more so than economic issues.

Front 9

Roles of national press

Back 9

3 roles for the national government:

gatekeeper-influences what becomes national issues

scorekeeper-help make political reputation, help decide who wins and who loses in Washington politics

watchdog-desire to expose scandels and investigate personalities.

Front 10

Different roles of newspapers and television.

Back 10

Newspaper covers stories in more depth and have less competition than their television counterparts. Newspapers tend to perform the gatekeeper, scorekeeper, and watchdog functions.

Front 11

Young people and newspaper readership

Back 11

Young people are steadily becoming less interested in reading newspaper.

Front 12

Political orientation of journalists

Back 12

More likely to be liberal and vote Democratic

Front 13

Influence of media opinions on opinion and politics

Back 13

Likely have most effect on how people think about matters on which they are not well informed.

Front 14

Effects of television

Back 14

television has ability to give candidates and officeholders, access to tens of millions of people—provided these politicians supply stories that are profitable to produce.

Front 15

Difference between American and European and reason for difference

Back 15

Parties have much larger role in European politics.Parties run election campaigns, elected officials expected to vote party line.

The reason is that the American federal system decentralizes power

Front 16

Nature of parties

Back 16

A party exists as a:
-label- in the minds of the voters

-organization- that recruits and campaigns for candidates

-set of leaders- who try to organize and control the legislative and executive branches of government

Front 17

Strength of the parties today

Back 17

Due to progressive action in the late 19th century political parties are much weaker.

Front 18

Democratic reforms of the 1970's

Back 18

designed to weaken the control of local party leaders over delegates and to increase the proportion of women, young people, and minorities attending the convention. election process, those of the 1970s sought to weaken the influence of leaders within the party to create intraparty democracy as well as interparty democracy.

Before 1968 the Republican party represented blue-collar ones. After a decade of reform, the Republican and Democratic parties each represented two ideologically different sets of white-collar voters. Democratic delegates are usually very liberal. Republican delegates very conservatives.
Moreover, the reforms have changed the nature of national political conventions. Before 1972 the Democratic convention was a place where party leaders met to bargain over who their presidential candidates would be; after 1972 it became a place where met to ratify decisions made by voters in primary elections and local caucuses. Party leaders gathering in a smoke-filled room were replaced by ideologically motivated activists assembling before television cameras.

Front 19

Role of electoral laws in our two party system

Back 19

Laws governing elections make it hard for a third-party candidate to win. First members of the House of Representatives are elected from single-member districts. Because the candidate of only one party can win a seat in a given district, only two parties are likely to put up candidates. . Second, the winner in a race for the Senate or the House of Representatives is determined by a candidate's ability to win a plurality of votes cast.

Front 20

Types of minor parties

Back 20

Ideological parties-Parties professing a comprehensive view of American society and government radically different from that of the established parties.

One- Issue Parties-parties seeking a single policy usually, revealed by their name, and avoiding other issues

Economic-Protest Parties-Parties, usually based in a particular region, especially involving farmers that protest against economic conditions. These tend to disappear as conditions improve.

Factional Parties- Parties that are created by a split in a major party, usually over the identity and philosophy of the major party's presidental candidate

Front 21

Do the parties differ?

Back 21

It is true that the need to win elections pulls each party to the political center as it tries to attract the uncommitted voter. But party voters are different in that Democrats are slightly more liberal on policy questions. While party activists leaders and officeholders have larger differences with total opposed views on basic questions as welfare, busing, crime, and the military spending.

Front 22

Difference between delegates and rank and file voters

Back 22

Delegates are more likely to favor the more ideological candiate and have a more "pure" sense of dealing with political issues

Front 23

Reasons for proliferation of interest groups.

Back 23

more cleavages in societies means more interests exist.

Second the decentralized American constitutional system contributes to the number of interest groups by mulitplying the points at which groups can gain access to the governmment; the more chances there are to influence policy, the more interest groups there will be that seek to influence policy.

Third, the weakness of political parties in this country may help explain the number and strength of interest groups. Where parties are strong, interest groups work through the parties; interests operate directly on the government.

Front 24

Tactics of interest groups, most import tactic

Back 24

information-most important tactic, not only with technical information about issues poltiicians don't know about, but political cues telling officials what values are at stake in an issue

public support-mobilize citizens with an outsider strategy. Individualist nature of new Congreess has made it useful

Money and PACs-contribution to campaigns, favors and occasionally bribes

"The Revolving Door"-promise of lucrative jobs after office

Front 25

types of PACs, relative influence of various types

Back 25

ideological PAC-raised the most money out of the types, but spends about 50 cents of every dollar on expensive direct mail solicitation

Corporate PAC-more than half the PACs are sponsored by corporation. Can afford to inexpensively solicit.

Labor union PAC- 10% of the PACs sponsored by labor unions, can inexpensively solicit

Front 26

Role of primary elections/ Changing role of national convention

Back 26

Since early 1970s primaries have been on the rise and then on no candidate could win the presidential nomination without winning the largest share of primary votes

Front 27

Who participates in the political process

Back 27

Those with more education and usually higher income participate more. Older more active than young, men more active than women. Whites participate overall more than blacks, but when comparing those of equal social status blacks participate more than whites.

Front 28

types of political participation

Back 28

voting, writing letters, making a demand on a public official, such as a welfare administrator or highway planner. Public demonstrations and protest marches

Front 29

trend of voting participation vs. non-voting participation

Back 29

Non-voting participation is on the rise

Front 30

local government and Dillon's Rule

Back 30

local government are constitutionally and leagallly dependent on state government/work with state officials

Dillon's Rule: local governments are the creatures or creations of state government

Front 31

Number of Texas counties

Back 31

254 counties, more than any other state

Front 32

role of commissioners court/type or types of powers it exercises

Back 32

commissioners court-chief policymaking and administrative institution of texas county government. Legislative and executive types of powers

Front 33

Roles/powers of county judge

Back 33

county judge: county's chief legislator and executive
-presides over the commissioners court, sets agenda and participates in all debates

Front 34

Three forms of municipal government permitted by Texas Constitution: their nature and relative popularity

Back 34

strong-mayor (only in houston): elected city executive with strong appointment , budgetary and council management powers.

weak-mayor: an elected city executive, with few meaningful appointment budgetary and council management powers

Council-manager form (preferred)

Front 35

Relative party loyalties of republican and democrats/which party more successful with independence.

Back 35

Members more loyal to Republicans, but more people identify as Democrat. Republicans tend to win more white independent votes.

Front 36

party realignment: definition most recent one

Back 36

where parties change stances on issues, which usually results in change of voter support.

Front 37

Voting coalitions of the two parties

Back 37

The Republican coalition is described as the party of business and professional people.

Democrats have 2/3 of the Jewish and Black population

Front 38

effective television/amount of information in television news cast vs political commercials.

Back 38

Commercial spots give viewers more info than visuals and television newscasts generally.