Political PartiesCh. 16

GPS Standards

• SSCG7: The student will describe how thoughtful and effective participation in civic life is characterized by obeying the law, paying taxes, serving on a jury, participating in the political process, performing public services, registering for military duty, being informed about current issues, and respecting differing opinions.

GPS Standards

• SSCG8: The student will demonstrate knowledge of local, state, and national elections.

A. Describe the organization, role, and constituencies of political parties.

B. Describe the nomination and election process.C. Examine campaign funding and spending.D. Analyze the influence of media coverage,

campaign advertising, and public opinion polls.E. Identify how amendments extend the right to

vote.

Did You Know

• The first political parties held beliefs comparable to today’s parties. Like many conservatives today, Jefferson held that the purpose of government was to protect the freedom of individuals to pursue their personal goals without government interference. Like many liberals today, Hamilton insisted that government should have a strong role in carrying out programs needed to benefit the people. Like moderates today, Washington’s beliefs fell somewhere between these two.

Political Parties

• Political party - a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections, control government, and thereby influence government policies.

• The two major political parties in the United States are the Democrats and the Republicans.

Party Systems

• One-party System- authoritarian, common in communist governments and in some Islamic nations. • Theocracy- a government dominated by religion.

• Multiparty Systems- France has 5 and Italy has 10. They represent different ideologies, basic beliefs about government.

• Two-party System- two parties dominate while minor parties exist. Ex: United States.• Third Party- any party other than one of the two

major parties.

Third parties

• Third parties believe that neither party is meeting certain needs.

• Types include• Single-issue party- focuses on one single issue.• Ideological party- focuses on overall change in

society.• Splinter party- splits from a major party because

of disagreement.• While seldom victorious, they have a major

impact on elections and political issues.• They often take votes away from one of the

two major parties.• They have difficulty gaining broad support

and have difficulty getting on ballots.

Early American Parties

• The first two parties were Federalists and Antifederalists.

• After Washington’s presidency, the Democratic Republicans and the Federalists.

• The 1828 election of Andrew Jackson led to the creation of the Democrats and the Whigs.

• The Civil War saw the rise of the Republicans vs. the Democrats.

Functions of Political Parties

• Recruiting Candidates• Educating the Public• Operating the Government• Dispensing Patronage• Loyal Opposition• Reduction of Conflict

Nominating Candidates – 4 ways

• Caucuses- early form where private meetings of party leaders chose candidates.

• Nominating Convention- official public meeting of party to choose candidates for office.

• Primary elections are the most common form of nominating used today.• Closed Primary- only members of a political party

can vote.• Open Primary- Open to all voters regardless of

party affiliation. They can still only vote in one party’s primary.

• Petition- A candidate announces his candidacy and a certain number of people must sign a petition for him to be on the ballot.

National Conventions

• Conventions select a ticket, a candidate for president and vice president.

• The Convention also sets the party’s platform and planks.• Platform – statement of principles, beliefs,

and positions on vital issues.• Plank – stance on a single issue.

Parties influence voters

• Split ticket – when a voter chooses candidates for different offices from multiple parties.

• Straight-party ticket- selection of candidates from only one party.

Elections and VotingCh. 17

Election Campaigns

• A strong organization, headed by an experienced campaign manager, is essential in running a campaign.

• Television and the Internet are important tools for candidates; • television conveys the candidate’s image, • web sites are used to raise money and

inform the public about the candidate.

Financing Campaigns

• Running for office is very expensive.• The majority of campaign funding

comes from individual citizens, party organizations, corporations, and special-interest groups.

• Political Action Committees, or PACs, are established by interest groups to support candidates, but they are limited in the donations they can make.

Financing Campaigns

• Two methods are used to get around campaign spending limits:

1. soft-money donations, which are contributions given directly to a political party for general purposes such as voter registration drives;

2. issue-advocacy advertisements, which support an issue rather than a particular candidate.

Voting Rights

• During the early 1800s, states gradually abolished property and religious requirements for voting, and by the mid-1800s, the nation had achieved universal white male suffrage.

• The Fifteenth Amendment, passed after the Civil War, granted the vote to African American men in both state and national elections.

Voting Rights

• The Nineteenth Amendment, ratified in 1920, granted women in all states the right to vote.

• The Voting Rights Acts of 1965 and 1970 outlawed literacy tests.

• The Twenty fourth Amendment banned poll taxes

• The Twenty sixth Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

Influences on Voters

• Age, education, religion, and racial or ethnic background affect voters’ attitudes, but voters do not always vote with their backgrounds.

• Cross-pressured voters, those caught between conflicting elements in their lives, may vote based on the issues and candidates.

Loyalty to Political Parties

• The majority of American voters consider themselves Republicans or Democrats, most vote for the party’s candidates.

• Independent voters, who have increased in numbers, do not belong to either major party but are an important element in presidential elections.

The Candidates Image

• Americans want someone they can trust as a national leader.

• Voters often select candidates for the image they project.

Propaganda

• Political parties and candidates use ideas, information, and rumors to influence voters with propaganda techniques.

Who Votes?

• List some reasons why someone would choose to vote:

• List some reasons who someone would choose not to vote:

Interest Groups and Public OpinionCh. 18

The Power of Interest Groups

• Members of interest groups share common goals and organize to influence government.

• Interest groups draw their strength from the financial resources, numbers, and expertise of their members.

Interest Groups and Lobbyists

• Most interest groups use lobbying, or making direct contact with lawmakers or other government leaders, to influence government policy.

• Many lobbyists formerly worked for the government and know its politics and people; other lobbyists are lawyers or public relations experts.

The Work of Lobbyists

• Lobbyists can:• provide lawmakers with useful information

supporting an interest group’s position; • give testimony before congressional

committees; and • help draft bills.

Public Opinion

• Public opinion includes the ideas and attitudes of diverse citizens.

• Interest groups and polls help inform government officials of public opinion.

• Significant numbers must hold an opinion to influence public officials.

Political Socialization

• Political socialization involves learned political beliefs and attitudes.

• The parents’ political party often becomes the party of their children.

• Schools, close friends, religious groups, clubs, work groups, and economic and social status influence political socialization.

• The mass media, especially television, can directly affect political attitudes.

• The president, members of Congress, and interest groups try to influence opinions.

Political Culture

• A political culture is a set of shared values and beliefs about the nation.

• Belief in liberty and freedom, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, equality, private property, and individual achievement are part of the U.S. political culture.

Ideology vs. Public Policy

• Ideology is a set of beliefs about life, culture, government, and society.

• A liberal believes the national government should be active in helping individuals and communities promote health, justice, and equal opportunity.

• A conservative believes the role of government in society should be limited and that individuals should be responsible for their own well-being.

• Since the 1970s most Americans consider themselves political moderates.

Measuring Public Opinion

• During the presidential election in 1948, public opinion polls heavily favored Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S Truman. The news editors at the Chicago Tribune had been so confident of a Dewey victory that they had printed a “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline and distributed their early edition before the election results were fully tabulated.

Measuring Public Opinion

• Political parties inform party leaders about voters’ attitudes.

• Members of interest groups contact public officials about specific issues, such as gun control, health care, auto safety, and so forth.

• The mass media measure program ratings to gauge public interest.

• Politicians use newspapers, magazine cover stories, editorials, letters to the editor, talk shows, and television newscasts to keep track of public interests.

Measuring Public Opinion

• Relying solely on mass media sources can distort information.

• Letter writing campaigns to public officials by mail, fax, and E-mail indicate levels of support and opposition for specific issues.

• Straw polls organized by media provide responses to specific questions.

• Pollsters may weight their results for race, age, gender, or education.

• The way a question is phrased can greatly influence people’s responses.

The President and the Media

• The president is an important source of news; 80% of all media coverage of national government focuses on the president.

• The White House uses news releases, briefings, and press conferences, to make announcements, explain policies, decisions, or actions.

• The president or another top official sometimes gives reporters important pieces of information in a backgrounder, which they report without naming the source.

• Top government officials also provide the media with information “off the record” and through news leaks.

The President and the Media

• Modern presidents stage news events to reinforce their positions on issues.

Media and Presidential Campaigns

• Television impacts presidential campaigns by:

1. requiring that candidates be telegenic2. making it possible for unknowns to become

serious candidates3. encouraging celebrities from other fields to

enter politics. • Media coverage of nominations, especially

primaries presented in horse-race terms, has changed the presidential nominating process.

Media and Presidential Campaigns

• Early primaries establish the front-runners even though the states involved represent only fraction of the national electorate.

• The front-running candidates are the only ones able to attract the funds to succeed in the long nominating process, and the candidates of each party are identified months before the nominating conventions.

Media and Presidential Campaigns

• Television advertising campaigns cost candidates huge sums of money.

• Television has weakened the role of political parties as the key link between politicians and the voters in national politics and has made candidates less dependent on their political party organization.

Congress and the Media

• Congressional coverage in the media focuses on individual members and tends to report on the controversial aspects of Congress, such as confirmation hearings, oversight activities, and the personal business of members.

• The media tries to create big stories by looking for scandal in the personal activities of members of Congress.

• Both House and Senate allow television coverage of floor proceedings.

Setting the Public Agenda

• The public agenda is a list of the problems that both political leaders and citizens agree need government attention.

• The news media play a role in setting the public agenda by highlighting some issues and ignoring others.

• Competition between media networks influences which decisions they cover; networks try to attract an audience by focusing on stories that will interest the largest number of viewers.

• The media also has an impact on opinion toward government and issues by influencing people’s attitudes and values.

Who to Trust?

• When watching news, you should be on the look out for bias. This is an intentional slant of information to make one candidate or party look better or worse than the other. Members of the press and news media often want to influence rather than inform you.

• For example, CNN, NBC, CBS tend to favor a liberal stance while FOX news tends to favor a conservative stance.

The Internet

• The Internet supports interactive communications among many people at once, which allows political activists to quickly mobilize huge numbers of supporters.

• Internet organizations and activities are spread around the world; as a result, it is often not clear which national laws govern Internet activities.

The Internet

• Thousands of Web sites devoted to politics and government are sponsored by government agencies, Congress, political parties, universities, and interest groups; some sites may be partisan, meaning that they support only their own point of view.

• Legislation can be tracked online through a government database called THOMAS.

The Internet

• Citizens use e-mail to communicate with government officials.

• Election candidate websites supply information on how to volunteer for an election campaign or political cause; cyber volunteering is a class of volunteer activities that can only be done on the Internet.

Who to Trust?

• Much of what’s on the Internet and in emails should not be taken seriously. Rumors and lies are abundant on the Internet. You should only trust a reputable new agency or government site for political information.

• Candidates personal campaign sites often twist facts in that candidates favor.