Voter Behavior
What is a main complaint about the electoral college?
Less populated states are represented.
This is voter efficacy.
What is the belief that political participation and voting can make a difference citizens with a low level of political efficacy believe their votes have no effect on the outcome of an election?
What agency was created to enforce campaign laws and financial disclosure laws?
Federal Election Commission
This is the when news outlets focus on a particular interest and aim at a particular audience.
What is narrowcasting?
Those who enjoy the benefits of collective goods but did not participate in acquiring of providing them
What are free riders?
How did James Madison propose to overcome the problem of factions?
By expanding their participation.
Education influences voting in this way.
Those with more education are more likely to vote, and historically, as voter education increases
What did BiPartisan Campaign Reform Act try to do?
Raised the limits on individuals giving hard money to the campaign from $1000 to $2000 (today it's adjusted for inflation and it's $2600). It eliminated soft money (money given to parties for "party building") Banned spending by groups to influence elections 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.
This is the stable, cooperative relationship that often develops among a congressional committee, an administrative agency, and one more supportive interest groups.
What is the iron triangle?
A strategy by which organized interests seek to influence the passage of legislation by exerting direct pressure on government officials
What is lobbying?
These are three models of voting behavior.
What are rational, prospective, retrospective, and party line.
What are voter identification laws?
These are laws requiring citizens to produce a government issued photo ID in order to vote and usually lowers voter turnout.
What was the ruling in Citizens United V FEC
Corporations and Unions are free to spend as much money on elections as long as they do so INDEPENDENTLY of the campaign itself.
These are three reasons incumbents have a major advantage in getting reelected.
What is fundraising, name recognition, franking privilege, a record of accomplishment.
Name four required Supreme Court Cases that helped define the scope of the First Amendment
What are: Engel v. Vitale, Citizens United v. FEC, Schenk v. US, Tinker v. Des Moines, NY Times v. US, Wisconsin v. Yoder
the 15th amendment
1870. extended suffrage to black males. Prohibits suffrage restrictions on race.
This is how age influences voter turnout.
Young voters are far less likely to turnout than are older voters.
What was the ruling Buckley V Valeo 1976?
Limiting how much money one can spend on their OWN campaign violates FREE SPEECH.
Independent-expenditure committees who can raise unlimited sums from corporations unions and other groups, as well as individuals. They may not coordinate directly with a campaign.
These are Super PACs
When President Franklin Roosevelt was elected in 1932 political scientist called it this
What is party realignment?
This is the voting rights act of 1965 .
What went even further to remove the stumbling blocks that interested with black suffrage, prohibiting any government from voting procedures that denied a person the vote on the basis of color? The legislation abolished the literacy test for anyone who had completed the 6th grade, and it authorized federal registrars to oversee African Americans right to vote in Southern states and counties with histories of discrimination
What is the Party Platform and where is it written?
Written at the national conventions by political parties. It spells out the party's stances on issues like gun control and national security.
This is the major difference between a caucus and a traditional primary.
A caucus is done in person with discussion and the winnowing down of candidates until you are left with one. A primary is selecting a candidate to represent your party by voting (open or closed) privately.
This is how interest groups can influence rulings in the courts.
What is amicus curiae brief?
This is an election when new issues emerge and new coalitions replace old ones.
What is a critical election?