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| Chapter 6, cont. |
| How American Institutions Hold Down Turnout - tend to raise the cost of voting Thursday 21 October **As the # of elections increase, turnouts decrease ** In some states, people give up their right to avoid jury duty **Turnout had declined despite events that should�ve made it increase Decline in Motivation to Vote 1. Cost of Voting - people who work hourly lose $ income - time, personal time you could�ve spent doing things more enjoyable - feeling of being uncomfortable/intimidated b/c they don�t know enough about the issues - comfort does matter- bad weather 2. Benefits - people used to get paid to vote, bribing - people that work for govt vote b/c they�re voting for who will be their bosses - psychologically, ppl feel they�re doing their citizen duty when they vote **Very difficult for a challenger to defeat an incumbent **People are more likely to vote if they are asked to vote Social Connectedness - the degree to which individuals are integrated into society (families, churches, neighborhoods, groups, etc) - not so much of feeling this anymore, decreasing turnout * Education- the strongest predictor of participation highly educated people more likely to vote why? education instills the knowledge, sense of duty, skills, self confidence * Income- people with higher income tend to vote more * Age- older people tend to vote more * Race/Ethnicity- whites tend to vote more, but the gap is shrinking **Competition- turnout is higher when there�s two strong parties -people more likely to believe their vote counts -candidates work harder to gain votes Low Turnout = Not Problem * Optimistic - sign of a healthy political environment, people are happy with the way things are * Elitist - uninformed citizens choose not to vote b/c they don�t know enough, its better that way * Cynical/Radical - voting doesn�t matter anyway, real decisions are made by a group of political elites Low Turnout = Problem * Reflects a �phony� politics - politicians aren�t talking about relevant issues, ppl are concerned with things that directly effect them * Low Turnout Discourages Individual - voting stimulates individual development, ppl who vote/participate are better citizens * Voters are Unrepresentative - how is this one small group able to accurately represent the opinions as a whole? Does Turnout Matter? - probably a cause for concern, but not despair 26 October 2004 Tuesday About 2/3 of Americans participate only through voting Americans are more likely to participate in other ways than are the citizens of other countries 1. Far more opportunities to contact officials, attend board meetings, etc 2. America's individualistic political culture, encourages Americans to contact public officials and protest govt actions 3. Because American political parties are weaker today than in earlier eras, candidates construct numerous personal organizations 4. Many Americans participate in politics through interest groups Chapter 7 National Elections Voter Behavior -- how people decide 1/3-1/2 decide who they're going to vote for even before the primary begins 1/2-2/3 decide how to vote before the fall campaign begins These have an allegiance called party identification What determines * Education - higher educated appear to be correlated with Republicans but then advanced switch to Dems * Gender - prior to 50s it was even, in 80s, gender gap: women tend to vote for Dems about 10% more than men * Age - overall, young tend to be more Democratic * Geographic: Dems get support from W & NE, esp big cities! Reps = big "L" * Religion * Race Psychological Factors * Party loyalty -- 2/3 have a declared party -- strongest determinant in an individual's vote Candidate Qualities * Govt performance - swing voters easily react to this --prospective- looking @ issues candidates say they will do -- retrospective- evaluating how the president has done so far (easy b/c its easy to look @ what you've got) * Incumbments receive credit for good times, and blame for bad times * Policy Proposals- ppl don't usually vote based on these b/c they're too complex * Single-Issue Voters- vote for the person sharing their position on a particular issue Incumbency Advantage * Party loyalty won it before, it will do it again * House members have more contact with the ppl * Senate members have more media attention * Advertising (must be visible to constituents!) free postage, claim credit, helping constituents directly, porkbarrel projects (that they claim that benefit their state/district) * Position taking-- ppl give them more money b/c they'll will b/c they have more money (cycle) |