Sarah Scherff
Period 4
American Government
Ch. 5-6 S. Guide
"The Political Process"
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Political party
this is a group of persons who seek to control government through the winning
of elections and the holding of public office.
Most of the parties are joined together on the basis of common
principles.
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Major parties
these are the dominant political parties in the
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Coalition a
union of many persons of diverse interests who have come together to get their
candidates elected to public office. These
include the ranks and substantial share of economic, racial, religious,
regional, and ideological grouping that exists in the century.
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The Nominating
Function this is here to nominate the candidates for public office. This is the only event that sets the political
parties apart
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The
Informer-Stimulator Function this is to inform and stimulate peoples
interest in participating in public affairs.
They inform people so that those people like the idea of the
parties.
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The "Seal of
Approval" Function this is where the party can ensure the good
performance of the candidates and officeholders. This is kind of where they want to find the
right person for the election (they have to have a clean record, and are the
best for the candidacy)
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The Governmental
Function Congress and State legislatures are organized by party lines and
conduct a lot of the businesses on partisan basis. Political parties are what provide the channels
which executive and legislative branches work together. Without this then there is no hope.
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The Watchdog
Function the parties are supposed to watch over the conduct of the public
business. It basically criticizes the
policies and behavior of the party in power.
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Minor party the
less widely supported parties in the political systems.
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Two-party system
when two major parties basically dominate American Politics. It is more likely to have the democrat or
republican candidate to win an election.
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Reasons for the
Two-Party System There are many different explanations as to why the two
party systems work out so well.
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The Historical
Basis This has basically started with the Federalists and the
Anti-Federalists. It wasnt meant to be
like this though because of Framers did not like the idea of a political party
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The Force of
Tradition Most Americans kind of accept the idea of a two-party system
because it has been that way for so many years.
This is basically human nature to just accept it.
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The Electoral
System The single-member district is what just works with the two-party
system and the electoral system. These
are like the winner take all votes, and it is a higher percentage of voters
that makes that person win instead of a low number.
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Single member
district these are contests in which only one candidate is elected to each
office on the ballot. This is a
winner-take-all election because the candidate must receive a large number of
casting votes.
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Plurality this
is the largest number of votes cast for the office. Plurality has to be majority in the two party
systems, but it does not always have to be the majority when there are more
parties involved.
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The American
Ideological Consensus this is the idea that Americans over the years have had
the same ideals, principles, and patterns of belief. This has been formed because American society
and politics has only had room for a split up of two groups, although the two
are very similar in that they both have the same basic goal.
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Multiparty this
is where several, but lesser parties are involved in the elections. The parties are formed by some basic idea
like class, religion, etc. This makes
the government not very stable because the one party in office cannot hold the
support of the majority of the people because they all believe in separate
specific things instated of a broad idea most people can agree on.
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one-party system
these are mostly dictatorships where the party is just focused on keeping the
power in their hands, not really focusing on passing it on to another group or
focusing on what is important. Some
states can be considered one party because most people can agree on that one
broad topic that the party agrees on and it kind of just happens that way.
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Membership of
Parties Membership is based on voluntary reasons, but because the two parties
are broadly based, the parties have to attract the people to that certain
party. Many people chose different parties for many different reasons, and there are so many different things that
influence a persons choice, but generally rich white male are republicans and
minorities are democrats.
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The Nation's
First Parties The Federalist Party was the first to appear, while the
anti-Federalist party came close behind.
Most of the Federalists were the rich people who supported the
Constitution. They appealed to
financial, manufacturing, and commercial interests. The following party
(anti-federalists) was formed and was called the Democratic Party. They clashed in the election of 1796 when
John Adams defeated
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The Eras of
One-Party Domination There are four major periods in which the American party
system has evolved since 1800. During
the first three sections the party had majority even in Congress, and now it is
split so much.
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The Era of
Democrats 1800-1860 from the 1800 until the Civil War the Democrats basically
helps its power. The Federalists party
basically disappeared, but then the Whigs or Republicans formed and was led by
Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. This
group was only able to elect two presidents, Harrison and Taylor. As the Civil War formed and began, the Whigs
and antislavery Democrats came together to be the Republicans and the South
mainly became the democrats. The first
candidate was
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The Era of
Republicans 1860-1932 after the Civil War the Republicans, who were the
business and interest people, farmers, laborers, and freed African Americans
dominated the nation. The South had
basically survived because of the strong South bond and elected Grover
Cleveland which broke the Republican reign for 8 years.
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Electorate the
people who are eligible to vote. This
electorate allowed the Republicans to stay in power for 30 years.
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The Return of the
Democrats 1932-1968 The Great Depression basically brought back the Democrats
with Franklin Roosevelt. Originally it
was made up of the South, small farmers, organized laborers, and big-city
political organizations, had received the support from the African Americans
and the minorities because of the New Deal of 1930s which also strengthened the
coalition.
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The Start of a
New Era When Nixon was elected; Republicans won this because the Democrats
were torn by conflict over the war, civil rights, and social welfare
issues. By 1976 the Democrats regained
the power with Carter. Reagan regained
the recovery because Carter had done so poorly.
As Bush came to office the Republicans worsened and eventually brought
the Democrats back in and now majority are Republican.
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Minor Parties in
the
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Ideological
parties - these are based on one particular belief, or view of social,
economic, and political matter. Most of
these parties have been formed with the idea of Social working and Communist
parties.
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Single-issue
parties these concern a single public policy matter. Most of these parties have faded away in the
historical events that have passed because there is no need to continue the
party if it is already changed.
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Economic protest
parties these are rooted in feelings of economic discontent. These are not really ideal based, but based
more on the fact that the people are not happy with the economy. The parties have disappeared as the nation
has gotten out of the economic difficulty.
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Splinter parties
These are parties that have split away from one of the major parties. Basically they have faded away as the leader
has stepped back into the party.
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The Key Role of
Minor Parties Basically they are important because these parties are willing
and able to take a stand on controversial issues of the time. These issues have drawn attention to some
issued that the major parties have preferred to ignore because they were too
afraid to lose the people that they did have.
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The Reality of
Political Parties it seems that the parties are close knit and highly
organized. In reality, the neither of
what was mentions; the local party organizations may be independent of the
state mother party.
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The Role of the
Presidency the President is the party leader; he has access to the media, popularity,
and the power to make appointments to federal offices and to dispense other favors. The other party that does not have the
president in the power does not have that power that the President to promote
that party.
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The Impact of
Federalism Federalism is the reason for the decentralized government. There are more than a million elective offices
in the
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The Role of the
Nominating Process The candidate selection is within the party and then the
process is divided. The prime function
of the party is the cause for the fragmented character.
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National Party
Machinery There are four elements in the structure of the major parties at
the national level. They are the
national convention, the national committee, the national chairperson, and the
congressional campaign committees.
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The National
Convention the convention performs functions like the adoption of the partys
rules and the writing its platform. It
has no control over the selection of the partys candidates for other offices
nor over the policy do stands to those nominees take.
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The National
Committee Most of the committee centers its work on the staging of the
partys national conventions every four years.
It is not a very powerful organ in the partys leading figures.
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The National
Chairperson The chairperson directs the word of the partys headquarters and
the small stuff in
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The Congressional
Campaign Committees The committees work together to reelect incumbents and to
save the seats given up by the retiring party members. The House or Senate races where the chances
for success seems to justify the efforts.
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The State
Organization National Party organization is largely the product of custom and
the rules adopted by national conventions.
At the State and local levels party structure is largely set by the
State law.
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Local Organization
they follow the electoral map of the State.
Local party organizations are active year-round but most often they are
inactive except for those few hectic months before the lection.
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Ward a unit
into which cities are often divided for the election of city council
members.
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Precinct this
is the smallest unit of election administration. The voters in each precinct report of one
polling place.
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The Three
Elements of the Party There are three basic elements involved in the structure
of the parties. The first is the party
organization which includes the leaders, activists, and hangers who control the
party machinery. The second is the
electorate which includes the loyal people.
The third is the government which decides the party office holders.
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The Future of the
Major Parties Nay things have attributed to the decline of the power of the
parties and perhaps someday the whole system may fall apart because of these
problems. There are many reasons to the
decline and here are some of the following: people not identifying themselves
as a part of h one of the parties, split-ticket voting, structural changes and
reformations, change in technological campaigning, and the incline of
single-issue organizations.
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Split-ticket
voting this is the voting for candidates of both parties for different
offices at the same election. This is
one of the major factors that have weakened the state of the parties.
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The History of
Voting Rights It started out with while male property owners that could
vote. Throughout history there have been
so many processes in history that have cut down the restrictions and have let
more and more people voting.
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Suffrage
(franchise) this is the right to vote and franchise is the same meaning. There are certain suffrage qualifications
that the Framers made so that it would be controlled by intelligent
individuals.
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Electorate this
is the potential voting population. All
of the people who are able to vote are able to vote because of the past history
of suffrage.
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The Five Stages
There are five stages that have caused the American electorate to increase by
so much. First religion was cut back to
just property owners; second, race of color was eliminated; third, sex was
ratified; fourth, African Americans were granted a full ride to vote instead of
having to take a test because of race; fifth, people 18 or older are allowed to
vote.
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The Power to Set
Voting Qualifications The State has the right to set suffrage qualifications,
but the Constitution set forth five restrictions on the States use of power. These restrictions are the following: those
allowed to vote in the States should be able to vote for federal positions, No
state can deprive a person the right to vote because of race, no state can deprive
a persons right because of sex, no state can tax because they are allowed to
vote, and the state cant deprive the right to anyone over the age of 18.
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Citizenship One
must generally be a citizen to vote, but neither State nor the Constitution
denies an alien to vote.
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Residence Many states
require that the person has lived in the State for a certain amount of
time. This is so for two main reasons;
one reason is to let the voter become familiar with the candidates and the
other is to get people to vote in the local elections.
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Age The 26th
Amendment was the cause to lower the voting age. Many states had already changed the age
before the 26th amendment had occurred.
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Other
Qualifications There are many other qualifications that might fall in some
states. One example would be
registration or another would be literacy.
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Registration 49
states require voters to be registered so as to avoid fraud, and to ensure
identification. All states except
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Literacy
literacy could be a good requirement so that one would not misread the ballot
in order to vote. The only problem is
that this has discouraged many people to vote and has been unfair, like in the
past with the African Americans.
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Poll tax this
was a tax payment that was required in some sates before they were allowed to
vote. This was there to discourage
blacks to vote, but the 24th amendment ratified this tax as a
condition voting for the federal elections.
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Who May Not Vote
People in mental institutions or are found to be mentally incompetent, and
those convicted of a serious crime are not allowed to vote. Polygamists, the homeless, or duelists are
not allowed to vote in some States.
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The 15th
Amendment this is the amendment that does not deny a citizen of any color the
right to vote. This was ratified in
1870, but for almost 100 years African Americans were discouraged to vote
because of the tests, and the taxes and such that almost prevented Blacks to be
able to vote.
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Gerrymandering
this is choosing the electoral districts in order to limit voting strength of a
certain group or party. This is where
they have white primaries gerrymandering, and the Supreme Court struck down
many of the practices that prevent those of color to vote.
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The civil Rights
Acts of 1957 and 1960 - This Act set up the Civil Rights Commission which had
to look into the claims of voter discrimination. The Act of 1960 had people who would check up
on the voter discrimination.
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Injunctions
these are federal court orders. The
Civil Rights Act allowed the attorney general to prevent interferences with the
persons right to vote in federal elections because of these.
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The Civil Rights
Acts of 1964 This Act was aimed on having the judiciary system to help
overcome these racial barriers. Dr. King
had a voter registration march in 1965, because of the act, to focus the
attention on the African Americans and their chances to vote.
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The Voting Rights
Act of 1965 and Its Amendments This act allowed the 15th amendment
to actually come into full throttle because it affect local and federal
elections. This Act suspended literacy
test, and the poll taxes in all counties.
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The Size of the
Problem There are too many people not voting, but there are millions of
people who can vote and without a lot of voters the democracy crumbles.
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Little-Recognized
Aspects of the Problem Many voters only vote for the executive branch, but
not the legislative branch of government.
More people end up voting in the general elections but not the special elections
or the primary elections.
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Why People do Not
Vote There are so many reasons why people do not vote like they cannot or
they are too lazy etc.
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Cannot Voters
There are those people who are aliens and are not allowed to vote, and also
those are sick and physically cannot go out and vote. There is still racial, religious and other
discriminating reasons why people cannot vote, but the courts are still working
on it.
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Actual Nonvoters
Some examples of those who choose not vote are those who think that they cannot
actually make a difference, or even that no matter what happens in the election
that they are still going to be fine in their lifestyle. Most of these people just do not feel that
elections will affect their lives.
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Political
efficacy this is the influence of effectiveness in politics. People feel as though they are being pushed
out of the elections because the politicians are so pushy and the special
interests and the media are overwhelming them.
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Factors Affecting
Turnout Those who generally have a higher income, education, or occupational status
tend to vote more than the others. Those
who understand the elections and politics are much better off to vote because
they understand the system.
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The Study of
Voting Behavior Voter behavior generally comes from three different
sources. The following are the three
sources: the results of the particular
elections, the field of the research, and the studies of the political
socialization.
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Political
socialization this is the process which people gain political attitude and
opinions. Many times this occurs early
in childhood and forms throughout the person life because of the experiences
and relationships that lead people to view politics.
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Factors that
Influence Voters Socially a person is affected by his/her age, race, income,
occupation, education, religion, and etc, and also his or her group
affiliations like family, co-workers, friends and such. Psychologically a person voting influence
would be his/ her perception of politics and such.
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The Sociological
Factors Basically sociologically a white collar, rich male is going to be
more likely to vote Republicans these days.
A black uneducated person is more likely to vote democrat.
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Income Occupation
Generally the rich people are Republicans.
Most democrats are the poorer people just barely making it in life.
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Education The
more educated one becomes, the better off he or she will vote Republican. Its always the better educated people that
go to the conservatives.
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Gender, Age
Recently women have been voting more Republican in the last presidential
election, but gender does not affect the reasoning even though men and women
think completely different. Generally
the younger voters will vote Democrat over Republicans.
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Religious, Ethnic
Background There is a majority of Protestants that prefer Republican over the
Jews and Catholics who vote democratic. The
Protestants came earlier in history so the Jews and Catholics are thought of
minorities and the minorities are generally going for Democrats.
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Geography In
the time of the civil war the Southern states voted more for the
Democrats. Over time the Northeast and
the
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Family, Other
Group Affiliations Nine out of ten married couples vote for the same party. Two out of three voters follow the political attachments
of their parents.
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The Psychological
Factors the Majority of Americans identify themselves as one or the other
major parties early in life. Many never
change and they support the party every election.
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Party
Identification this is the loyalty of people to a political party. Psychological factors may possibly be more
affective than socially because it depends on the persons view of politics.
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Straight-ticket
voting this is the practice of voting for candidates of one party in an
election is the straight ticket voting.
People who are considered Democrats or Republican will generally vote
for the party and not really the person running.
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Split-ticket
voting this is the practice of voting for candidate of more than one party in
an election. This is a partial cause of
the weakening condition of the parties because the people decide to vote for
the better person and not really the party.
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Candidates and
Issues Most voters can identify with one or more of the parties during
time. 13 percent of voters ho are
usually republican voted bill