Political Parties,Participation,and Elections

1. Unit 2 Political Parties,Participation,and Elections

2. Tuesday, October 30th • Good morning! • Happy Halloween Eve!! • As you come in, please: • Sit in your NEW assigned seats • Front table – pick up a Unit 2 Info Summary and a Unit 2/Day 1 Get It, Got It, Government and complete it! • Can only give you 10 minutes today…so make the most of it!

3. Class Updates • Unit One Summative grades are in Synergy! • Make-ups – Thursday after school • Unit Two – Elections and Campaigns kicks off today! • Friday – Summative (believe it or not!)

4. Political Parties, Participation, and Elections

5. What Are Political Parties? • Political parties: organized groups that attempt to influence the government by electing their members to local, state, and national offices. • Important link between public and government Voters Parties ElectedOfficials • Especially true in elections, parties filter participation

6. What Are Political Parties?

7. What Are Political Parties? • Utility in American government and politics • Increase political participation • Provide important information cues to voters • Promote party’s causes and issues • Organize congressional business

8. Parties and Elections • Recruiting candidates • A quality candidate needs: • Good name recognition • Previous experience in office • Ability to raise large amounts of money • Understanding of the key issues • Ability to withstand severe scrutiny

9. Parties and Elections • Mobilization: getting out the vote • Get supporters registered • Keeping online groups engaged • Turning out their base on election day • Operate phone banks, put up yard signs • Offer rides to polling stations • Parties subsidize the costs of informing and mobilizing voters

10. Parties and Elections • Facilitating voter choice • Americans vote on many more officials than most citizens of other countries do. • This requires Americans to be informed about more candidates. • Parties make obtaining this information easier. • People use party as an information “shortcut” when making voting decisions.

11. Parties and Government • Parties in Congress • Both chambers organize functions through committees that are divided by party. • The majority party has the leadership roles. • President and party • If Congress is controlled by the opposition party, then we often see gridlock and delay rather than cooperation (divided government). • President is de facto head of his party.

12. Parties Organize Power in Congress

13. What Are Political Parties? • American two-party system • Winner takes all single-member districts. • If candidate wins by 20%, or .001%, same result • Losing party gets no representation from that specific district. • Unlike proportional pepresentation systems • Multi-member districts/states, party wins number of seats in proportion to the share of votes won in election • Third parties less viable; voters feel “wasted vote” • No incentive to vote for candidates who cannot win because that point of view will not get represented.

14. Party Systems

15. Party Systems • The first party system: Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans • Federalists: stronger federal government, assumption of Revolutionary War debt, protective tariffs, commercial ties with Britain • Jeffersonians: free trade, agriculture, relations with France

16. Party Systems • The second party system: Democrats and Whigs • Intense competition for votes led politicians to increase suffrage. • Parties divided more by personalities and petty politics than by significant ideologies • Eventually, the Whigs were replaced by a coalition of free labor, free soil, and free land supporters.

17. Party Systems • The Civil War and postwar system: Republicans and Democrats • Republicans: higher tariffs to protect industry, no slavery in new territories, post-war – Radical Republicans helped ex-slaves during Reconstruction with education and building new lives, westward expansion • Democrats: lower tariffs to promote agriculture, smaller, local government, pro-slavery, post-war – banned from Southern governments through Reconstruction, responsible for Jim Crowe laws

18. The Civil War and Post-Civil War Party System

19. Party Systems • The New Deal party system • Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected in 1932 • Expanded reach of government • Began regulating the workplace • Created a social safety net • Created a broad coalition of voters that sustained it until the late 1960s

20. Party Systems • The contemporary American party system • GOP broadens base of economic and social conservatives, especially Southerners • Ideological divide increases among elected officials, within ranks as well • Tea Party (not an actual political party) illustrates base frustration with GOP elected officials • Progressive activists, Occupy Wall Street most notably, illustrate base frustration with Democratic party.

21. Parties and Candidates in 2012

22. Parties and the Electorate Party Identification 1952–2010

23. Party Identification by Social Groups, 2008

24. How Do Voters Decide?

25. How Voters Decide • Three factors • Partisanship • People with strong party identification vote at higher rates, even if the contest is not competitive. • Issues and policy preferences • Candidate characteristics

26. How Do Voters Decide? • Issues and policy preferences • Candidates take strong stands on issues to differentiate themselves from other members of their party or past leaders. • Difficult to vote based on issues when candidates only address “safe” topics or seem to differ little on important issues

27. How Do Voters Decide? • Candidate characteristics • Religion • Race and ethnicity • Gender • Social background • Perceived personality traits • Career

28. Candidate Characteristics Are More Important in the Media Age

29. Voting • Suffrage extended to different groups at different points in American history. Initially only wealthy, white, male, >21 yrs • Wealth limitation eliminated early 1800s • Fifteenth Amendment enfranchises black men (1870) • Nineteenth Amend. enfranchises women (1920) • Twenty-Fourth Amend. ends poll taxes (1964) • Twenty-Sixth Amend. lowers age to 18 (1971)

30. Voting • Right to vote: all American citizens >18 yrs. old • 10 states (as of 2012) lifetime ban convicted felons • Turnout relatively low today • Other democracies and points in American history • 60 percent national average presidential elections • 33 percent national average in off-year national races • Significant state and regional differences

31. Voting

32. Voting Voter turnout in democratic nations 1945–2008

33. Voting • Why Do People Vote? 1. Individual preferences and traits • Partisanship, ideology, religion, sex, income, etc. 2. Political environment • Campaigns, issues, mobilization, party competition 3. State policies • Registration deadlines and methods, identification, ballot types (paper, mail only, etc.)

34. Types of Elections • Four types of elections: • Primary • General • Runoff • Referendum elections • Proposed laws placed on the ballot for statewide vote

35. Types of Elections • Primaries • Parties choose candidates who will run in the general elections. • Primaries do not elect people to office. • Open v. closed primaries • Voters can participate in either party primary, or not. • Voters do or do not register with party affiliations. • States may have caucuses; members meet and vote in the open.

36. Types of Elections • General elections • Determine who gets to hold office • Typically draws the most voters • Runoff elections • If a candidate does not win a majority in the general election, some states hold a runoff between the two highest vote-getters.

37. Types of Elections • Direct democracy • Legislative referenda: all 50 states’ legislatures refer policy to the public for a popular vote • Popular referenda and initiative: 24 states, citizens petition to place issue on ballot for a vote • Bypass the legislature • Often controversial and/or expensive policies • Recall elections: 18 states, citizens vote to remove elected official from office

38. Electoral College • Founders created electoral college because citizens were not trusted to make good decisions. • Even today, citizens do not directly vote for president, but rather for electors. • State electoral votes = number of U.S. Representatives + Senators (2) • All states but Maine and Nebraska allocate all electoral votes to the popular vote winner.

39. Path to the White House

40. 270 to Win!Electoral College Simulation • How to Play • Play with one of your Quadmates • Object – collect as many electoral votes as possible – 270 to Win! • Materials • One die • Electoral College map • Tally Sheet

41. 270 to Win!Electoral College Simulation • How to Play • Write both your names on all papers. • Decide who’ll be Republican (red) and who’ll be Democrat (blue) • Roll the die to see who goes first • That person then selects a state. Write the name of the state on your Tally Sheet. • Both players take turns rolling the die. Your roll should be recorded on your Tally Sheet. • The player with the highest roll gets all the Electoral College votes from that state. • Record that number on your Tally Chart & color in your map • The losing player will record 0 for that state. - Whoever won the previous roll gets to choose the next state…

42. Who Wins!!

43. Wednesday, October 31st • Good morning! • Happy Halloween!! • As you enter, please: • Front table – pick up our Day 2 – Get It, Got It, Government and complete it using your Unit 2 Info Summary!

44. Class Updates • What’s Up Today?? • Get It, Got It Government – Day 2 • Quizlet Live! • Political Spectrum Gallery Walk • Borrow a clipboard & complete your Graphic Organizer • Where Do I Fit In? • Get your worksheet off the front table • Go to our website: Gpowell6.weebly.com • Complete the 3 surveys & your worksheet • Win the Whitehouse simulation on iCivics!

45. Win the White House • Go to iCivics student login • Log in using your sign on and password • Play ‘Win the White House’ for prizes when you’re done!

46. Class Updates • Ghoully reminders! • Friday • Unit Two Summative • All Unit One and Unit Two papers are due • Unit One and Unit Two Vocab is due, too! • Paper and pencil OR • Quizlet • OR Double Does It Bonus!!

47. Debate About the Electoral College

48. 2016 County-by-County Results

49. Campaign Finance • Sources: • Individual donors • Political Action Committees (PACs) • The candidates themselves • Independent spending committees—527 and 501(c)(4)

50. Party Organization • Hard money, soft money, and 527s • Hard money was used for campaigning; soft money for party building. • 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act outlawed soft money • 527s: nonprofits that can campaign for, but not coordinate with, the candidates • Citizens United allows unlimited, anonymous donations via interest groups; significant impact