Americas Democratic Republic

1
Americas Democratic Republic

• Election and Citizen Participation

2
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• 18th Century
• Elections were essential to
• A good republic
• Gaining popular consent
• Problem?
• Popular consent v. insulated public officials
• Solution?
• Eschew the use of direct elections

3
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• 21st Century
• Direct elections and broad citizen participation
  are essential
• Ensures popular sovereignty
• Responsive government

4
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• Prospective or Responsible Party Voting Model
• Elections present a real choice
• Theory
• Parties must be cohesive and unified
• Take clear but different policy positions
• Problems?

5
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• Electoral Competition Model
• Unified parties compete by taking the most
  popular stands on the issue to appeal to the
  median voter
• Theory
• The winner enacts the policies most wanted
• Problems?

6
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• Retrospective or Reward and Punishment Model
• Voters judge how well the party in power has
  governed and decide if they want to retain them
• Theory
• Reward success with re-election and failure by
  throwing out the incumbents
• Problems?

7
Elections in Democratic and Republican Theories

• None of the models are perfect
• The models contradict each other
• Not all ballots cast by voters are counted

8
Voting in the United States

• For elections to be democratic
• Citizens must participate at high levels
• The participation must be essentially equal
  across all social groups in the population
• How has the expansion of the franchise assisted
  the process?

9
Voting in the United States

• Expansion of the Franchise
• First national election voters
• Adult white males who owned property, paid taxes
• Sometimes a religious test
• Universal white male suffrage(1801-1929)
• dropped barriers to property and religion

10
Voting in the United States

• Expansion of the Franchise
• 15th Amendment (1870)
• Anti-discrimination amendment resulting in black
  mens ability to vote
• Backlash brought on
• poll taxes, economic and physical intimidation,
  grandfather clause, white primary
• Loss of the franchise in the South

11
Voting in the United States

• Expansion of the Franchise
• 17th Amendment (1913) direct election of
  senators
• 19th Amendment (1920) banned discrimination
  against voters based on sex
• Womens suffrage
• 23rd Amendment (1961) Washington, D.C. joined
  the Electoral College

12
Voting in the United States

• Expansion of the Franchise (cont)
• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Required literacy tests to be in writing
• Banned voters applications from being for
  immaterial errors
• 24th Amendment (1964) banned poll taxes in
  federal elections

13
Voting in the United States

• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Applied to 11 states of the Old Confederacy
• Outlawed poll taxes
• Allows federal government to send in federal
  examiners to register voters if counties/states
  wont do so
• Subsequently amended to cover
• More states
• Language barriers

14
Voting in the United States

• Expansion of the Franchise (cont)
• 26th Amendment (1971) banned discrimination of
  voters based on age in federal elections
• Suffrage for those 18 years and older

15
Voting in the United States

• Low voter turnout
• Proportionally fewer people vote today than
  during most of the 19th century, but
• Difference between eligible and registered voters
• About 50 percent of Americans are involved in
  some type of political activities

16
Voting in the United States

• Barriers to Voting
• Lack of registration
• Issues to complex
• Weak voter mobilization
• Decline in competitive elections

17
Voting Patterns

• Income
• The higher the more likely people are to vote
• Education
• The higher the more likely people are to vote
• Most important determinant in who will vote

18
Voting Patterns

• Race and ethnicity
• Blacks are as likely to vote as whites
• Hispanics historically have had low participation
  rates
• Fewer than 45 percent of Asian Americans vote

19
Voting Patterns

• Age
• Those 65 and older have the highest level of
  voting
• Those 18-24 have a low level of voting
• Gender
• Women vote at slightly higher rates than do men

20
Voting Patterns

• Does It Matter Who Votes?
• No
• Preferences of voters and non-voters are
  relatively the same
• Non-voters are sometimes angry, apathetic, not
  well versed on issues

21
Voting Patterns

• Does It Matter Who Votes?
• Yes
• Has a negative impact on democracy
• Damages popular sovereignty

22
Campaigning for Office

• Several Stages
• Testing the waters
• Making speeches
• Lining up early support
• Primaries and caucuses
• Conventions

23
Campaigning for Office

• Nomination Politics and Democracy
• Convention delegates are more
• Likely to have participated in caucuses and
  primaries
• Liberal
• Likely to be middle class and above
• More committed

24
Campaigning for Office

• General Election Campaign
• Move from gaining-the-nomination mode to
  general-election mode
• Speeches
• Media blitzes
• Campaigns are candidate run

25
Campaigning for Office

• Informing voters
• Issues
• Past performance
• Personal characteristics
• Competence
• Expertise
• Style
• Imagery
• Advertising
• Dirty tricks

26
Campaigning for Office

• Money
• Creates problems
• Lack of transparency in donors
• Influence on governmental policies after the
  election

27
Election Outcomes

• How Voters Decide
• Social characteristics
• Party loyalties
• Candidates
• issues

28
Election Outcomes

• Electoral College
• Check on democracy developed by Framers
• Issues
• Magnifies the popular support of the winner
• Candidate with the lowest popular vote total can
  win
• Discourages third parties

29
Political Participation

• Has been democratized over the years by
• Institutional transformations
• Political culture
• Elections are the most important way to exert
  democratic control, but do not necessarily lead
  to a greater degree of democracy

30
Discussion Question

• Why did Barack Obama win the presidency in 2008?
  Of the three voting models reviewed in the text
  (prospective voting, retrospective voting, and
  electoral competition model), which do you think
  best explains the reason people voted as they did
  in the 2008 presidential election?