Chapter 4 Political Culture, Political Attitudes, and Participation: Venting and Voting

1
Chapter 4Political Culture, Political Attitudes,
and ParticipationVenting and Voting

• Why libertarians live in New Hampshire, liberals
  live in Minnesota, and conservatives live in
  Texas

2
Political culture

• Represents a shared set of norms and values.
• Determined by a states history and maintained
  through existing political institutions.
• Expressed through public attitudes.

3
The great and powerful Elazar

• Daniel Elazar provided the first classification
  of states according to distinct political
  cultures.
• Elazar concluded that states could be separated
  according to religious and ethnic backgrounds and
  migration patterns.

4
Minnesota liberals and Texas conservatives

• The political culture of a state provides a
  foundation for the values and beliefs of its
  citizens about the appropriate role of
  government.
• States political culture best expressed by
  citizen attitudes toward government and public
  representatives.

5
Elazars classification

• Moralistic Minnesota liberals
• Individualistic Every man for himself
• Traditionalistic Texas conservatives

6
Debating Elazar

• Political culture is rarely clear-cut attitudes
  change over time.
• Most states have characteristics that reflect
  more than one political culture.
• Political culture reflects sectionalism, or
  regional patterns, rather than distinct cultural
  divisions.

7
Political culture and elections

• Political participation is a reflection of a
  states dominant political culture.
• Elections are the primary mechanism for
  expressing attitudes and beliefs about the
  direction of government.

8
Chads and the Florida fiasco

• States differ in the degree to which they impose
  regulations on the electoral process.
• A state will regulate its elections to reinforce
  its existing political culture, resulting in
  fifty different election codes.
• The most fundamental way to control elections is
  through ballot regulation.

9
Why Florida Democrats voted for Pat Buchanan

• The type of ballot used influences voter behavior
  by determining the arrangement of candidates and
  political offices on a particular ballot.
• Candidates can be listed according to party
  affiliation (party column) or the office being
  pursued (office group).

10
Its good to be king

• A state can reinforce its political culture by
  regulating which parties nominees appear on the
  ballot.
• Party in power is usually the result of favorable
  electoral conditions as maintained through
  existing state regulations.
• Minor or third parties face institutional
  barriers to ballot success.

11
A changing electorate

• In the past, states were able to control not only
  which parties appeared on the ballot, but also
  who saw the ballot.
• Voter registration restrictions have declined,
  but voter registration remains a powerful
  political tool.

12
Political culture and political behavior

• Political participation depends on existing
  electoral conditions.
• Moralistic states, with a high degree of
  political competition, have the highest rates of
  political participation.
• Competitive elections also drive up rates of
  voter turnout.

13
The governor vs. the state treasurer

• States differ in degree to which political power
  is conferred on public officials.
• Plural executive systems lead many statewide
  officeholders to run campaigns independent of the
  governor.
• The degree to which statewide officials wield
  political power usually reflects the political
  culture of a state.

14
Public opinion and political culture

• State legislators have relatively little
  information regarding citizen opinion, therefore,
  they must respond to cues regarding citizen
  opinion.
• Moralistic states provide more opportunities for
  citizen input than traditionalistic or
  individualistic states.
• Legislators are more responsive to the needs of
  citizens in states possessing a politically
  active citizenry.

15
The Functions of Elections

• Most change in the United States comes about on
  the basis of elections.
• Elections generally allow us to avoid
• Riots
• General strikes
• Coups d'etats
• Elections serve
• to legitimate governments
• to fill public offices and organize governments
• to allow people with different views and policy
  agendas to come to power
• to ensure that the government remains accountable
  to the people.

16
Citizen legislators and the California recall

• Twenty-four states provide for direct democracy
  through ballot initiatives and referendums.
• The initiative process increases the range of
  topics considered during the legislative process.
  
• Initiatives and recalls provide a powerful
  expression of political attitudes and reinforce
  the existing political culture.

17
Different Kinds of Elections

• Primary Elections
• General Elections
• Initiative, Referendum, and Recall
• Initiatives allow citizens to propose legislation
  and submit it to popular vote.
• A referendum allows the legislature to submit
  proposed legislation for popular approval.
• Recall elections allow citizens to remove someone
  from office.

18
Voter Turnout

• Australia 96
• South Africa 86
• Denmark 83
• Germany 78
• Britain 78
• Israel 77

• Canada 69
• Japan 67
• Russia 54
• Mexico 52
• India 50
• U.S. 48

19
Voting Behavior

• Voter Participation
• About 50 of the eligible adult population votes
  regularly.
• About 25 are occasional voters.
• About 35 rarely or never vote.

20
Does Low Voter Turnout Matter?

• Is low voter turnout a problem in a democracy?
• Do we want the uninformed or poor and uneducated
  voting?

21
Who Votes? (social and demographic
factors)

• Income people with higher incomes have a higher
  tendency to vote.
• Age older people tend to vote more often than
  younger people (less than half of eligible 18-24
  year olds are registered to vote).
• Gender Since 1980, women have a higher tendency
  to vote for Democrats than Republicans.
• Race in general, whites tend to vote more
  regularly than African-Americans (this may be due
  to income and education not race).

22
Who votes cont.

• Education (high)
• Parental participation
• Occupation (high status)
• Religion
• Exposure to media
• Geographic region

23
Who Votes? (psychological factors)

• Party Identification
• Perception of the
• Candidates
• Issue preferences
• Political culture

24
Pro/Con ? ? ? ?

• Direct Democracy

• Representative
• Democracy

25
POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION

• The process in which individuals acquire the
  information, beliefs, attitudes and values that
  help them comprehend the workings of a political
  system and orient themselves within it.

26
Political Socialization and Other Factors That
Influence Opinion Formation

• Political attitudes are grounded in values. We
  learn our values by a process known as political
  socialization.
• Many factors influence opinion formation.
• The Family
• The Mass Media
• School and Peers
• The Impact of Events

• Social/economic groups
• Religion, Race,
• Education, Income,
• Gender, Region

27
How We Form Political Opinions
Political Opinions
Personal Beliefs
Political Knowledge
Cues From Leaders
28
The Structure of a Campaign

• All political campaigns can be viewed as a series
  of several campaigns that run simultaneously.

The Nomination Campaign
The General Election Campaign
The Personal Campaign
The Organizational Campaign
The Media Campaign
29
Campaign Challenges
Campaign Financing
The News Media
Televised Debates
Individual Contributions
Handling the Press?
PAC Contributions
Personal Contributions
Party Contributions
30
Incumbency

• Incumbency advantage the electoral edge
  afforded to those already in officegained via
• Edge in visibility
• Experience
• Organization
• Fund raising ability

31
Contributions and Expenses

• Campaigns are VERY expensive.
• House races can cost over 1 million but usually
  cost 400-700,000 for incumbents, less for
  challengers.
• Senate races cost much more.
• All political money is regulated by the federal
  government under the Federal Elections Campaign
  Act of 1971, 1974, and 1976.

32
Soft Money

• Soft money is money with no limits or rules that
  is raised and spent outside of federal election
  guidelines.
• Soft money is often used to pay for ads that do
  not expressly advocate the election or defeat of
  a particular candidate.
• As long as these ads do not use the words "vote
  for", "elect", "vote against" or the like, ads
  can be paid for with unregulated soft money.
• Many argue that the huge infusion of unregulated
  soft money has destroyed the federal campaign
  laws.

33
Individuals

• FECA limits individuals to contributions of
  2,000 per election, per candidate (2,000 in the
  primary and another 2,000 in the general
  election).
• Individuals may give a maximum of 37,500 in
  gifts to all candidates combined in any two-year
  election cycle.

34
PACs

• PACs may donate 5,000 per candidate, per
  election.
• There are over 4,000 PACs registered with the
  FEC.
• PACs gave over 200 million to congressional
  candidates in 1996 (individuals gave 444
  million).

35
Personal Contributions

• In Buckley v. Valeo (1976) the Supreme Court
  struck down limits on personal campaign spending.
• Spending your own money on your campaign is a
  free speech right.
• Steve Forbes, Ross Perot, and other wealthy
  Americans have taken advantage of their personal
  wealth in their quest for office.

36
Do we vote for the Candidate or the Campaign?

• The most important factor in any campaign is the
  candidate (he/she is even more important than
  money).
• Campaigns are able (most of the time) to downplay
  a candidates weaknesses and emphasize her
  strengths.
• However, even the best campaigns cannot put an
  ineffective candidate in the win column most of
  the time.
• Most people vote for a candidate not the campaign.

37
Voter Profiles

• voting introvert/extrovert
• pocketbook voter
• groupie voter
• glamour voter
• terror voter

38
Propaganda

• Name Calling
• Testimonial
• Glittering Generalities
• Loaded Words
• Card Stacking
• Bandwagon
• Plain Folks
• Transfer
• Fear

39
Conclusion

• Although rarely clear-cut, the political cultures
  of the states help explain why states differ in
  terms of interparty competition and political
  behavior.
• The political culture of a state influences
  everything from political attitudes and political
  participation to the regulation of statewide
  elections.
• Elections provide a valuable mechanism for
  expressing political attitudes and preserve the
  states existing political culture.

40
Governing the Sooner State
Oklahoma Voter Registration

• Year Dem. Rep. Ind.
• 1960 82 17 1
• 1970 77 22 1
• 1980 75 23 2
• 1990 65 32 3
• 2000 57 35 9
• 2024 38 41 21

41
Oklahoma How we Participate

• 1907-1918
• 1918-1930
• 1930-1942

• 1941-1962
• 1962-1979
• 1980-2005

42
Trends - Oklahoma

• Democrats
• Role of Tradition
• Populist appeals
• Nature of Democrats in Oklahoma
• Other?

• Republicans
• Role of Religion
• Demographic
• Issues
• Economy
• Party Control
• Other?