Modern Democracy: Parties, Elections, and Interest Groups

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Modern Democracy Parties, Elections, and
Interest Groups
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What is a Party?

• Political Party- group of persons who seek to
  control government through the winning of
  elections and the holding of public office.
• Major Parties-Democrats and Republicans

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What do they do?

• Nominate Candidates
• Inform and activate supporters
• Ensure good performance of its candidates
• Partisanship- strong support of policy and party
• Watchdog-overlook party in power

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Democrats

• Party of Jackson
• Liberals
• Donkey
• The Left
• Blue State

• Stricter gun control
• Pro-choice
• Strong anti-discrimination laws are necessary
• Higher tax percentage for higher income
• More government programs to aid society
• Decrease military spending
• No death penalty
• Pro Gay Marriage

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Republicans

• Opposes more gun legislation
• Pro-life
• Anti-discrimination is something that should come
  though better education individual conscience
• Lower taxes overall benefit the economy
• Less government programs, but more community
  programs
• Strong military is important
• For death penalty
• Against Gay Marriage

• Party of Lincoln
• Conservatives
• Elephant
• The Right
• Red State
• GOP (Grand Old Party)

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Minor Parties

• Ideological-based on a set of beliefs
• Libertarian (individualism)
• Communist, Socialist, etc.
• Single Issue
• Right to Life

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Minor Parties (con.)

• Economic Protest-exist when economy is in trouble
• Tea Party
• Splinter Parties
• Bull Moose Party
• Dixiecrats
• Green Party

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Why Minor Parties are Important

• Minor Party actually started the convention
  concept (Anti-Masons 1831)
• Spoiler Role
• Critic or innovator

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Voter Behavior

• Many choose to not vote during off-year elections
• Why many do not vote
• Illegal aliens
• Travel or illness
• Mental health facilities, jails, or religious
  beliefs
• Feel does not make a difference

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Other Factors

• Inconvenient registration requirements
• Long ballots
• Long lines
• Time Zone fallout (polls close earlier in east so
  feel no need to vote once hear results)
• Lack of Interest
• Bad Weather

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Sociological Trends

• Lower income
• Manual Labor
• Women
• Younger
• Catholics
• Jews
• African Americans
• Asian Americans
• Mexican/Puerto Rican
• Native Americans
• Inner cities
• New England and West Coast

• Higher Income
• Professional Jobs
• Business Jobs
• College Graduates
• Men
• Older
• Protestants
• Caucasian
• Cuban
• Suburbs
• South and Midwest

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Other Trends

• Tend to vote as your family does
• Decrease in party identification
• More Independents
• The concept of straight-ticket voting
• Increase in focus on issues to influence voting

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Candidates on the 2008 AZ Ballot

• OBAMA, BARACK Democrat
• McKINNEY, CYNTHIA Green
• BARR, BOB Libertarian
• ALLEN, JONATHAN  (Write-In)
• BALDWIN, CHUCK  (Write-In)
• JAY, CHARLES  (Write-In)
• NADER, RALPH  (Nomination by other than by
  Primary)
• McCAIN, JOHN Republican

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President Party Trend

• Tends to be generational
• 1861-1932- Republican
• 2 Dems (Cleveland, Wilson)
• 1933-1968-Democrat
• 1 Rep (Eisenhower)
• 1968-2008-Republican
• 2 Dems (Carter, Clinton)
• Now-Unknown

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Swing States

• States that tend to be fairly independent in
  elections and that could swing to either party
  in any given election or that current election
  year
• Recent examples FL, NV, CO, OH, MO, VA

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Interest Groups

• Organized effort to protect group interests
• Influence public policy
• Parties concerned with their views due to
  necessity of votes

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Good?

• Stimulate interest in public affairs
• Represent members based on shared attitudes
• Provide useful, specialized, and detailed
  information to government

• Promote political participation
• Add another element to checks and balances
• Compete with one another in the public arena

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Bad?

• Influence beyond proportion to size, importance,
  or contribution to public good
• Hard to tell who they represent
• Do not represent views of people they claim to be
  for
• Use tactics that potentially would undermine
  entire political system

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Types of Interest Groups

• Business Groups
• Labor Groups
• Agricultural Groups
• Professional Groups

• Groups that Promote Causes
• Organizations that Promote the Welfare of Certain
  Groups
• Religious Organizations

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PACS

• Political action committee (PAC)-any organization
  in the United States that campaigns for or
  against political candidates, ballot initiatives
  or legislation.
• Federal level-receive or spend more than 1000

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Citizens United v. FEC

• PACs who did not give to candidates, parties, or
  other PACs could accept unlimited contributions
  from individuals, unions, and corporations (both
  for profit and not-for-profit) for the purpose of
  making independent expenditures
• Result-Corporations can influence elections and
  have free speech like citizens

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Super PACs

• No limit
• Cannot coordinate directly with a candidate or
  party
• Can support a party or candidate
• Can go against a party or candidate

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Super PACs (con.)

• Restore Our Future (Romney)
• Priorities USA Action (Obama)
• American Crossroads (Anti-Dems)
• Freedomworks for America (Tea Party)
• 100 individual super PAC donors in 20112012 made
  up just 3.7 of contributors, but accounted for
  more than 80 of the total money raised

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012/colbert-super-pac---not-coordinating-with-step
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