Congressmen focus on casework, or work on behalf of their constituencies, so that they can increase their chance of reelection.

casework - legislative work on behalf of individual constiuents to solve their problems with government agencies and programs.

incumbency effect - the advantages that elected representatives have over newcomers in getting re-elected (i.e. access to funding)

Incumbent Congressmen can raise much more money (up to 6x). Also, redistricting usually favors incumbents.

Clued Into Politics - ???

• National law supercedes state law in judiciary branch.
• Most criminal laws are STATE laws.
• Judiciary only takes criminal case if its a violation of national law, i.e. terrorism.

Checks & Balances - principle that allows each branch of government to exercise some form of control over the others.

•  Bush used signing statements to check the power of Congress (Clued Into Politics ???)
• President can veto a law enacted by Congress, but can be overturned by 2/3 vote by both Senate & H of R
• Congress can impeach and remove President

Confederation - a government in which independent states unite for a common purpose, but retain their own soverignty

Federalism - a political system in which power is divided between state and federal governments. (or: central & regional units)

Unitary Government - Government in which all power is centralized.

Three Examples of Federalism in Practice:

• Congress has used federal controls over highway funding to compel states to adapt national drinking age
• Massachusetts petitioning for statewide healthcare law (Clued In ???)
• Federal government stepped in on recount in Florida in 2000 election

• The President can appoint new justices.
• Fine tune to be better favored by the judges.

Incumbent - the holder of an office or position.

Incumbents usually win re-election because

•  they can raise much more money (6x)
• redistricting usually favors them
• can promise experience
• familiar face
• casework to boast

descriptive representation - the idea that an elected body should mirror demographically the population it represents

Racial gerrymandering - redistricting to enhance or reduce the chances that a racial or ethnic group will elect members to the legislature.

Racial Gerrymandering relates to descriptive representation in that it contributes to it as ethnic groups are more likely to vote for candidates who "look like them."

Ascent of a Woman - American not ready for woman in power...READ INTO MORE.

trustee - people elected by constituents who act in favor of greater common good even if it goes against short-term intersts of own constituencies.

delegate - people elected by constiuents as mouth pieces for the wishes of the constiuency 

Relates to public opinion - ???

Congress should act as trustees because the good of the nation is more important than the good of constiuencies and makes for less bias...

Presidential System - President selected separately from legislature

Parliamentary System - Majority party in Parliament selects prime minister among self

In a gridlock, Presidential system makes policymaking more difficult, BUT, in the Parliamentary system, people lose their power. 

Double-expectations gap: a.    Head of State vs Head of Government (15 points)
b.    Campaign Promises vs. Constitutional limits on Presidency (15 points)

(B)    Why are we often disappointed by presidential performance?  (10 points)
a.    We expect the president to act as a symbol of the nation, but he or she acts in a partisan fashion OR
b.    Once a candidate is elected, he or she can’t fulfill campaign promises because Congress and/or the courts will not go along.  We then feel as if the candidate lied to us and made promises just to get elected.

(C)    Please provide specific examples to illustrate your point. 
You did not need to use these exact examples to receive credit.
a.    President Bush landed on aircraft carrier with Mission Accomplished banner to symbolize end of Iraq War, but then tried to use images for partisan purpose of shoring up support for the war.  (5 points)
b.    During his campaign, President Clinton promised to enact health care reform if elected.  However, once he became president, Congress refused to enact health care reform.   (5 points)
 

Civil Service - created after assassination of President Garfield by unbalanced & dejected job seeker. It replaced patronage.

It was an improvement, because it assured more competency and less partisan favoritism.

Civil service workers are important to their own constiencies, making them difficult to cut (incumbency effect).

President can control bureaucracy by:

• all major regulations must be approved by OMB (part of Executive Office)

• he can make certain that political appointees are steadfast in support of President's agenda

Congress can control bureaucracy by:

• control budget process
• pass additional legislation to limit powers of executive agencies
• oversight hearings as means of embarrassment

iron triangle - fixed relationship between Congress, Bureaucracy, and a single interest group

 e.g. public land use policy: The Forest Service works with Congress and interest groups of nation's timber interests

policy subsystems - fixed set of players for same issue, usually both pro & con interest groups

e.g. groups investigate dead zone in Gulf of Mexico, decide what the proper response is

issue network - changing set of players depending on the issue, including think tanks & inversities as well was interst groups

e.g. in timber example, Wilderness Society works to weaken dominance of timber industry by lobbying Congress & Court members to contest Bush's reinterpretation of Endangered Species Act

Administrative discretion - the exercise of professional expertise and judgment in making a decision or performing official acts or duties.

The executive branch can make laws through signing statements and executive orders. The President can also put an issue on the public agenda.

Advantages for Congress - shrinks their responsibility, so they won't be blamed if a policy goes awry. 

Dual Federalism - national & state government's responsible for separate areas

e.g. drinking age

Cooperative - national & state governments share responsiblity for domestic policy areas.

e.g. environmental policy: states can apply to national government to implement & enforce a law

Picket Fence - involves all parts of government, responsibilites handed out regardless of level

e.g protection of U.S. from terrorism (9/11)

It gave the judiciary branch judicial review.

Judicial review - power of the Supreme Court to rule on the constituionality of laws

It's important for the Judicial Branch because it makes them much more powerful, can now check Congress

The federal government forcing states to comply with drinking age laws by threatening to take away highway funding.

Check!

Bush used signing statements to check Congress's power.

Check!

Bush restricting public access of presidential papers.

Check!

a) Veto a law

b) Appoints justices

c) Impeach & Remove justices

d) Override veto / impeach

e) Can declare executive orders unconstitutional

f) Can declare laws unconstitutional

a) Department of Defense

b) CIA / Peace Corps

c) SEC - Security & Exchange Commission

d) United States Postal Service

Political parties help get their nominees elected to Congress, and then develop a policy agenda for them.

The President has a legislative liason office that specializes in figuring out how legislation can be tailored to get their support. Also, Presidents can go public to get the people's support and sway Congress.

Constiuents influence Congress because they elect them and expect earworks if reelection is expected. 

Interest groups - lobbying: send gifts, paid travel

1) Agenda-setting

2) Policy Formulation

3) Policy Choice

4) Implementation

5) Policy Evaluation

???

Iterative - takes many attempts to get a policy that will successfully solve a problem

If it's not on the agenda, it's not considered a public problem. If an issue never reaches the political agenda, it will have to be solved privately.

Look more into.

Interest groups often form after a disturbance in the political, social, or economic environment that threatens the members of a group. They organized to protect their interests through political action.

Pluralists argue that interst groups are a great equalizing force in American politics.

Elitsists suggest that interest group resource advantages (money, staff) mean interst groups skew toward wealthy. Elitists use example of neighborhood that was being torn down; they did nothing to stop it from happening.

Civil Liberties - conflict between freedom & order

-found primarily in Bill of Rights

-restricts what government can do

Civil rights - conflict between freedom & equality

-found primarily in Civil War Amendments (13-15) & Civil Right Act

-government has responsibility to protect and make sure people are treated equally

1) Gay Marriage Looms as "Battle of Our Times"

• same-sex marriage: impinges on sense of self of many religious people, as well as gay people.
• denied structure for many loving relationships and families
• conflict between legal marriage & religious marriage
• Christian high school expelled two students on suspicion of being lesbian

2) At Guantanomo Bay, Dying Is Not Permitted

• Many of the prisoners have been detained without being charged with a crime
• prisoners try to hunger strike but are force-fed to avoid major embarrassment
• force feeding is done through over large tubes through the nose, and they are often fed too much--which can cause nausea & diarrhea

1) Black and White Proms

• segregated proms
• student-funded, so the state officials can't intervene
• parents don't want to stick their necks out
• some students want change, but most (especially the whites) don't
• principal doesn't get involved

The Establishment Clause - guarantees that the government will not create & support an official state church

The Free Exercise Clause - the guarantee that citizens may freely engage in the religious activities of their choice.

One man's vulgarity is another man's lyric--what is obsecene to one person may be art or enjoyment to another. There's little in the Constitution that addresses this.

Pornography can be banned, but only locally under the Miller test. It's not sexual discrimination, because there's homosexual pornography as well as heterosexual.

Conservatives argue that the Second Amendment needs to be understood to prorect the right to bear arms in a modern contest, when militias are no longer necessary or practical.

Liberals tend to rely on a strict reading of the Second Amendment to support their calls for tighter gun controls--only in the contest of militia membership.

Gideon v. Wainwright: Gideon was denied a lawyer, and lost his self-defended case to a far more knowledgable prosecutor. He wrote a hand-written appeal, and in a landmark decision, the Court incporated the Sixth Amendment right to "have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

Miranda v. Arizona - Police have to inform suspects of their rights to remain silent and to have a lawyer present during questioning to prevent them from incriminating themselves.

Griswolr v. Connecticut - The Ninth Amendment can be interpreted to imply the right of privacy, which includes those within marriage and the decision to use contraceptives.

Roe v. Wade - the 9th amendment implied rights to privacy, including the choice to have an abortion.

In Bowers v. Hardwick, the Court ruled that outlawing homosexual (or heterosexual) sodomy was not a violation of the 9th Amendment. The course reversed itself in Lawrence v. Texas, finally overturning the Bowers case on privacy grounds.

Affirmative action is a policy of creating opportunities for members of certain groups as a substantive remedy for past discrimination.

It's contraversial on the grounds of "equal opportunity"--not "equal outcome."

Equality under law - govenrment treats all people equally

Equality of opportunuty - idea that people should have an equal chance to develop talents in the private sector. Effort & ability should be reward equitably.

Equality of outcome - greater uniformity in social, economic & political power among different social groups. Proportional representation, descriptive representation. Equality of results.

Equality under law is most easily accepted, because equality is Constitutional. Outcome is most contraversial because it means the most deserving won't necessarily be the most successful.

De Jure Segregation - government (legally) imposed

De Facto segregation - segregation that occurs independent of direct government action (e.g. housing)

Representation - represent people before government

Participation - vehicles for political participation

Education - educate their members, the public at large & government officials

Agenda building - bring new issues to government attention

Program Monitoring - follow government programs of interest to Interest Group, events in D.C., communities where programs are implemented.

Examples?

Pluralists think interest groups will form whenever individuals are threatened by change, they form groups to defend themselves (Disturbance Theory)

Elitists think that some groups are more likely to form than others. E.g. Hebert Gans' The Urban Villagers - community was faced with threat of being relocated, did nothing to prevent it.

The free-rider problem is a recruiting difficulty groups face because potential members can gain the benefits of the group's actions whether or not they join.

Overcoming it: selective incentives - benefits available only to group members.

e.g. Material benefit - bookbags, umbrellas

Solidary benefit - the interaction and bonding among group members

Expressive benefit - selective incentive that derives from the opportunity to express values & beliefs and to be commited to a great cause.

• Nominating candidates - recruit candidates
• Structuring the voting choice - party ID, mobilization
• Proposing alternatives to government programs - party platforms
• Coordinating the actions of government officials - control within government, party discipline

ASK TEACHER

Party identification is voter affiliation with a political party.

It's important because...it helps predict how much support a candidate has...research more on this...

Overall, voter attachment to the parties have declined; more people identify themselves as independents than with either other party. Democrats decreased, Republicans increased.

A responsible party model is the party government when four conditions are met: clear choice of ideologies, candidates pledged to implement ideas, party held accountable by voters, and party control over members.

The United States rarely measures up to the responsible party model in reality. For example, even though voters theoretically make decisions based on each party's programs, a host of other factors, such as candidate image or evaluations of economic conditions also influence voting behavior. In addition, parties themselves do not always behave as the model dictates. For instance, American parties cannot always control candidates who refuse to support the party's program. 

Nonpartisanship - fought for merit-based hiring (civil service) in the belief that administration should be separated from politics. At the state level, many executive functions were turned over to independent, non-partisan boards & commissions, thus taking patronage and contracts polices from the political parties.

Electoral reforms - direct primary: party nominees for the general election are chosen in a preliminary election by the voters rather than at party conventions run by party officials.

Direct democracy - allowed citiizens to take charge  of lawmaking themselves.

• initiative - a citizen petition to plae a proposal or constitutional amendment on the ballot, to be adopted or rejected by majority vote, bypassing the legislature
• referendum - an election in which a bill passed by the state legislature is submitted to voters for approval
• recall election - avote to removean elected official from office

Party-centered - relies on voter identification and party organization

e.g. John F. Kennedy ran as a Democrat and a representative of change.

Issue-oriented - seeks support from groups with strong opinions on some issues

e.g. running on promise of allowing gays into military - Bill Clinton

Image-oriented - depends on candidate's personal qualities, such as integrity and leadership

e.g. John McCain running on the history of being a POW

Regulatory - environmental policy, because it is designed to restrict or change the behavior of certain groups or individuals.

Distributive - Homeowner tax deductions, because it's funded by the whole taxpayer base and addresses the needs of a particular groups

Redistributive - Medicaid/Food Stamps, because it shifts resources from the "haves" to the "have-nots"

1) In Kansas, there's a split in the Republican party between moderates and religious conservatives. The moderates emphasize economic development while the religious conservatives are concerned with limiting abortion and gay rights. This is causing several moderate Republicans to switch to the Democratic Party.

2) Democratic senator Joe Lierberman's positions on foreign policu, trade, and Social Security have become out of sync with those of his region (Connecticut) and party. Despite having 35 years of experience and being named VP candidate in 2000, Connecticut voted a new Senator in because of his lack of loyalty. 

1) Roberto Hernandez is one of many activists who protests violations of minority rights. He has protested anti-Muslim cartoons and demanded increased support for the ethnic studies program by fasting and campoint outside the Chancellor's office. This is called a social movement, which generally takes place when interest groups are unable to work within the political system.

2) Black women have banded together to launch the first national Black women's political action committee (PAC). Through it, they hope to determine not only whom to vote for, but who is going to run and if they are serving their interests. No Black Senators or Governors. Now that there's a limit on soft money, money raised by PACs have become even more important.

1) Although Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000 by about 500,000 votes, he lost the election because Bush won the electoral college. This heated up the debate of whether or not the U.S. should keep the electoral college.

2)  There is a great deal of concern about whether or not ineleigible voters might be affecting election outcomes. Because there is no requirement to show photo identification, some think that illegal immigrants are voting.

Support

• it's what the founders wanted
• there's no better ideas yet
• dumping the electoral college will still leave people on the sidelines, e.g. Democrats will still take blacks' block vote for granted
• democracy's not first among our founding principles--our Constitution is all about limiting government, not saying "the majority rules, you can do _____"

Against

• some states are showered with attention (battleground) while others are forgotten because they always vote with one party
• critics complain that the system is undemocratic: it overrepresents small states (Wyoming gets 3 votes but only has the population to garner 2/3 a vote)
• the danger of the electoral vote contradicting the popular vote (it doesn't happen very often)

1) One blogger is part of a "people-powered" movement to upend the traditional power elite in the Democratic party and make it responsive to the "netroots"-the Internet community that he sees as the new version of grassroots in American democracy. He wants to start identifying young progressives and encouraging them to run for local and state offices. He has encouraged Brian Keeler to run for New York Senate and hopes other bloggers and readers will join in the effort.

2) Television stations and newspapers are more interested in making money than providing sufficient news. Rather than hire investigative reporters to keep politicians honest, newspapers settle for exapanded lifestyle sections that please advertisers. Instead of reporting on what government is doing local stations offer "action news" that are really pre-packaged formulas bought from consultants. More focused on celebrity interviews, disasster and crime reports.

1) Zero Tolerance Policy - one kid expelled from school because of a knife in his pick-up truck, but it had fallen out of his Grandma's box for Goodwill after she had a stroke.

2) Bush wants to promote marriage through welfare reform. This is a sticky situation because it reaches into the private sector of marriage. Also, it is arguable that the government should be more concerned with discouraging reproduction out of wedlock than congratulating teen marriages that rarely work out. 

Primary - an election by which voters choose convention delegates committed to voting for a certain candidate. Only party members can vote.

Caucus - local gathering of party members to choose convention delegates

The Ohio Plan would rearrange the nomination schedule by placing nearly all of the states and territories into four "pods" with roughly equal population and electoral vote allocations. Every four years, the pods would rotate their voting positions. Smaller states would still vote first, though.

Why they're necessary/the problem: The present schedule is heavily "front-loaded"--many states schedule primaries or caucuses at the begining of the calender year. This results in a de facto "national primary," that is skewed toward high name recognition and campaign cash. 

Super Tuesday is the day on which several U.S. states hold their primary elections. In '08, 24 states.

The Super Tuesday results provided an advantage for McCain because many state Republican Party's adopted the "winner-take-all" format of awarding delegates, which helped McCain take a huge lead. On the other hand, the Democratic Party doesn't use this policy, and so Obama and Clinton were in an almost dead-heat after Super Tuesday.

Florida - 27 electoral votes, decided the 2000 election. 4th most electoral votes. Cuban-American Hispanics tend to lean toward Republicans, but Democrats have announced that more Florida Hispanics are registered as Democrats.

Pennsylvania - 21 electoral votes. Has sided with the White House winner in each of the past nine elections.

Ohio - 20 electoral vots. No Republican has ever been elected without winning Ohio. Decided the 2004 election.

Wisconsin - 10 electoral votes. Democrats have won past five elections, but Bush came extremely close to winning last election.

• Both Senate & House were won by Democrats
• Polls showed that 80% of voters preferred a Democratic Congress
• Disapproval of Bush
• Republican scandals