Assignment:
A synthesis and critique needs to answer the following questions, but organized in a thematic manner. This should not be a review of the textbook and lecture. This should not be a book report. First, what are the major points of the readings? What are they trying to explain and what are the explanations? While it is tempting to create a ledger of all that was said, recall that you only have three to five pages. Instead present the answers to the questions in the critique. The critique should answer the following: What are the major problems of the readings? What can be done to improve the situations raised in the readings/media? We will discuss the essays' content on the first day and all graded critique essays will have comments left by me discussion .
Remember, that just like any other essay, you will have to cite your sources and integrate them into the discussion that appears in your critique essay. You may choose to support your position with as many sources as you like. However, there must be at least one scholarly (peer - reviewed) source.
Outline:
Parties and Elections Have Been Vital to American Politics and Government:
1. Political parties are organizations that seek influence over government. In modern history, political parties have been the chief points of contact between governments and individual citizens and interest groups; political parties are the instruments through which citizens and government influence each other.
2. Historically, parties originate through either internal or external mobilization by those seeking to win governmental power. Internal mobilization occurs when political conflicts break out and government officials and competing factions seek to mobilize popular support. External mobilization takes place when a group of politicians outside government organizes popular support to win governmental power.
3. Parties are important in the electoral process for recruiting and nominating candidates for office.
4. Through primary elections or caucuses, voters have the opportunity to pick the candidates who will represent each party in the general election.
5. Parties are involved in voter registration and can make a big difference in persuading citizens to vote.
6. Political parties help to organize Congress. Congressional leadership and the committee system are both products of the two-party system.
7. Strong presidents can depend on party ties in Congress to get their legislation enacted and, in turn, build support in congressional elections. Or a president can focus more on party building and the party's ability to mobilize voters.
America Is One of the Few Nations with a Two-Party System:
1. The United States has usually had a two-party system, meaning that only two parties have a serious chance to win national elections.
2. The structure of America's single-member districts and plurality voting limit the electoral prospects of third parties.
3. Electoral realignments are transitions between party systems when a new party replaces the ruling party and becomes the dominant political force. During these periods, the coalitions that support the parties and the balance of power between them are redefined. There have been five realignments in American history.
4. American third parties have always represented social and economic issues that are ignored by the other parties. Third parties almost always lose at the national level, but they can influence and realign the two parties and elections.
5. Party identification refers to an individual voter's psychological ties with a party. The two major national parties do not draw equal support from members of every social stratum. A variety of group characteristics are associated with party identification, including race and ethnicity, gender, religion, class, ideology, region, and age.
Political Participation Takes Both Traditional and Digital Forms:
1. Political participation refers to a wide range of activities designed to influence government. Political participation can fall into two major categories: traditional political participation and digital political participation.
2. Common forms of traditional political participation are voting, protest, and volunteering or fund-raising for a campaign.
3. Throughout American history, there has been a progressive, if uneven, expansion of suffrage to groups previously denied suffrage, such as African Americans, women, and youths.
4. Though the United States now has a system of universal suffrage, voter turnout continues to be low.
5. Digital political participation influences government by using the Internet, including mobilizing support through email, visiting candidate websites, campaigning on social networking sites, and signing online petitions.
6. By 2016, virtually every serious candidate for higher office has social media accounts to reach supporters, who in turn can signal amplify the candidate's message to their own friends and followers.
7. Research suggests that digital politics does have an impact on participation, and new forms, like expressive politics, such as the sharing of hashtags and symbolic profile pictures.
8. Digital participation reproduces some of the inequalities of offline life, but candidates have found campaigning online extremely attractive because it is cost-effective and reaches a wide audience.
9. Three factors organize our understanding of voting in elections: (1) a person's social and demographic backgrounds and attitudes about politics, (2) the political environment in which elections take place and whether an election is contested among at least two political candidates, and (3) the state electoral laws that shape the political process.
10. Americans with a high socioeconomic status are much more likely to participate in politics than those with less education and less income.
11. One of the most significant patterns in political participation is that older people have much higher rates of participation than young people.
12. Several strategies of mobilization emerged to guide African Americans' quest for equality in the twentieth century, including protest, legal action, and political pressure. But the question remains whether political participation can improve the lives of African Americans, especially the poor.
13. One critical aspect of political environments is whether people are mobilized by parties, candidates, interest groups, or social movements. People are much more likely to participate when someone-especially someone they know-asks them to get involved.
14. In recent decades, political parties have shifted toward fund-raising and advertising and away from mobilization. However, beginning with the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama's expansion of the electorate through mobilization became a central campaign strategy.
15. Ballot measures and competitive elections, which result in active campaigns and more information, lead to higher voter turnout.
16. Voter identification requirements of various strictness can also be an impediment to voting for some, with research suggesting it reduces overall turnout.
17. State electoral laws regarding registration requirements, restrictions for people who have committed a felony, permanent absentee ballots, and early voting can affect participation.
How Voters Decide Based on Party, Issues, and Candidate:
1. Three factors influence voters' decisions at the polls: party loyalty, issue and policy concerns, and candidate characteristics.
2. Party loyalty predisposes voters in favor of their party's candidates and against those of the opposing party.
3. The impact of issues and policy preferences on electoral choice is diminished if competing candidates do not differ substantially or do not focus their campaigns on policy matters.
4. Candidates' attributes and personality characteristics always influence voters' decisions.
5. The salience of these three bases of electoral choice varies from contest to contest and from voter to voter.
The Electoral Process Has Many Levels and Rules:
1. There are three types of elections in the United States: primary elections, general elections, and initiative and referendum elections.
2. Legislative referendum is the practice of referring proposed laws passed by a legislature of which the electorate votes for approval or rejection. All fifty states have legislative referendum elections.
3. Americans do not vote directly for presidential candidates. Rather, they choose electors who are pledged to support a party's presidential candidate. These electors cast their ballots in what is known as the electoral college.
4. Support for eliminating the electoral college in favor of a national popular vote is increasing among states.
5. Americans participate in direct democracy via ballot initiatives and the referendum. Eighteen states also have legal provisions for recall elections, which allow voters to remove governors and other state officials from office prior to the expiration of their terms.
The 2016 Elections:
1. In 2016, both the Democratic and Republican nominations were sharply contested, with Hillary Clinton prevailing over her main rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, and Donald Trump beating out a crowded field of Republican contenders to win the nomination.
2. Up until Election Day, Clinton seemed to be poised for success given the voting patterns in recent years, like the 2012 presidential election. She believed she would be able to assemble what was thought to be a growing coalition of minorities and immigrants, as well as young people and women in general.
The Trump campaign was successful in overcoming the Democrats' perceived advantage through a strong appeal to blue-collar white voters, which made him competitive in what were assumed to be Democratic strongholds in the Midwest.
3. The 2016 presidential race was marked by some of the strongest personal attacks by the nominees on each other. Clinton was continually assailed for her use of a private email server, as well as investigations into her perceived role in the deaths of several American officials in an attack in Benghazi, Libya. Outside factors, like hacks of DNC and Clinton campaign emails by Wikileaks, further clouded Clinton's reputation.
Donald Trump was routinely criticized by his offensive comments, many perceived to be racists, xenophobic, and misogynistic. The most explosive revelation of Donald Trump came in October of 2016 when it was revealed he had made extremely crude comments boasting about what some accused to be sexual assault. Both candidates were considered among the most unlikeable and unpopular ever nominated for the presidency.
4. Trump's victory on election night stunned the media and defied the polls. What had been predicted as an easy Clinton win was instead a Trump blow-out in the electoral college, though he lost the popular vote by more than 1 million votes. Overall turnout was down slightly from 2008. The predicted surge in turnout by Latinos and female voters did not materialize. Ultimately, Trump prevailed with his strong support from Republicans and members of the white working class.
Money Is the Mother's Milk of Politics:
1. Three Supreme Court cases have dismantled government restrictions on campaign contributions on the basis of free speech.
2. Campaign funds in the United States are provided by individual donors, political action committees (PACs), independent groups like 527s, political parties, public funding, and the candidates' personal resources.
Political Parties, Elections, and Your Future:
1. While parties are still elite-driven, the Internet and new media have begun to alter party formation and party politics.
2. The socioeconomic bias in American politics remains an important concern.