AMERICAN ELECTIONS

•    We have half-a-million elected officials

•    We hold separate elections and thus have a “permanent campaign”

•    States (mostly) control the rules: varying registration and voting procedures

•    Elections instead of parties select our candidates

•    We use single member, plurality elections; Europe uses proportional representation

•    No “second round” or “run-offs” in natl. office elections except for some primaries

•    We require racial gerrymandering (the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Reno v. Shaw, 1993)

•    Districts must be the same size and thus frequently are “reapportioned”

What are the different types of elections?

•    Presidential 1: What is the difference among a caucus and open/closed primaries?

•    Presidential 2: What happens at the party “conventions”?

•    Presidential 3: How does the electoral college work?

•    Should we have a direct election for the president?

•    How are Senate and House elections different from one another?

•    How are municipal elections different?: At-large vs. single member districts

•    What is “direct democracy”: Initiatives, referendums, & recalls

MODERN CAMPAIGNS

Why do voters vote the way they do?

•    Groups matter

•    Occupation and income

•    The psychology of party identification: people have strong attachments to parties that are pretty stable over time, and party identification is a major determinant of how people vote.                                                                                                 

Why did campaigns begin to matter (1980s-1990s)?

•    The rise in split ticket voting & expensive campaigns

•    Going directly to the voter: Direct primaries and TV

The modern campaign (1990s forward)

•    Candidate qualities matter much more

•    Professional candidates: winning often is more important than governing or partisanship

•    Professional consultants, paid labor, and political science

•    Micro targeted campaigns and sophisticated polling/statistics

•    GOTV with the base rather than mobilizing the middle

•    Going negative to suppress turnout

Why do federal incumbents win so often?

•    Partisan gerrymandering

•    Casework, porkbarreling, logrolling

•    Franking & informational privileges

•    Professional and party resources: GOTV, databases, & polling

•    Money: Buckley v. Valeo (1976) & Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)

•    Why don’t Senators win as much?

•    Should we have term limits?

•    Should we have public funding of elections?

A quick primer on Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (2002)

•    2K to specific candidates

•    5K to state parties or PACS

•    20K to national party

•    95K in any two year cycle

•    Ban on last minute issue ads (unconstitutional)

•    The 527 loophole

The product of reform (2004):

•    Candidate spending: $2 billion

•    Party spending: $1 billion

•    527 spending: $ 500 million

•    Union mobilization: $150 million

•    Conventions: $162 million

•    How bad is this? It equals about 1/8 of Bill Gate’s fortune or about $13.50 a person

POLITICAL PARTIES IN AMERICA

•    Why are there only two major parties in America?

•    What are “realigning” elections and “party systems”?

•    Are there major differences between the Democrats and the Republicans?

•    Why are the major parties “catch-all parties” that aren’t very ideologically consistent?

•    Are parties dying? The pie, the pig, & the po

HOW DO POLITICAL PARTIES HELP DEMOCRACY?

They can help to overcome constitutional flaws by:

•    Organizing government across levels & branches

•    Protecting legislative power

•    Recruiting new elites into politics

They can help voters:

•    Synthesizing voters’ interests

•    Helping voters to make rational decisions

•    Educating and mobilize voters

•    Providing a map for officials & candidates

•    Having ready-to-go alternatives

They can help politicians behave:

•    Translating preferences into policy

•    Helping voters to make rational decisions

•    Increasing politician accountability

•    Providing a map for officials & candidates

•    Having ready-to-go alternatives/platforms