Topic 2 political behavior
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Transcript Topic 2 political behavior
TOPIC 2 POLITICAL BEHAVIOR
Mr. Kallusingh
POLITICAL PARTIES
The purpose of political parties is to give the
people a voice, nominate candidates, inform
and activate supporters, control candidates,
govern, act as a watchdog
Two-Party system started with the federalist
and anti-federalist, and continues the main
reason it continues is that people can be stuck
in their ways
POLITICAL PARTIES NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
National Convention- comes together to chose the
Presidential and vice-presidential candidates
National Committee- is comprised of the major
political figures in the party, mainly is in charge of
planning the national convention
National Chairperson- helps with party unity,
raising money, and recruiting new voters
Congressional Campaign Committee- is in charge
of selecting candidates to run for congress
POLITICAL PARTIES STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL
State Organization- look for party unity, finding
candidates, campaign funds
Local Organization- local structures are so
different across the nation that it is hard to
define, most work within their ward/ precincts
at election times
POLITICAL PARTIES COALITION
In multiparty systems coalitions need to be
formed to have a majority and avoid constant
change and upheaval, coalitions are
agreements among competing party groups to
work together to form a majority
POLITICAL PARTIES (THIRD PARTIES)
Ideological Parties- focus on a comprehensive
view of social, economic, and political matters;
have usually been long lived
Single-issue Parties- usually focus on one issue
i.e. slavery, abortion; fade away as the issue
becomes less prevalent
POLITICAL PARTIES (THIRD PARTIES)
Economic Protest Parties- a rooted in periods of
economic discontent; disappear as the
economy gets better
Splinter Parties- usually rally around a strong
personality that leaves a major political party;
go away when the candidate returns to their
original party
INTEREST GROUPS
Are private organization that tries to persuade
public officials to follow their beliefs
Interest groups are not concerned with broad
concepts; they do not care who is elected but
do care about what they do; they are not
accountable to the public but to their members
INTEREST GROUP TYPES
Business Groups- promote the interest of their
individual business or business type
Labor Groups- are workers in a similar field;
they press the government for favorable
policies in their field
Agricultural Groups- farmers makeup less than
2% of the population; different groups usually
compete against each other (dairy vs. soy)
INTEREST GROUP TYPES
Professional Groups- occupations that require
extensive training i.e. medicine, law, teaching;
usually are not very organized; want to promote
profession and influence policy
Groups that promote causes like NRA,
American Civil Liberties Union, and Planned
Parenthood
INTEREST GROUP TYPES
Groups that promote welfare like the American
Legion, the Veterans of Foreign wars, and AARP
Religious Organizations that promote their
religion
Public-Interest groups try and promote the well
being of all people and not a particular
segment of society
INTEREST GROUP TECHNIQUES
Give public information, build positive image of
group, promote favorable legislation
Use propaganda to make people believe their
argument to be true regardless of the truth
Lobbyist try to influence the policies that are
put into place to help their own interest groups,
Lobbying Disclosure Act 1995 tries to regulate
this influence
VOTING BEHAVIOR
The right to vote started with white male land
owners and has expanded to any citizen over
18 is eligible to vote
Each state has the right to control voting
qualifications, but they must follow certain
federal guidelines and can be overridden by the
federal government
VOTING BEHAVIOR
Voter qualifications citizenship, residence, age,
registration
Sociological Factors- lower-income voters tend
to be more democratic and higher income are
more republican; more educated tends to vote
republican; women more demo men more
repub; young more demo older more repub;
protestants more repub, Catholics and Jews
more demo;
ELECTORAL PROCESS
The nomination process can be done by the
caucus, convention, or a direct/ open primary
People use secret ballots to vote by their
precinct in a polling place; if you can not be
present to vote you can request an absentee
ballot
ELECTORAL PROCESS
Campaign spending is mostly used on the
Presidential election 2000 1.5 billion dollars
Campaign funding can come from many
different sources small contributors, wealthy
individuals, candidates (Perot $65 million),
political action committees PAC, temporary
organizations; people giving money either like
the party or want something in return
ELECTORAL PROCESS
The government has enacted a few laws that
try and regulate how much money can be given
to campaigns, but parties have found loopholes
and exploited them
PUBLIC OPINION
Public opinion is a group of people that believe
the same thing; these beliefs come from
personal experience
Another influence on public opinion is mass
media tv, newspaper, magazine, radio, internet