1. Unit 2: Political Beliefs and Behaviors
Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action
Chapter 9: Nominations and Campaigns
Chapter 10: Elections and Voting Behavior

2. Civic Virtue and Participation

3. How Can Someone Participate?
Conventional
Voting
Campaigns
Contacting elected officials
Unconventional
Protest
Civil Disobedience
Boycotts

4. Political Behaviors

5. Political Socialization
How Political Socialization and other Factors Influence Opinion Formation
Political Socialization
The process through which an individual acquires particular political orientations
The learning process by which people acquire their political beliefs and values

6. Why do People Vote? Political Efficacy Civic Duty Voter Registration
Motor Voter Act-1993

7. Agents of Socialization
Family
School and Peers
Mass Media
Religious Beliefs
Race and Ethnicity
Gender
Age
Region

8. How Americans Learn About Politics: Political Socialization

16. Political Polling

17. Changes in Eligible Voting Population

18. Who Votes

20. What are the Barriers?

21. Issue Voting vs. Candidate Voting
Liberal
Conservative

23. Retrospective Voting
What have you done for me lately?

24. Decline in Voter Turnout

26. Political Knowledge
Political knowledge and political participation have a reciprocal relationship.
Level of knowledge about history and politics low
Hurts Americans’ understanding of current political events
Geographically illiterate
Gender differences

28. Causes of the Decline in Voter Turnout
Reading-Why voter turnout has declined
Bowling Alone

29. Elections

30. Winner Take All vs. Proportional
Single Member Congressional Districts

31. Types of Elections Primaries/Caucuses General Referendums Initiatives
Recall

32. The Party Organizations
The 50 State Party Systems
Closed primaries: Only people who have registered with the party can vote for that party’s candidates.
Open primaries: Voters decide on Election Day whether they want to vote in the Democrat or Republican primary.
Blanket primaries: Voters are presented with a list of candidates from all parties.
State parties are better organized in terms of headquarters and budgets than they used to be.

34. Primaries v. Caucuses
Over years, trend has been to use primaries rather than caucuses to choose delegates
Caucus is the oldest, most party-oriented method of choosing delegates to the national conventions
Arguments for primaries
More democratic
More representative
A rigorous test for the candidate
Arguments for caucuses
Caucus participants more informed; more interactive and informative
Unfair scheduling affects outcomes
Frontloading (being first in the primary calendar) gives some primary states an advantage
Frontloading is the tendency to choose an early date on the primary schedule

35. Superdelegates
Delegate slot to the Democratic Party’s national convention that is reserved for an elected party official
Some rules originating in Democratic Party have been enacted as state laws thus applying them to the Republican Party as well.

37. Presidential Elections

38. The Electoral College

41. The Electoral College

42. Realignment Party Realignment Critical Elections Secular Realignment
Deviling (blip)
Reinstating
Maintaining
Critical Elections
Secular Realignment
Reading-V.O. Theory of Political Realignment

44. Congressional Elections
Incumbency
Presidential Coattails
Redistricting
Gerrymandering

45. The American People The Regional Shift
Population shift from east to west
Reapportionment: the process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census

46. Midterm Elections

47. Campaigns

48. Sources of Political Contributions
Political money regulated by the federal government can come from
Individual Contributions
Political Action Committee Contributions
Political Party Contributions
Member-to-Candidate Contributions
Candidates’ Personal Contributions
Public Funds
Donations from the general tax revenues to the campaigns of qualifying presidential candidates
Matching funds
Availability

49. Money and Campaigning The Maze of Campaign Finance Reforms
Federal Election Campaign Act (1974)
Created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to administer campaign finance laws for federal elections
Created the Presidential Election Campaign Fund
Provided partial public financing for presidential primaries
Matching funds: Contributions of up to $250 are matched for candidates who meet conditions, such as limiting spending.
Provided full public financing for major party candidates in the general election
Required full disclosure and limited contributions

50. Money and Campaigning The Maze of Campaign Finance Reforms
Soft Money: political contributions (not subject to contribution limits) earmarked for party-building expenses or generic party advertising
The McCain-Feingold Act (2002) banned soft money, increased amount of individual contributions, and limited “issue ads.”
527s: independent groups that seek to influence political process but are not subject to contribution restricts because they do not directly seek election of particular candidates

51. PAC’s
Political Action Committees (PACs): created by law in 1974 to allow corporations, labor unions and other interest groups to donate money to campaigns; PACs are registered with and monitored by the FEC.
As of 2006 there were 4,217 PACs.
PACs contributed over $372.1 million to congressional candidates in 2006.
PACs donate to candidates who support their issue.
PACs do not “buy” candidates, but give to candidates who support them in the first place.

52. Money and Campaigning

54. The Rules of the Game: Campaign Finance
Reform
Corrupt Practices, Hatch Act, Taft-Hartley Act
Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA)
Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act 2002
Buckley v. Valeo, Citizens United

55. Current Rules
Political money is now regulated by the federal government under terms of BCRA of 2002
Outlaws unlimited and unregulated contributions to parties (soft money) and limits the amounts that individual, interest groups and political parties can give to federal candidates