AP American Government Unit 5

AP Unit 5: Political Participation

• This unit covers voting rights, models of political behavior, voter turnout, linkage institutions, political parties, third-party politics, and the media.

5.1 Voting Rights and Models of Behavior

• Amendments Expanding Political Participation:
  • 14th Amendment (1868): Granted citizenship to all persons born in the U.S., including previously enslaved people.
  • 15th Amendment (1870): Granted African American men the right to vote.
  • 17th Amendment (1913): Changed the process for electing senators, allowing direct popular vote by citizens. This replaced the previous system of state legislators electing senators.
  • 19th Amendment (1920): Granted women the right to vote.
  • 24th Amendment (1964): Eliminated poll taxes, creating a structural barrier to voting.
  • 26th Amendment (1971): Lowered the voting age to 18.
• Models Explaining Voting Behavior:
  • Rational Choice: Voting based on perceived self-interest.
  • Retrospective Voting: Voting to decide whether the current party or candidate should be re-elected based on their recent performance.
  • Prospective Voting: Voting based on predictions of how a party or candidate will perform in the future.
  • Straight-Ticket Voting (Party-Line Voting): Voting for all candidates of a single political party.

5.2 Voter Turnout (and Choice)

• Factors Affecting Voter Turnout:
  • State laws affecting the ability to vote (Voter ID laws, polling hours).
  • Types of voting allowed (absentee ballots, early voting, mail voting).
  • Funding for political places (pay for workers, equipment, and postage).
  • Types of registration (online, in-person, auto, day-of).
  • Type of election (Presidential vs. Midterm).

5.3 Political Parties

• Three Portions of Political Parties:
  • Party in Government: Leaders in each legislative chamber, committee members, propose, debate and vote on legislation. Coalitions are formed.
  • Party in the Electorate: Citizens who identify with a political party, participate in voting, donations, and volunteering.
  • Party Organization: Structure of the national, state, and local parties. This includes identifying issues, mobilizing voters, creating party platforms, and recruiting candidates.

5.4 How and Why Political Parties Change and Adapt

• From Party Centered to Candidate Centered Campaigns:

  • Shift away from party leadership nominating candidates to candidates taking more responsibility for raising their own funds and campaigning.
  • Rise of candidates running independently of the party.
  • Rise of direct primaries where citizens vote directly for their preferred candidates.

• Factors Affecting Party Structure:

  • Campaign finance laws: Changes in who can donate, and how much.
  • Changes in communication technology: Social media and data management are used to disseminate clear political messages and enhance outreach.
  • Critical elections: Elections that cause realignments of political party support among voters.

5.5 Third-Party Politics

• Barriers to Third-Party Wins:
  • Electoral College: Winner-take-all system can make it challenging for third-party candidates to gain traction.
  • Absorbing third-party agendas into major parties’ platforms: Major parties often adopt ideas from third parties when successful.
• Third-Party Agenda Absorption: Third-party voters often opt for the major party most aligned with their views.

5.6-5.7 Interest Groups Influencing Policy-Making & Policy Outcomes

• Interest Groups: Formal or informal associations of people seeking to influence government/public policy; always connected to pluralistic democracy.
• Types of Interest Groups:
  • Single-Issue Groups: Focused on specific issues like guns or abortion.
  • Trade Associations: Represent entire industries.
• Factors Affecting Interest Group Influence:
  • Inequality of economic resources: Differences in a group's financial ability can affect their influence.
  • Unequal access to decision-makers: Access to decision-makers greatly impacts a group's success.
  • Commitment of members: strong member support can affect success.
• 'Free Rider' Problem: Individuals benefit from a group's actions without contributing; addressed through selective benefits.

5.8-5.9 Electing a President & Congressional Elections

• Factors Affecting Election Outcomes:
  • Incumbency advantage: Incumbents (current office holders) benefit from name recognition, fundraising, media exposure, and staff.
  • Primaries and Caucuses: Methods of selecting candidates for each party. These include open/closed primaries and caucuses.
  • The Electoral College: A system in which electors from each state cast votes for president; candidates with the most electors win.
  • Election day: The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

5.10 Modern Campaigns

• Modern Campaign Strategies:
  • Duration of election cycles increasing as campaigns expand with more methods of election (e.g., caucuses instead of primaries).
  • Reliance on professionals: professional consultants for various campaign tasks, such as opposition research and polling.
  • Field strategy: locating places and times strategically to campaign in areas where votes are easily won.
  • Social media: use to communicate and influence.
  • Fundraising is more substantial: Candidate centered campaigns which have rising costs & intensive efforts.

5.11 Campaign Finance

• Hard Money: Regulated contributions to candidates, parties, and campaigns.
• Soft Money: Unregulated contributions to political parties with the idea of campaign building.
• Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA): Law that placed limits on hard money, soft money, & imposed provisions on issue ads.
• Political Action Committees (PACs): Organizations created to funnel donations into political campaigns.
• Super PACs: Independent expenditure-only committees, not coordinated with candidates, and can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in campaigns. SCOTUS decision removed limits on corporate funding of independent political advertisements.

5.12-5.13 The Media & Changing Media

• Roles of the Media:
  • Gatekeeper: Determines what topics are important and for how long.
  • Agenda Setting: Influence what issues citizens think are important.
  • Issue Framing: Setting the context, interpreting facts, and providing legitimacy to topics.
• Types of Journalism:
  • Investigative: Deep, thorough inquiries.
  • Horse-race: Focus on polling and who is winning.
  • Consumer-driven: 24-hour news cycle.
• Debates about Media Bias:
  • Uncertainty over credibility due to media choices.
  • Media bias and belief reinforcement via consumer-driven media and ideologies.
  • Consolidation of media ownership: Large conglomerates owning multiple outlets impact diversity of viewpoints.
• How media influence is limited:
  • Audience fragmentation: Audiences scattered across various outlets.
  • Selective exposure: People choosing media sources that align with their beliefs.
  • Selective perception: Individuals interpret information based on their prior beliefs.