Democracy Under Pressure

1
Democracy Under Pressure

• Chapters 9-11
• Political Parties, Political Campaigns and
  Candidates, Voting Behavior and Elections

2
Political Parties

• Chapter Theme
• Do political parties still perform a useful role
  in the American democratic system?
• Political Party (major)
• In very general terms, a broadly based coalition
  that attempts to gain control of the government
  by winning elections in order to exercise power
  and reward its members.

3
Political Parties

• Political Parties
• Channel public support for or against the
  government
• Help to mobilize the demands and supports that
  are fed into the system
• They provide a powerful means for the publics
  voice to be heard

4
Political Parties

• Seven (7) vital functions of Political Parties
• Manage the transfer of power,
• Offer a choice of rival candidates and programs
  to the voters,
• Serve as a bridge between government and people
  by helping to hold elected officials accountable
  to voters,
• Help recruit candidates for office,
• May serve to reconcile conflicting interest in
  society,
• Staff the government and help run it, and
• Link various branches and levels of government.

5
Political Parties

• Political Party preferences are influenced by
• Tradition
• History
• The structure of the U.S. Electoral System
• And, the ideological patterns among the
  electorate.

6
Political Parties

• Electoral College
• The body composed of electors from the 50 states
  who formally have the power to elect the
  president an vice president of the United States.
  Each state has a number of electors and electoral
  votes equal to its number of senators and
  representatives in Congress.

7
Political Parties

• Electoral College
• In most states, the candidate who receives the
  most popular vote wins all of the states
  electoral votes. Minor or 3rd parties have little
  chance in the nations two party system.

8
Political Parties

• Electoral College
• Congress is composed of
• 435 House of Representatives members
• 100 Senators
• 535
• 3 District of Columbia
• 538 total electoral votes
• 538 divided by 2 269
• The candidate who reaches 270 electoral votes
  first wins the presidency

9
Political Parties

• Democrats and Republicans Is there a difference?

10
Political Campaigns and Candidates

• Campaign Strategy
• Candidates aim for the Undecided voters
• One-third of voters are registered independents
• Campaign managers handle almost every aspect of
  the campaign

11
Political Campaigns and Candidates

• The Issues
• Candidates must develop a central theme for their
  campaign.
• Negative Campaigning
• Political campaigning in which the candidate
  appear to spend more time attacking each other
  than discussing policies and programs.
• attempts to discredit a candidate by personal
  attacks.
• Usually in radio and TV ads.

12
Political Campaigns and Candidates

• Bread and Butter Issues
• Peace and pocketbook
• Peace is the country at war or in a military
  conflict?
• Pocketbook how is the economy performing?
• Democrats associated with domestic prosperity
• Republicans associated with foreign policy success