Interest Group Democracy

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Interest Group Democracy

• Pluralism or Interest Group Democracy
•  
• Definition theoretical understanding of a
  political system. It puts forth the belief that
  democratic values can be preserved in a system
  where multiple, competing democratic
  representatives (elites) determine public policy
  through bargaining and compromise. Interest
  groups are instrumental linkage institutions that
  continuously connect the demands (interests) of
  the people to government. In this framework,
  interest groups are assumed to enhance democracy.
•  

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Central assumptions of pluralism or interest
group democracy

• assumes many centers of power
• voters exercise meaningful choices and new elites
  can gain access to power
• multiple access points to government as power is
  dispersed on many levels and branches of
  government
• method of government bargaining and compromise
• electoral majorities rarely rule all active and
  legitimate groups can make themselves heard at
  some stage in the policy process, manifested in
  the rise of interest group activity

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Political Party Relations

• Conflictual party relations volatile, weak
  coalitions fundamental economic and political
  differences
• ex. Italy, Israel characteristic of multiparty
  outcomes
• Consensual party relations usually
  institutionalized two-party systems in which both
  political parties adhere to similar ideological
  beliefs ex. Great Britain U.S.
• characteristic of majoritarian outcomes in
  Legislature
• Consociational party relations parties differ
  fundamentally on issues but possess established
  routines of bargaining and compromise
  characteristic of multiparty outcomes
• Consociational democracy Institutionalized Power
  sharing democracy Switzerland, Netherlands,
  Belgium
• characteristic of multiparty outcomes

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German Bundestag (Lower Legislative House)

• Members 612
• Political groups Christian Democratic
  Union/Christian Social Union of Bavaria Bloc
  (223)Social Democratic Party of Germany
  (222)Free Democratic Party (61)The Left.
  (53)Alliance '90/The Greens (51)

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Voting Behavior

• Conventional political participation
• Political participation that attempts to
  influence the political process through
  well-accepted, often moderate forms of persuasion
• Unconventional political participation
• Political participation that attempts to
  influence the political process through unusual
  or extreme measures, such as protests, boycotts,
  and picketing

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Elections of Legislatures

• Single-member plurality (SMP) winner- take-all
  system governed by plurality not majority rule
• example Congressional elections in U.S.
• Single-transferable vote (STV) voters rank
  candidates in order of preference. Any candidate
  needs to achieve a set number of votes (the
  quota) to be elected. Surplus votes (votes
  exceeding quota) are redistributed to runner-up
  until all seats are filled example Republic of
  Ireland, Malta

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Proportional Representation

• Seats obtained by quota in multimember
  constituency
• Proportional representation (PR), sometimes
  referred to as full representation, is a category
  of election aimed at a close match between the
  percentage of votes that groups of candidates
  (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in
  elections and the percentage of seats they
  receivenormally in legislature
• Examples Israel, Scandinavia, most of
  continental Europe, including Eastern Europe,
  most of Latin America

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Corporatism

• State corporatism Interest groups are subsumed
  under state control by incorporating them into
  government these groups are not partners but
  subordinate to government itself.
• Rationale purpose of interest group activity is
  to promote govt agenda interest groups
  constituents are asked to defer their interests
  to the interest group leaders (Egypt, Mexico)

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Patterns in Voter Turnout

• Turnout the proportion of the voting-age public
  that votes
• 40 of the eligible adult population votes
• 25 are occasional voters
• 35 rarely vote
• Education Voters tend to be more educated
• Income More voters have higher incomes
• Age Younger people vote less
• Gender Women vote at the same rate or slightly
  higher rate than men
• Race and Ethnicity
• Whites vote more regularly than African Americans
  related to income and educational differences
  in the two groups
• Hispanics vote less than African Americans
• Have potential to wield much influence given
  their increasing size
• Interest in politics Those interested in
  politics vote more

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Why Is Voter Turnout So Low?

• Too Busy
• Difficulty of Registration
• Difficulty of Absentee Voting
• Number of Elections
• Voter Attitudes
• Weakened Influence of Political Parties

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Efforts to Improve Voter Turnout

• Easier Registration and Absentee Voting
• Make Election Day a Holiday
• Strengthen Parties
• Other suggestions
• Holding fewer elections
• Proportional representation system for
  congressional elections
• Saturday or Sunday election day
• Making voting mandatory
• Tax credits
• Election weeks rather than election days
• Internet voting

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Patterns in Vote Choice

• Party Identification
• Most powerful predictor voter behavior
• Ticket-splitting voting for candidates of
  different parties for various offices in the same
  election
• Race and Ethnicity
• Whites increased tendency to vote Republican
• African Americans vote overwhelmingly for
  Democrats
• Hispanics also tend to identify with and vote for
  Democrats
• Kerry 53 percent Bush 44 percent
• Asian Americans less monolithic
• Women today more likely to support Democratic
  candidates
• Gender gap varies by election
• Poor vote more often for Democrats wealthier for
  Republicans
• Ideology related closely to vote choice
• Conservatives for Republicans
• Liberals for Democrats
• Issues
• Retrospective judgment focused on present or
  past
• Prospective judgment focused on future
  possibilities

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Purposes of Elections

• Regular free elections
• guarantee mass political action
• enable citizens to influence the actions of their
  government
• Popular election confers on a government the
  legitimacy that it can achieve no other way
• Regular elections also ensure that government is
  accountable to the people it serves

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Purposes of Elections

• Electorate
• Citizens eligible to vote
• Mandate
• A command, indicated by an electorates voters,
  for the elected officials to carry out their
  platforms
• Sometimes the claim of a mandate is suspect
  because voters are not so much endorsing one
  candidate as rejecting the other

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General Elections

• General elections are those in which voters
  decide which candidates will actually fill
  elective public offices
• Held at many levels.
• Contests between the candidates of opposing
  parties

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Initiative, Referendum, and Recall

• Initiative
• An election that allows citizens to propose
  legislation and submit it to the state electorate
  for popular vote
• Referendum
• An election whereby the state legislature submits
  proposed legislation to the states voters for
  approval
• Recall
• Voters can remove an incumbent from office by
  popular vote
• Are very rare

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Presidential Elections

• Primary elections or caucuses are used to elect
  national convention delegates which choose the
  nominee
• Winner-take-all primary
• Proportional representation primary
• Caucus

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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

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The Party Conventions

• Out-of-power party holds its convention first, in
  late July, followed in mid-August by party
  holding the presidency
• Conventions were decision-making body in the 19th
  century
• Today the convention is fundamentally different
• Nominations settled well in advance of the
  convention

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The Electoral College

• Representatives of each state who cast the final
  ballots that actually elect a president
• Total number of electors for each state equal to
  the number of senators and representatives that a
  state has in the U.S. Congress
• District of Columbia is given 3 electoral votes

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The Electoral College

• Result of compromise between
• Selection by Congress versus direct popular
  election
• Three essentials to understanding the design of
  the Electoral College
• Constructed to work without political parties
• Constructed to cover both the nominating and
  electing phases of presidential selection
• Constructed to produce a nonpartisan president

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The Electoral College in the 19th Century

• 12th Amendment (1804)
• Attempt to remedy the confusion between the
  selection of vice presidents and presidents that
  emerged in the election 1800
• Provided for separate elections for each office,
  with each elector having only one vote to cast
  for each
• In event of a tie, the election still went to the
  House
• Top three candidates go to House
• Each state House delegation casts one vote

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