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| Evaluate the argument that PAC's have too much influence on elections and candidates. | 1. Political action committees have a significant influence over elections and the candidates involved. Campaigns are expensive and require large amounts of spending to get candidates the media coverage required to be competitive and political action committees supply these campaigns financially. PAC’s may in some cases have too much influence over elections due to their control over distribution of funds. There are PAC’s for both democratic and republican parties and whichever party raises the most money will have a higher opportunity to win. |
| Discuss attempts by the government to regulate PAC's beginning with the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 and including the recent court rulings on the McCain Feingold Act of 2001. | 2. Governments are well aware that PAC’s have a large influence over elections and took an important step towards their regulation. For example before 1971 could collect funds from millions from enormous corporations which would make the winner of the election pretty clear. When the government intervened in 1971 it was to prevent any situations like these to occur thus PAC’s grew much bigger than before because of newly enforced regulations that set a limit to the amount anyone can contribute to a campaign party. PAC’s only had one choice which was to collect funds from hundreds of supporting companies and other political supporters. |
| To understand the roles played by the media in our political system specifically | a. The effect of media on public opinion is drastic and can mean the difference between a loss or successful campaign. The media can portray political figure as fit leaders of the nation or a greedy man being driven by companies to hold an important position for their benefit. |
| Explain what is meant by realigning election and give four examples from American History. | Realigning election is a term describing a dramatic change in the political system. Four examples of realigning election from American History are elections such as the United States presidential election of Thomas Jefferson in 1800, United States presidential election of Andrew Jackson in 1828, United States presidential election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and the United States presidential election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. |
| Define divided government and explain its effect on policy making. | In the United States, divided government describes a situation in which one party controls the White House and another party controls one or both houses of the United States Congress. In other words, it also refers to separation of powers in the political system of the U.S. Divided government has its effect on policy making because since the government is divided into two, they both have different opinions also need conclude with an agreement on the policy in order for it to pass Congress. |
| List and describe major functions that political parties provide in our democratic system. | Within the democratic system, political parties organize elections by nominating candidates and seeking office. The second function of an American party is to build coalitions by attracting group support, pulling groups into the democratic process. Third, parties work to simplify political choices. Finally, they organize government and policy making, attempting to use the institutions of government to reflect the will of the voters. |
| Describe the current party procedures for nominating candidates for Congress and the Presidency. | The procedure for nomination candidates for Congress and the Presidency is that the candidate (Senate) announces plan to run in office, candidate campaigns to win delegate support, caucuses and primary elections take place in the states, nominee for president is announced at national party conventions, citizens cast their vote, the electoral college casts its votes, and lastly, the president is inaugurated. |
| Issue Advocacy | is different from candidate support as roles for interest groups in that issue advocacies do more of the advertisement and directly support the candidates. |
| Federalist No. 10 | In Federalist No. 10, Madison warned of the "mischief of faction" and argued that the best way to control it was through a lot of groups vs. one dominant group. |
| Examples of Interest groups | Economic: National affordable Housing Network; Labor: American Association of Manufacturers; Public interest: Aids Action Council; Foreign Policy: Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund; Single Interest: Sierra Club; Government: Council for Excellence in Government; Professional: National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; |
| Explain why some political scientist support the existance of dealignement in American politics why other deny the dealignments exists | There are many political scientist who support and others who dont support dealignement for many reasons. The concept of dealignment became widespread during the 1980's, and three major causes can be indentified. First, some writers observed an apparent general weakning of social and political group identities in Western societies, for example falling labour union membership, political party membership, and religious observance, , and this was associated with the rise of cross-group identities and consciousness found by sociological works such as John Goldthrope’s ‘Affluent Worker studies in the UK. Because of these stated reasons, political scientist support and are against dealignment. |
| Define soft money and its effects on political campaigns in America | "Soft Money" reffered to contributions made to political parties for purposes of party building and other activities not directly related to the elections specific candidates. Contributions from both are limited and direct contributions from corportaions and labor unions are prohibited. Becuase these contributions were not used for specific candidtate advocacy, they were not regulated by the Federal Elections Campaign Act, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in Buckley v. Valeoo. "The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act" of 2002 (aka McCain Feinglod )prohibited unregulated contributions to national party committees. "Soft Money" and refers to unlimited contributions to orginizations and committees other than candidate campaigns and political parties. |
| Explain the respective party platform positions of the two major parties on the following issues: abortion rights, taxation, gay rights, status of gays | Republicans and Democrats have different views on the majority of the controversial issues but some have similar views. The Reform Party, founded by Ross Perot, made campaign finace reform a central issue in its platform, and when Perot ran for President in 1992 and 1996 he strongly argued for it. Political scientist believe that campaign finance laws hidered Perot's effort to establish the Reform PArty on permenant basis. It became a major issue isn the 2000 U.S presidental election, especially with candidates John McCain and Ralf Nader. In regards to abortion Republicans are conservative, meaning they are pro-life and are not for abortion. On the other hand Democrats are “usually” a little more lenient and liberal minded and are pro-choice meaning they are sided with abortion or giving the person a freedom of choice. When it comes to the issue of taxes Republicans like taxing low because it benefits them and their businesses. Democrats use more money for social causes therefore they need more money to be able to afford paying for all those expenses so they higher their taxes. Republican’s are conservative so they are against gay rights and the Democrats the exact opposite. Republicans are very patriotic and tend to like side with the military and war, while the Democrats believe that war is morally wrong. |
