Review for Gov Quiz of 14 April 2004

Ch9-11; Serow 40-41, 71-73, 76-77

Chapter 9 – Bureaucracy – complex hierarchical departments, agencies, commissions, and their staffs that help CEO

• Some characteristics of Bur by sociologist Weber: chain of command, spec workers, goal oriented, impersonality
• Patronage – special favors given as rewards to friends and political allies for their support
• Spoils System – firing of a defeated party’s job-holders and replacement with loyalists
• Pendleton Act – federal employees hired on basis of open, competitive exams (10% coverage)
• Civil Service System – system by which appointments to bur are made (upped coverage to 90%)
• Interstate Commerce Committee (1887) – combat unfair business (price fixing, exuberant rail rates, etc); shift from service to regulation
• Independent Regulatory Commissions – each concerned w/ specific aspect of the economy
• FTC – protect small businesses and against unfair competition
• 16^th Amendment – gave Congress authority to implement an income tax à allowed bur to grow
• Laissez-faire (French) – gov hands-off policy towards business; ended after the Depression with FDR
• Differences b/w businesses and gov – gov for public good, business for profit; money from customers v taxpayers; gov put amateurs in
• Court-Packing Plan – FDR wanted to expand SupCrt to get his New Deal plans past SupCrt
• Agency Types (4): Cabinet, Gov Corp, Independent Exec Agencies, Independent Regulatory Commissions
• 15 Cabinet departments – major admin units; work on a permanent natl interest
• Big Four Dept – DoD, State, Treasury, Justice … Other 11 – Homeland Sec, Housing and Urban Dev, Health and Hmn Services, Agri, Trans, Vet Affairs, Labor, Interior, Commerce, Education, Energy (HHH ATV LICEE)
• Cab Mems – dept heads, VP, AttorneyGen, Chief of S, and heads of EPA, OMB, Office of Natl Drug Ctrl Policy, US Trade Rep
• Gov Corps - est. by Congress that could be provided by priv business
• Exist to keep prices down (post office) or where financial incentives are small (provide electricity to low income area, etc)
• Independent Executive Agencies (330) – like a Cab dept but have a narrower area of responsibility and aren’t part if any Cab dept
• Perform service rather than regulatory functions; inc. SEC, CIA, Fed Reserve Board etc
• Hatch Act – Law that prohibits civil servants from taking activist roles in partisan campaigns
• Federal Employees Political Activist Act –liberalization of the Hatch; Feds now allowed to run for office and contribute money
• Iron Triangles – stable relationships / patterns of interaction; incl: 1) Congress makes Law 2) Bur Regulates 3) Public / Interest Groups
• No longer dominant – complex and cut across multiple policy areas
• Issue Networks – the loose and informal relationships that exist among a large number of actors who work in broad policy arenas
• Made of agency officials, members of Congress, and interest groups, lawyers, consultants, etc
• Reflect complexity of problems and issues that lawmakers and policy makers try to solve
• Interagency Councils – working groups created to coord coordination of policy making and implementation across a host of gov agencies
• Admin adjudication – quasi-judicial process in which an agency settles dispute b/w two parties in a manner similar to the way of courts
• Executive control over bur via exec orders, appointments, reorg bur, etc
• Special Committee oversees that orders carried out; sec or undersec can be called to answer why something not implemented
• Congressional oversight – investigatory, purse power, accounting (GAO, CBO), evaluations, congressional review
• Kinds – Police Patrol (proactive; set own agenda) … Fire Alarm – react to a complaint
• Judicial Oversight – injunction

Chapter 11 – Public Opinion

• Early attempts to influence Pub Op – Paine’s Common Sense and Crisis; Federalist Papers
• Early forecasting – PA newspaper, Boston Globe … Literary Digest (correct guess based on postcard response; big failure in ’36)
• Straw Polls – unscientific survey used to gauge public opinion on a wide variety of issues
• Stratified sampling – areas surveyed are in proportions to the total national population (demographics); used by Gallup Pollà+/-3% error
• Political Socialization / Ideology – how political orientation is acquired; religion, race, region, school, social groups, media, age, gender, family (RRR SS MAG F)
• Political Opinion Formation based on: 1) Personal Benefits policies that benefit us or agree with our values
• 2) Political Knowledge – participation increases with knowledge 3) Cues from Leaders
• Political Polls
• Push Polls – purpose: provide info on an opponent that would lead respondents to vote against that candidate
• Tracking Polls – continuous surveys that chart daily rise or fall in support
• Exit Polls – every 10^th voter polled; media predicts outcome with this
• Ginsburg – polling gets passive voters; passionate people write and are active voters

Chapter 13 – Voting and Elections

• Electorate – citizens eligible to vote Mandate – command (indicated by votes) to carry out one’s platform
• Retrospective Judgment – voter’s eval of party in power Prospective Judgment – eval of candidate based on pledges
• There’s a tendency to punish Pres party after 6 years of power
• Primary Elections – decide which candidates will rep each party … Closed – only party members vote; Open – party and independents
• Crossover Voting – voting in primary other than your party’s; raiding is org attempt to influence primary of another party
• Runoff Primary – b/w two candidates with greatest # of votes … Nonpartisan Primary – select cand regardless of party
• General Election – decides who fills public offices
• Early ones get more coverage so many states Front-load (make it early) so they influence other, later ones
• Regional Primary – divide country in 5-6 regions; each vote on a certain day to minimize cand wear and tear and early influence
• Initiative – citizens propose legislation and submit it for popular vote
• Referendum – state legis submits proposed bill to the voters for approval
• Problems with initiatives and referendums – costly à voice of the well-funded special interest groups
• Recall – Removal of an incumbent from office by popular vote (“deelection”)
• Pres Elections – methods of selecting candidate for national convention
• 1) Winner take all primary; 2) Proportional Rep Primary (delegates vote in proportion to % of vote one); 3) Prop Rep w/Bonus (+1 delegate for winner of district); 4) Caucus
• Caucus – old, party-oriented public forums; less democratic; nominate less moderate candidates
• Party Conventions – Unit Rule (everyone has to go along with the majority) or Democratic Rule (votes cast in proportion)
• Dem Convention has “superdelegates” (elected officials) to maintain conv stability
• Electoral College – members (Electors) cast final ballots which actually elect the Pres
• Abolition unlikely: senate against (smaller states representation would shrink); recount in natl. elec. be very hard
• Party Realignment – rare shifting of party … accomplished by new issues or new voters (immigrants, etc)
• Critical Election – signals party realignment through voter polarization
• Secular Realignment – gradual change due to demographics
• Dealignment – parties do not hold much meaning
• Incumbency – big advantage; 95% senators, 88% house gets reelected
• Coattails – new pres usually carry some congressional cand of same party into office
• Turnout – influenced by education, income, age, race, and interest in politics
• Reasons for low turnout – too busy, hard to register, absentee voting hard, # of elections high, voter attitudes, weak parties
• Improvement through – earlier registration / absentee voting, make election day a holiday, strengthen parties

Serow Readings

• #40 by Reich – about the life of a cabinet members
• Criteria for subordinates selection – share Pres values, knowledgeable about policy, good manager
• Many amateurs appointed with each new admin
• Career Bur characteristics – good: experienced, connected, ideas, make policy (GS9-11) … bad: cynical, untrusting, resentful
• #41 by Trattner – about appointments
• Plum Book – untested appointees; may look good on the outside only … Prune Book – tested appointees, reflect experience
• Successful leadership: Pursue results, not means; know limitations; proactive
• #71 by Piven / Cloward – Americans still don’t vote (less than half); motor voter, etc did not help
• #72 by Wash Post – Media pressured to have result; called it even though it was too close to call; exposed democ weakness
• If press had waited: more would have voted, Gore wouldn’t have conceded, recount would’ve been faster and nonpartisan
• #73 by Sullivan / Cressman – arguments over campaign finance reform
• <10% of contribution total came from $200 and under contributions; 40% of decisions with will of majority
• Large donors more white, old, male, over 100k$ income
• #76 by Ansolabehere / Iyengar – TV split people into loyalists / apathetics; negative advert causes nonpartisans to have lower opinion gov
• #77 by Monmonier – about district remapping (can have a huge impact on total number of wins for a given party)
• Gerrymandering – process by majority party that redraws line to maximize advantage of the party
• Unusual district shapes from population growth, partisan politics, and Voting Rights Act (minority-majority districts required)
• reapportionment – census finds population changes and reassigns congressman numbers (national level, solely on numbers)