In todays elections, the voters themselves must be knowledgeable about each candidate to make a decision on who to vote for. Campaigns and reforms to the election process has provided a more democratic process because it has given more power or voice to the people. Partisanship and factionalism has increased, due to the unintended consequences of these reforms and the modern, media centeredness of the nomination process but so has nominations revolving around a particular candidate, not the party. Primaries, caucuses, campaign money and the media’s role in the overall election process has increased factionalism and candidate centered elections.
There are many unintended consequences of primaries and the nomination process in general that the book mentions. The different type of primaries complicate the nomination process for voters and gets them more involved, because it is up to them and in a sense it strengthens factions to come together as a party to select the correct candidate for nomination, not the correct party. For example, in closed primaries, candidates must be registered with a party to vote which strengthens partisanship. Closed primaries also make it difficult to register for vote, especially if a citizen wants to vote for the other party. Open primaries allow nonparty members to influence the choice of a party’s nominee which is problematic to party’s because of partisan crossovers. Members who are not affiliated with a party can affect a party’s nomination. Also in the blanket system, which is candidate centered and party’s don’t matter. Other problems are that people who are hostile to party politics can capture nominations, and our process allows anyone to be a member of any particular party, which opens up the possibility that the party will have to deny a candidate who has been forced upon it. While the system makes it more democratic, the different ways in which we hold elections affect partisanship and pose a problem for candidates that their nomination is not guaranteed.
Today’s elections and politics is revolved around the media, it is how citizens gain information about their candidates to make a decision come Election Day. This is another unintended consequence of the modernized political process. Partisanship has increased as a result of this modernized political nomination process because the media plays a huge role in educating the voters therefore, plays a significant role to the candidates than do party structures and leaders (Hetherington and Keefe, 77). The role of the media increases intra-party conflict and factionalism because in the early phases of nominations, candidates have to differentiate themselves from the other candidates in their party to clinch the nomination. Oftentimes, media evaluations create the winners and losers because they publicize the factional appeals of candidates in primaries and caucuses.
Another issue and problem is the amount of money each party and candidate must raise in order to run an effective campaign. The book made it quite evident that you could be the smartest politician out there, but if you lacked funds, you had no chance in being elected into office. The reason why money plays such a big role is because campaigning, gaining voter support, and media attention all requires money. Regulations on how to raise campaign funds and the election process of primaries and caucus make it even more difficult for candidates to do successfully in elections. As I have said before, modern campaigning is a media centered issue which requires a lot of money in order to succeed. However, the regulations on how to raise money, by trying to get the public more involved with fund raising and donating, limit PACs, and limited the wealthy from donating to an extent – has made it harder for candidates to raise adequate funds and it leads them to begin their campaigning process even earlier so they have a head start on their opponents. Laws have been passed that eliminated soft money donations and have limited the donations and contributions of wealthy groups and individuals. Soft money donations supported individual candidates and not parties, which affects partisanship.
The influence of all factions cannot be purged from American elections because of the heterogeneity of our nation. We have had 2 distinct dominant parties since our Founding Fathers and that has not changed. The influence of factions is what makes politics interesting, it determines the winners from the losers and political influence in elections will always be there. We have opinions and different interests and it is the basis of democracy, if factions were eliminated it wouldn’t be democratic, it would be autocratic and elections would not be necessary.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Steele's campaign spending is fishy
Campaign money trouble has been a persistent problem for Steele
This comes at a perfect time, when we are talking about how Americans are skeptical about massive amounts of money being involved in politics. Steele arranged for his Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed...hmm, something is amuck there!?
This comes at a perfect time, when we are talking about how Americans are skeptical about massive amounts of money being involved in politics. Steele arranged for his Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed...hmm, something is amuck there!?
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Decentralization
Decentralization poses a challenge to the political success of candidates running for office in our big and diverse country. Decentralization is when the power of political parties is more pronounced at the state and local levels than at the national level. You have said in our video lecture that parties are the link to public policy and elections and we have stated that political parties are teams of people that are trying to get elected. These teams are made up of people who are coordinating with each other whose ideologies diverge to some degree. Party leaders make their own connections, mobilize their own voters, and care about their own interests and groups within their localities, which makes it difficult for parties to connect on a national level.
Our book states that is it more beneficial for candidates in subnational elections to adopt the ideologies of their state or locality first. Therefore, it is more beneficial that parties who want to win elections to be moderate and inclusive at a state level so they can gain supporters, attract all groups of people, repel few to form a tight coalition to have success at the national level. This means that the parties main focus is not brought into the limelight until after the election, so we do not really know the main focus or goals of the party until after the election, which is why I think that decentralization poses a problem for party unity. Our society is so heterogeneous that it decentralization is the logical response, to start from the bottom up to gain support from the state’s and then moving toward national support. In the end we still have our own opinions, stereotypes, and goals – some are common and some aspects we disagree on, so one candidate or party cannot take care of all of the voters’ needs and goals. We do need big and diverse parties, but it also does hinder effective partisan action because we believe and agree in some common things but not on everything.
Some problems decentralization and heterogeneity pose for party unity is that officeholders are always looking at party claims and objectives in the light of the own career aspirations. If the party’s claims and the individuals aspirations in office are different, the party loses support. Also, geographical differences provide an array of different economic interests, political attitudes and culture differences across the nation. Therefore, candidates and parties must present different stances and cohesion from issue to issue.
President Obama used technology to his advantage to coordinate his political campaign. The link below describes how the president used social networking sites, text messaging, blogs, television, and other media sources to reach out to and gain the support of citizens across the nation. He also got a record number of people to go out and vote in the 2008 election. Here is a link to an article I found: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/melber
Tim Kaine is the Democratic National Committee chair and his "first goal" is to mobilize President Obama's millions of supporters behind his plans for the country. The future outlook of how the citizens view the Democratic party rely on him and his job to unify the nation, set the tone and main focus of the party that is similar to the presidents’ tone and focus in the white house.
Michael Steel is the Republican National Committee chair and is the first black national committee chair. His job to rebuild the face of the party, raise money, gain more supporters, and regain the confidence of his party followers.
Our book states that is it more beneficial for candidates in subnational elections to adopt the ideologies of their state or locality first. Therefore, it is more beneficial that parties who want to win elections to be moderate and inclusive at a state level so they can gain supporters, attract all groups of people, repel few to form a tight coalition to have success at the national level. This means that the parties main focus is not brought into the limelight until after the election, so we do not really know the main focus or goals of the party until after the election, which is why I think that decentralization poses a problem for party unity. Our society is so heterogeneous that it decentralization is the logical response, to start from the bottom up to gain support from the state’s and then moving toward national support. In the end we still have our own opinions, stereotypes, and goals – some are common and some aspects we disagree on, so one candidate or party cannot take care of all of the voters’ needs and goals. We do need big and diverse parties, but it also does hinder effective partisan action because we believe and agree in some common things but not on everything.
Some problems decentralization and heterogeneity pose for party unity is that officeholders are always looking at party claims and objectives in the light of the own career aspirations. If the party’s claims and the individuals aspirations in office are different, the party loses support. Also, geographical differences provide an array of different economic interests, political attitudes and culture differences across the nation. Therefore, candidates and parties must present different stances and cohesion from issue to issue.
President Obama used technology to his advantage to coordinate his political campaign. The link below describes how the president used social networking sites, text messaging, blogs, television, and other media sources to reach out to and gain the support of citizens across the nation. He also got a record number of people to go out and vote in the 2008 election. Here is a link to an article I found: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080128/melber
Tim Kaine is the Democratic National Committee chair and his "first goal" is to mobilize President Obama's millions of supporters behind his plans for the country. The future outlook of how the citizens view the Democratic party rely on him and his job to unify the nation, set the tone and main focus of the party that is similar to the presidents’ tone and focus in the white house.
Michael Steel is the Republican National Committee chair and is the first black national committee chair. His job to rebuild the face of the party, raise money, gain more supporters, and regain the confidence of his party followers.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Today’s definition of a political party
A political party seems to elect a governmental office-holder under a given label to be the figurehead of our nation. Generally, political parties begin and gain popularity at the local level and are lead by a coalition of individuals that share common ideological goals, have access to money, are champions of the media, know how to manipulate and use "outsiders' to present a positive public image, and carry a good public political appearance. Political parties eventually gain power at the national level through moderate campaign efforts that reach out to and include all American citizens, in order to gain the most amount of support, with hopes to maintain and spread their own democratic policies and ideologies onto the nation according to how they believe our country should be run.
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