Blog 4 Dedicated to staying behind schedule, and achieving 100% of the objective. I assigned the 2 survey chapters because I thought neither was great and neither was awful. Each has some strength, each has some weakness and mistakes. For day 1, these are the things I plan to concentrate on. Interest Groups and Elections 1. Here are some terms everybody has to know. If you don't know these terms, you won't ever amount to anything. Maybe even over the long term, nonknowledge of these could stunt your development as a person. A. Hard Money B. Soft Money C. PAC (acronym for Political Action Committee) D. Political Primary E. Party caucus F. General Election 2. Concerning elections, what activities of interest organizations are forbidden? 3. Concerning elections, what activities of interest organizations are allowed? 4. Obviously, we need to talk about the linkages between political parties and interest organizations. So, make a list of "party things" on which organized interests would like to have an impact. 5. Things you should already know about Congress. A. Incumbency Advantage B. Decline of electoral marginality C. Homestyle & Parochialism D. Weakness of party leadership E. Importance of committees For Day 2, I am brewing up some possibilities 1. Section 501 of the US Code: Political activities of tax exempt organizations 2. Make a list of all of the targets of electoral political action. 3. Try to think about reasons why organizations might "choose" to pursue one course of action instead of another. The texts distinguish 2 components of electoral action. A. Affect election outcomes B. Obtain access Do those go together? I'd add some other objectives for organizational leaders, such as C. Invest scarce resources in a way that meets personal objectives What else would you add? 4. What theory of elections is consistent with the idea that interest organizations can make a difference? Think of your view of the fundamentals of the electoral process. Do voters know what they want? Do voters know what candidates will do? What is the role of electoral campaigns in your theory? What stops organizations from filling the airwaves with total crap and tilting elections. ***Whew. Tornado missed me by ----| |---- that much *** Concerning RWM Chapter 2. 1. What is the most important resource that an organized interest must have in order to play a successful intraparty role? 2. For which political offices in the US is recruitment of candidates by interest groups most prevalent? Why? Do you see a contradiction between comments RWM make on p. 39 and p. 47? 3. This seems like a deep insight to me. What do you think? "...it is worth noting that interest groups can change the character of political parties by changing the identity of those who represent the parties in office. This influence then gives them the opportunity to influence the policies that the parties espouse." (RWM, p. 46) 4. The Democrats and Republican parties have different rules for presidential nomination procedures. Lets try to decide if we think these difference are really important. I have in mind these kinds of questions: A. Do the rules of one party make it more likely that an "extremist" candidate can with the nomination or have an effect on the nomination? B. Do the rules allow interest groups to play a greater role in one party or the other? 5. What is this big deal about "platforms"? 6. How does this sound to you: "The Tostitos Democratic National Convention Show" or "The General Motors Green Party"? Possible? Here's are my questions about the idea I proposed to you. 1. What political pressures draw candidates into the "center" of the distribution of political opinion? (That is, why is the "median voter influential?) 2. What political pressures exercised by interest groups might be able to stop candidates from converging in the center? Why? About Chapter RWM 3 1. VERY important to know about the campaign finance regulation framework created in 1974. What are the key elements? disclosure contribution limits spending limits (?) public funding of presidential campaigns Look at the RWM assertion p. 76 "The distinction between contributing and spending seems arbitrary, and the logic does not withstand close inspection." Not often does one find authors who just say flat-out that the Supreme Court is wrong. 2. How did BCRA 2002 change the campaign finance framework? 3. Study the pie chart on p. 82. 4. Differences between connected and nonconnected PACs. A book by Larry Sabato claims that less than 10% donated to nonconnected PACs gets passed along to candidates; the rest is used for maintaining the organization & fund raising. The pass-through figure for connected PACs is probably higher than 55% 5. 1994 was a pivotal year in the House of Representatives. What happened and why did it affect campaign donation patterns? 6. Make a list of factors that affect the PAC allocation of campaign donations. Try to think inclusively.