Big Idea 3: American Political Culture - Socialization, Opinions Interest Groups, & PartiesAmerican political beliefs are shaped by founding ideals, core values, and the changing demographics of the citizenry. These beliefs about government, politics, and the individual’s role in the political system influence the creation of ideological trends that span decades impacting public policies. Governing is achieved directly through citizen participation and indirectly through linkage institutions (e.g., political parties, interest groups, and mass media) that inform, organize, and mobilize support to influence government and politics, resulting in many venues for citizen influence on policy making.

Big Idea 3 Objectives

3.12 - Explain how the structural barriers impact 3rd party and

independent candidate success. (4.8)

3.11- Explain why and how political parties change and adapt. (4.7)

3.10- Describe the linkage functions of political parties and explain how

parties impact the electorate and the government. (4.6)

3.9 - Explain how various political actors influence public policy

outcomes. (4.10)

3.8 - Describe the benefits and potential problems of interest group

influence on elections and policy making. (4.9)

3.1 - Explain how cultural factors influence political attitudes and

socialization (3.2)

3.2 - Explain how values, attitudes, and beliefs influence the formation, goals, and implementation of public

policy over time. (3.3)

3.3 - Compare how political ideologies vary on the role of government in

3.4 - Compare how political ideologies vary with regard to the government’s role in addressing social issues. (3.5)

3.5 - Describe the elements of a scientific poll, evaluate their credibility and explain how polls impact elections

and behavior (4.1-4.3)

3.6 - Describe the media’s ever-changing role linking people and their

government. (4.4)

3.7 - Explain how increasingly diverse choices of media and communication

outlets influence political and behavior. (4.5)

Chapter 6 - Socialization & OpinionsChapter 7 - Interest Groups

Chapter 8 -Parties

3.1 - 3.7 Corresponds with Chapter 6 on Socialization and Opinions

A. SocializationMany factors explain our political attitudes: Family, schools, peers, media, and social environments (including civic and religious organizations) all may contribute to the development of our political attitudes and values through the process known as political socialization. Statistics continue to show that we are most shaped by our family and the media. Much of this chapter related to our political socialization will focus on that family and media impact. Besides specific factors having a degree on our socialization, political science shows a significant impact related to time in which we grew up known as Generational Effect. For example, someone growing up in the era of Watergate and the Vietnam War may have continued cynicism toward government generally. Growing up in this time and in the generation had a lasting impact. Additionally, as we look at the lives of Americans they tend in their lifetime to become a bit more conservative. This does not mean everyone becomes a Ronald Reagan lover by their 60th Birthday, but what scientists see is that from someone’s 20s to their later years in some capacity a significant do

develop at least some more conservative view in different arenas of beliefs. This is known as the Lifecycle Effect.  

Other factors are always at play as well. The role of government in health care is a great example. Health care is undoubtedly having a huge impact on our future with the rise of costs and the large portion of aging Americans. Before our eyes we continue to see this issue evolve. Liberals believe they have answers, just as conservatives do, but our attitudes and our personal experiences with health care and government’s role continue to shape that policy.

Health care and government’s role also connects to another ideological discussion in this chapter: the role of government in our economy. Ideological differences on marketplace regulation are based on different theoretical support, including Keynesian and supply-side positions and on monetary and fiscal policies promoted by the president, Congress, and the Federal Reserve. To keep them as simple as possible for now understand that fiscal policy revolves around tax and spend policies of Congress the Executive. What they take in and what they spend has a big impact on us - one that you will see much, much more as you age and pay more in taxes. Monetary policy is a bit more complicated than that, but revolves around inflation - the decreasing worth of a government’s currency. Government’s have central banking (Federal Reserve in America) in place to control this mechanism and utilize putting more or less of a currency into circulation. A quick example is the recession we had in 2008. In order to get our country going again to create jobs, products, and the purchasing of products to create more jobs, MORE money was put into circulation to get the economy going again. It is a consistent tug and pull by leaders to keep this all working correctly. Some like, some dislike a government’s role in this monetary and fiscal world. Liberal ideological support for an active governmental regulation of the market, conservative support for less regulation, and libertarian preference for little or no regulation demonstrate how ideologies vary on the role of government in regulating the marketplace. As we have also discussed, conservative, liberal, communitarian, and libertarian political ideologies also have differing views on the role of government in addressing social issues. We looked at this ideologies in Chapter 1/2 with our political quiz and we will continue to check in on these ideologies and how even they change over time within these camps.

B. The Media and PollingWe find ourselves at a unique time in American History with the role of media and polling. Regardless of our feelings about the media it is completely evident that at least portions of our media have been drawn into the ideological debate to become more polarizing that ever before. Watch 10 minutes of Fox News followed by 10 minutes of MSNBC and you will seeing varying degrees of what is news and what is happening in their news from their viewpoint. A more polarizing news coupled with sensational internet reporting makes it more difficult for Americans viewing or reading to decipher between fact and slanted news. What a news organization wants you to care about is what is known as agenda setting. They present stories that think you will want to know about, continue to be engaged in, and help them sell advertising as you continue to watch and grow their ratings.

The media also uses polling to attempt to help us understand the popularity of a candidate or issue. Polling and its data is under a continued assault in the 21st Century. Polling is a multi-billion business and whether it is Gallup or any other polling company they want accurate and hopefully data that will project to an outcome for a policy or an election. What we continue to see however is that with every changing technologies, gathering accurate polling data is harder. Based upon most all of the

polling data from before the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton was the expected winner of the presidency, but we all know she was not. Polling companies are continuing to learn how to gauge and get their polling data and we shall continue to see that evolve over time. The media’s report of public opinion data that can impact elections and policy debates is affected by such scientific polling types and methods as: -Type of poll (opinion polls, tracking polls of something like our support of our president, and entrance and exit polls of how people people voted continue to be used to gauge our opinions. -Sampling techniques, identification of respondents, mass survey or focus group -Type and format of questions 

As I alluded to above, accuracy continues to be looked at from a science and statistical basis. The relationship between scientific polling and elections and policy debates is affected by the: -Importance of public opinion as a source of political influence in a given election or policy debate -Reliability and veracity of public opinion data The various forms of media provide citizens with political information and influence the ways in which they participate politically. 

We will look at all of these above relationships in Chapter 6. 

 3.8 - 3.9 Corresponds with Chapter 7 on Interest Groups

Interest Groups and their role in our government is an important task. These groups have a complex role. They do very positive things in our society and are a strong reflection of the 1st Amendment in speech and association. Conversely, they can make some feel disconnected to the policy process whereby the statement of “Interest Groups control everything in

D.C.! “ is thrown around and believed by some.

Let’s look at what they do. Interest groups may: A. represent very specific or more general interests,B. educate voters and office holders, C. draft legislation, and D. mobilize membership to apply pressure on and work with legislatorsand government agencies.

Connecting with people and CongressAs stated above, we will look at interest groups that are specific like furthering the interests of say something like Alzheimers Disease or as broad as the American Medical Association that is general to all things related to health care and its occupations. Interest groups educate. They provide information on the importance of their interest to the media, voters, and office holders. Many interest groups utilize lobbyists who are paid advocates for interest groups. Many lobbyists attempt to work closely with those in Congress and the Executive Branch to exert influence upon policy makers. The better a lobbyist is at exerting influence on an interest the more sought after they are by interest groups. Interest groups will also pay people to not only influence those in Congress, but some will personally have a roll in drafting legislation that they hope will be sponsored and supported by those in the legislature. Interest groups will mobilize their group members to apply pressure to policy makers - rallies, boycotts, fundraisers, anything that can be done to support their interest they will do. We will also look at how the advent of the internet has made it much more easy for interest groups to connect with their members. Most all have websites and more and more are connecting support for their interest to the support they have or do not have by policy makers. For example, the NRA (National Rifle Association) has a website of which part is dedicated to grading those policy makers and their support for their interest - rating systems. An NRA supporter can very easily go to their website and track how the NRA views their representatives in government. It can be a strong and powerful way that interest groups connect with voters come election time.

Connecting with PartiesFinally, interest groups connect with parties. Parties supporting their interest on their platform can provide additional support and connections to policy makers for interest groups. Interest groups can therefore exert influence through long-standing relationships they cultivate with policy makers and parties.

Gaining InfluenceInterest Groups raise money through fundraisers and memberships. We will look at the membership process. Interest groups often connect with businesses to offer deals to

those who are members. For example, NRA members may get discounts at businesses if they show their NRA card. Businesses like to connect with interest groups because it links them to potentially large pools of people who will support their products and services. We will look at these incentives like material and solidarity incentives as to the reasons that people join or stay joined to an interest group.

However, the level of influence to people or parties of an interest group’s influence may be impacted by:

▶Inequality of resources

▶Unequal access to decision makers

▶“Free rider” problem

Influencing PolicyDifferent types of political action committees (PACs) influence elections and policy making through fundraising and spending to support candidates.

Interest groups create PACs to funnel money to candidates who support or continue to support their issues. Using our NRA example, the NRA’s PACs legally created may send money to certain candidates that have an “A” or “B” rating on their website. Similarly, they may also support the opponents of candidates that have a “D” or “F” rating hoping to get those people out of office.

 3.10 - 3.12 Corresponds with Chapter 8 on PartiesRole and Impact:The functions and impact of political parties on the electorate and government are represented by:

▶Mobilization and education of voters

▶Party platforms

▶Candidate recruitment

▶Campaign management, including fundraising and media strategy.

▶All of these factors provide a HUGE “leg up” for Democratic and Republican candidates.

We will also see later in Chapter 9-10-11 how Congress’ structure and how Congress operates has been built around the party structure and control of the House and Senate by the party with the most seats known as the majority party. We will see how the committee they serve on and their party leadership systems in these legislatures influence the ability of political parties to carry out decisions, voting, and policies made or not made there.

Parties have adapted to candidate-centered campaigns, and their role in nominating candidates has been weakened to some extent.

The structure of parties has been influenced by:

▶Regional realignments

▶Campaign finance law

▶ Changes in communication anddata-management technology

3rd PartiesParties use communication technology and voter-data management to

disseminate, control, and clarify political messages and enhance outreach and mobilization efforts. These are powerful tools that give

these parties a leg up on any independent or 3rd party candidate with more limited means in these areas.

Finally, we will look at numerous reasons and rationale as to why 3rd parties have struggled to gain traction in American politics. In

comparison to proportional systems utilized by European and other democracies around the world, America’s winner-take-all voting districts serve as a structural barrier to third-party and independent candidate success. In European democracies, parties do not need to win the election to gain representation, only to gain a certain percentage - say 15% to gain some representation. In America, we only elect winners in our winner take all system and with the popularity of Democrats and Republicans across the political spectrum, 3rd parties have had a difficult time gain any representation at the state or federal levels of government. Finally, even if a party or candidate gained enough support, our top two parties at times will incorporate or absorb third-party agendas into their own platforms to syphon off or cut off support to a 3rd party candidate. We will look at these issues as to why our major political parties continue to serve as a barrier to third-party and independent candidate success.