USA Overview - Elections & The Three Theories

Electing The President:

• President is chosen every 4 years, next election in 2020
• Election is always in the 2^nd Tuesday in November
• Not sworn in until the 20^th January known as the inauguration
• The President can only serve in 2 full terms

Electing Congress:

• All of the House of Representatives is elected every 2 years, next in 2018
• Known as a mid-term election
• Senate: There are 100 members of senate who are split into groups of 1/3, then these elections for each group happen every 2 years equalling that all members of Senate will either be new or re-elected within 6 years. Group A is in 2018, group B is in 2020
• President becomes a ‘lame duck’ if a majority is lost in Congress in the mid-term elections. This has happened to almost every President, usually towards the end of the second term.

Why Have Elections:

1. To provide a way for the people to control their government and to hold their elected officials to account
2. To elect people to office, as James Madison wrote in Fahrenheit 451 “the most wisdom to discern and most virtue to pursue the common good of society” what he might of thought of the 2016 election is a troubling thought
3. To foster the participatory principle of representative democracy by giving people a chance to campaign, attend rallies, donate money and in modern society – join a Facebook pressure group page
4. To simulate public debate on those policy issues of the most pressing importance. Such debate might be corporate or individual, spoken or election, supportive or critical.

In What Sense Are Election Are More Widespread In The USA:

• House of Representatives every 2 years, Senate every 6 years with 1/3 elected every 2 years
• Primary elections after all these elections where ordinary voters can have a say
• Then the election of the POTUS and then state based elections
• Local campaigning makes people known in the public eye in a local way before a national way e.g Jimmy Carter was known locally due to campaigning in the local area before he was known nationally.

What Do Pressure Groups Enable:

• In a participatory democracy many of those in a pressure group attempt to exert influence on those in office
• They distance themselves from political parties as they don’t participate in elections and they not seek to win power, they just want influence.
• Known as interest groups in America
• They seek to: Broaden citizens participation in politics, engage in public education on issues that will affect members, influence the policy agenda of politicians in and during elections.
• They play (and continue to play) a big role including women rights, gender equality, gun control and healthcare.
• Methods such as: Lobbying, election time campaigning
• Disparency In: Size, wealth and some debate for the interest of the groups vs the wider interest of the society

Differences Between Parliamentary and Presidential Government:

• America and the UK is close because America has a fascination with “English customs”
• Britain has a Parliamentary government where the people vote for their representatives
• PM is in more than one branch of government as many cabinet members are in the legislature and the executive, similar to that of India, Aus and Japan
• USA has presidential government where the POTUS is indirectly elected and cannot be dismissed by the legislature
• Different parties may run for the executive and legislature branches at the same time
• No public official Is allowed to serve in more than one branch of government
• POTUS’s cabinet is therefore drawn from the outside the legislature or if there is a clash they must resign from the other post within the legislature.
• Parliamentary Government: A type of representative democracy in which the people vote for representatives to the legislature and the leader of the largest party is the chief executive
• Presidential Government: A type of representative democracy in which the chief executive is independently elected and cannot be dismissed by the legislature except by impeachment

The Three Theoretical Approaches:

The Structural Approach:

• Suggests that political outcomes are largely determined by the formal processes laid out within the political system e.g between the government and the governed and a party and it’s members
• The times of individuals and groups within a society are largely determined by their position within a structure.
• Huge focus on institutions e.g focusing on legislature, executive and judiciary
• For example: the structural differences between the UK and the USA constitutions, codified and uncodified.

Rational Approach:

• Focuses on institutions but not individuals.
• Assumes that individuals acting in a rational, logical way in order to maximise their self-interest, rationally choose and what is best for them.
• Each individual has their own set of political goals e.g social, economic and they will make decisions based on the best way to achieves these goals.
• Good for studying voting behaviour and the way people operate within political parties
• Regan to voters: “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago” in response to Carter’s presidency and how he tied into the humans rational
• Arguments that it ignores, human rational e.g ignoring the voters getting accurate information

Cultural Approach:

• Focuses on ideas on revision and economic ideas
• What is important to us and how we want/should behave as we are all citizens
• Wants shares beliefs which determine the actions of a party for example
• Is a majority view but there are sub-cultures in America which can be difficult to identify – may become generalisation
• Culture wars in the 1990s made people safeguard there culture by keeping rights
• Explains why people vote in a certain way or protest as culture motives people and to share society
• Helps to share a nation and underpin the beliefs which they have institutions are still key.

USA Overview - An Introduction to US Politics

• Alistair Cooke born in Manchester but raised in the USA said that American politics is based on three words: Compromise, compromise, compromise
• 1^st Compromise: Representation of states, there are 2 houses chose in different ways. Senate, 2 per state so there are 100 and in the Houses of Represent there are 435 of them depending on the population size of the state
• 2^nd Compromise: Form of government/state: Some wanted 50 governed states and no national government whilst some wanted the opposite. They now have both in America known as a federal state
• 3^rd Compromise: Choosing a President: Some wanted him/her appointed and some wanted him/her to be directly elected by the people. They have neither of these, electoral college was created instead where you need a majority of 270 to win.

Make Up Of USA Government:

• Legislative: Make law – Congress, Senate, House of Representatives
• Executive: Carry out law - POTUS, Vice POTUS, Cabinet
• Judiciary: Enforces and interprets law – Supreme Court & Federal Courts
• Kept apart, known as the separation of power

What Diversity Is There In The USA:

• 3 time zones, a very big country from the tropical landscape of Florida and the Rockies.
• Diverse in it’s climate, it’s economy and its people with some African-American and Hispanics for example
• Described as a ‘melting pot’ where a cauldron is filled
• American love the country, they pledge allegiance and flag raise at the start and end of the day

USA Split In Terms Of Ideology:

• Conservative America splits from Texas to Virginia
• Liberal Northeast: Massachusetts and Rhode Island. West Coast including LA and San Francisco.

Articles Of Confederation:

• The compact between the 13 original states that formed the new nation in 1781. Was replaced by the Constitution in 1789

What Is Confederacy:

• A league or loose collections of independent states in which national governments lack significant powers.

What Does The Constitution Set Out:

• Preserves the rights and individual rights with a bill of rights whilst also providing checks and balance. There is a federal constitutional between different levels and branches of government
• A new constitution was set out where states were represented equally regardless of population.
• Sets out: A basic and political structures prescribing the rules by which a government operates. It is a codified document

• Good for studying voting behaviour and the way people operate within political parties
• Regan to voters: “Are you better off than you were 4 years ago” in response to Carter’s presidency and how he tied into the humans rational
• Arguments that it ignores, human rational e.g ignoring the voters getting accurate information

Cultural Approach:

• Focuses on ideas on revision and economic ideas
• What is important to us and how we want/should behave as we are all citizens
• Wants shares beliefs which determine the actions of a party for example
• Is a majority view but there are sub-cultures in America which can be difficult to identify – may become generalisation
• Culture wars in the 1990s made people safeguard there culture by keeping rights
• Explains why people vote in a certain way or protest as culture motives people and to share society
• Helps to share a nation and underpin the beliefs which they have institutions are still key.

Are The Branches Of Government Separate:

• Yes they are, this is done to provide checks and balances
• Politically not separate
• Richard Neustadt said “they are separate institutions sharing powers” e.g with Obamacare all three branches of government had to agree

Lincolns Quote:

• “A government by the people, for the people” based on the principle of popular sovereignty and representative democracy

2 Essential Elements Of Democracy:

• The USA was the first modern nation to base itself on the principle of popular sovereignty
• Popular Sovereignty: The principle that all political powers derives from the people
• Representative Democracy: A form of government in which people choose their leaders through free, fair and regular elections and in which elected officials are held accountable.
• Essential Elements Of Representative Democracy: Defend the people again their own temporarily errors; elected officials “have a duty to withstand the temporary delusion in order to give the people time for reflection”