Lecture Notes #3

POLS 220

N BERCH

FALL 2014

 

Political Participation

 

I.                     Introduction

A.       Voter participation in the US is quite low—50% or so for presidential elections, 35% for midterms, down to 10% for school elections.  This compares to about 80% in European countries

B.      Other forms of participation:  US is at the top of the list.  This includes a lot of local politics.  The importance of interest groups versus parties is a factor.

C.      Even within the US, there is great variation in voter turnout between states.

 

II.                   Why is there so much variation between the US states?

A.       political culture

B.      party competition

C.      ease of registration

1.        used to be used to exclude

2.       Motor Voter applies to all states, but makes little difference

D.       ease of voting:  absentee ballots, early voting, mail-in ballots, Saturday voting

E.       level of education

F.       election cycle

G.     West Coast effect

H.      direct democracy

 

III.                How could WV improve voter participation?

 

 

Legislatures

 

I.         Introduction:  why would anyone want to be in the legislature?

 

II.  How the legislature has changed:  greater professionalism.

A.      more lawyers—1/6 vs. ½ in Congress; WV is about average.

B.      more pay--$100 in NH, over $100,000 in NY and CA; $15,000 in WV

C.      longer sessions—WV extended to 60-60 in 1973; still below average but often goes beyond limits.

D.       more staff; WV uses lots of in-session staff

E.       better facilities

F.       still great variation from state to state

 

III.                How legislatures work

A.       Committees

1.        typical House and Senate members serve on three committees each

2.       WV House members serve on about 3; Senators about 6.

3.       WV has its experience concentrated on Finance and Judiciary Committees

B.       Norms

1.        specialization

2.       courtesy

3.       apprenticeship/seniority

4.       reciprocity

C.       cue voting

1.        why?

2.        party

3.       region

 

IV.                 What do we expect from our representatives?

A.       policy representation—hard to evaluate

B.      pork barrel representation—Daniel Flood

C.      casework representation—John Miller

D.      symbolic representation—George Hansen

 

V.                   Electing legislators

A.       Apportionment

1.        gerrymandering—protecting incumbents, party

2.       the odd effects of race and party

3.       multimember districts—WV uses more than almost every other state, but less than it once did

B.       Cost

1.        highest for CA Senate—up to $2 million

2.       WV is about average

C.       turnover

1.        related to resources, prestige, staffing

2.       WV among highest in nation

D.       Do we really want citizen legislators?

E.       What if WV raised the salary to $40,000 and made it a full-time job?

 

Governors

 

I.          Increase in formal powers, stature, professionalism

A.       Goodbye to Goodtime Charlie

B.      Especially strong in the Northeast—MD, MA, WV, NY

C.      increase in tenure potential, budget power

D.      Veto power (now in all states)—what about the line item veto?

1.        variation in power:  regular line item veto in 43 states, reduction item veto in 11, and Wisconsin extreme version—Vanna White veto

2.       argument for

3.       argument against

4.       findings—only small effect on pork barrel if reduction item veto is available

5.       implications for national level

a.       more effect—unbalanced budgets

b.      less effect—mandatory spending

c.       constitutional amendment required

 

II.  Increased prominence=increased risk

A.       25% lose reelection bids—higher than Congress

B.      easy to find 1 opponent

C.      reelection tied to state economy

D.      interaction with feds, other states, business is key

E.       hard to please an entire state