CAS PO 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Collective Action, Plurality Voting System, Divided Government

• School: Boston University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: CAS PO 111
• Professor: David Scott Palmer

Document Summary

Primaries: elections between members of the same party. Super tuesday: al, ak, ar, co, ga, ma, mn, nc, ok, tn tx, vt, va. National and state parties fight over timing of primaries. Many states want to be early to have more influence in the process. More time and money spent in the early states. Some states prefer a later primary where they can be influential where they can be influential if the race is close. Winning the presidential election requires a majority, not a plurality of the. Very small chance that mcmullin wins utah and no one wins >270 evs. House decides the presidency: one vote per state delegation. The democratic and republican parties have competed since the 1850s. Third parties are rarely successful over the long term. Why do we only have two parties, when other countries have many parties. Single member districts and plurality rule instead of proportional representation. Parties are organizations seeking influence over the government.