POLSCI 242 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Rational Ignorance, Snickers, News
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POLISCI 11.04 Lecture Notes
Nonpartisan Elections
Current events
Yesterday was NC municipal election day
Chapel Hill incumbent mayor lost (nonpartisan election)
o Rate of growth
o Interest groups who rejected to current proposals mobilized voters to vote out many of the
incumbents
Turnout for Orange County and Durham County
o 2012 voting turnout was 69% for both counties
o 2014 voting turnout was 49% and 45% respectively
o 2015 municipal elections voting turnout was 17% and 11%
Analogy
Chocolate and Fruit-based
o Presidential – Snickers or Skittles?
o Sub-presidential – People will rely on shortcuts (I generally prefer chocolate or I generally
prefer fruit-base candy)
▪ Why we care – Does the short cut lead to an informed decision?
▪ Role of campaigns – to educate people so that people can make a more informed
decision
o Incumbency advantage
▪ Making decision based on the individual and not the partisanship
▪ Ex: You typically really like chocolate, but if Starburst is an option, you will always
choose Starburst
o Nonpartisan elections
▪ Removal of labels
▪ Decision based on something other than chocolate and fruit-based
▪ Maybe a decision based on nutrition, calories, etc.
▪ Voters are forced to seek a lot more information about the individual candidates
• When voters are forced to learn, many abstain from voting or others just
guess
▪ Turn to other shortcuts
Progressives were concerned of the role of parties in elections, more specifically party machines
o Party machines ran by patronage (getting members of their parties jobs) – how efficient is
this?
o Promotes inefficiency and corruption
o Nonpartisan elections cut out parties
▪ Believed that local elections did not need national party intervention
Political science
o Voters do not meet the Progressive ideal
o Collective rationality – even if individuals do not have incentive to find information, the
aggregate result is a public voice
▪ Short-cuts
▪ Rational ignorance
o Non-partisan elections
▪ Higher cost to be informed – low voter turnout
• Ex: The NC example – even in a place that has a typical high turnout, many do
not show up for nonpartisan elections
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapel hill incumbent mayor lost (nonpartisan election: rate of growth, interest groups who rejected to current proposals mobilized voters to vote out many of the incumbents. Turnout for orange county and durham county: 2012 voting turnout was 69% for both counties, 2014 voting turnout was 49% and 45% respectively, 2015 municipal elections voting turnout was 17% and 11% Odd-year elections were also advocated by progressives. Also the consideration of the degree of nonpartisanship. Differences between state supreme court elections and municipal elections. Why does one article suggest that partisan matters and another says it doesn"t in nonpartisan races: more information available about the state supreme court elections (more 13992, statewide races have a higher profile. Campaign finance (more money spend on state supreme court elections than municipal) The potential degradation of judicial decisions (was it based on political factors or the law?) People are more likely to contest a partisan race than a nonpartisan race (more competitive race)
