POL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Congressional Research Service, Natural-Born-Citizen Clause, Arnold Schwarzenegger
5 May 2016
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Document Summary
Elections are the means by which the public selects representatives who will make policy decisions. These policy decisions determine who gets what . We often think that we choose our candidates rationally but There are many causes for support of candidates that are not always clear. People don"t always vote according to policy choices. Ex: many people voted for bill clinton because of his looks. Election winners like to claim a mandate for their choice of action. A mandate is the authority granted (to an official or gov"t as a whole) by a constituency to act as the constituency"s representative. He/she has the right to govern as he/she sees fit. Voters may not be able to accurately judge candidates" future actions, but they can evaluate past actions. Retrospective voting voting for or against a candidate based in his or her past performance; used to reward or punish a candidate. In a sense, second terms are more democratic than first ones.
