PLS 304 Lecture 61: PLS 304
Document Summary
A person currently in the seat/holding office is an incumbent. They already have machinery of govt working for them and a unified party behind them. Campaign on the job, taking credit for their successes and blaming congress for failures. No other country holds so many elections covering so many offices and public policy issues. Understand the retrospective voting model (reward and punishment model) a form of election in which voters look back at the performance of a party in power and cast ballots on the basis of how well it did in office. Understand the prospective (or responsible party) voting model. Prospective voting model: a theory of democratic elections in which voters decide what govt will do in the near future by choosing one or another responsible party. Responsible party: notion that a political party will take clear and distinct stands on the issues and enact them as policy once elected to office.
