POL SCI 40 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Supermajority, Party System
24 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Parties today focus on their ability to mobilize the already committed, Importance of performance for voting declines in importance relative to ideology and political identity. Today"s parties (cid:272)o(cid:373)posed relati(cid:448)ely (cid:373)ore of issue a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)ists tha(cid:374) of (cid:271)road de(cid:373)ographi(cid:272) groupings, they are not as deeply rooted in the mass of the population. Governing party usually has to cooperate w/ other party to make effective policies. Needs bipartisan support to pass laws: but (cid:374)o(cid:449) this (cid:373)ay (cid:271)e di(cid:373)i(cid:374)ishi(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d a (cid:862)thi(cid:374)g i(cid:374) the past(cid:863) due to polarizatio(cid:374) Affects existing one: many policies require frequent legislative adjustments or they drift/deteriorate. Public attitudes still stable, centrist, and converging in many issues. Political elites, esp those in congress, more polarized. Roll call votes used to estimate the positions of individual legislators on 1+ policy dimensions. Conservative democrats and liberal republicans have disappeared whereas there were more of them during the 20th century.
