Chapter 11 Voting Campaigns and Elections Voting Campaigns and Elections we use elections to decide who runs the government lots of offices up for election federal state and local partisan and non partisan judicial county coroner ballots can be hard to count The Logic of Elections American democracy is representative democracy collective action problems the sheer size of the new nation made direct democracy impossible free riding and coordination problems elections create incentives for organizations to provide information and to mobilize principal agent problem citizens can pick their agents and fire those whose performances regular free competitive elections help to check the government voters fall short elections they give ordinary citizens a say in who represents them the prospect of future elections gives officeholders who want to keep or improve their jobs a motive to be responsive agents elections provide powerful incentives for the small set of citizens who want to replace the current officeholders to keep a close eye on representatives and to provide critical evaluations of them to the public at large How Do Voters Decide acquiring information that would decrease uncertainty can require a great deal of effort quick what are Paul Broun s views on stem cell research most voters economize by using simple cues as cognitive shortcuts and by relying heavily if selectively on the free information delivered by the news media campaign advertising and their own experience to inform their predictions quick are Republicans in favor of stem cell research one way to predict is to assess the past performance of the incumbent candidate or the majority another strategy for predicting which candidate will be the most satisfactory agent is to compare party retrospective voting the future policy options they represent prospective voting single issues voters also make predictions based on the candidates personal characteristics competence experience honesty knowledge and leadership skills however the most important information shortcut voters use to make predictions is party label a label carrying the party s brand name incorporating the policy positions and past performance voters attribute to it party identification an individual s enduring affective or instrumental attachment to one of the political parties the most accurate single predictor of voting behavior is the best single predictor of the vote in federal elections Election Campaigns experienced campaigns are fully aware of voters reliance on free information and cognitive shortcuts and they devise strategies for winning votes accordingly campaigns are intensely pragmatic opportunistic affairs highly variable because they must adapt to circumstances that are highly variable but there are a number of common features found throughout competitive campaigns The Basic Necessities Candidates and Messages the basic necessities are candidate a person who can be portrayed as sufficiently qualified and trustworthy for the job this is a difficult position to achieve and many loathe to compete unless they have very good chances of success a person who is running for elected office message a lot of candidates will come up with focus groups which are small groups of people that create emphasis on a campaign message in a political campaign the central thematic statement of why voters ought to prefer one candidate over others way to inform voters about both of these things The Challenge of the Image acquiring and maintaining a public image appropriate to the office sought is a particular challenge for presidential candidates frontrunners the person that is winning get it the worst debates candidates must meet the expectations of the media and the public in order to maintain an image of being prepared to be president Informing Voters ads are used to inform voters biographical ads you see these early in a campaign inform voters about qualifications negative ads the most common today show that the opponent is no good fear ads more common during the Cold War convince voters that you will keep them safe Successful Campaigns a successful campaign comes down to several basics the goal is to win a majority of votes not every vote first a campaign has to figure out who is certain to support their candidate who is up for grabs and who is out of the picture the campaign is designed to appeal to the first two groups and the campaign finds a way to frame the choice in a way that advantages the candidate The Other Necessity Campaign Money a good candidate and a good message are not enough without money the voters do not see the candidate or hear the message congressional candidates tap four basic sources for funds individuals political action committees their own pocketbooks party organizations Congressional Campaign Money contributors tend to favor winners the First Amendment even if campaigns were fully funded by tax dollars people and organizations would remain to spend all the money they could gather on independent campaigns supporting or attacking candidates does money win the election it depends Where Are Campaign Funds Spent On presidential candidates spend money based on their electoral college strategy since one needs to piece together enough state victories to win at least 270 electoral votes the strategy is such concentrate on the states that the polls indicate could go either way and that are populous enough to be worth winning ignore states that are locked up by either side The Logic of Elections Revisited despite all of the problems with U S elections they work remarkable well in preserving democracy citizens can pick their agents and fire those whose performances fall short elections also create incentives for entrepreneurs and organizations to provide information and oversight and to mobilize voters this eliminates some of the cost of information gathering for the individual Key Terms from the Textbook mobilization also known as getting out the vote occurs when activists working for parties candidates or interest groups ask members of the electorate to vote single issue voters people who base their votes on candidates or parties positions on one particular issue of public policy regardless of the candidates or parties positions on other issues performance voting basing votes for a candidate or party on how successfully the candidate or party performed while in office issue voting voting for candidates based on their positions on specific issues