Chapter 3 Politics Among the States Outline Introduction Even though each state has a similar governing framework there are political and institutional differences among the states Governments derive power from the governed Americans believe that political institutions are important o Declaration of Independence even says that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed Proactive and Reactive Government Policy Goal of government action is to reduce problems and enhance the lives of citizens Proactive Doing stuff If we always view the state governments as powerful and proactive we will always the state to be positively related with positive results Reactive Reacting If we always view state governments as reactive we will always expect that state efforts will be negatively correlated with good results Scatterplots and correlations can have the potential to help us distinguish when governments are proactive or reactive Government programs are as likely to be reactive than proactive Political Culture Differences Among the States Political culture Public decision maker attitudes concerning what government should do Daniel Elazar said that America has three different political cultures and that some states have a combination of two of the three cultures These categories were created based on data from the 1960s and remain fairly accurate today o Traditionalistic Normal ordering of society going back to England Government is to be minimal and with participation by a small elite group This culture is in the south so it can be said that poor states with substantial minority populations have a traditionalistic culture o Moralistic Good government serving God s purpose and promoting honesty and selflessness among the governed Government is to be morally correct significant and have large scale participation among the people Region in the US for this view is along the northern border from Maine to Oregon o Individualistic Falls between the first two more government and participation than the traditionalistic culture but not so much as the moralistic People are willing to pay taxes have the wealthy pay taxes for government services Region in the US for this view is a belt from Massachusetts to the industrial heartland where immigrants worked in industrial and urban settings o Texas is a combination of traditionalistic and individualistic Other Political Differences Participation in Elections o Most Americans participate in elections by voting only o Less than 30 of those eligible to vote in Texas voted for governor between 2009 2012 o Over a 16 year period low turnout states remained low turnout states states o New Hampshire has a higher voter turnout in later elections vs other o Most of the high turnout states are in the Great Plains and Mountain West regions mostly rural Liberal vs Conservative o Difficult to provide consistent definitions for liberal and conservative as there is a wide disagreement on what single issue defines the terms o U S is more conservative in 2012 than at the end of the 20th century o Republicans gerrymandered Congressional districts so they were able to get a majority of seats in the House even though Democrats had a million more votes HOPING LIM EXPLAINS THIS BETTER o States that are in Democratic control will implement different policies State Partisanship than Republicans Democrats portrayed as willing to expand the government and implement new services for the public Typically control coastal states Colorado New Mexico Minnesota Illinois and West Virginia Republicans portrayed as cutting taxes and services Typically control in the south many Midwestern states and mountain west states Political Institution Differences Among the States Length of Sessions in the State Legislature o States vary in the number of days that state legislatures meet over the 2 year period between elections o Length of sessions is not caused by number of bills submitted There are patterns of bills submitted and length of sessions over time Voting Methods in American States o Presidential election of 2000 between Bush and Al Gore was controversial as there were counting problems in Florida o Computer technology is used as an attempt to reduce error but sometimes these machines are subject to error and can even be hacked o There is no single technology available that will eliminate problems of lost registration records spoiled ballots lost ballots ect o States differ in philosophies about voting and recounting ballots in the case of error o Nearly all state and local officials who administer elections are chosen by elections or appointed by someone This system does not promote fair elections and maximizes potential partisan bias in how votes are tallied o There are no federal elections only state elections for federal offices
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