In addition to the mechanics of he electoral process, this involves questions involving who gets to participate, who runs elections, who is allowed to run for office, and how they campaign for office.
These can be divided into the following topics:
1 - Suffrage
2 - Elections
3 - Voting
4 - Voter Suppression
5 - Candidates
6 - Campaigns
7 - Campaign Consultants
7 - Campaign Finance
8 - The Donor Class
These can be defined as follows:
1 - Suffrage: "Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote)."
2 - Elections: the formal process of selecting a person for public office or of accepting or rejecting a political proposition by voting.
3 - Voting: a method by which a group, such as a meeting or an electorate, convenes together for the purpose of making a collective decision or expressing an opinion usually following discussions, debates or election campaigns.
4 - Voter Suppression: any legal or extralegal measure or strategy whose purpose or practical effect is to reduce voting, or registering to vote, by members of a targeted racial group, political party, or religious community.
5 - Candidate: A candidate is someone who is being considered for a position, for example someone who is running in an election or applying for a job.
6 - Campaign: an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making progress within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, by which representatives are chosen or referendums are decided.
7 - Campaign Consultants:
8 - Campaign Finance: . . . the funds raised to promote candidates, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Donors and recipients include individuals, corporations, political parties, and charitable organizations.
8 - The Donor Class: . . . a group of individuals or organizations that contribute significant amounts of money to political campaigns or causes. These donors often wield influence over political decision-making processes due to their financial contributions, which can fund advertising, lobbying efforts, and other activities that promote their interests or preferred policies.
Lectures:
- U.S. Election Code.
- Texas Election Code.
- Is Voting a Right Guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution?
- Information, Disinformation, and Misinformation.
- Suffrage.
- Political Parties and Party Systems.
- Political Eras / Party Systems of the United States.
- Campaign Finance.
- Types of voter suppression.
Terminology
Elections
- elections
- regular elections
- voting
- adverse selection
- moral hazard
- institutions
- election rules
- suffrage
- participation rates
- who votes
- voter turnout
- nonvoters
- the franchise
- voter registration
- the ballot
- the secret ballot
- indirect democracy
- electoral districts
- single members districts
- electoral college
- majority rule
- minority rights
- redistricting
- fairness
- bias
- plurality
- proportional representation
- two party system
- winner take all
- direct democracy
- referendum
- initiative
- recall
- party loyalty
- issue voting
- prospective voting
- retrospective voting
- spatial issues
- valence issues
- median voter theorem
- candidate characteristics
- campaigns
- campaign finance
- FECA
- media
- winning
- PACs
- Super PACs
- primaries
- general elections
- at large
- closed primary
- disenfranchisement
- early voting
- 15th Amendment
- get out the vote
- incumbents
- microtargeting
- motor voter law
- name recognition
- negative campaigning
- open primary
- PACs
- Super PACs
- political efficacy
- political socialization
- poll tax
- primary election
- public opinion polling
- partisan election
- non-partisan election
- register
- runoff election
- single-member districts
- special election
- split ticket voting
- straight ticket voting
- Voting Rights Act
GOVT 2306
Assemblies
Parties in the Early Congress
Washington's warnings
Advantages of political parties
Expansion of suffrage
Democrats and the development of Texas
Rise of Republicanism
- business regulation
- civil rights
State parties
Local parties
Terminology
GOVT 2305: WTP - Chapter 8: Campaigns and Elections
advanced or early voting
blanket or wide-open primary
casework
closed primary
credit claiming
cross-filing
direct primary
disclosure
equal protection clause
general election
grandfather clause
incumbent
independent candidate
literacy test
majority election
Motor Voter Act
open primary
party-line voting
party primary
plurality election
poll tax
position taking
preference primary
primary election
private financing
public financing
roll off
runoff election
second-order elections
suffrage
voter turnout
Voting Rights Act of 1965
white primary
GOVT 2306: LSP - Chapter 9: Political Parties
allocation
chronic minority
conventions (caucuses)
county chair
county or senatorial district convention
electoral competition model
executive committee
grassroots organization
party machines
party platform
patronage
permanent party organizations
plank
political party
precinct chair
responsible party model
runoff primary
state party chair
straight-ticket voting
temporary party organizations
__________
Fall 2022
- What are parties and interest groups?
- Contract allowing the formation of the Virginia Company
- Elite politics
- Interests highlighted in Federalist #10
- Territorial Expansion
- Free rider problem
- Tragedy of the commons
- Public and private interests
- Federalists and Democrat - Republicans
- Party eras
- Contemporary politics
- The Powell Memo
