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Voting Analysis

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Analysis Paper 4
This week’s readings presented analysis, evaluations, and critiques of retrospective voting, an alternative theory of democracy which suggests that voters can “exert control over their leaders by assessing the performance of incumbent officials, rewarding success and punishing failure” (Achen and Bartels, 91). Achen and Bartels argue against the theory of retrospective accountability (voting), supported by some scholars because it fundamentally underestimates the limitations of voters to accurately assess changes in their own welfare and the limitations of democratic accountability (145). However, Achen and Bartels do not suggest that the theory should be dismissed entirely. This paper will analyze the critiques presented …show more content…

The piece by Fiorina studied the relationship between presidential and congressional vote shares and the perceived economic conditions of voters. In his piece, Fiorina aimed to answer the following question: do citizens vote for or against the incumbent president’s party as a function of their personal economic condition? He evaluated the answer to this question by reviewing election survey responses conducted by the University of Michigan concerning the presidential elections between 1956 and 1974. He found that found that there is probably some support for economic retrospective voting in presidential elections, but little to no support in congressional elections. However, Fiorina cautions the reader from dismissing the idea that retrospective voting is a major factor in congressional elections because there are “other issues in the world besides the economy” and “voters might be “reacting to these when they cast their congressional vote” (Fiorina, 440). This then begs the following question posited by Fiorina: why do voters hold the congressmen of the presidential party more responsible for some …show more content…

al. analyzed the effect, if any, that information irrelevant to government performance has on voting behavior. They used local sports outcomes, college football and basketball games in order to determine any possible influence, the emotions the electorate felt in response to the random and unexpected outcomes of these games would have on the electoral prospects on the incumbent party. Additionally, they measured the affect that college basketball game outcomes had on the job approval of President Obama. From their results of both experiments they, determined that voting decision are influences by irrelevant events that have nothing to do with the competence effectiveness of the incumbent

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Congressional Activity As it is suggested by the title of the article, Presentation of Partisanship: Constituency Connections and Partisan Congressional Activity by Scott R. Meinke, House members play an imperative role by informing their constituents in regards to the work the members partake in partisan Washington D.C., the nation’s capital. Going into depth, this article challenges and explores the extent of the choice to which the House members “relate their involvement in partisan Washington activity to constituency representation.” (Meinke 854) In essence, Meinke, within the article, discusses that many members of the House involve themselves with committees and higher chair positions within those committees, as well as whip networks

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The general perception of voters is that they are ill-informed and ill-equipped to vote on complex measures. Nonetheless, Ethan Rarick argues that voters generally act rationally and that they “rely on cues such as endorsements from people or organizations they trust to make their decisions.” (143). By providing more information and resources to voters, more constituents will be able to vote wisely and

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To What Extent Should the United States Restructure its Electoral College System? : States With the 2016 election in the books, the United States has elected a candidate that lost the popular vote by over two million votes. This is the second time in the twenty first century that this has occurred. In such a democratic nation, the ability to win the important office of the presidency without popular consent raises a few concerns about the two hundred and forty year old system. In a democracy, the voices of the states and their respective populations must be heard.

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Why was the 95 Theses important? Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany in 1483. Martin spent his early years as a monk and a scholar. Martin Luther professor of moral theology at the university of Wittenberg.

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Maansi Dasari Mr. Morris AP English 3 12 January 2017 The Electoral College: The last remnant of slavery Amidst the chaos of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, emerges a cacophony of voices screaming for Electoral College reform. Many are angered by the results, others are confused: how can one candidate receive nearly three million more votes than the other and still lose the election? The Electoral College has been the United States’ method for electing a president since the Constitution was ratified, and this is far from the first time that it has been criticized.

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851 Words | 4 Pages

Correspondingly to the rising corruption in government, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech addressing the issue of rising corruption and what the government has done to end said corruption (Doc. 2). President Roosevelt informs the audience that the government has put regulations on business corporations as a solution to alarming monopolies and political machines (Doc. 2). When analyzing President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech at Rhode Island, it is evident that the purpose is to convince the audience that the government is trying to protect the citizens from big businesses by placing regulations. Furthermore, when inspecting the voting system, Americans spotted flaws that made the system not as just as it was perceived. It is unmistakable that voting is corrupt because many citizens suffer through the pressure of being subconsciously forced to vote for their alderman (Doc.1).

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1626 Words | 7 Pages

Elected officials must balance the wishes of the overall electorate, specific constituencies within the Congress, and their own ideology. The relative importance of those competing factors remains an open question (Levitt, 1996). According to Fenno legislators make their decisions based off of three primary goals: reelection, good public policy, and influence (Smith, et al., 2013). Mayhew argues that Fenno's first goal, reelection, is in fact the only goal. His reasoning is that congressional members are constantly scared or worried with the thought of losing the next election round.

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Even though what Gold argues is factual and corresponds with Perot’s strong showing, the economy, and the fact that Perot was a successful businessman was overlooked. It is noticeable that during elections where the economy is slowing or declining voters tend to vote for the businessman. Multiple connections can be formed through different time periods, but this development can be easily compared to Hilary Clinton vs. Donald Trump in 2016, as many conservative democratic, blue-collar voters decided to vote for Trump. In both elections 2016, and 1992, the economy was in shambles or growing at a snail’s pace, and voters voted for the businessmen. This connection is essential because it proves the essential claim that the 1992 election would change the political landscape forever, that Americans desire ones in business when the economy is

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717 Words | 3 Pages

Dating back to its inception Congress “has never been a place for paupers (Lightblau, 5).” With each change in the country, the United States Congress rarely deviated away from its long-standing tradition of having wealthy, white men heavily represented in both chambers. Individuals who were elected ranged from “plantation owners, industrialists, ex- Wall Street financiers and Internet executives (Lightblau, 5).” Research conducted shows that “the typical member of Congress is worth more than nine times the typical voter that puts them in Washington (Thompson, 2).”

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301 Words | 2 Pages

From September 1st to September 17th, I asked 17 random students from the University of Texas at San Antonio if we should abolish the Electoral College. Out of my findings, I discovered that the majority of students were for the abolishment of the Electoral College. The results were relatively close with 58.82% of the respondents for abolishing the Electoral College and 41.18% for preserving it. However, there was a margin of error of 23.76%, and a 95% confidence interval of 35.06% to 82.58%.

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2000 Words | 8 Pages

The Electoral College should be eliminated because people do not have a clear choice in choosing the next President. This research paper will be discussing how the Electoral College affected the results of the Election of 1824 between the candidates Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams, and the political turmoil caused by the rumor of a “corrupt bargain”. The “corrupt bargain” occurred when Henry Clay, who had a spot in the House of Representatives, convinced the House of Representatives to elect John Quincy Adams. After John Quincy Adams was named the winner of the election, even though he had the least amount of electoral votes and popular votes, Henry Clay became his Secretary of State. After this, many Andrew Jackson supporters declared

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1511 Words | 7 Pages

Williams suggests that the founders thought that the Electoral College was a sensible plan, but things don’t always work out how they should (28). It is a relic of America’s predemocratic past when leaders were scared of having too much power over the people (Klinker, McClellan 1). Congressional Digest suggests that we are stuck in a time warp (31). We still rely on a horse-and-buggy election system in the age of the internet (Congressional Digest 31). Congressional Digest points out the fact that voters today know more about the candidates than they did 200 years ago (19).

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940 Words | 4 Pages

The United States currently faces a severe problem with one of their governmental processes. In the democratic system of the United States, politicians are elected by voting from the citizens, in most cases. The problem the United States is facing is that people are no longer voting in elections for officials. This problem is discussed in the article, “In praise of low voter turnout”, written by Charles Krauthammer. The main idea behind this article is that voters are no longer interested in politics, as they were in previous generations.

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1151 Words | 5 Pages

It is clear that American voters tend to avoid local elections and off-year elections. Run-off elections are also likely to register lower voter turnout as compared to first-round elections. The larger the gap between first round elections and run-off elections, the higher the decline in voter turnout. Moreover, there are lower percentages of young people voting as compared to the older population. This is an important point to note since it highlights that young people do not have information guiding them on the importance of voting.

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Many people believe that the election plays the most important role in democracy. Because a free and fair election holds the government responsible and forces it to behave on voter's interest. However, some scholars find evidence that election itself is not enough to hold politicians responsible if the institutions are not shaping incentives in a correct way. In other words, the role of the election on democracy, whether it helps to serve the interest of the public or specific groups, depends on other political institutions. I

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