Modern American Government - Assignment Example

Name: Course: Institution: Tutor: Question: What Factors Best Explain Why Americans Vote as They Do? Reply Just like other democratic societies, election results in the United States often change dramatically. A landslide victory for one party may be followed by a lopsided victory for another party in the following election. Election changes in the United States can be categorized into two classes: short-term and long-term changes. Short-term election changes are related to fluctuations in factors that are related to an election such as the condition of the economy or the qualities of the candidates. Short-term factors can be strongly favorable to the Democrats in one election, moderately favorable to the Republicans in another election and evenly divided in the subsequent election. Long-term shifts in election results are related to shifts in basic loyalties which last beyond a particular election period. The most critical long-term election changes occur when there are realignments in party systems. Realignments of American party systems occur infrequently and are substantial enough to cause fundamental changes in voting patterns. For instance, the New Deal Realignment of the 1930s fundamentally reshaped the country’s political system and today, some of the ideological differences between parties can be traced to the New Deal Realignment1. The most interesting issue in the United States elections is not who wins but how the people voted and what the implications of the election results are. Voters in the United States have developed a complex voting trend incorporating a number of social and attitudinal factors. The main attitudinal factors that have over the years influenced voting patterns include evaluation of government performance, personal characteristics of candidates, party identification, orientation of policy issues and ideologies2. On the social perspective, religion, race, social class, gender and marital status are among the most important factors that have influenced voting patterns over the years. Ideally, evaluation of candidate characteristics and government policies are short-term forces capable of effecting substantial shifts from one election period to another. On the other hand, ideology and party identification are stable in the short terms. In fact, many American voters have shown the tendency to shift party identifications during elections. While some critical issues in presidential elections change over time, a number of important basic policy issues such as social welfare programs and defense spending remain pertinent and stretch over several election periods and have far reaching ramifications on voting patterns. The issue of race is an important social factor that has traditionally shaped voting patterns in the United States. The Democratic Party has historically been associated with efforts to advance the civil rights cause, especially under the leadership of Lyndon Johnson. Naturally, the Democrats have had a wide following among African Americans and other minority groups in the United States. The presidency of Johnson is credited with successfully sponsoring three civil rights acts in the Congress. The bills granted various rights to the minority groups especially the Blacks which were hitherto prohibited. In 2008, Barrack Obama became the first Black American to win presidency in the history of the United States. Obama received a huge support from the Blacks partly because racial background. Although the number of Blacks who vote is small compared to the numerically larger white population, a large proportion of the Blacks live in regions that are election targets for both Republicans and Democrats such as California and Florida. Historical results show that majority of blacks vote for the Democrats regardless of the party’s success or candidate’s qualities. In contrast, the White voters in Southern states are historically more inclined to vote for the Republican Party because the party is not associated with the civil rights movement. The Hispanic American community has in the past few decades become an influential target group in election campaigns. Members of this community have large families and as naturalized Americans, their political influence seems to increase progressively over time. The voting patterns of this group are difficult to predict due to lack of unique political alliance. To some extent, the political affiliations of the Hispanics Americans can be linked to the United States foreign policies about Latin America as a whole. The United States has historically been opposed to a number of Latin American governments due to their strong opposition to capitalism. These countries include Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba. Occasionally, the United States has found it necessary to sabotage the political systems of these countries militarily and through economic sanctions. For instance, the United States in 1960 supported a coup attempt against Cuba which had just become a communist state3. The failure of the coup was a discredit to the American governments and for that reason, the Republican have since then had the audacity to question the intentions of the Democrats in overthrowing the Cuban government, which still suffers cold relations with the Unite States. However, the coup attempt was good news to the Cuban exiles living in Florida and other parts as they were opposed to the Cuban government. Since the Cuban missile crisis, presidential candidates in the United States have adopted a hostile stance towards the Communist island nation presumably to lure the support of exiled Cubans majority of which live in Florida. In fact, the democrats in 1992 won two-thirds of the Hispanic votes because of their strong opposition against the Cuban government and some left-winged governments in south America while the Republican won a quarter of the Hispanic votes. In the 1996 election, the Democrats increased their hold of the Hispanic votes to three-quarters as the Republicans suffered the wrath of their soft stance towards the left leaning governments of Latin America. Although the Hispanic group has historically shown strong support for the democrats, the Republicans have in the past few elections done a great deal to influence the votes of the Hispanic Americans. Religious affiliation is another factor that has shaped the voting patterns of certain groups over the years. The government’s stand on some social issues such as abortion, contraception and women’s rights has been found to have strong impact on religious part of American voters. For instance, the Catholic Church is strongly opposed to abortion and use of contraceptives, issues that are supported by both the Democrats and the Republicans. However, the influence of the Catholic Church is not all that much significant as to cause shifts in voting patterns. Nevertheless, the church has in general made important contributions which have shaped policy formulation and this has in turn influenced voting systems. The church has for instance championed the ratification of social welfare programs in accordance with the wishes of the American people. The American Jews have traditionally been associated with the Democratic Party. In the 1992 general elections, the Democratic presidential candidate received 80% of the Jewish votes while the Republican candidate received a mere 11% of the Jewish votes. The same pattern has been repeated in the subsequent elections since then. The strong link between the American Jews and the Democrats is almost similar to that of the African Americans. The Democratic Party has been traditionally associated with the civil rights and efforts to improve the living standards of minority groups, of which the Jews are. The same explanation suffices for women voters who are more associated with the Democrats than the Republicans. In 1992, the Democrats got 45% of women votes while the Republicans got 37%. In 1996, the Democrats garnered 54% of the votes while the Republicans polled 38%. In 2000, the case was 54% for the Democrats against 43% for the Republicans. Bartels 4 notes that the Democrats have traditionally made substantial efforts to improve women rights hence the strong support from female voters. The publicity of the Republicans as being too conservative and associations with the rich has been responsible for the party’s failure to gain support from workers unions. For instance, President Reagan was an ardent supporter of anti-unionism. His stance against unions was partly responsible for the Republican Party’s lack of support from the Union members in the general elections of 1992 and 1996, during which the Democrats polled twice as much as the Republicans. In non-unionized households, both the Republican and the Democrats appealed fairly equally to the voters. It is, however, important to note that union membership is not a major aspect of America’ voting culture because the proportion of voters in unions is relatively low5. Historical results have shown that social status is an influential factor in American voting. In particular, wealthier people are likely to vote than poor people. Stonecash, Mark and Mariani have6 explained that household income and class are positively associated with education levels. Wealthier people have means to pursue better educational opportunities, which make them more enlightened on government, economic and political issues. The enlightenment in turn motivates these people’s decisions to vote. The less educated and poor people tend to believe that voting may not have any effect on their personal economic situations. Hence the considerable number of voters who do not participate in election exercises. The influence of the media is another important factor which influences voting behavior in America. Historically, the media has had a sizable impact on people’s knowledge, attitudes and behavior as regards government policies, political parties and politicians. Black and Merle7 have asserted in his article that media outlets especially during election periods can influence voters through their reports. The outlets can influence voter turnout and voting behavior through the particular stories that they cover. A wider cross section of American voters only watch TV channels or listen to radio stations that align with certain political causes. This leaves people to be close minded about other political issues and beliefs. The proportion of voters participating in general elections has declined significantly since the 1960s even though the number of citizens casting votes has been on the increase. This discrepancy can be explained by the act that the number of eligible voters has expanded rapidly while the number of those who actually register and participate in voting has not kept pace. Layman8 has critiqued that the high level of non-voting is evidence to the fact that Americans have become distrustful of government and cynical of politics. The distrust in particular stems from the failure of political parties to register large numbers of new voters. Black and Merle 9 also concurs with this conviction and warns that the dramatic downward trend in the proportion of voters participating in elections is a sure sign that the citizens are fast losing faith in democracy. In fact, churches, fraternal organizations, labor unions and voluntary organizations have also received dramatic reductions in membership over the years. This gives striking evidence that the once authoritative vibrant nature of the civil society has deteriorated. The increasing distrust of the government as consistently shown by opinion polls is a source of concern. The decline is probably due to the inability of the government to articulate and formulate key policies to address people’s concerns. The ability of the government to formulate citizen-friendly policies is a key tool trough which people influence political outcomes such as election results. Layman10 maintains that distrust of government rather than indifference to political parties is the reason why some citizens do not vote. He, therefore, advocates for implementation of national reforms that can motivate more people to vote. In conclusion, the voting patterns exhibited by the people of the United States can be explained from three perspectives: policy voting, candidate evaluation and party identification. American political parties tend to lean heavily to social groups that align in their favor to form basic coalition. The party’s views on such issues as civil rights, women’s rights, policy reforms and national defense is a decisive factor in election results. The voter’s evaluation of the candidate’s qualities is also an important factor that influences voting behavior. Although evaluation of candidate qualities is largely an irrational and superficial issue, it can have impact on certain voter groups. For instance, candidates with liberal or left-centered views will only appeal to certain classes of voters. In general candidates must exhibit a high level of competence, integrity and reliability to court the confidence of American voters. Perhaps, the most decisive aspect of American voting behavior is policy voting. Policy voting occurs when citizens base their voting decisions on issues of their own consideration. Voters tend to vote for the candidates or parties whose policy values match those of the voters. Bibliography Bartels, Larry M.. "The Impact of Candidate Traits in American Presidential Elections." In Leaders' Personalities and the Outcomes of Democratic Elections, ed. Anthony King. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Black, Earl, and Merle Black. The Rise of Southern Republicans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Layman, Geoffrey. The Great Divide: Religion and Cultural Conflict in American Party Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. Stonecash, Jeffrey M., Mark D. Brewer, and Mack D. Mariani.. Diverging Parties. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2003. Read More