LINKAGE INSTITUTIONS
LINKAGE INSTITUTIONS
Parties, elections, media, interest groups
In the creation of the United States Constitution, representatives from twelve states went to Philadelphia in order to revise the Article of Confederation. These 55 delegates were considered elites, and their time at the convention mostly consisted of holding debates and philosophical discussions surrounding the role of the government and its relation to the general public. After the Constitutional Conventions, states had to choose whether or not to ratify it. There were two main political parties: the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. The Federalists supported the Constitution while the Anti-Federalists did not. Both sides categorized their concerns under their respective parties, and these parties are meant to connect the public and create further political engagement.
However, there have been multiple warnings about the creation of political parties or “factions”. Most notably, George Washington himself warned against the creation of formal parties within the nation. Currently, the two main parties that exist are the Democratic and Republican parties. These parties have solidified their presence in the political world and there are arguments to be made for and against their existence.
Since presidents rarely ever directly interact with the public, the press is crucial for connecting presidential activities to the American people. The importance of the press has existed for as long as the president has, with even George Washington making complaints about his portrayal within the press. The White House takes great care in making sure that the president has a good relationship with the press, and around one third of top White House staff members are involved in media relations. Most directly, the president’s press secretary deals with the press most frequently through briefings, announcements, and questions.
The most widely known interaction between the press and the president is the formal presidential press conference. Over time, however, presidents have begun to travel across the country for visibility on press rather than attend televised press events.
While the role of the press is to clearly display news to the public, news bias is still extremely prevalent. While some mainstream news is not explicitly misinformation, many news channels tend to create misleading headlines that include oversimplified or overblown information.
Interests groups can submit amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) briefs in an attempt to impact the thoughts and decisions of the Court. These briefs are more frequent during more controversial cases; for example, 136 briefs were presented during the health care reform case in 2012.
Civil rights are policies that are implemented in order to protect groups from discriminatory treatment. The Fourteenth Amendment states that all citizens of the United States have “equal protection of the laws”, providing the idea of equality for all Americans. One of the most notable cases of civil rights activism is the fight for equal treatment for African Americans. Protestors utilized various different forms of protest such as sit-ins, marches, and civil disobedience to seek change within American policies. These acts made the goals of civil rights clear to policymakers, and the issue of civil rights solidified a spot on the nation’s policy agenda. Without the combined efforts of protestors and speakers, change in America’s policy would have been much more difficult.
Political socialization is defined as how a person acquires their own political orientations. This can most often be seen through how a person interacts with their loved ones, their schools, and the media. Formal political learning can include how a student learns about government in school, such as how it operates, what presidents do, and the number of senators per state.
However, informal political learning is much more prevalent. This can occur through daily conversations with friends or family members surrounding political beliefs and opinions on specific policy issues. In the discussion surrounding political socialization, there are three main agents.
Family
Family plays a large role in political socialization, as it has a monopoly over a person’s early years. Many people are affected by the voting preferences of their parents, whether they realize it or not. Recently, research has even displayed that genetics can play a role in shaping a person’s political beliefs.
Mass Media
To some, the mass media can be considered the “new parent”; however, studies have shown that a growing number of young adults do not pay attention to news on the television or newspapers.
School
Governments often use school to promote loyalty toward their own country, and America is no different. The Pledge of Allegiance is still heard in most American schools, and students are taught at a young age about free enterprise and democracy. Public schools specifically are funded by the government and their textbooks are usually chosen by local and state boards. How a person is educated can have a dramatic effect on their political alignment and how politically engaged they are as a whole.
Public opinion is usually measured through polling. Polling is usually conducted through a sample of a larger population. For public opinion polling, a random sample of around 1,000-1,500 can be considered to accurately represent potential voters. Accuracy of these polls depends on random sampling, in which everyone should have an equal chance of being selected to be within the sample. Many linkage institutions look toward polls to determine what their priorities are, but there are arguments against polls as well. Some argue that polling discourages and weakens democracy, yet it still remains a core component of American politics for many linkage institutions.
With the founding of America, there has always been caution surrounding the issue of political parties. Whether or not they are beneficial or not, they have become a major part of American politics and how the government and the people interact. The economist Anthony Downs defines a political party as a “team of … [people] seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election.”
There are three heads to consider when thinking about political parties:
The Party in the Electorate
This is the largest component of an American political party, and Americans can claim to be part of any party without official registration.
The Party as an Organization
The party as an organization has a national office, staff, rules, bylaws, and budgets. This organization can extend to state and local headquarters alongside its national office. The staff of these organizations keep the party running and set its rules.
The Party in Government
This category consists of elected officials that call themselves members of their respective parties.
The role of the party is to ensure that the preferences of the public are heard. This can be done in a variety of different ways:
Picking Candidates
Above the local level, almost nobody gets elected to a public office without the official endorsement of a political party, more commonly known as a nomination.
Run Campaigns
Parties are in charge of coordinating campaigns and promoting their issues to the public.
Articulate Policies
Political parties emphasize their own views on different policies.
Coordinate Policymaking
Presidents look to parties for support of policy goals, and parties are extremely important in the process of coordinating policy.
Apart from Democrats and Republican parties, third parties also exist within American politics. While these parties rarely ever win office, some believe that they are still politically important. While they sometimes become areas of interest, America is already firmly set within a two party system.
527 groups are independent political groups that are not subject to political spending restrictions. After the Supreme Court Case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), the Court ruled that corporations could spend as much money as they wanted to promote political ideas. Super PACs are also a major part of a candidate’s campaign for presidency. Super PACs can accept donations of any size and then use them to endorse candidates; large donations from the public can have a significant impact on a presidential campaign.
In other cases, electioneering can also be taken into consideration. David Bossie was the president of Citizens United when it produced Hillary: The Movie. The movie was meant to persuade viewers that Hillary Clinton was unfit for the presidency, and the Federal Election Commission ruled that the movie was unlawful under the idea of electioneering. Citizens United later sued the FEC, and the ruling in favor of Citizens United allowed for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to promote political ideas.
American politics has increasingly been impacted by growing technological influences. This technology includes the mass media such as television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet.
In some instances, seemingly chance encounters and moments of the president are staged for publicity. These events are called media events, and they are used to draw more attention to a candidate.
Some reporters use investigative journalism as a way to try and unearth scandals of the president and other political figures. This serves as an indicator of an increasingly hostile relationship between the press and the government, with many believing that this relationship contributes to public cynicism and negativity surrounding politics.
The news has a significant impact on public opinion, and the ways in which the news portrays certain events can make viewers lean toward different perspectives. How the media chooses to cover subjects can drastically affect public perception and beliefs of the American government as a whole.
