School Stuff

AP Gov 1

11/14/18 Essay Questions

Chapter 8 #1

There are many attributes about a person that can factor into which party that person identifies with. Some of these attributes are race, religion, age, gender, and education level. Typically, a male who is older, Christian, and white with a higher education will identify with the Republican Party. Thus, younger women of color with less education and who are Jewish, Muslim, etc. would be more likely to identify with the Democratic Party. In saying this, it's important to establish that these are extremes, and not everyone who identifies with just one of these characteristics will identify with that respective party. However, when a person shows multiple of the traits for a certain party, it's safe to assume that they will identify with that party. Originally, most Americans identified with either the Republican or Democratic Parties, but it is evident that people have chosen to identify as Independent more often over the years. One possible reason for this is the rising extremism of both parties. It is evident that the Democratic Party has become much more Liberal, while the Republican Party has become much more Conservative. With these changing levels of extremism among both parties, many people with more centrist values will choose to identify as Independent rather than either Democratic or Republican.

Chapter 9 #4

Of the many obstacles that make it difficult for Congress to enact a significant campaign finance reform, two of these are Soft Money and Incumbency. Soft Money, which can be described as a contribution to a political party (not a specific candidate) in order to avoid legal limitations, is one major obstacle in this process. The reason for this is that most of the time candidates need to have plenty of money for their campaign if they want to win, and in donating to the party that voted for them in the first place, one can almost be certain that the party will give most if not all of those funds to the respective candidate(s). Another obstacle would be Incumbency. This is the position held in office or the time one spends in office. As previously mentioned, many times the candidate with the most funds toward their campaign is the most likely to win the election. It is for this reason that many of the people in congress would not favor a limitation on the amount of money one is permitted to spend on their campaign. Why would they want to put limitations on something that allowed them to get to their position in the first place.

Chapter 10 #5

Low voter turnout isn't a new concept for anyone to grasp, as the number of potential voters is steadily declining as the years go on. There are many differences we see in potential voters vs non-voters in national elections, and while some are obvious, many aren't so clear. Two factors that people often use to determine whether one will vote are age and socioeconomic status. Many potential voters are typically older and well-educated, while non-voters are younger and less educated. A reason for this is that many young people feel that their opinions are not being heard by candidates in a national election, so they don't vote. This fact has created an almost paradoxical loop in that low youth turnout in elections results in candidates not appealing to their needs because the candidate assumes they won't vote anyway, while the youth don't vote because their needs are not met. In saying this, older people have been voting since the beginning so it seems as though their needs are typically always met, thus the reason they vote is the candidates loyalty to them and the fact that most of the candidates are the same age and have the same values.