Obama's Social Networking

http://www.barackobama.com/learn/about_ofa.php
http://www.myspace.com/barackobama
http://www.youtube.com/barackobama
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom
http://twitter.com/barackobama
http://eventful.com/performers/barack-obama-/P0-001-000000162-8
http://www.blackplanet.com/barack_Obama/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/barackobama

Compare and Contrast Task

Look through the social netwoking system created by Barack Obama. What for, from your point of view, were these social sites launched?
Barack Obama’s Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/barackobama
Barack Obama’s blog
my.barackobama.com/page/community/group/ObamaHQ
Barack Obama’s site

Presidential Elections and IT

These are some sites on IT in Politics, they will help you to search the web
http://www.america.gov/publications/ejournalusa/1008.html
http://blogs.america.gov/obama/
http://techpresident.com/ FORUM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-elections-2008
http://techpresident.com/youtube-stats-header

Search Task. The Evolution of Presidential Campaign on TV and the Internet

The mass media have been termed "the fourth branch of government." Not only must a candidate for election to a major office pass a threshhold of media approval to be deemed a serious contender, but it has been said that the media's favorite often wins. A lot of democratic ideals are helped by what the media do.
Explore the Evolution of Presidential Campaign from 1939 up to now on TV. http://www.pbs.org/30secondcandidate/program/
Make up the webliography on the Evolution of Presidential Campaign on TV.
Make up the webliography on the Evolution of Presidential Campaign on the Internet.

Very interesting comments from everybody. But how did it happen that Ilya and Dasha picked up the same organization? Be ready to present your research results next Wed.

Interest Groups as Service Providers. Search Task

Three of the largest and most significant interest groups in the United States are the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the Sierra Club. While they engage in significant political activities, all three of these organizations do other things as well. Go to the web sites of these groups (http://www.aarp.org/, http://www.nra.org/, http://www.sierraclub.org/). For each group, identify three activities that the group engages in or sponsors that you would characterize as "non-political." Make a list of the activities that you have identified. How might these non-political activities actually help to serve the political interests of the organization and its members?

The Political Nature of the Masses

Before taking the test read 5 chapter on political participation and 6 chapter on political parties from “The Challenge of Democracy”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. 4: Political behavior that uses channels such as meeting with public officials, supporting candidates, and voting in elections is called...
a. Conventional Participation
b. Direct Action
c. Political Participation
d. Unconventional Participation

2. 4: A procedure by which voters can propose a measure to be decided by legislature or by the people is a(n)
a. referendum
b. initiative
c. recall
d. direct action

3. 4: Which of the following did not have the backing of the Progressives?
a. direct primary
b. referendum
c. traditional political parties
d. recall

4. 4: Of all the social and economic variables, what is the strongest single factor in explaining most types of conventional political participation?
a. Religion
b. Education
c. Gender
d. Social Class

5. 4: What is the single strongest predictor of conventional political participation in the U.S.?
a. race
b. class
c. gender
d. education

6. 4: In the United States, which of the following is the best predictor of voter turnout?
a. Age
b. Gender
c. Socioeconomic Status
d. Race


7. 4: In a study of five countries, Americans were more apt to engage in what form(s) of political participation?
a. voting
b. all forms of unconventional participation except protesting
c. all forms of conventional participation except voting
d. all forms of conventional participation

8. 4: Which of the following is an example of low-initiative political participation in the United States?
a. registering to vote
b. writing letters to Congress
c. voting
d. going to court

9. 5: All the following are examples of primary elections held by states except...
a. closed primaries
b. blanket primaries
c. split primaries
d. open primaries

10. 5: Which of the four choices is not a strategy used in election campaigns?
a. party-centered strategy
b. media-oriented strategy
c. issue-oriented strategy
d. image-oriented strategy

11. 5: the Federal Election Commission enforces which of the following:
a. Limits on financial contributions.
b. Who can run for office.
c. Legislation on referendums.
d. The number of parties allowed to run in a campaign.

12. 5: Lobbying activities performed by rank-and-file interest group members and would-be members is
a. direct lobbying
b. grassroots lobbying
c. high-tech lobbying
d. indirect lobbying

13. 5: Which of the following is NOT a function parties perform for the political system?
a. Nominating candidates for election to public office
b. Coordinating the actions of government officials
c. Structuring voting choice in elections
d. Fundraising for political campaigns

14. 5: The change in voting patterns that persists through several subsequent elections is known as:
a. a critical election
b. an electoral realignment
c. the result of a successful national convention
d. the result of a two-party electoral system

15. 5: The election of 1860 is considered "critical" because:
a. voters from the north and south began to realign their political views, tightening the once substantial geo-political gap in the electorate
b. it was marked by a significant shift in the patterns of party loyalty amongst voters
c. there was a split in the Republican party, which nominated two presidential candidates (Abraham Lincoln and John Breckenridge)
d. the election of 1860 is not considered a critical election; the following election, in 1864, was critical

16. 5: According to CoD, one major factor contributing to the decentralization of American parties is:
a. The public's lack of interest in politics
b. The lack of funding that parties are allowed to receive
c. Their reliance on primary elections to nominate candidates
d. The lack of cohesive ideas within the party

17. 5: According to the text, which one of these is not one of the four most important functions of a political party?
a. Nominating candidates for office
b. Helping nominees campaign for office
c. Coordinating the actions of government officials
d. Proposing alternative government programs

Democratic Theory Test

1. Arguments to support the idea that the U.S. does not have an elitist government include all of the following except:
The U.S. has many different minorities, not just one.
The U.S. has a government where minorities rule.
The U.S. government is decentralized.
In the U.S., all groups have equal influence on government decisions.

2. This 1787 plan for the new Constitution of the United States, which would replace the failed Articles of Confederation, was directly opposed to the Virginia Plan:
Connecticut Compromise
New Jersey Plan
Delaware Conclusion
Great Compromise

3. Which of the following does not distinguish pluralism from majoritarianism?
Pluralism does not demand much knowledge from citizens in general.
Pluralism seeks to limit majority action.
Pluralism suggests that a small group make all decisions.
Pluralism relies on a decentralized government structure.

4. The difference between a pluralist democracy and elite theory is:
elite theory is based on the idea of interest groups
Pluralist theory is based on the idea that a small group of people makes most of the important government decisions
elite theory describes a government that operates in an undemocratic fashion
pluralist theory defines government conflict in terms of a minority versus the majority

5. The Procedural View of Democracy includes all of the following except:
Majority Rule
Universal Participation
Government responsiveness to public opinion
Decentralization of Power

6. Which of the following is not part of the democratic theory of democracy?
All citizens participate
Each citizen has one vote
Each citizen is represented by a group
The total group's opinion is represented

7. During the founding days of the United States, government was marked by a loose confederation of states. The failure of this system, which brought about the development of our federalist system, was related to the fact that
no outline was given as to how many votes were needed to approve of important issues like war and taxation
the national government consistently overstepped its boundaries in regards to power and the states
there was a lack of emphatic support for a government that lacked a strong, centralized national government
no power was given to the national government to tax which made the national government dependent on the states

8. Which is not one of the four political principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States?
Socialism
Republicanism
Federalism
Separation of powers

9. What was the turning point in american cold-war foreign policy
the spanish-american war
the korean war
the cuba missile crisis
the vietnam conflict

10. What are the principles of procedural democracy
universal participation and political equality
majority rule.
social equality
A and B

11. Richard Nixon resigned before what branch of government was going to vote for impeachment?
The House of Representatives
The Senate
The Department of Justice
The Supreme Court

12: Which of the following is NOT a principle of the procedural democratic theory?
universal participation
majority rule
minority rights
political equality

13: Which of the following does not support the pluralist model of government?
filibuster
judicial review
referendum
interest groups

14: The type of democracy most compatible with minority rule is
pluralist
procedural
constitutional
direct

15: Which of the following is not a principle of procedural democracy?
Universal Participation
Political Equality
Minority Rule
Government Responsiveness to Public Opinion

Political Participation and Interest Groups. Simulation Task

You are the head of a large, national environmental group with a long history of activism in favor of environmental causes. Now, you are eager to prove that your group can be influential and capable of producing policy. Your membership is spread across the country. Currently, there is a Republican in the White House, and the Democrats have a slim majority in both the House and Senate. The next presidential election is three years away. Your organization is in favor of environmental policy that would impose tighter pollution restrictions against polluting the nation’s rivers, lakes, and oceans. There is a general agreement for this policy within Congress, yet the president has announced his opposition to the policy. You must develop a strategy for your group in hopes of getting something passed into law. Do you choose to:
1. Advocate a sweeping environmental bill that would impose stiff penalties on polluters and that finds support among most of your group's members.
2. Push for a more modest bill that allows for some pollution to continue while further cleaning up the nation’s water. This bill might be attractive to the president.

Problem Task. Dual and Cooperative Federalism

Statistical Abstract of the US, State Rankings The U.S. Census Bureau maintains one of the largest collections of data about social and economic conditions in the United States as a whole, and all of the nation's 50 states. Each year the Bureau publishes a summary of this information in the Statistical Abstract of the United States. You can link to an electronic version of this publication at the Bureau's web site, http://www.census.gov/. Go the U.S. Census Bureau's web site and locate the Statistical Abstract. From there, identify the collection of what the Bureau calls "State Rankings," and study in particular the following three measures: (1) Infant mortality rate, (2) Violent crime rate, and (3) Persons below the poverty level. How might a conservative use this information to argue for a system of "dual federalism"? How might a liberal use this information to argue for a system of "cooperative federalism"?

Home Task

The Challenge of Democracy - chapters 1,5
M. Parenti's - chapter 3, 11

Problem Task on Majoritarian vs Pluralist Democracy

League of Women Voters "Charting the Health of American Democracy" The League of Women Voters, founded in 1920 as an outgrowth of the suffragist movement, is one of the nation's premier political education and advocacy groups. The League is non-partisan and neither supports nor opposes candidates for office at any level of government. Recently, the League's concern with the state of democracy in the United States led it to publish a report entitled Charting the Health of American Democracy. Go to the League's home page, located at http://www.lwv.org/, and find the online version of this report. Read the sections entitled "Introduction-The Diagnosis" and "Summary." Does the League appear to be focusing its attention and efforts on concerns about the state of majoritarian or pluralist democracy in the U.S.?

Problem Task

Is the nation awash in libertarians? The Libertarian Party is one of the most established and active minor political parties in the United States. In the 2000 elections, for example, it appeared on ballots in all 50 states and ran nearly 2,000 candidates for public office at various levels, including president. Go to the Libertarian Party's web site located at http://www.lp.org/. From this page follow the link to a feature called the World's Smallest Political Quiz. Once you get to the quiz, you can leave the default settings in place-you do not have to fill it out, unless you're interested-and hit the "submit" button. Pay close attention to the overall results of the quiz that the Libertarian Party reports. Notice that the overall number of libertarian identifiers is almost 40%, a figure that is nearly double the number reported in the Challenge of Democracy (see figure 5.5). What do you think is the best possible explanation for this large discrepancy? Would you be more likely to trust the numbers reported by the Libertarian Party or the textbook as being representative of the nation as a whole? Why?