A2-AQA GOV4A Politics 10th June 2013

Anyone doing GOVP3A on Tuesday so stuck on this unit!

Yep! Absolutely hate it! What do you need help with? I'll try but I don't know how much help I will be aha! What topics are you doing?


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Hey I am just going to focus on political parties and voting behaviour.

Voting behaviour is okay I suggest just long learning all the statistics.

But political parties is quite hard I don't understand the arguments for and against why parties are de-centralised.
And what do the following terms mean:
50 party system
Blue/Red divide
and New Deal

what about you? What topics will you be doing?

I'm doing those topics too! Yeah statistics are so boring and long to learn.

50 party system means that each state has a different ideologies, different views on things like abortion. For example, we know the republican party are generally against abortion (pro-life) but in each state you'll get a slightly different view, a republican in a southern state is going to be very against it whereas in a more northern state they may be pro-choice.

Blue red divide is basically saying that in the southern states like Texas are generally red (republican) and the northern states are democrat (blue). In the olden days it was the other way round.

I can't remember new deal, I think it was by president Roosevelt and it was to help with the poverty etc.

Decentralised because:
- Separation of powers, they don't have a very strong party bond because they executive and legislative are not in government together.
-federalism, because of the different levels of government and the 50 states there is no centralisation, no organisation!
-there has been an increase in independent candidates which supports the idea that people are moving away from parties
-Very candidate focused for example Phil Gramm said he is too ugly to be president

Aligned because:
-both national committees can withdraw money from a candidate they don't approve of, this shows an increase in involvement of the parties
-no republican voted for Medicare in 2010 which shows stronger party ties and alignment within the party!

I hope this helps if I misunderstood your question about alignment please tell me! I find voting behaviour harder because I haven't finished re-revising it! Sorry this is so long :/


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No that was perfect you explained it much better than my teacher
many thanks

Finally what would you write for an essay that says Has party declined in the USA (30 marks)
and how ideologically similar are the two parties (30 marks)

No that was perfect you explained it much better than my teacher
many thanks

Finally what would you write for an essay that says Has party declined in the USA (30 marks)
and how ideologically similar are the two parties (30 marks)

Hi, I'm doing the unit as well, here's what I'd have as my main points for the first one.

Reasons for Party decline:

- Candidate centred elections which are less focussed on the parties themselves. This has been increased with the election funding which goes to the candidate not the party itself.
- Candidates are now selected through primaries which mean that there's intra-party democracy and a less party unity as it were.
- Partisan de-alignment has led to independent voters becoming a larger percentage of electorate. These voters are more likely to use rational-choice model rather than voting based on the party.
- Important to mention Broder's thesis that "the party's over" and you could also mention Watergate as damaging to the national party's image
- You could also discuss Federalism and the Separation of Powers which results in weak party politics although this hasn't caused a decline as it has always been the case.

Reasons to reject statement:

- Ideological resurgence of the two parties, esp. the GOP. The Tea Party, Reagan, religious right has caused a shift to the right which has inevitably led to ideological strength increasing in the parties. Contract with America and Clinton's impeachment have also contributed to a increase in party strength (partisanship). Also Obamacare, strong Dem support, strong Rep. opposition. (still less Congressional party unity than UK)
- Organisational resurgence in the form of increasing power of National Committees (see 2008 Primary disputes) and increasing number of election strategies being implemented at a national level. (still less than UK)
- Both party's committees can channel funds away from a candidate or fund another competitor in a primary if the incumbent is not adhering to the national party platform. (in UK party chooses candidates, hence parties much more powerful in UK)

I would probably conclude by saying there was a decline however there has been a clear resurgence which has ensured parties are still an important part of the US political landscape.



For the second question, I would say they have become much less so in recent years.

- The Republicans especially have shifted away from the Democrats, the Tea Party etc. with a decline in number of more moderate Republicans (Olympia Snowe etc)
Give examples of policies that show clear partisan separation such as Obamacare, Abortion, Defence spending, Death Penalty, Gun Control (good recent example).
Perhaps mention Clinton's impeachment and Gingrich's Contract with America as catalysts for ideological separation.
- Could also mention fiscal policy differences (Dems want increase spending, gov bailouts whereas the GOP want low taxes etc.) UK comparison perhaps (?)
- Primaries have resulted in greater divisions within than between parties. Senator Lugar was unseated by a Tea Party supported candidate in a Primary in Indiana in 2012.

As a counter I would mention the fact that:

- both parties stand for values of Constitution with both preferring a more limited government (different to UK parties) and that both support the War in Afghanistan.
- Could also point to partisan de-alignment resulting in candidates appealing to the centre ground (Clinton and Blair's third way).

Conclude by saying there are NOW more differences within than between parties and the level of Congressional partisanship is as high as it has been in many years.

Hope this helps.

Also what do these key terms mean I found them on the specification?
New Right
Compassionate Conservatism
Neo Liberalism and Neo Conservatism
Partisanship
Democratic Overload

And how would you answer this question
Evaluate the view that parties in the US are decentralised, non ideological and non discipline (30 marks)

Democratic overload is basically the idea that because there are so many elections people get bored and tired of voting, other name for it is voter fatigue, and it is linked with low turnout!

Compassionate conservatism is linked with Bush and it is more liberal than mainstream republicans, I think another name is Rockefeller republicans or Wall Street

Partisanship is being associated with a certain party and it means you always identify yourself with that party. Also linked with long term voting factors, for example people who identify themselves with a certain party will do this because of a long term factor such as religion or region etc.

I can't remember the others off the top of my head which isn't good aha! I'll get back to you with the essay question soon, I'm so tired so I am making myself get an early night! hope it helps


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Thanks for creating the thread! Just wondering if any of you think federalism will come up this year? It hasn't really been up before, as a direct question on federalism. Second question is, was the Burger court judicially active or restraint? Many thanks

Anyone doing GOVP3A on Tuesday so stuck on this unit!

I'm resitting it I got an A at AS, but a D in Gov 3A. I did elections and VB in Jan, but sort of misread the question on elections, and didn't know what differential abstention was, and got a 0 on that (that was the 10 mark question for VB). I'm doing elections and parties this time. Which ones are you going to do?


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Hey I am doing VB and parties.

If you don't mind me asking what was the 10 mark question for political parties and 30 mark essay for political parties and 30 mark for voting behaviour in January 2013?

I have revised political parties but really hope that party renewal/decline does not come up and I have finished voting behaviour and hope a 30 mark comes on split ticket voting

I'm not entirely sure on the political parties, but I think the 10 marker was about third parties/independents, and I think the essay was about the different ideologies between the parties, but I think they wanted you to include the factions as well. For voting behaviour the 10 marker was explain differential abstention, and the 30 marker was about the 'core vote' of each party. I didn't know what differential abstention was, and I got a 0 on it (I only had about two minutes left anyway). Did you do this exam in January?

Nope first time I got a B in AS
gonna do unit 3 then unit 4 politics on the 10th.

Do you have any ideas what the 10 mark/30mark questions they may ask us on Tuesday?

I really hope third parties/two party system comes for political parties essay
and for VB I hope split ticket voting comes

What grade you looking to get?

I'm not really good at guessing, but for parties I think they'll ask something on decline and renewal, as the last few have been on third parties and ideologies. For the 10 mark question I think they may ask us something on a particular group, such as the Religous Right, or TEA Party etc.

Hopefully I can get an A. I got 177 at AS, and you need 320 for an A, which means I'd need 143 out of the next two modules. I just need to hope that I do slightly better on Gov 3A this time, I only got 56 in January

What are you looking to get? And which topics are you doing on GOV 4A?

Hopefully an A but I need 83 UMS for both

Hey what is the TEA party again? My teacher always talks about it but never know what it means?

And for govp4a I will be doing constitution and judiciary

I'm doing those to for Gov 4 aswell. The Tea Party is a hard line right wing group. It unofficially stands for "Taxed Enough Already" although the real name comes from the Boston Tea Party which was a protest against high British Tax. They basically endorse candidates and put pressure on Congressman to support their measures. They also run candidates in elections. If this comes up, you'll probably need some evidence, so you could say that their success isn't all that great. They had some success in the 2010 mid-terms (Rand Paul and Marco Rubio were elected to the Senate in Kentucky and Florida respectively, and Nikki Haley won the S. Carolina governorship). They did have some embarrassing defeats though. Christine O Donnell who was Tea Party sponsored ran for the Senate for Delaware, but she ran an awful campaign and was defeated badly. She even ran one TV ad denying that she was a witch (type in on YouTube, you'll be able to find it pretty easily) because there had been allegations she participated in with craft. Overall for the Tea Party in 2010 only around 32% of Tea Party candidates won, and 82 lost. Sarah Palin is also a member of the Tea Party, and it's funded mainly by the billionaire Koch Brothers (if you've seen The Campaign with Will Ferrell, the rich brothers in that are meant to be the Koch Brothers). That's pretty much the basics, but you'll be able to find a lot more on google. In hindsight I don't think they could actually ask a 10 mark question just on the Tea Party, but they might do influences on a party, which could include religious groups/Tea Party etc


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