Progressive Era, The: Government and Progressive Reform
Reformers seeking ways to get around city bosses, state legislators, and political parties try a variety of tactics. Some western states adopt an initiative process that empowers voters to write their own laws and put them to a vote of the people in...
Party Politics: Politician-Centered Politics
Despite partisan support, political parties are relatively weak in the United States. They still recruit candidates, raise money, and develop policy positions, but they do not control these activities as they once did. Candidates can bypass their pa...
Party Politics: U.S. and Parliamentary System Elections
Third parties in the United States have been unsuccessful largely because of the single-member-plurality system. Whoever comes in first wins the office. In parliamentary systems, the percentage of votes each party gets equates to the percentage of s...
Power Imperative, The: Running the Show
Bureaucrats are often stereotyped as unaccountable because they are not easy to reach. Accountability, however, is much more subtle. It means being responsible to a number of constituencies beginning with the President and heads of the executive dep...
Party Politics: Consistent Partisanship
In addition to researchers, party officials track the voting behavior of groups election to election, year after year. Changes in the party affiliation and vote of Asian Americans between 1992 and 2000, as well as trends among blacks, Hispanics wome...
Living Constitution, The: Limitations on the Power of the People
The very basis of government as it is established in the United States suggests that people have the power to govern themselves. The Framers agreed that the majority should rule but that all voices should have a chance to be heard. In order to prote...
American Heritage: Conflict and Political Discourse
Politics is more than the pursuit of shared ideals. It is the way that a society makes its governing decisions. Two major sources of disagreement dominate the political stage: conflict over distribution of scarce resources and differences in values....
Voices of the People: Media-based Politics Replaces the Personal Touch
In the mid-1900s, political parties kept their members active and involved in local pursuits much like unions. As the 20th century progressed it became more economical to engage in national, media-based advertising campaigns. Politics today is more ...
Candidates and Campaigns: Costs of Campaigning, The
Campaigning is expensive, and the costs keep rising. Only people who have their own money or can put together an alliance of interests can finance a campaign. The constant need to raise campaign funds corrodes the process, says Tom Patterson. "You c...
Voices of the People: Ballot Initiative, The
The use of the ballot initiative to enact laws was revived in 1978 by Proposition 13 in California, the successful property tax cap and rollback. Despite the control the initiative process appears to give citizens, people can only vote on one dimens...