TOPIC #35 — SUFFRAGE, VOTING TURNOUT, AND POLITICAL PARTIES

Suffrage under the early Constitution (review)

          “Jacksonian Revolution”

15^th Amendment (1870 — no abridgment of the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”)

          Southern “Jim Crow” system

          voter registration systems

          19^th Amendment (1920 — no abridgment “on account of sex”)

24^th Amendment (1964 — no abridgment “by reason of failure to pay any poll or other tax”)

          Voting Rights Act (1965)

          26^th Amendment (1971 — no abridgment “on account of age [18 or older])”

                                “actual vote” recorded Presidential vote

Voting turnout = =

                              “potential vote” voting age population

          VAP vs. eligible voters vs. registered voters (“Motor Voter” Law)

popular vs. political science evaluations of political parties

elite vs. mass view of political parties:

          lessons of Presidential selection:

          nominating function

party competition: Joseph Schumpeter's revised definition of democracy

          market model of democracy (Anthony Downs)

          jury model of democracy

          party competition as a check on “special interests” and unrepresentative activists

two vs. multi-party systems: electoral systems

          majoritarian (SMD-plurality and Pres. election) => two-party convergence

                     factional/splinter ("flash") third parties

          proportional (MMD-PR and parliamentary system) => multi-party divergence

weakness of American political parties

          decentralized constitutional structure

          absence of party discipline

          absence of “mass parties”

          liberal political culture / social pluralism / "catch-all" parties

          the direct primary