Voter and Voter Turnout - Paper Answers

Prepare: Prior to completing this discussion question, review Chapters 10, 11, and 12 in American Government, and review the Week 5 Instructor Guidance. Also, read the following articles:

The Problem of Voter Fraud

Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes

Download Voter Identification Laws and the Suppression of Minority Votes

, and

Proof at the Polls (Links to an external site.)

Reflect: The United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among modern democratic political systems. During the last decade, many initiatives have been undertaken to increase voter participation, yet concerns about the possibility of election fraud have also increased. Additionally, some political interests feel threatened by the increase in turnout among some traditionally low-turnout ethnic minorities. Several states have recently passed legislation imposing new registration and identification requirements. This has sparked debate about whether these are tactics intended to suppress turnout or to prevent fraud. Think about the media’s role in the election process and how both mass media and social media can impact the election process. How has the media’s role changed in recent years, especially considering President Trump’s stance on “fake news”?

Write: In your initial post,

· Describe voter ID laws in a state of your choosing. Summarize any recent developments or controversies regarding voter ID laws in the state you have chosen.

· Analyze and describe the pros and cons on both sides of the debate about these laws.

· Is voter fraud a major problem for our democracy, or are some groups trying to make it harder for some segments of society to vote?

· Analyze the impact that media (mass and social) has had in influencing public opinion, specifically regarding voter ID laws.

· How was the Trump/Clinton election in 2016 impacted by voter laws and the media?

This web page provides an overview of some of the differences in Voter ID laws in the different states:

Voting Laws & Requirements: Voting Methods and Options (Links to an external site.)

Your initial post must be at least 300 words. If you are citing statistics our outside resources, please list the website or the reference entry.

10 Elections and Public Opinion

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Thinkstock

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to

• Describe the purpose and functions of elections in the United States.
• Analyze the relationship among elections, participation, and the democratic process.
• Distinguish between types of elections and analyze the circumstances surrounding realigning

elections.
• Analyze the role of public opinion in elections.

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Section

10.1 Purpose of Elections

In the 1994 midterm election, the Democrats lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives
to the Republicans for the first time in 40 years. Republicans picked up 54 seats in the House;
they also took control of the U.S. Senate as well as many state governorships. Pundits viewed
this as a defeat for President Bill Clinton and were quick to say that the election represented
a rejection of his efforts to bring about health care reform. Others claimed it was due to the
inability of the Democrat-controlled Congress to accomplish anything substantive, including
health care reform. Still others interpreted the change as a sign that the people had changed
their party loyalties. Not only were people voting for Republican candidates, but they were
increasingly identifying as Republicans. The 1994 election was indeed significant. Republi-
cans would control the House of Representatives until the 2006 midterm election, and they
would control the Senate until 2001.

In this chapter, we explore this and other elections in the context of their time and what they
tell us about the contemporary American population. We also examine the role that elections
generally play in the American political process. Elections are more than a matter of choosing
individuals to govern. Elections tell us about what the people think is important, and they say
something about the political values of a nation. Through elections, the people participate in
the democratic process and hold public officials in constitutional government accountable.
But the shifting winds of public opinion can also lead to unpredictable results.

10.1 Purpose of Elections

The United States uses elections to choose its leaders. Voting is the most basic form of political
participation and is assumed to be a basic right in a democracy. However, elections are impor-
tant for other reasons as well. In the United States, elections serve three basic functions:

1. They provide an essen-
tial basis for democratic
expression.

2. They provide for a peaceful
transfer of power.

3. They allow citizens, as a
political community, to
offer their tacit acceptance
of the American constitu-
tional tradition. By vot-
ing, citizens reaffirm their
commitment to the social
contract that the Constitu-
tion represents.

Democratic Expression

People express themselves in a democracy by casting ballots either in person or by mail. Cast-
ing a vote allows them to express their preferences, which is an extension of human agency.
When people vote for candidates who currently hold office, they affirm their support for the

Stock Connection/SuperStock

Through elections, American voters offer their tacit
acceptance of the constitutional tradition. Elections
also provide for the peaceful transfer of power and are
the basis of democratic expression.

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Section 10.1 Purpose of Elections

current government, and when they vote against those who currently hold office, they regis-
ter their opposition to that same government.

Citizens achieve the greatest state of democratic expression when they can control the cir-
cumstances affecting their lives. In the political world, people control their circumstances by
electing the government that will make decisions on their behalf. Elections are the vehicles by
which the people achieve their political voice.

Peaceful Transfer of Power

Americans may take a peaceful transfer of power for granted, but this is actually one of the
unique features of the American legacy. When the Framers of the Constitution constructed
the American political system, they wanted to ensure peaceful transfers of power. A peaceful
transfer of power—that is, using the ballot box rather than the barrel of a gun—represented
a serious break from past experience. The election of 1800 illustrates this point. John Adams,
George Washington’s vice president, who also was a Federalist, was elected president in 1796
after Washington opted not to seek a third term. Thomas Jefferson, the lead author of the U.S.
Declaration of Independence who strongly opposed the centralized federal structure, lost to
Adams in 1796. Jefferson became Adams’s vice president because the original Constitution
(since changed with the 12th Amendment in 1804) extended the vice presidency to the per-
son who received the second-highest number of electoral votes in the presidential election.
Adams ran for reelection in 1800, and Jefferson ran for president a second time. This time,
Jefferson won. The peaceful, though not apolitical, transfer of power that resulted from this
election, from the nation’s first two presidents, both Federalists, to Jefferson, a Democratic-
Republican, reflected the Framers’ aspirations.

Among the precedents that George Washington set as the first president was his personal
choice not to seek more than two terms in office. Until the 22nd Amendment was ratified in
1951, the Constitution did not expressly prohibit presidents from serving two terms even
though only one president (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) served more than two terms before
the 22nd Amendment was ratified. Washington’s action paved the way for the election of his
replacement and the tradition of peaceful transfer of power in the United States. Because
Americans can trust that power will be peacefully transferred, they do not have to resort to
violence to change the government.

Tacit Acceptance of American Constitutional Tradition

The U.S. Constitution is in many respects a social contract between the government and the
people, but it was entered into by a generation of people from whom current Americans are
far removed. Thomas Jefferson thought it would be a good idea if every generation held a con-
stitutional convention so that each could choose the governing arrangements that would best
meet its needs. But because Americans choose their government through periodic elections,
they do not really need to convene new constitutional conventions. Elections enable them to
offer their tacit consent, or implied agreement, to the basic social contract of the Constitu-
tion. By freely participating in the political process through elections, Americans agree to the
political arrangements that govern them. Elections, then, in a very broad sense fulfill a public
support function.

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Section

10.2 Public Participation

Although a majority of the country may be eligible to vote, not everyone does. On one level,
because elections are critical to democracy, many regard voting as a civic obligation, similar to
jury duty. But on another level, freedom to participate in the democratic process also means
the freedom not to participate.

The United States does not mandate participation in elections. It also has one of the lowest
rates of voter participation compared with other representative democracies. If a group of
people chooses not to vote and the government then pursues policies that this group does not
like, do these people have a reasonable basis to complain?

Are politicians obligated to represent all the people, or only those who vote? In theory, all citizens
have a legitimate claim to be represented by elected officials. In reality, however, politicians tend
to represent only those who vote. Of course, the larger question is what it means to talk about
the importance of voting if people fail to exercise this basic right. Another issue is that—given
the long-fought battle for civil rights, of which voting was most prominent—if large segments
of the population opt not to vote, what was the point of fighting for the right in the first place?

Who Votes?

American citizens age 18 or older are eligible to vote, but the “typical voter” usually falls into
a particular set of demographic categories. For example, various studies have shown that a
person’s position in society based on economic class or education, or socioeconomic status,
is a key determinant of who votes. Those with a higher socioeconomic status are more likely
to vote than those with a lower socioeconomic status are.

Older people are more likely to vote than younger people are, women are slightly more likely
to vote than men are, and Whites are more likely to vote than members of racial or ethnic
minority groups are. Further, those with a strong political ideology, often assumed from their
families, religious groups, or other social influences, are more likely to vote than those with-
out a strong ideology, religious commitment, or social connection are.

Reasons for Nonvoting

The electorate consists of those who are eligible to vote, whether they vote or not. Voter turn-
out during presidential elections usually falls between 50% and 60% and is even lower dur-
ing midterm congressional elections (see Figure 10.1). This means that at least 40% of the
electorate chooses not to participate. Why is this the case?

Figure 10.1: Voting rates in congressional and presidential
elections: 1978–2014

In the years since 1980, American voter turnout has generally decreased.

From “Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978–2014,” by T. File, 2015 (http://www.census.gov/content
/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577 ). Copyright 2015 by U.S. Census Bureau. Reprinted with permission.

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http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577

Section 10.2 Public Participation

Of course, the public support function rests on the same assumptions of trust that the peace-
ful transfer of power does. Only because the people trust that the government in power will
respect their wishes can elections represent this tacit acceptance. After all, if citizens partici-
pate in the political process by voting, rather than seeking to overthrow it through rioting and
rebellion, it must follow that they are basically happy and accept the legitimacy of the system.
But if it can no longer govern effectively, the government loses its legitimacy.
10.2 Public Participation
Although a majority of the country may be eligible to vote, not everyone does. On one level,
because elections are critical to democracy, many regard voting as a civic obligation, similar to
jury duty. But on another level, freedom to participate in the democratic process also means
the freedom not to participate.
The United States does not mandate participation in elections. It also has one of the lowest
rates of voter participation compared with other representative democracies. If a group of
people chooses not to vote and the government then pursues policies that this group does not
like, do these people have a reasonable basis to complain?
Are politicians obligated to represent all the people, or only those who vote? In theory, all citizens
have a legitimate claim to be represented by elected officials. In reality, however, politicians tend
to represent only those who vote. Of course, the larger question is what it means to talk about
the importance of voting if people fail to exercise this basic right. Another issue is that—given
the long-fought battle for civil rights, of which voting was most prominent—if large segments
of the population opt not to vote, what was the point of fighting for the right in the first place?
Who Votes?
American citizens age 18 or older are eligible to vote, but the “typical voter” usually falls into
a particular set of demographic categories. For example, various studies have shown that a
person’s position in society based on economic class or education, or socioeconomic status,
is a key determinant of who votes. Those with a higher socioeconomic status are more likely
to vote than those with a lower socioeconomic status are.
Older people are more likely to vote than younger people are, women are slightly more likely
to vote than men are, and Whites are more likely to vote than members of racial or ethnic
minority groups are. Further, those with a strong political ideology, often assumed from their
families, religious groups, or other social influences, are more likely to vote than those with-
out a strong ideology, religious commitment, or social connection are.
Reasons for Nonvoting
The electorate consists of those who are eligible to vote, whether they vote or not. Voter turn-
out during presidential elections usually falls between 50% and 60% and is even lower dur-
ing midterm congressional elections (see Figure 10.1). This means that at least 40% of the
electorate chooses not to participate. Why is this the case?
Figure 10.1: Voting rates in congressional and presidential
elections: 1978–2014
In the years since 1980, American voter turnout has generally decreased.
From “Who Votes? Congressional Elections and the American Electorate: 1978–2014,” by T. File, 2015 (http://www.census.gov/content
/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577 ). Copyright 2015 by U.S. Census Bureau. Reprinted with permission.

The Requirement to Register
All but one state requires that eligible voters be registered in order to vote. Voter registration
has proven to be a barrier to voting. Supporters of mandatory registration argue that registra-
tion is a safeguard against fraud. Yet registration can be burdensome because it requires that
forms be completed and submitted to the local supervisor of elections in advance of an elec-
tion. Of the 49 states requiring that voters register, half require registration between 15 and
30 days in advance, while the other half require registration between 0 (Election Day registra-
tion) and 14 days before Election Day. Federal law prohibits states from requiring registration
beyond 30 days before Election Day. While voter registration may be inconvenient, it helps
emphasize the importance of voting and assumes that responsible citizens will complete the
process.

Many argue that one response to low voter turnout is to take additional steps to ease access
to registration. After passage of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) in 1993, various
states implemented a motor-voter process, which allows people to register to vote when

fin82797_10_c10_237-254.indd 241 3/24/16 1:44 PM

http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577

Section 10.2 Public Participation

they register their cars with the state Department of Motor Vehicles or apply for or renew a
driver’s license. (Of course, for those who do not drive, this may not be helpful.) The NVRA
also allowed people to register by mail or when applying for various social services.

The Disillusionment
of Poor Voters
Low-income people are less likely to
vote for various reasons. These rea-
sons may include the inconvenience
and potentially lost wages to take
time off to go to the polls, believ-
ing that voting will not affect the
political process, or believing that
elected officials do not understand
their situation. Low-income people
may believe that electing candidates
who promise to enact economic and
social programs that benefit lower-
income groups will have little bear-
ing on their lives. This belief may
stem from the broker party nature
of the system. Additionally, powerful
interest groups enjoy advantages over individuals who are not organized.

When people opt out of the system because they believe it does not represent their interests
well, their concerns become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many politicians believe that there is no
point in campaigning in areas or neighborhoods with high percentages of nonvoters. As noted
in the last chapter, running for office is very expensive. Candidates must make strategic deci-
sions about where to allocate their resources. They are more likely to spend their time and
money in neighborhoods that are known to have relatively high turnout and are less likely to
pay much attention to low-turnout populations.

Constitutional Bases for Expanding Suffrage

Voting eligibility is addressed in just a few places in the Constitution. The first is the
15th Amendment (see Figure 10.2), ratified in 1870, which states that a citizen cannot be
denied the right to vote by the national government or any of the states on the basis of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment provided the constitutional basis
for newly freed slaves to be eligible to vote after the Civil War. Next is the 19th Amendment,
ratified in 1920, which says that citizens cannot be denied the right to vote on account of sex.
This amendment granted women the right to vote.

The 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961, extended the right to vote for president to residents
of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.). Before the amendment was ratified, Electoral
College votes were given only to states, and because Washington, D.C. is a district and not a
state, D.C. residents could not vote for the president. The 23rd Amendment gave to Washington,
D.C. the same number of Electoral College votes as the smallest state. As each state is guaranteed

Visions of America/SuperStock

One purpose of voter registration is to prevent fraud.
However, registration is often considered a barrier to
voting because it requires individuals to fill out and
submit a form by a state-mandated deadline.

Figure 10.2: Voting eligibility according to the Constitution

Voting eligibility is addressed in only four places in the Constitution, and all of them are amendments.

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Section 10.2 Public Participation
they register their cars with the state Department of Motor Vehicles or apply for or renew a
driver’s license. (Of course, for those who do not drive, this may not be helpful.) The NVRA
also allowed people to register by mail or when applying for various social services.
The Disillusionment
of Poor Voters
Low-income people are less likely to
vote for various reasons. These rea-
sons may include the inconvenience
and potentially lost wages to take
time off to go to the polls, believ-
ing that voting will not affect the
political process, or believing that
elected officials do not understand
their situation. Low-income people
may believe that electing candidates
who promise to enact economic and
social programs that benefit lower-
income groups will have little bear-
ing on their lives. This belief may
stem from the broker party nature
of the system. Additionally, powerful
interest groups enjoy advantages over individuals who are not organized.
When people opt out of the system because they believe it does not represent their interests
well, their concerns become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many politicians believe that there is no
point in campaigning in areas or neighborhoods with high percentages of nonvoters. As noted
in the last chapter, running for office is very expensive. Candidates must make strategic deci-
sions about where to allocate their resources. They are more likely to spend their time and
money in neighborhoods that are known to have relatively high turnout and are less likely to
pay much attention to low-turnout populations.
Constitutional Bases for Expanding Suffrage
Voting eligibility is addressed in just a few places in the Constitution. The first is the
15th Amendment (see Figure 10.2), ratified in 1870, which states that a citizen cannot be
denied the right to vote by the national government or any of the states on the basis of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude. This amendment provided the constitutional basis
for newly freed slaves to be eligible to vote after the Civil War. Next is the 19th Amendment,
ratified in 1920, which says that citizens cannot be denied the right to vote on account of sex.
This amendment granted women the right to vote.
The 23rd Amendment, ratified in 1961, extended the right to vote for president to residents
of the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.). Before the amendment was ratified, Electoral
College votes were given only to states, and because Washington, D.C. is a district and not a
state, D.C. residents could not vote for the president. The 23rd Amendment gave to Washington,
D.C. the same number of Electoral College votes as the smallest state. As each state is guaranteed
Visions of America/SuperStock
One purpose of voter registration is to prevent fraud.
However, registration is often considered a barrier to
voting because it requires individuals to fill out and
submit a form by a state-mandated deadline.
Figure 10.2: Voting eligibility according to the Constitution
Voting eligibility is addressed in only four places in the Constitution, and all of them are amendments.

a minimum of three Electoral College votes, the District of Columbia was guaranteed three Elec-
toral College votes as well.

The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, states that the right to vote in national elections cannot be
denied for failing to pay a poll tax. The 24th Amendment was proposed and ratified in response
to Southern states that were using such taxes to disqualify poor Blacks from voting. Finally, the
26th Amendment, ratified in 1971, lowered the legal voting age to 18. While some states allowed
those over 18 to vote, other states required a minimum age of 21.

Voter eligibility is otherwise assumed to be a matter of states’ rights. States have enjoyed the
power to determine who is eligible to vote while also handling their voter registration. States
began eliminating property qualifications in the 1820s, and it was the Southern states that tar-
geted voting barriers toward African Americans. The women’s suffrage movement originally
began as a grassroots movement on a state-by-state basis, with Wyoming being the first state to
allow women to vote in state and local elections, in 1893.

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Section

10.3 Types of Elections

The constitutional amendments
that expanded suffrage, federal leg-
islation such as the 1965 Voting
Rights Act, and key U.S. Supreme
Court cases each removed voting
barriers that were erected by the
states. In fact, the Voting Rights Act
prohibited states from imposing
any “voting qualification or prereq-
uisite to voting, or standard, prac-
tice, or procedure . . . to deny or
abridge the right of any citizen of
the United States to vote on account
of race or color.” It was Congress’s
specific intention to outlaw the
practice of requiring otherwise
qualified voters to pass literacy
tests to register to vote, which had
been another method, in addition
to poll taxes, by which Southern
states denied African Americans
the right to vote.

Increasing the Voter Rolls

Both parties seek to increase their election chances by increasing their registration numbers.
In recent years, both parties have sought to find new voters among the Latino population.
For example, when Republican President George W. Bush campaigned for office, he prided
himself on being able to speak fluent Spanish in an attempt to increase Latino support for
Republican candidates.

10.3 Types of Elections

Political scientist V. O. Key, Jr. (1955, 1959) famously observed that there are four types of
elections: maintaining, deviating, reinstating, and realigning.

Maintaining Elections

A maintaining election is one in which the majority party, which holds power, such as the
majority party in Congress, continues to hold power following an election. This type of elec-
tion requires a continuation of party loyalty among the party-in-the-electorate, which assumes
that voters will remain loyal to their party by voting for candidates sharing their party label.

This type of election is a maintaining election because the allegiance of the voters has not
changed, probably because the nation is not facing a major crisis or, if facing a crisis, voters
believe that the government in place and the party in power are handling it well. A

Suffragettes stand in front of the Woman Suffrage head-
quarters in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1912. The 19th Amend-
ment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified
in 1920.

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Section 10.3 Types of Elections

maintaining election, then, is about preserving the status quo. A pattern of maintaining elec-
tions may result in representatives becoming complacent. If the majority party in govern-
ment can rely on long-standing party loyalty among the electorate, it may not feel the need to
be as close to the people as it would if the races were more competitive.

Deviating Elections

A deviating election occurs when
short-term forces overtake long-
term party loyalties. Voters cast
their ballots for the party out of
power, the minority party, displac-
ing the majority party from power.
While voters may support the party
to which they do not belong in this
election and maybe the next, these
voters remain loyal to their party.
They maintain their allegiance to
their party even though they feel
compelled to vote for the other
party due to short-term forces,
such as candidates and issues, that
change with each election (either
because different candidates and
issues get shifted or because the magnitude of certain issues changes). The result is seen as
a temporary deviation from the norm because the expectation is that, once the crisis is over,
the former majority party will be returned to power.

Reinstating Elections

The return to power of a former
majority party following a deviat-
ing election is called a reinstat-
ing election. A reinstating election
brings a return to the status quo. It
also verifies that whatever forces
resulted in the deviation were short
lived. Because the political land-
scape remains unchanged, reinstat-
ing elections have much in common
with maintaining and deviating
elections. Each represents relative
stability in the composition of both
the party-in-the-electorate and the
party-in-the-government, with the
electorate generally voting on the
basis of traditional party loyalties.

Associated Press

Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential election victory is
an example of a deviating election because large num-
bers of Democratic voters crossed party lines to vote
for him.

age fotostock/SuperStock

Political scientist V. O. Key, Jr. observed that there are
four types of elections. Which of these do you think
best describes the 2008 presidential election?

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Section 10.3 Types of Elections

Some may argue that the election of 2008, in which Democrat Barack Obama was elected, was
a reinstating election after Republican President George W. Bush’s two terms. Bush’s election
in 2000, in which he won the Electoral College vote but lost the popular vote to Democratic
Vice President Al Gore, deviated from the two previous Democratic presidential victories in
1992 and 1996.

Realigning Elections

A realigning election produces a major change in the composition of the party-in-the-
government following a massive shift in the party-in-the-electorate. Voters abandon longtime
party loyalties and shift their allegiance from the majority party to the minority party, which
results in the minority party becoming the new majority party. As V. O. Key, Jr. (1955, 1959)
saw it, a realigning election is a critical election because it represents a massive and durable
shift in party loyalty that results in a long-term change in characteristics of the electorate and
the composition of government. For an election to be considered critical, the voter realign-
ment must be both sharp and durable. To be sharp, voter participation is relatively high, mak-
ing it clear that whatever divisions within the electorate existed prior to the election have
been fundamentally altered. The realignment must also occur at all levels of government.

For a realignment to be durable, the new electoral composition must persist over time. To
measure the sharpness of the shift, an issue or a set of issues that would cause voters to make
a monumental change would be essential. It would be extremely difficult to examine a single
election isolated from its larger political context to determine durability. A momentous event,
such as a war or a deep recession, that reorders the political landscape in ways not seen
before is required.

Key argued that for there to be such a massive shift in one election, there would have to be a
significant cleavage, or division, among the electorate. The people might argue, for example,
over whether the government should provide universal health care; cleavage may be said to
exist between conservatives who espouse individual liberty and limited government and lib-
erals who support greater equality and more active government. If times are good and most
people are confident about their economic future, perhaps the majority party that supports
health care reform will remain in power. But a deep recession resulting in high unemployment
and increased anxiety can cause the existing division to become more pronounced.

Key also recognized that there have been few instances in American history when voters
switched allegiance in a single election. Key expanded his concept of critical elections to include
gradual shifts over a long period. A given election might represent a phase in a long-term pro-
cess of declining group solidarity. The critical election, then, might represent the culmination
of this process. In the critical election, voters abandon their party and switch allegiance to the
other major party. Students of critical elections suggest that they occur every 30 years or so.

Consequences of Realignment
The most profound consequence of realignment is a change in the party-in-the-government,
which in turn often means a significant change in policy direction. Had the electorate been
pleased with the direction of the country and the policies that it was pursuing prior to the
election, there would not have been a realignment.

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Section 10.3 Types of Elections

Examples of Realignment
The election of 1932, which occurred after the Great Depression hit, was an example of a
realigning election because the Republicans lost the majority control of both houses of Con-
gress to the Democrats, which occurred for nearly all elections until 1994. Democrat Frank-
lin Roosevelt unseated incumbent Republican President Herbert Hoover, while many state
houses changed to Democratic rule. All of the presidents elected from 1860 until 1932, with
two exceptions, were Republican. Because of the depths of the Great Depression, Franklin
Roosevelt came to office backed by an electoral coalition that included ethnic and religious
minorities, blue-collar workers, and union members, as well as the traditional Southern
states. This new coalition would remain the base of the Democratic Party until the late 1960s.

Yet suggesting that a particular election was a critical election because realignment occurred
is to be retrospective. It does not necessarily mean that one can predict future elections based
on what happened in the past. As an example, consider that political commentator Kevin Phil-
lips wrote The Emerging Republican Majority in 1969 in an attempt to analyze the 1968 elec-
tion. According to Phillips (1969), Richard Nixon’s election was the beginning of an electoral
realignment because more people were moving to the suburbs and these suburban communi-
ties were voting Republican. Beginning with Nixon, the Republicans held the presidency from
1980 to 1988 and 2000 to 2008. Not only did suburban communities shift Republican, so too
did many Southern states, because they were upset that Democratic President Lyndon John-
son signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which took power away from the Democratic-
dominated Southern states in managing elections. Because the base of the Democratic Party
had been concentrated in the cities, Phillips reasoned, the party would not be able to hold its
majority if the demographics changed to favor suburbia. If Phillips was correct in saying that
1968 was the beginning of a realignment, that would mean that the 1976 election of Demo-
crat Jimmy Carter was a deviation while the 1980 election of Republican Ronald Reagan was
the reinstatement. Carter may have won because of deep divisions over Watergate. Carter’s
opponent, incumbent President Gerald Ford, had been Nixon’s vice president. After Ford
ascended to the presidency following Nixon’s resignation, he had pardoned Nixon for Nixon’s
involvement in the Watergate scandal.

If 1968 was not a realigning elec-
tion, then it was a deviating elec-
tion, with 1976 serving as a
reinstating election, while the
realignment would have happened
in 1980. Nixon won in 1968 in
a close election amid deep divi-
sions over the Vietnam War and
the sense that there was too much
lawlessness in the Democratic
Party, as evidenced by the violence
at the 1968 Democratic Party con-
vention in Chicago. Ultimately, the
answer to whether an election was
a critical election is a matter of
interpretation.

Associated Press

The 1968 presidential election, won by Richard Nixon,
has been called a realigning election.

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Section

10.4 The Role of Public Opinion in Elections

Primaries and Caucuses

Presidential elections begin at the state level through a series of primaries and caucuses.
Since the 1960s, states have increasingly adopted primary elections far more than caucuses
as a means to select candidates. Most primaries are either open primaries or closed primaries.
Most states hold closed primaries, where only registered party members may vote in that
party’s primary. In open primaries, by contrast, registered voters, no matter their party reg-
istration, or no party registration, may vote in one, but not both, party primaries.

Another way of selecting candidates is through the caucus system. Caucuses tend to be found
in smaller states (such as Iowa) and require a greater time investment from the voters than
casting a ballot. In a caucus, voters report to their polling station, in which each candidate has
an area. Voters then go to the area of their preferred candidate, but voters in other areas, that
is, supporters of other candidates, can challenge the preferences of others. This often leads
to a general discussion of why one candidate is preferable to another. At the end of the night,
support in each area in each precinct is tallied up and delegates are apportioned on the basis
of the percentage of support that each candidate received.

One key benefit to the caucus system is that participants must be familiar with candidates’
issue positions so that they can intelligently defend their choices. Yet state-level caucuses
tend to demonstrate low turnout because they require more commitment from voters. As a
consequence, the outcomes may not be entirely representative of the state electorate because
only party activists tend to participate. Three fourths of the states use primaries for presiden-
tial nominations.

10.4 The Role of Public Opinion in Elections

The outcome of an election often reflects the tide of public opinion. As U.S. Senator Barack
Obama defeated U.S. Senator John McCain in 2008, the electoral outcome can be said to reflect
various factors linked to public opinion toward Obama, McCain, the incumbent president and
his party, various issues, partisanship, a combination of these, or something else. Public opin-
ion also plays a key role in elections because candidates utilize pollsters to gauge public opin-
ion throughout the election season. Still, as much as we talk about the importance of public
opinion in democracy, it is not always easy to gauge.

Defining Public Opinion: Values, Ideology, and Attitudes

Public opinion generally encompasses values, political ideology, and attitudes. Values rep-
resent deep-rooted goals, aspirations, and ideals that shape an individual’s perceptions of
political issues. As an example, most Americans believe in freedom as a fundamental Ameri-
can value. Though we may all define it differently, most people aspire to live freely.

Differences over the meaning of freedom involve political ideology. As a matter of ideology, one
might think that personal freedom is maximized when government is limited in its function.
A limited government would mean little regulation, low taxes, and very few social programs.

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Section 10.4 The Role of Public Opinion in Elections

Such an ideology is often referred to as conservative. The political ideology that values gov-
ernment support for disadvantaged populations or during periods of hardship is considered
liberal or progressive. An attitude is a specific view about a particular issue, personality, or
event that is shaped by ideology.

Values, political ideology, and attitudes may be affected by various factors, including socio-
economic status, family background, and one’s political environment.

Measuring Public Opinion Through Polling

The easiest way to measure public opinion is through surveys. Analysts, candidates, and office-
holders routinely conduct polls to get a sense of public attitudes toward particular issues.

Polls conducted using scientific techniques are more accurate than those that are not. Scien-
tific polls take a random sample of the population such that each person in the sample has an
equal chance of being selected. A poll of registered Democratic activists is not a valid sample
of the public because the respondents may be more ideological than the public and, thus, not
represent the public’s views on government and issues.

Today, most people have phones,
which was not true in the 1940s.
Sampling from the telephone book
would not produce a sample rep-
resenting the public. In the early
days of polling, there were some
significant inaccuracies. The most
famous case was the 1948 election,
where pollsters predicted Thomas
Dewey’s defeat of President Harry
Truman. Dewey went to bed think-
ing that he had won, only to find out
that he had lost.

Forces That Shape Values
and Ideology

Individuals develop their values and
ideology through agents of social-
ization, which are the institutions
and influences that help shape one’s basic political worldview. Four important agencies of
socialization are the family, social groups, education, and prevailing political conditions.

The most important agent of socialization is the family. For example, children take on the ide-
ology and other public perspectives of their parents, while family socioeconomic status might
also affect one’s political ideology and values.

The most famous case of polling inaccuracy was the
1948 election, where pollsters prematurely predicted
Thomas Dewey’s defeat of President Harry Truman.
Truman is shown here holding up an erroneous head-
line from a newspaper that went to press early on elec-
tion night.

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Section 10.4 The Role of Public Opinion in Elections

The second most important agent of socialization is education. Educated persons might think
critically and be more open to competing ideas, while someone whose education focuses on
reinforcing core values without questioning them will likely take on those same ideological
approaches.

People are also socialized by the types of social groups, such as interest groups or churches, to
which they belong. A social group is an important reinforcement because people are interact-
ing with others who share their values. Finally, political values and ideology are often affected
by prevailing political and economic conditions.

Cleavages in Public Opinion

It is tempting to talk about American public opinion as though there is one unified public. But
public opinion is characterized by deep divisions across worldviews and the political ideolo-
gies on which those worldviews are based. Factors affecting these cleavages include occupa-
tion, race, religion, and socioeconomic status.

Individuals in higher-paying occupations may view tax policy differently from how individu-
als in lower-paying occupations do. Similarly, as average incomes tend to be higher among
Republicans, there is often more opposition to new or increased taxes among Republicans
compared with Democrats. Democrats, whose average income is lower than that of Republi-
cans, may be more likely to favor increased or new taxes as a means of promoting welfare and
other forms of support for lower-income groups.

While occupation may account for
varying policy attitudes, it may
not be as important in explaining
other political attitudes. Race is
an important variable that affects
policy views. Affirmative action,
for instance, divides public opin-
ion along racial lines. Blacks tend
to support affirmative action pro-
grams, while Whites tend to oppose
affirmative action due to concerns
about reverse discrimination. Still,
such cleavages are not absolute.
More affluent Whites tend to sup-
port affirmative action, while many
successful Blacks oppose it because
they believe that it stigmatizes

them. At the same time, partisanship affects support for affirmative action, as Democrats
more strongly support affirmative action on the grounds that it promotes equal opportunity,
while Republicans tend to oppose affirmative action because they believe that it limits indi-
vidual opportunities for success.

Associated Press/Paul Sancya

Affirmative action deeply divides public opinion along
racial lines.

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Summary and Resources

Religion is also an important source of cleavage. Catholics and evangelical Christians tend to
oppose abortion and same-sex marriage, which may affect vote choice. Evangelical Christians
favor school prayer more than other religious groups do. Meanwhile, Jews tend to oppose
school prayer and often see it as a threat to First Amendment religious protections.

Summary and Resources

Chapter Summary
Elections are a staple of the American political system, and through elections the public
achieves democratic expression. Elections enable the peaceful transfer of power, which is fun-
damental to democracy. Through elections, the public offers its tacit consent for the American
constitutional tradition. Although elections serve an important function, election outcomes
may not represent public preferences, in part because much of the eligible electorate does not
vote. Voting is a matter of individual preference, and the freedom to vote includes the freedom
not to vote. But non-participation is particularly problematic in the United States because
most of those who do not vote tend to be poor, and the poor often choose not to vote because
they do not believe that the political system is responsive to their needs. When people choose
not to vote, elected officials might not feel as obligated to represent them. The effects of non-
participation, then, may be to distort the representative function of elections.

As critical as elections are to the democratic process, they may also reveal much about citi-
zens’ beliefs and core values. Analysts often evaluate elections within the context of criti-
cal elections, whether there has been a sharp and durable shift in party affiliation following
deep political cleavages, resulting in a new majority party in power. A critical election may
result in a new policy direction for the country. A critical election may reveal that the public
is not of one mind with regard to what constitutes its core beliefs and values. This means that
there are multiple publics, which often break down along class, educational, occupational,
and racial lines.

Key Ideas to Remember

• Through elections, citizens express themselves as a political community, give their
tacit acceptance of the constitutional arrangements that govern them, and achieve a
peaceful transfer of power.

• Voting is the most basic form of public participation, but those with a higher socio-
economic status tend to participate more. The effect of nonvoting might be to distort
the democratic process.

• Nonvoting tends to be more concentrated among lower-income groups, largely
because they do not think that voting will significantly improve their lives. Register-
ing to vote has proven to be a significant barrier for some groups. Attempts to regis-
ter more voters could significantly increase the number of people voting.

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Summary and Resources

• V. O. Key, Jr. identified four types of elections, with a realigning election identified as
a critical election. For an election to be critical, there would have to be a sharp and
durable realignment among the electorate in terms of party affiliation, as measured
by significant and lasting change in the party-in-the-government. The realignment
would be brought on by deep divisions in the country that might be precipitated by a
severe crisis.

• Elections often reflect changes in public opinion, which encompasses values, politi-
cal ideology, and attitudes.

Questions to Consider

1. Why does the United States have elections?
2. Why are elections critical to the peaceful transfer of power?
3. What demographic factors are most likely to predict whether an individual votes?
4. Why do some people choose not to participate in the political process?
5. What does V. O. Key, Jr.’s typology of elections tell us about the nature of American

politics?
6. How does public opinion relate to values and political ideology?
7. What are some of the sources of the opinions that people have, and what are the

bases for cleavages in public opinion?
8. What are the most important reasons contributing to lower voter turnout in mid-

term versus presidential elections?
9. Given Key’s definition of a critical election, can we say that the 1994 election was an

example of one? Why or why not?

Key Terms

agents of socialization Institutions that
help shape an individual’s political values.

cleavage The division of voters into voting
blocs.

closed primaries Elections for a statewide
presidential candidate in which one can vote
only in the party primary that one is regis-
tered for.

critical election An election in which a
major party realignment occurs.

motor-voter A system of voter registration
whereby people register to vote when they
register their cars or apply for or renew a
driver’s license.

open primaries Elections for a statewide
presidential candidate in which one can vote
in either party primary, regardless of party
affiliation.

socioeconomic status One’s standing or
position in society based on economic class
or educational attainment.

tacit consent Giving effective agreement
through a behavior, such as voting.

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Summary and Resources

Further Reading
Abraham, H. J. (1955). Compulsory voting. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press.

Burnham, W. D. (1970). Critical elections and the mainspring of American politics. New York, NY: W. W. Norton &
Co.

Gosnell, H. F. (1977). Getting out the vote: An experiment in the stimulation of voting. Santa Barbara, CA: Green-
wood Press.

Hardy, B. W., Kenski, K., & Jamieson, K. H. (2010). The Obama victory: How media, money, and message shaped the
2008 election. Oxford, UK and New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Jacobs, L. R., & Skocpol, T. (Eds.). (2005). Inequality and American democracy: What we know and what we need to
know. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Key, V. O., Jr. (1955). A theory of critical elections. The Journal of Politics, 17, 3–18.

Key, V. O., Jr. (1959). Secular realignment and the party system. The Journal of Politics, 21, 198–210.

Lijphart, A. (1997). Unequal participation: Democracy’s unresolved dilemma. American Political Science Review,
91(1), 1–14.

Neckerman, K. M. (Ed.). (2004). Social inequality. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Pateman, C. (1970). Participation and democratic theory. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press.

Phillips, K. (1969). The emerging Republican majority. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.

Piven, F. F., Cloward, R. A., & Cohen, J. (Eds.). (2000). Why Americans still don’t vote: And why politicians want it
that way. Boston, MA: Beacon.

Sundquist, J. L. (1983). Dynamics of the party system: Alignment and realignment of political parties in the United
States. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

Verba, S., & Nie, N. H. (1987). Participation in America: Political democracy and social equality. Chicago, IL: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press.

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fin82797_10_c10_237-254.indd 254 3/24/16 1:45 PM

12 The Mass Media

Associated Press/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to

• Describe the evolution of the media in American politics.
• Outline the role of the media in political campaigns.
• Demonstrate how the media monitors and influences government.
• Examine the role of the Internet as a contemporary media source.
• Analyze media bias and the role of the media in shaping public opinion.

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Section

12.1 The Evolution of the Media in American Politics

On August 9, 2014, Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager and recent high
school graduate, was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri.
Brown was shot at least six times, including two shots to the head, one of which resulted
in Brown’s death. On November 24, the St. Louis County prosecutor announced that Wilson
would not be indicted by a grand jury. Demonstrations and protests erupted after both the
police shooting and the grand jury’s decision.

The media was criticized for its coverage of these events and for inadvertently fueling the
subsequent violence because of how it portrayed the Ferguson story. Some television stations
presented the public’s response as consisting solely of riots and excessive property damage;
other media outlets indicated that the crowds were protesting corruption in the Ferguson
police department. Many argue that the media shaped the events in Ferguson by influencing
how the public both outside and inside Ferguson responded to the protests. In essence, crit-
ics suggest that how the media framed the issue shaped public perception of the events that
unfolded in August and later in November.

For example, several major news outlets, including the New York Times, printed only Officer
Wilson’s account of the events the next day and did not report the story from any other van-
tage point. The New York Times reported St. Louis Police Chief Jon Belmar’s statements from a
news conference that indicated that Brown had been shot and killed after he and another man
had assaulted Wilson and that Brown and Wilson had struggled inside a patrol car. At least
one shot was fired from inside the car, the police chief claimed. This report placed the blame
for the event solely on Michael Brown and his accomplice.

Questions later emerged as to who had begun the altercation in the vehicle, whether the first
shot had been fired inside or outside the car, and how far away Officer Wilson had been when
he had shot the remaining bullets. Critics of the reporting also questioned why the New York
Times did not ask what would motivate a recent high school graduate to assault a police offi-
cer as well as why Officer Wilson would leave his patrol car. In essence, the New York Times
and other media outlets were criticized for not investigating whether there was another side
to the story. It was not for another two days, amid protest and criticism, that the New York
Times and other well-known and highly used media outlets reported something other than
the police department’s version of events. Critics suggest that the way the events were han-
dled by the police, along with the media reporting, provoked the protests and riots.

The mass media plays many roles and serves multiple functions in American politics. Some say
that it is the “fourth branch” of government, which means that it checks the other branches,
while others suggest that the mass media shapes the relationship between the public and
government. Protecting the public, filtering information, and setting the public’s agenda as to
what government should do round out the roles of the media. This chapter will include a dis-
cussion of how media has evolved in American politics, focusing on its functions of reporting
the news and serving as a vehicle for campaign advertising. Finally, this chapter will address
concerns about media bias. The chapter will be framed within the context of how technology
has influenced the emergence of the mass media.

12.1 The Evolution of the Media in American Politics

The notion that the media is an effective mechanism for informing the public about and influ-
encing the public’s relationship with government is not a new one. During the French and

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Section 12.1 The Evolution of the Media in American Politics

Indian War (also called the Seven Years’ War), which took place between 1754 and 1763, a
political cartoon composed by Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) and published in the Pennsyl-
vania Gazette on May 9, 1754 depicted the colonists’ lack of unity. The cartoon, titled “Join, or
Die,” represents a snake cut into eight parts with each part representing most of the 13 colo-
nies, as either individual colonies or regions. The cartoon was published to accompany Frank-
lin’s editorial about the fractured experience of the colonies, which contributed to colonists’
collective struggles and desire to support Great Britain in winning the French and Indian War.
The cartoon later came to be seen as a call for independence and a symbol of the colonists’
pursuit of freedom during the American Revolutionary War.

Soon after the French and Indian
War, the British Parliament enacted
the Stamp Act in 1765 to raise rev-
enue to pay for the costs of the war.
Requiring a stamp on every piece of
printed paper not only added to the
cost of doing business but also lim-
ited the level of the public’s informa-
tion about government. Fewer peo-
ple purchased newspapers because
the stamp increased the cost.

One other use of the media during
colonial times was as a call to action.
In January 1776, Thomas Paine
(1737–1809) published Common
Sense, which encouraged colonists
to seek independence from Great
Britain. The pamphlet accused King
George III of England of tyranny, challenged his right to hold power over the colonists, and
blamed him for treating the colonists unfairly. Paine also wrote that the colonies needed a
written constitution with a set of rules that everyone would have to follow and a government
that could not abuse its power.

These three examples show how the media affected the colonists and how a free media was
a meaningful priority for them. The use of political cartoons to take a point of view as well as
advocate a call to action demonstrated the positive effects of a free media, while the Stamp Act
showed the colonists how limits on the media affected the flow of information.

The First Amendment and Freedom of the Press

Recall that one of the key debates over whether to ratify the U.S. Constitution focused on
whether an enumerated bill of rights should be included. Opponents of the proposed Consti-
tution, the Anti-Federalists, thought it was important for the Constitution to include a bill of
rights. This listing of specific rights included protections of freedom of the press, among oth-
ers. The Bill of Rights was eventually added to the U.S. Constitution in 1791, and it included
the First Amendment, which reads:

Everett Collection/SuperStock

“Join, or Die” is a political cartoon created by Benjamin
Franklin in 1754 showing the disunity of the colonies
and advocating for unity.

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Section 12.1 The Evolution of the Media in American Politics

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit-
ing the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government
for a redress of grievances.

The fact that freedom of the press was included in the first 10 amendments to be added to the
U.S. Constitution is evidence of the primacy of a free press.

The First Amendment has since protected the freedom of the press in multiple ways. Freedom
of the press has been protected as a news source and as a mechanism for candidates, politi-
cal parties, interest groups, and advocates to communicate their messages to the people. The
media has also served in a hybrid role by taking part in the political process and endorsing
candidates, broadcasting campaign debates, taking positions on policy questions, and pub-
lishing diverse opinion pieces and columns produced by political elites.

The Influence of Technology

The media is often referred to as the black box between the public and government because
the public learns most of its information about government and politics from the media. The
image of a black box is fitting; individuals cannot see what is between them and the other
side. The public must trust the information that they receive through the media, as they have
no real means to verify it. The black box metaphor also works in reverse; government and
political entities such as political parties, candidates, and interest groups know that the media
is reporting on their activities. Being aware of the media’s presence shapes their behavior.
Individuals on both sides of this relationship depend on the media to receive or transmit
information.

As technology has evolved, so has
the public’s access to information
about government through the
media. Technological and educa-
tional advancements have broad-
ened how the news is consumed
and who consumes it. These tech-
nological and educational advance-
ments have occurred parallel to
advances in political rights. Univer-
sal suffrage is now the law of the
land and enshrined in the U.S. Con-
stitution through multiple amend-
ments, which means that the per-
centage of citizens eligible to vote is
at its height. Together, this means
that the media can now reach far
more people and the percentage of
those people eligible to vote has

never been higher. The implication is that government, political parties, interest groups, and
issue advocates must now reach the largest number of people ever in order to accomplish

Newspapers used to be a main source of news, but the
media has evolved to include television, the Internet,
and social media for its coverage.

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Section 12.1 The Evolution of the Media in American Politics

their objectives, and they have the technological means to do so better, faster, and through
more methods of communication. The large number and percentage of people who are able
to access information about government because of advances in education and literacy also
contributes to increases in the number of media consumers and their consumption levels.
The opportunities for the media to serve in its role as the black box of American politics have
never been greater.

The Rise of Regulation

As technology has advanced, questions have
arisen as to whether the press should be
free to function without government inter-
vention and regulation. After all, if the gov-
ernment regulates the media, one could
argue that it is limiting and shaping what
the public learns about government to the
government’s own advantage. For instance,
the Federal Communications Act of 1934
(FCA) created the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC), which regulates radio,
television, wire, satellite, and cable com-
munications throughout the United States,
including the District of Columbia and U.S.
territories. The FCA includes Section 315,
the Equal Time Provision, requiring that
television and radio stations give candidates
seeking the same office the same opportu-
nity to use those stations. Translated into
practical terms, this means that stations give
candidates seeking the same office reason-
ably equal news coverage with three key
exceptions. First, if one of the candidates is
engaged in a bona fide news event, such as
an incumbent fulfilling his or her obligations
of office, that coverage time is not consid-
ered in terms of determining equal time.

An example of this exception took place in
2004. The state of Florida was hit by three
intense (Category 4 and 5) hurricanes
between August and September 2004. The
last of the three hurricanes, Ivan, began at

the end of the Republican National Convention. George W. Bush was running for reelection
while U.S. Senator John Kerry was seeking to unseat Bush. Both Bush and Kerry traveled to
Florida, one of the largest electoral vote states, to survey the hurricane damage. While cover-
age of Bush did not fall under the Equal Time Provision because he was surveying the damage
in his role as president (a bona fide news event), coverage of Kerry, who represented Massa-
chusetts in the U.S. Senate, did fall under the provision because Kerry was spending time in
Florida as the Democrats’ nominee.

Associated Press/Charles Dharapak

President Bush and Jo Bonner, former U.S.
representative for Alabama’s first congres-
sional district, tour the damage done during
Hurricane Ivan in Orange Beach, Alabama. The
president’s media coverage in this event did
not fall under the equal time coverage rule of
the FCC.

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Section

12.2 The Media in Political Campaigns

The second exception is that the media does not need to extend equal time to minor party
candidates. Finally, the third exception is that the tone of the coverage does not need to be
equal; one competitor may receive mostly positive coverage while another candidate for the
same office may receive mostly negative coverage. In addition to the Federal Communica-
tions Act, the FCC created the Fairness Doctrine in 1949 to ensure that controversial issues
would be presented in a balanced manner. The Fairness Doctrine was eliminated by the FCC
in 2011, on the grounds that the Obama administration deemed the doctrine to be “outdated
and obsolete.”

Measures of consumer preferences, such as ratings and circulation, also influence the types of
stories that the press report on, the amount of time (if on television or radio) or print (if in a
newspaper, on an Internet site, or in a news magazine) devoted to any subject or story, or the
overall length of the broadcast or printed text in a publication. Because press organizations
are themselves private entities, their desire to succeed as corporations influences how they
operate. News coverage, including campaign coverage, is no different. Coverage that does not
interest the public will result in lower ratings or circulation, which affects the media outlets’
profits. Taken together, this means that media organizations make strategic choices when
deciding which aspects of campaigns to cover and how that coverage will take shape.

12.2 The Media in Political Campaigns

The media also takes an active role in political campaigns. Freedom of the press extends to
election campaigns, where press coverage includes providing information and commentary
about the candidates, issues, and political parties. The media also serves as a vehicle for can-
didates, political parties, interest groups, and even ordinary citizens to convey their mes-
sages during election campaigns through advertising. Each role the media plays influences
the course that campaigns take, affecting the campaign messages put forward by candidates,
interest groups, and political parties; the manner in which these messages are presented; and
how the public receives and responds to those messages.

Providing Information and Commentary

The way that the media covers campaigns can have a strong impact on elections. The nomi-
nation process is especially affected by media coverage because primaries often bring out
candidates who lack widespread name recognition, especially in open-seat races where there
is no incumbent. The media lacks the time to give all candidates equal press coverage. Conse-
quently, the media focuses on those candidates believed to have a serious chance at winning.
Critics argue that such practices demonstrate media bias, the idea that the media chooses
how news is presented to the public. These practices create a self-fulfilling prophecy where
the media pays more attention to “serious” candidates. Voter interest and support then fol-
low. The opposite is also true. If a candidate is portrayed as a loser, it is then more difficult
for that candidate to raise money and other forms of support. Lacking financial and volunteer
support makes it more difficult to enhance name recognition and voter support.

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Section 12.2 The Media in Political Campaigns

Regardless, the media provides commentary on all aspects of political campaigns, including
the role of the media in political campaigns. One form that such commentary takes is with
cartoons that often appear in newspapers on the opinion or the comics pages. It should be
noted that those news outlets that perform editorializing functions, such as newspaper edito-
rials, retain free speech and press protections when performing these functions. This means
that newspapers may endorse candidates for any office on their editorial pages, but not in any
other place. Still, researchers have found that newspapers that endorse candidates tend to
extend more positive news coverage toward those candidates that they have endorsed com-
pared with candidates not endorsed by those newspapers.

Scholars have noted that the news
focuses far more attention on char-
acteristics about the campaign
itself—such as who is ahead or
behind in public support, fund-
raising, or votes (the “horse race”
aspects of the campaign)—than it
does on information about the can-
didates themselves or candidate
issue positions. One consequence
of news organizations’ tendency
to focus on horse race aspects of
campaigns is that commercials and
other campaign messages may end
up doing a better job of inform-
ing voters about policy positions,
helping voters distinguish between
candidates, and educating the elec-
torate about candidates compared
with the news media. This means
that campaign communication is a
more essential voter information
resource than is campaign-related
news coverage.

Hosting Advertising

Campaign-related entities pay media outlets to advertise their messages. Unlike news cover-
age, where the news organizations control what they broadcast, print, or produce, campaign
advertising gives candidates, interest groups, and political parties the opportunity to control
their messages about themselves and their opponents. Most campaign-related advertising is
available where there are the most consumers. There are far more television consumers than
there are radio, Internet, newspaper, or news magazine consumers. Thus, far more campaign-
related advertising is found on television than in any other medium. Among non-television
media, radio and the Internet, including social media (see section 12.4: Media and the Inter-
net), are far more often used as campaign advertising outlets than are newspapers or news
magazines. Electronic media draws far more consumers than does print media.

Associated Press/Mark J. Terrill

Because there were so many 2016 Republican
presidential candidates, media coverage could not
accommodate all of them in the GOP debates. The
candidates with lower poll ratings participated in less-
publicized debates at earlier times on the same day.
This could be considered media bias.

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Section

12.3 Monitoring and Influencing Government

Electronic media enjoys a core advantage for reaching large audiences because these outlets
are free to use, provided that one already owns or has access to a television, radio, or com-
puter. Print media must usually be purchased in order to enjoy access, and periodic issues,
such as daily, weekly, or monthly publications, render regular purchase or access necessary in
order to keep current. As accessing electronic advertising is much easier than accessing print
advertising is, it follows that the more readily available media will enjoy higher consumer use
and will attract more campaign advertising dollars.

Televised campaign advertising spots were first aired in 1952. The cost and use of television
advertising has grown exponentially since then, which has resulted in shorter television spots
(and, critics argue, the inclusion of less information and a greater emphasis on entertaining
viewers). More recent presidential campaigns have seen television advertisement spots run
from 30 to 60 seconds. Large-scale races are often contested using television, which is the
most widely used news source in the United States. Television commercials tend to blanket
the airwaves during highly contested elections; their short duration means that they are eas-
ily broadcast during regular television programming. However, as freedom of the press is not
absolute, neither is freedom of the press in campaigns.

Campaign coverage and advertising has been regulated by the federal government since the
Federal Communications Act of 1934, discussed earlier. Since then, other laws have been
enacted that limit and otherwise regulate campaign coverage and advertising. More recently,
the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) placed restrictions on campaign adver-
tising sponsored by interest groups. BCRA bans corporate or union money from being used to
pay for broadcast advertising that identifies a federal candidate within 30 days of a primary
or nominating convention, or within 60 days of a general election. These restrictions were
upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in McConnell v. Federal Election Commission 540 U.S. 93
(2003).

12.3 Monitoring and Influencing Government

Individuals and organizations seeking to influence government will use the media to bring
attention to government actions. The media also acts alone to bring attention to government
actions, thereby enabling the public to use its First Amendment rights to monitor and influ-
ence government. Interest groups form to draw attention to government actions, encourage
their members to interact with government and with the press, and raise money to accom-
plish their political and policy goals.

The Media as Watchdog

The Founding Fathers believed that a free media was necessary to monitor government. In
fact, in a 1787 letter to Edward Carrington, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “Were it left to me to
decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.” Jefferson believed that an
independent media was needed to prevent government from abusing its power. Government

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Section 12.3 Monitoring and Influencing Government

functioning out of the spotlight might take actions violating the public interest, while a media
free to watch and report on government to the people keeps government honest and the pub-
lic informed. Freedom of the press allows the media to serve in a watchdog role as one means
to protect individuals from the government infringing on their rights.

Media independence occurs when
the media brings attention to gov-
ernment actions. In bringing atten-
tion to the public about govern-
ment actions, the media informs the
public about possible government
wrongdoing. Democracies require
an independent and free press to
add another check and balance
on the potential abuse of power. A
story in the press about a Cabinet
member may catch the attention
of members of Congress, leading to
oversight hearings into the actions
of the executive branch. In this case,
the press serves as a watchdog to
help keep public officials honest.

Related to the media’s watchdog
role is the preponderance of televised campaign debates. The media plays critical roles in
these debates. First, because the television networks broadcast the debates (and they are
simultaneously broadcast on the radio), they have a say in various debate-related aspects,
including the length of the debate (some debates last an hour, while others may last 90 min-
utes or more), the date that the debates take place, and whether the debates will take place
toward the earlier or later part of the evening, which affects viewership in different time
zones. It is unlikely that candidates would participate in debates that they were not certain
would be broadcast widely. The second role that the media plays in debates is that one or
more well-known news media personalities moderate the debates—they write the questions,
ask follow-up questions, and oversee the debate as it transpires by ensuring that participants
do not go over their allotted time and that candidates have the chance to make rebuttals if
they are entitled to do so. That media personalities, and not well-known leaders from other
sectors of society, moderate the debates suggests that the public perceives the media as an
objective watchdog and is comfortable with the media holding this role.

The Media as Gatekeeper

Another way that media independence occurs is through the media’s gatekeeper role. When
members of the media act as gatekeepers, they decide which information to share with the
public. In deciding what the public should know, the media is deciding which stories are
appropriate as well as identifying the most appropriate sources to use when reporting a story.
The reason that gatekeeping is essential is that the public depends so much on the media for
quality information about subjects they would otherwise have little to no access to.

Bob Woodward (left) and Carl Bernstein research the
Watergate case at their Washington Post desks. They
were the two key investigative reporters covering the
scandal.

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Section 12.3 Monitoring and Influencing Government

In fact, the public now depends more than ever on the media acting in a gatekeeping role
during election campaigns. Journalists engage in fact-checking when candidates make claims
about their record or the record of their opponents. The Tampa Bay Times investigates poli-
ticians’ claims through a tool called PolitiFact. The truthfulness of politicians’ statements is
reported to the public with such labels as “False” and “Pants on Fire” for particularly prob-
lematic claims. The Washington Post reports on the truthfulness of politicians’ statements
using “Pinocchios,” where the more Pinocchios a politician’s claims are assigned, the worse
the lie is. In reporting the results of its research, the media strengthens its gatekeeping role
with the public and reinforces to politicians that their claims will be investigated before being
reported as factual. The public and government both rely on the media taking its gatekeeping
role seriously, because the public’s primary means of learning about government is through
the media, and politicians depend on good coverage to earn the public’s trust.

Another perspective on the media’s gatekeeping role is linked to whether a story should be
reported because of concerns about national security. One well-known instance in which this
issue arose was in the “Pentagon Papers” case. The U.S. Supreme Court decided New York Times
v. United States in 1971 in response to President Nixon trying to keep the New York Times from
publishing classified Defense Department materials that included a study of U.S. activities in
Vietnam. President Nixon argued that the Defense Department materials included “classified
information,” which justified that the New York Times should exercise “prior restraint” and
not publish the Pentagon Papers. In Nixon’s view, national security should take precedence
over freedom of the press. The U.S. Supreme Court took the side of the New York Times in a
6–3 decision that the Nixon administration did not justify the need for “prior restraint” in this
situation in part because it had failed to properly outline the specific national security con-
cerns and the threat to the safety of American forces that justified limiting the freedom of the
press guaranteed in the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in the Pentagon
Papers case reinforces the media’s role as gatekeeper in that the decision demonstrates the
media’s right to report what it deems worthy of reporting.

The media’s role as gatekeeper focuses on its value to the public in keeping it informed by
reporting what it deems important for the public to know, broadcasting and moderating
campaign debates, conducting research on claims made by candidates and officeholders, and
reporting about government actions even if the government would prefer to operate out of
the public eye.

The Media as Agenda Setter

The primary way that government officials communicate with the citizenry is through the
media. Public officials are well aware that the media is monitoring them and reporting their
actions to the public; at the same time, policymakers fully understand that, if they want the
public to know and understand their motives and actions, they must use the media for that
purpose. The idea that the news media can influence what the public considers important is
known as agenda-setting theory.

Government officials manage information for public consumption in how they present issues.
Issues about which government officials seek public support may involve those officials using
the media for press coverage of their actions. For example, government officials will try to use
the media to set the public agenda such that the media prioritizes issues that the government

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Ian Dagnall/age fotostock/SuperStock

Accessing news on the Internet has
become increasingly popular in the 21st
century.

Section

12.4 Media and the Internet

wishes for the public to focus on and presents the information in a way that causes the public
to support the government’s position on those issues. An independent media sets the public
agenda as to what is important and which aspects of it the public should focus on.

12.4 Media and the Internet

The media takes many forms. Various forms of
more traditional media, including print (news-
papers, news magazines) and broadcast (tele-
vision, radio), have been discussed earlier in
this chapter. Over the last generation, there has
been a meaningful increase in the use of social
and interactive media that has changed the face
of American politics. Of particular interest is the
preponderance of the Internet in American polit-
ical life.

The advent of the Internet began sometime in
the early 1980s when the U.S. Department of
Defense created a computer network whose
primary purpose was to link the Pentagon to
faraway military bases and defense contractors.
Soon after, large research universities joined
the network. At that time, its applications were
limited. Since then, the Internet has become a
multipurpose communication tool. Its value for
education, political mobilization, information
dissemination, marketing, and social networking
has brought the Internet into multiple, far-reach-
ing private and public realms.

The opportunity to disseminate real-time and immediate information updates to Internet
consumers has transformed the Internet into a critical, functional link between government
and citizens. It is now common for elected officials at the national, state, and local levels to
publicize their email addresses on their own or government-sponsored websites. This means
that citizens may now contact their elected representatives and other public officials directly.
The Internet also serves as a tool for government officials and agencies to share information
with their constituents. The Internet has become an established tool of political engagement
because it provides a readily available opportunity for communication between citizens and
the government.

News organizations now enjoy a regular Internet presence. It is common for both broadcast
and print media to have web pages. This means that, long before the next edition of a news-
paper is printed (and distributed the following day), and hours before the next scheduled
television news broadcast, media organization websites can provide up-to-the minute news
updates and, as appropriate, live coverage of news events.

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Section 12.4 Media and the Internet

Candidates can also carry on virtual conversations using social media, which allows indi-
viduals, organizations, businesses, and government offices and officials to create and share
content or participate in virtual networks all through the Internet. Examples of social media
are websites and phone applications where users can share content and interact with one
another. Twitter, an online social networking service, allows users to send and read short
messages (called “tweets”) to individuals and groups of persons (“followers”) who share a
particular interest, such as a student environmental group. Twitter provides an inexpensive
mobilization strategy for political candidates. For example, in 2008, then-U.S. Senator Barack
Obama had 100,000 Twitter followers before Election Day. By 2012, President Obama had
more than 20 million Twitter followers by Election Day. Also in 2012, the campaign staffs
affiliated with both President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney
engaged in online “Twitter duels” with the intent of having the media and others read the
tweets.

The Internet also eases fundraising for candidates because donors may give to one or several
candidates with a few mouse clicks. The low cost associated with maintaining an Internet site,
coupled with the relative ease in sending out multiple email messages at little cost, increases
exponentially the opportunities for candidates, political parties, and interest groups to ask for
financial and volunteer support and get a fast response.

One adjunct to the Internet as a news and information source is web-based logs, or blogs,
which are online journals. Blogging has become a popular way for candidates, interest groups,
and political parties to share and discuss information. It is not uncommon for news organiza-
tion websites to have blogs or other mechanisms for news consumers to post their responses
to news items and to participate in an online discussion with other interested individuals.
Individuals can also create a blog with relative ease. While questions have arisen as to the
validity of information found on blogs, they do provide an outlet for political discussions.

Social media enhances opportunities for democratic participation with widely available
technologies encouraging interaction among citizens and between citizens and government.
Government use of social media to encourage citizen-government interaction has increased
steadily, as has public familiarity with these tools. Governments at the local, state, and federal
levels now use social media tools to engage citizens in government decision making. Partici-
pating governments use these tools to invite public input and enhance two-way communica-
tion. Public trust is enhanced when governments demonstrate their efforts to be transparent,
accountable, and responsive.

Table 12.1: Civic engagement in the Digital Age
Political engagement on social networking sites
60% of American adults use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter; these are some of the civic behaviors they
have taken part in on these sites:

% of SNS users
who have done this

% of all adults
who have done this

“Like” or promote material related to political/
social issues that others have posted

38% 23%

Encourage other people to vote 35 21

Post your own thoughts/comments on politi-
cal or social issues

34 20

Repost content related to political/social
issues

33 19

Encourage others to take action on political/
social issues that are important to you

31 19

Post links to political stories or articles for
others to read

28 17

Belong to a group that is involved in political/
social issues, or working to advance a cause

21 12

Follow elected officials, candidates for office,
or other public figures

20 12

Total who said yes to any of the activities
listed above

66% 39%

“Civic Engagement in the Digital Age,” Pew Research Center, Washington, DC (April, 2013). http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/04/25
/civic-engagement-in-the-digital-age/

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http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/04/25/civic-engagement-in-the-digital-age/

Section

12.5 The Forms of Media Bias

The value of the Internet for political campaigns has changed campaign strategy in critical
ways. The Internet is a relatively cheap way to control one’s message, and it is relatively easy to
create and maintain a web page. Candidates may publish responses to recent events or oppo-
nents’ attacks within minutes of these events, and they can provide links to other Internet
sites (such as those of political parties or government institutions), thereby easing navigation
among various information sources. Candidates can also provide information updates, such
as newly scheduled appearances, and use their Internet sites to show campaign commercials.
Candidates can also carry on virtual conversations using social media, which allows indi-
viduals, organizations, businesses, and government offices and officials to create and share
content or participate in virtual networks all through the Internet. Examples of social media
are websites and phone applications where users can share content and interact with one
another. Twitter, an online social networking service, allows users to send and read short
messages (called “tweets”) to individuals and groups of persons (“followers”) who share a
particular interest, such as a student environmental group. Twitter provides an inexpensive
mobilization strategy for political candidates. For example, in 2008, then-U.S. Senator Barack
Obama had 100,000 Twitter followers before Election Day. By 2012, President Obama had
more than 20 million Twitter followers by Election Day. Also in 2012, the campaign staffs
affiliated with both President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney
engaged in online “Twitter duels” with the intent of having the media and others read the
tweets.
The Internet also eases fundraising for candidates because donors may give to one or several
candidates with a few mouse clicks. The low cost associated with maintaining an Internet site,
coupled with the relative ease in sending out multiple email messages at little cost, increases
exponentially the opportunities for candidates, political parties, and interest groups to ask for
financial and volunteer support and get a fast response.
One adjunct to the Internet as a news and information source is web-based logs, or blogs,
which are online journals. Blogging has become a popular way for candidates, interest groups,
and political parties to share and discuss information. It is not uncommon for news organiza-
tion websites to have blogs or other mechanisms for news consumers to post their responses
to news items and to participate in an online discussion with other interested individuals.
Individuals can also create a blog with relative ease. While questions have arisen as to the
validity of information found on blogs, they do provide an outlet for political discussions.
Social media enhances opportunities for democratic participation with widely available
technologies encouraging interaction among citizens and between citizens and government.
Government use of social media to encourage citizen-government interaction has increased
steadily, as has public familiarity with these tools. Governments at the local, state, and federal
levels now use social media tools to engage citizens in government decision making. Partici-
pating governments use these tools to invite public input and enhance two-way communica-
tion. Public trust is enhanced when governments demonstrate their efforts to be transparent,
accountable, and responsive.
Table 12.1: Civic engagement in the Digital Age
Political engagement on social networking sites
60% of American adults use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter; these are some of the civic behaviors they
have taken part in on these sites:
% of SNS users
who have done this
% of all adults
who have done this
“Like” or promote material related to political/
social issues that others have posted
38% 23%
Encourage other people to vote 35 21
Post your own thoughts/comments on politi-
cal or social issues
34 20
Repost content related to political/social
issues
33 19
Encourage others to take action on political/
social issues that are important to you
31 19
Post links to political stories or articles for
others to read
28 17
Belong to a group that is involved in political/
social issues, or working to advance a cause
21 12
Follow elected officials, candidates for office,
or other public figures
20 12
Total who said yes to any of the activities
listed above
66% 39%
“Civic Engagement in the Digital Age,” Pew Research Center, Washington, DC (April, 2013). http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/04/25
/civic-engagement-in-the-digital-age/
12.5 The Forms of Media Bias

The role of the media in presenting information is often not balanced—the media may pre-
sent information in a way that favors one perspective (media bias), advocates a clear point
of view or action (propaganda), or references or presents images to serve as information
shortcuts (symbolism).

Media bias may take several forms. One form of bias involves the information shared with
the public. It is impossible for the media to report all information to which the public has no
direct connection; thus, the media chooses what to report on and how much information to
share about that news item. Another form of media bias focuses on how information is pre-
sented to the public. For example, a media story on poverty may show members of a specific
race, gender, age, or ethnic group as being impoverished, which may affect how the public
reacts to news stories about poverty; people’s perceptions about poverty may be shaped by
their opinions about the impoverished persons portrayed in the news story. Bias may also be
demonstrated in the importance given to a news item, such as by placing a news story on the
front page of a newspaper or by leading with that story on a televised news program.

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http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/04/25/civic-engagement-in-the-digital-age/

Section 12.5 The Forms of Media Bias

Propaganda is a way for government and political entities to shape or motivate political
action or public opinion. For example, the government may use public information campaigns
to bring about certain behaviors, such as during World War I when the federal government
sponsored a campaign to encourage the public to buy liberty bonds to fund the war effort.

Symbols provide the public with information shortcuts; they often replace text. Symbols may
also bias public opinion and serve as propaganda tools. For example, “U.S.” is often used to
represent the “United States.” The “United States” is also often represented as an older White
male dressed in clothing with red and white stripes, and white stars on a blue background
(the colors, symbols, and patterns of the American flag). This “person,” “Uncle Sam,” is a sym-
bol of patriotism toward the United States and has been used to encourage individuals to
fulfill civic responsibilities such as registering for the draft, paying taxes, and voting.

In transmitting information to the public, political entities use the media to shape informa-
tion that includes bias, symbolism, and propaganda when sharing information with the pub-
lic. These communication methods influence public opinion and political behavior; how the
public learns information affects the public’s reaction.

The press often plays a role in shaping public opinion because what people learn through the
media will affect their views on the issues being discussed. Changes in public opinion may
result in the public putting pressure on government that it otherwise would not have.

The media is a powerful force in American politics because it decides what it will report and
how much time to devote to a particular story. As gatekeepers, newspaper editors and televi-
sion news producers decide which stories are important. Editorial page editors decide what
types of editorials to print. By shaping the agenda, the press can influence public opinion,
which in turn can affect election outcomes.

Central to media power is its ability to frame and set an agenda. Framing involves how a par-
ticular story is set up and the context in which it is presented. Framing affects how the public
interprets political events and results. If news stories involving former President Bill Clinton
are introduced with a reminder of his impeachment, the public might consider his presidency
more in terms of his impeachment and not in terms of his political accomplishments. Simi-
larly, setting up stories about political candidates with a discussion about the “Tea Party” can
affect viewers’ preferences about that candidate.

Priming is another source of media influence. Priming occurs when media coverage affects
how the public evaluates political leaders and candidates. For example, priming happens
when news content suggests that an audience ought to use specific benchmarks to evaluate a
public official’s performance.

Measuring public opinion is important to the electoral process. But it is not always clear.
When members of Congress take a position on an issue, they might be responding to public
opinion as reported either in polls or in what is being reported in the press. This means that
the press also plays an important role in American politics. It can serve to hold public officials
accountable by making it clear what the public believes on a given issue. But the press can
also influence public opinion by framing the political agenda.

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Summary and Resources

Chapter Summary
The mass media plays many roles and serves multiple functions in American politics. Some
say that it is the “fourth branch” of government, protected by the First Amendment, which
protects freedom of the press. Because the public learns the most about government through
the media, the media is often called a “black box,” in that it shapes the relationship between
the public and government. The media’s role is far more than a mechanism for informing the
public about government. Since long before the founding of the nation, the media has served
in several roles, including watchdog, gatekeeper, and agenda setter. The media also serves as a
vehicle for candidates, interest groups, political parties, and individuals to communicate their
messages to the public and government.

The media plays a critical role in political contests at all stages of the campaign. Positive media
coverage enhances candidates’ opportunities to raise money and to earn public favor, which
translates to votes. Unethical and illegal activities, including being caught in a public or pri-
vate scandal such as an extramarital affair, are widely reported by the media. The media also
serves as a platform for campaign advertising such that candidates must be given an equal
chance to publicize their messages by being charged the same rate for the same time slot in
broadcast media for candidates seeking the same office. The media also hosts and moderates
campaign debates. This means that debates are scheduled so that they can be televised and
broadcast during those times that the public is most likely to pay attention, and the media
works with candidates, candidate organizations, and political parties to determine the for-
mat of the debate. Media representatives write debate questions that are not provided to the
candidates in advance.

The media is often criticized for biasing the stories that are printed or broadcast. These criti-
cisms are levied against the media because how people learn the news affects their opinions
of newsmakers and candidates.

Key Ideas to Remember

• The First Amendment protects the freedom of the press. As one of the six protec-
tions included in the First Amendment, the freedom of the press is considered a
central tenet of a participatory democracy.

• The media has been used as a mechanism for shaping public opinion and political
participation since before the founding of the United States.

• The public learns the most about government through the media, which has resulted
in the media being called a “black box” through which the people learn about gov-
ernment; consequently, it affects how government represents itself to the people.

• The media serves several roles in shaping the relationship between the public and
government, including watchdog, gatekeeper, and agenda setter.

• The media shapes public opinion by informing the public, endorsing candidates,
moderating debates, and serving as a platform for candidates, interest groups, politi-
cal parties, and individuals to make their viewpoints known to the public through
campaign advertising.

• The media has been criticized for its presentation of information through priming
and framing, which bias the information that the public receives.

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Summary and Resources

Timeline: Evolution of the mass media

Photo credits (top to bottom): PhotoAlto/Superstock, Slalom/iStock/Thinkstock, . Corbis, Tanuha2001/iStock/Thinkstock, Tovovan/iStock/
Thinkstock

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Summary and Resources

Questions to Consider

1. What are the forms that media bias takes?
2. How is the media used in political campaigns?
3. Why was a free press important to the nation’s founders?
4. How does the media influence government?
5. What are the issues that the U.S. Supreme Court addresses when considering free

press issues?

Key Terms

agenda-setting theory The theory that the
news media influences public priorities.

black box The idea that the media acts as a
filter and conduit of most information about
the government.

blog An abbreviation for “web log,” an
Internet-based log of news, information, and
analysis.

Federal Communications Act of 1934
(FCA) Legislation that regulates interstate
and foreign commerce in electronic commu-
nication; it created the Federal Communica-
tions Commission, which regulates radio and
television.

framing When referring to the media,
the way the media reports a story, thereby
affecting how people interpret political
events and results.

gatekeeper When referring to the media,
the media’s role in deciding which informa-
tion about government and about which
events the public should learn.

media bias The belief that the media
determines how the news is presented to
the public, which slants what the public
learns about government and how the public
perceives the information learned through
the media.

priming When referring to the media, the
way media coverage affects the public’s
evaluation of political leaders or candidates
for office.

social media The websites and applications
that the public, government, media, political
parties, interest groups, and others use to
interact with one another.

watchdog When referring to the media,
the media’s role in holding the government
accountable.

Further Reading
Boydstun, A. E. (2013). Making the news: Politics, the media, and agenda setting. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago

Press.

Dahlgren, P. (2009). Media and political engagement: Citizens, communication and democracy. New York, NY:
Cambridge University Press.

Graber, D. (Ed.). (2008). The politics of news/the news of politics. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

Graber, D. (Ed.). (2010). Media power in politics (6th ed.). Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

fin82797_12_c12_281-298.indd 297 3/24/16 1:44 PM

Summary and Resources

Graber, D. (2011). On media: Making sense of politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Graber, D., & Dunaway, J. L. (Eds.). (2014). Mass media and American politics. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.

Iyengar, S. (2016). Media politics: A citizen’s guide (3rd ed.). New York, NY: W. W. Norton.

Key, V. O., Jr. (1955). A theory of critical elections. The Journal of Politics, 17, 3–18.

Stromer-Galley, J. (2014). Presidential campaigning in the Internet age. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Tewksbury, D., & Rittenberg, J. (2012). News on the Internet: Information and citizenship in the 21st century. New
York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Wolfsfeld, G. (2011). Making sense of media and politics: Five principles in political communication. New York, NY:
Routledge.

fin82797_12_c12_281-298.indd 298 3/24/16 1:44 PM

11 Public Policy

Associated Press/David Coates

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you should be able to

• Define public policy, and describe the tension among its various goals.
• Discuss agenda setting as part of the policymaking process.
• Examine the politics surrounding the public policymaking process.
• Explain how ideology shapes the policymaking process in the United States.
• Describe how the tools of U.S. economic policy are used to maintain a stable economy.
• Trace the background of social policy in the United States.
• Trace the evolution of American foreign and defense policy, and describe its limitations given a

strong American tradition of isolationism.

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Section

11.1 Defining Public Policy

At first glance, paying workers so they can support themselves should be a matter of eco-
nomic security. Moreover, it should be a matter of fairness: Is it fair that some earn millions of
dollars while others earn so little that they are forced to live in poverty? One possible answer
to that question is clear if we consider the American tradition of individualism, upon which
the American political system rests and which animates much of American politics. According
to this view, individuals are free to make choices for themselves, and they are entitled to reap
the rewards of their efforts. In other words, one who invests in obtaining the education and
skills necessary to command a high income is entitled to that income. One who has chosen not
to is not entitled to any more than he or she is worth. Of course, this is an oversimplification
of a very complex issue: Income is not only a matter of the choices that people may have been
free to make. Those born into poor families do not necessarily enjoy the same opportunities
as those born into wealthier families, in which case individualism may be a convenient ratio-
nalization for inequality. Moreover, all people are not the same because not everyone is born
with the same natural endowments.

Therefore, when approaching a particular policy, it is necessary to understand that while the
policy may result in security for some and greater equity, it may also infringe upon the lib-
erty of others. Employers forced to pay higher wages will argue that if they are required to
pay a minimum wage, their liberty to contract for less, and even the liberty of workers to
work for less, is being infringed upon. Those same employers will argue that the efficiency
of the marketplace is also being undermined, which in turn may threaten the economic secu-
rity of others. The minimum wage, like any policy issue, involves tradeoffs, compromise, and
the building of consensus. To a large extent, the consensus necessary to enact policy in the
United States is typical of the consensus needed to do anything within the U.S. political system
because of the fragmentation underpinning it.

11.1 Defining Public Policy

Public policy can be defined as a plan of action that reflects the collective will of the political
community. Political scientist Deborah Stone (2002) has defined public policy as communi-
ties trying to achieve something as communities. In this vein, public policy represents the
collective will of communities and, as such, is very democratic. Stone offers two models: the
polis and the market.

Town hall meetings are examples of a polis, a political
community that gathers to make decisions based on the
collective will of the people.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 256 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section 11.1 Defining Public Policy

The polis, a term that comes from
ancient Athenian democracy, is the
political community, and it assumes
both collective will and collec-
tive effort. The market, however,
is an arena in which individuals
pursue their objectives and make
exchanges. The market begins
with individuals and assumes no
goals, preferences, or intentions
other than those held by individu-
als. Social and economic rights, as
well as political ones, are defined
by membership in a community.
What makes a collection of individ-
uals a community is not only a mat-
ter of specifying who is in and who
is out, but also a matter of mutual

understanding among members. It is the sharing of burdens and bounty that holds people
together. The objective in the polis is to pursue the public interest, but how the public inter-
est is defined is often a matter of politics. One approach is to define the public interest as the
summation of individual interests, which may be consistent with a traditional understanding
of liberalism, defined in Chapter 1. Another approach is to say that there is a transcendent
public interest, which is more consistent with republicanism, also discussed in Chapter 1. In
the polis, there must be cooperation. The polis is therefore defined in the following way: a
community—maybe even multiple communities—with ideas, images, will, and effort quite
apart from individual goals and behavior. There is indeed a public interest. What typically
makes an issue a policy issue rather than an individual one is that it seeks to address common
problems.

Goals of Public Policy

On the basis of this definition of public policy, the goals of policy would be whatever the com-
munity seeks to achieve, so long as it is arrived at in a democratic fashion. Stone, for instance,
has suggested that policy in the United States is guided by four basic goals: equity, efficiency,
security, and liberty.

Equity
Equity can be a difficult term to define because it is often relative. If goods are to be distrib-
uted, it should be on the basis of needs, rather than with each person receiving the exact
same benefit. A larger family, then, should receive more public assistance than a family of
two. In this vein, equity has more to do with fairness than with equality. To achieve equal-
ity, each would receive the exact same share regardless of need. If those in less need should
receive something while those in greater need do not receive enough, that would strike many
as being unfair.

On Labor Day 2013, fast food workers around the country staged a one-day strike for a $15.00
per hour minimum wage. They have periodically staged one-day strikes since. Meanwhile, a
number of localities around the country, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle,
have enacted $15.00 per hour minimum wage laws. On one level, these new laws are sim-
ple policies requiring employers to pay their workers a minimum of $15.00 per hour. But
on another level, they are the culmination of a policymaking process that says much about
American politics and the interplay among competing American values, interest groups, and,
ultimately, money.
At first glance, paying workers so they can support themselves should be a matter of eco-
nomic security. Moreover, it should be a matter of fairness: Is it fair that some earn millions of
dollars while others earn so little that they are forced to live in poverty? One possible answer
to that question is clear if we consider the American tradition of individualism, upon which
the American political system rests and which animates much of American politics. According
to this view, individuals are free to make choices for themselves, and they are entitled to reap
the rewards of their efforts. In other words, one who invests in obtaining the education and
skills necessary to command a high income is entitled to that income. One who has chosen not
to is not entitled to any more than he or she is worth. Of course, this is an oversimplification
of a very complex issue: Income is not only a matter of the choices that people may have been
free to make. Those born into poor families do not necessarily enjoy the same opportunities
as those born into wealthier families, in which case individualism may be a convenient ratio-
nalization for inequality. Moreover, all people are not the same because not everyone is born
with the same natural endowments.
Therefore, when approaching a particular policy, it is necessary to understand that while the
policy may result in security for some and greater equity, it may also infringe upon the lib-
erty of others. Employers forced to pay higher wages will argue that if they are required to
pay a minimum wage, their liberty to contract for less, and even the liberty of workers to
work for less, is being infringed upon. Those same employers will argue that the efficiency
of the marketplace is also being undermined, which in turn may threaten the economic secu-
rity of others. The minimum wage, like any policy issue, involves tradeoffs, compromise, and
the building of consensus. To a large extent, the consensus necessary to enact policy in the
United States is typical of the consensus needed to do anything within the U.S. political system
because of the fragmentation underpinning it.
11.1 Defining Public Policy
Public policy can be defined as a plan of action that reflects the collective will of the political
community. Political scientist Deborah Stone (2002) has defined public policy as communi-
ties trying to achieve something as communities. In this vein, public policy represents the
collective will of communities and, as such, is very democratic. Stone offers two models: the
polis and the market.
© Toby Talbot/AP/Corbis
Town hall meetings are examples of a polis, a political
community that gathers to make decisions based on the
collective will of the people.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 257 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section 11.1 Defining Public Policy

Efficiency
Efficiency is often defined as getting more output for fewer inputs. In the marketplace, it often
amounts to maximizing profits while minimizing costs. Markets are often presumed to be
more efficient than the polis because transactions are based on price. A policy that distributes
goods to a group of people, even for noble reasons, may be deemed inefficient if it raises the
costs of goods and services in the marketplace through the imposition of a tax. At issue for
policy is the most efficient distribution or allocation of resources. Here, the question is how
the most can be distributed at the least cost.

Security
Security often refers to feeling secure
in one’s person. At a minimum, it
entails physical security, which is to
be free from bodily harm. Since the
government became more active,
beginning in the 1930s in the wake
of the Great Depression, the defini-
tion of security has been broadened
to include economic security.

Liberty
Liberty is a term used often in the
United States because it represents
a core American value. In American
public policy, there is a presump-
tion in favor of individuals’ liberty
unless the exercise of that liberty
would cause harm to one’s self or to
others. Recall from Chapter 1 John Stuart Mill’s famous definition of liberty and the ensuing
“harm” principle in On Liberty (1859/1956):

The sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively,
in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number is self-protec-
tion. . . . The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.

Mill’s harm principle has been the basis for governmental intervention. Because there is a
presumption in favor of individual liberty, the result has often been reactive public pol-
icy—policy in response to a specific problem—rather than proactive public policy—policy
intended to prevent problems in the future.

Policy Process

The public policy process in the United States could be thought of in very linear terms, as
described in Figure 11.1. However, constructing policy in response to a problem is not like

Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Getty Images

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the home-
less and unemployed could receive free meals from
soup kitchens.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 258 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section 11.1 Defining Public Policy

following the owner’s manual for a car. It is not a matter of simply following the flow chart.
Each step in the process is a political process unto itself. For each group whose interests are
served by defining goals in response to a problem, there will be another group whose inter-
ests are served by not defining a problem at all. Because not all people may agree that a prob-
lem exists or on what the goals ought to be, political contests emerge between different
groups and interests in every step of the process.

Figure 11.1: Policy process flow chart

The process for public policy can be difficult to define due to the various interest groups in the United
States. However, many of the steps in the linear flow chart could aid in the construction of a policy
process for any group.

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Section 11.1 Defining Public Policy

Even constructing a policy around the goals of equity, efficiency, security, and liberty often
entails balancing the tradeoffs between them, and this balancing is political. On one level, all
policy seeks to attain at least one, if not all, of these goals. However, each goal in and of itself
is difficult to achieve because not everyone in a political community, especially one as large
and diverse as the United States, may be in agreement over how these concepts are defined. In
fact, defining and taking ownership of these terms shapes American politics. Moreover, defi-
nition affects the distribution of power, which itself is at the core of politics. Policy outcomes
often show who received something and what this person or group received, which, in turn,
says something about the power of individuals and groups relative to others.

Agenda Setting

Because public policy is an inherently political process, the key question is how what might
appear to be a problem for one or some becomes what we would otherwise define as a policy
problem. What is a problem for Group A may not be a problem for Group B. For legislators to
even address an issue, it has to be on the public agenda for discussion, but agenda setting is
not an easy process. If a group can succeed in getting an issue on the agenda for public discus-
sion, that group might be said to have power. The group that thinks a problem exists for policy
discussion seeks to get it onto the agenda. The group that does not think a problem exists
seeks to keep the issue off of the agenda. Still, at the heart of agenda setting is first defining a
problem, and second who defines the problem. Problem definition is also critical because it
ultimately determines the scope of policy, if there is to be policy at all.

Consider for a moment that a manu-
facturing plant in upstate New York
is about to close. Is the plant clos-
ing necessarily a problem? Surely it
may be a problem for those who are
about to lose their jobs. For those
who believe in free markets, how-
ever, there is no problem because
this is simply the marketplace run-
ning its natural course. Still, a ques-
tion remains: How do those who
see it as a problem convince others
that it should then be placed on the
public policy agenda?

A common way to define a policy
problem is to measure it. Numbers
move something from singular to
plural. As an example, to convey a
problem of poverty, someone try-
ing to get the issue on the agenda

may want to begin with a story of one family living in poverty so that people can relate. But
one family in poverty is not enough to constitute a problem. This person needs to show that
there are millions of families like this one to convey a sense of crisis. It is not enough to show
that this plant closing in upstate New York is a problem; rather, it needs to be apparent that

Associated Press/Paul Sancya

Detroit, Michigan, once a thriving industrial city, expe-
rienced social problems associated with the decline
of the automobile industry in the early 2000s. Its
economy was affected by this decline, illustrated in this
image of a padlocked chain-link fence in front of the
former General Motors engine plant.

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Section

11.2 Policy Politics

plants like it throughout the country are closing, affecting millions of workers and others.
Still, measurement is subject to interpretation, and hence manipulation. To say that millions
are affected suggests that the impact is large. But in a country with more than 300 million
people, a few million—perhaps 6 million—is a problem for only 2% of the nation. For those
who seek to keep the issue off of the agenda, thinking of only 2% rather than 6 million serves
their purpose well: Now the problem is not nearly as large as it appears, and talking in terms
of percentages depersonalizes the issue. Percentages do not have human faces; people do.

In defining a problem, it is necessary to mobilize bias—that is, get people to join the conflict.
E. E. Schattschneider (1975) defined politics as conflict consisting of two sides: actors, who
are actively involved in the conflict, and spectators. Those who want to put the issue on the
agenda will mobilize bias—essentially, sell their position to others—and try to socialize the
conflict. They will turn those spectators into actors. Those who seek to keep the issue off
of the agenda will seek to localize the conflict by attempting to keep the number of actors
small and the spectators removed from the conflict. In addition to manipulating numbers,
both sides will rely on studies by think tanks and universities and will use the media to their
best advantage. At the end of the day, how the agenda is set and by whom says much about
who gets what, when, and how (Lasswell, 1936).

11.2 Policy Politics

Political scientist James Q. Wilson (1992) described four types of politics surrounding public
policy: majoritarian politics, entrepreneurial politics, client politics, and interest-group politics.
In each of these types of politics, there are perceived benefits and perceived costs.

Majoritarian Politics

Majoritarian politics involves both distributed benefits and distributed costs, which means
that the benefits are enjoyed broadly and the costs are widely shared. It often involves making
appeals to large blocs of voters and their representatives with the intent of securing a major-
ity. Because the appeal is to the majority, interest groups tend to be absent. Although majori-
tarian politics can be controversial, controversies tend to be over matters of cost or ideology.

Interest-Group Politics

Interest-group politics entails concentrated benefits and concentrated costs. Here, interest
groups are heavily involved in the policy process, and the policy that is adopted very much
reflects the power of respective interest groups. Plants close all the time, costing many Amer-
icans their jobs. Congress passed the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
(WARN) in the summer of 1988, which mandated that firms employing more than 100 work-
ers give their workers 60 days’ prior notice of intent to close. The benefits are concentrated
among those who work for these plants, while the costs are concentrated among their employ-
ers. Issues like these are fought out by organized interest groups. Workers’ groups and unions
support the interest groups because they will derive benefit, while business groups who will
pay the costs oppose them. Each side will also seek ways to mobilize bias.

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Section 11.2 Policy Politics

Client Politics

Client politics involves concentrated benefits and distributed costs, which is to say a few
derive the benefits while many in fact pay. Because the benefits are concentrated, the group
that is expected to receive them now has an incentive to organize and work toward them. At
the same time, the costs are so widely distributed that on a per-capita basis they are so small
that most individuals will either miss them or be indifferent to them.

Agricultural price supports are a
good example of client politics at
work. Since the New Deal, the fed-
eral government has been paying
farmers to plant less as a way of
driving up prices. During the Great
Depression, when prices were
depressed, this was very impor-
tant. Even after the Great Depres-
sion, the government continued
these subsidies because politicians
from farm states lobbied for them,
and being able to deliver them to
farmers ensured that the farmers
would vote for them. Meanwhile,
the average consumer has often
been unaware of how these subsi-
dies affect food costs.

Client politics, which is effectively a way of shoring up political support, could be said to fall
into the broad category of pork barrel projects discussed in Chapter 4, in which politicians
use earmarks to provide funding for projects in their district. But it is also an example of what
economists refer to as rent-seeking, whereby actors in the marketplace seek benefits. Here,
political actors are seeking benefits, or constituent support, by delivering something of value
to constituents, such as a policy.

Entrepreneurial Politics

Entrepreneurial politics involves distributed benefits and concentrated costs. Here, the
benefits are expected to be widespread, while costs are expected to be concentrated. Cer-
tain types of environmental protections might be a good example. Anti-pollution laws are
proposed as ways to improve the health and well-being of all people at the expense of a few:
those who pollute, who may be mainly corporations.

These types of policies are often led by policy entrepreneurs—people both inside and out-
side government who are able to cobble together coalitions of support to attain a legislative
majority. Policy entrepreneurs may or may not accurately represent the interests and wishes
of the public at large, but they are often able to galvanize the public through the mobilization
of bias, if for no other reason than that their arguments appear to be reasonable.

Spaces Images/SuperStock

One of the provisions of the Agricultural Act of 2014
enacted by Congress is the ending of direct payment
subsidies that allowed farmers to be paid whether they
produced crops or not.

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Section

11.3 Policy Based on Ideology

Lowi’s Typology

Chapter 1 explored political scientist Theodore Lowi’s (1964) identification of three types of
politics: regulatory, redistributive, and distributive. This typology applies to policy as well.
With regulatory policy, government is regulating the activities of some in order to protect the
interests of others. It is not hard to see how this model is consistent with Wilson’s model of
interest-group politics. In redistributive policy, a group receives certain goods, which another
group pays for. This can fit into interest-group politics or even entrepreneurial politics if, for
example, the wealthy are being overtaxed for the benefit of the broader middle class. And in
distributive policy, all groups are getting something as part of the politicians’ desire to seek
political rent. This then is consistent with both majoritarian and client politics. Wilson’s types
of politics can be easily classified in a grid, as shown in Table 11.1.

Table 11.1: Wilson’s types of politics

Perceived costs

Distributed Concentrated

Perceived benefits

Distributed Majoritarian politics Entrepreneurial politics

Concentrated Client politics Interest-group politics

11.3 Policy Based on Ideology

Policy in the United States often reflects a particular worldview and tends to be highly ideo-
logical. These worldviews certainly reflect a position with regards to the role of government
in society. Indeed, the nature of policy—what the response to a problem is, if there is any—
makes an effective statement about the appropriate role of government in society. Contempo-
rary American politics and policy might be said to revolve around three different but compet-
ing ideological positions: conservative, liberal, and libertarian.

Conservatism

Conservatives in the United States place great emphasis on conserving the traditions of
the past. They believe that individuals should be free to pursue their interests consis-
tent with their human agency, and that with individual freedom of choice comes personal
responsibility. Therefore, when it comes to the marketplace, they do not see much of a
role for government, and by extension public policy. Rather, the appropriate role for gov-
ernment is to regulate behavior that is considered harmful. There is no need for policy
to assist the poor because the poor are considered to be responsible for their own fate.
Their poverty is believed to be due to their own moral defects, not lack of opportunity.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 263 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section

11.4 Economic Policy

Because conservatives believe in moral
order, they believe that there is a role for
government to regulate individual behav-
ior when it comes to matters that are seen
as affecting the traditional family, such as
who can get married, and abortion. Other-
wise, they believe the role for public pol-
icy should be a limited one. Conservatives
may see a need for negative public policy
from time to time, but never for positive
public policy.

Liberalism

Contemporary liberals in the United States
recognize that there are forces beyond
individuals’ control that result in poverty
and inequality. Markets, in other words, are
not always perfect, and they often fail. Lib-
erals see a need for greater public policy,
especially positive public policy, in order to
remove barriers caused by discrimination
and generations of poverty, which have
put some at an unfair advanwtage. There-
fore they believe policy is needed to level
the playing field in order to ensure equal
opportunity for all.

Libertarianism

Libertarians in many respects represent an extreme form of liberalism married to extreme
conservatism. Individual liberty is considered to be sacred, and therefore the government
should be limited in its function to no more than protecting individuals from bodily harm,
maintaining law and order, protecting private property, and enforcing contracts, which are
considered essential to the operations of a free market economy. The ideal state is the night-
watchman state. Other than minimal regulation, there is absolutely no role for positive public
policy for the libertarian. Public policy, especially positive public policy, is seen as interfering
with individual liberty. The libertarian certainly believes in the conservative’s view of per-
sonal responsibility. But the libertarian also shares the liberal’s view of human agency.

11.4 Economic Policy

Economic policy might strike some as being ambiguous because it is not clear to all just what it
is. From the standpoint of the tensions that exist in American political culture, there is the larger
question of whether there should even be a role for economic policy in American society. Still,
economic policy has amounted to managing the economy. Government attempts to promote

Jim West/SuperStock

People are protesting legislation that Michi-
gan passed that would drop more than 12,000
families from welfare rolls. A public policy
conservative may approve of this measure,
while a policy liberal may disagree.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 264 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section 11.4 Economic Policy

economic growth and stability with
low inflation and unemployment
rates.

Full employment has traditionally
been defined as containing a cer-
tain percentage of those in the labor
force not working. These people
might be retraining, in school, tak-
ing time off to raise children or care
for sick parents, or simply between
jobs. In other words, there will
always be a certain number of peo-
ple out of work for whatever rea-
son. Still, there are issues with the
official definition of unemploy-
ment. To be considered officially
unemployed, one has to have been
looking for work within the previ-

ous 4 weeks. A person is categorized as unemployed when he or she officially files for unem-
ployment insurance (UI), but these benefits are typically available for no more than 6
months in most states. Therefore, one could exhaust one’s benefits and no longer be consid-
ered officially unemployed, or simply give up and drop out of the labor market. Such a person
is neither employed nor unemployed, but technically jobless. Similarly, those who take part-
time work because that is all that is available but are still seeking full-time employment are
not counted among the unemployed either; they are considered underemployed.

Since the Employment Act of 1946 was enacted, it has been the official policy of the United
States to ensure as high a level of employment as would be “practicable.” This act created in
the White House the Council of Economic Advisors, whose job it is to monitor the econ-
omy and prepare an annual report on it. The president is then responsible for transmitting
the annual reports to Congress, with recommendations for how to achieve as high a level of
employment as practicable. To this end, government pursues two basic approaches: fiscal
policy and monetary policy. Both of these approaches involve pumping more money into the
economy during a recession to spur investment, and contracting money during inflation in
order to lower prices.

Fiscal Policy

Fiscal policy involves enabling individuals to purchase more by lowering tax rates during a
recession and increasing taxes during inflation. Inflation occurs when prices for goods and ser-
vices increase and, as a result, individuals can buy less with the money they have. By lowering
taxes, the government essentially gives individuals more to spend, and they can thus demand
more goods and services. Then, during inflation, the government may raise taxes, which will
lead to less demand for goods and services because individuals will have even less money to
spend. The basic problem with fiscal policy, however, is that it generally requires congressional
action. While lowering taxes will always be politically popular, raising taxes will never be and
may cost members of Congress reelection. Still, there are policies within the fiscal family that

Associated Press/Paul Sakuma

Unemployment rates reached more than 10% after the
Great Recession of 2008 and 2009. People could file
for unemployment insurance and receive benefits for
6 months.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 265 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section 11.4 Economic Policy

Congress often pursues. Often, they are labeled “stimulus” plans because the objective is to
stimulate demand for goods and services by increasing the purchasing power of individuals.

Monetary Policy

Monetary policy involves making money more available, usually by lowering interest rates,
which makes it easier for individuals to obtain money to purchase big-ticket items such as
cars and houses and for firms to obtain money to invest, which may create jobs. Then, during
inflation, interest rates are raised in order to make money more expensive and more difficult
to obtain, thereby leading to less spending and ultimately the lowering of prices.

As a policy tool, monetary policy is usually inferred from the language of the Employment
Act of 1946, but it is usually administered by the Board of the Federal Reserve System, often
referred to as the Fed. The Fed has two principal tools in its policy toolbox. The first are the
reserve requirements, the amount of money that member banks are required to keep on
hand. The more banks are required to maintain, the less they have to loan, which results in
a higher interest rate, thereby making money more expensive. The second are the discount
rates, which are the interest rates the Fed charges to its favorite member banks. The lower
the discount rate, the lower overall interest rates will be, thereby making money more avail-
able because it is cheaper to obtain. Monetary policy, however, usually involves a tradeoff
between employment and inflation. By pumping money into the economy in order to create
jobs—raise employment—the inevitable result is usually inflation. But by controlling for the
effects of inflation by contracting the money supply, the inevitable result is a slowdown in the
economy, thereby leading to higher unemployment.

Theories of Economic Management

With the tools of fiscal and monetary policy at the government’s disposal, is there an ideal
way for it to manage the economy? Various economic theories offer prescriptions that the
government can espouse to maintain stable economic growth. The two main approaches can
be described as Keynesian economics and supply-side economics.

Keynesian Economics
John Maynard Keynes (1964) was a British economist in the early part of the 20th century who
maintained that unemployment is caused by the absence of demand for goods and services in
the aggregate. Keynesian economics suggests that by creating programs that enhance pur-
chasing power, government could stimulate demand for goods and services, thereby leading
to an economic recovery. The Keynesian approach embraces the use of fiscal policy and gov-
ernment spending, and critics, including economist Milton Friedman, argued that using mon-
etary policy was a better way of ensuring stability. Using monetary policy may be more desir-
able because it may be politically neutral, whereby the government is not choosing to spend
on one person’s good over another’s. Furthermore, monetary policy is administered by the
Fed, which is politically independent: In other words, the Fed is not subject to the political
pressures of Congress and can therefore make hard and otherwise unpopular choices.

British economist John Maynard Keynes theo-
rized that, in times of recession, the govern-
ment should run deficits to boost the economy.
His theories were vital to the U.S. economy
when it was trying to come out of the Great
Depression and all the economic problems
that it produced.

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Section 11.4 Economic Policy

Supply-Side Economics
There is another approach to economic man-
agement known as supply-side economics,
which is the idea that big tax cuts should go
to the rich because they will invest respon-
sibly, thereby creating jobs for those down
the income distribution. This is the notion
that the benefits filter down from the top to
the bottom. Rather than creating large-scale
government programs, the goal is to unleash
the marketplace by allowing investors to
have more of their money to invest. Supply-
side economics are often criticized by liber-
als who maintain that large tax cuts to the
wealthy are unfair, as there is no guarantee
that those at the bottom will derive any ben-
efit. There is also no guarantee that these
investors will invest in new plants and equip-
ment that might create jobs; they may simply
invest more in stocks and bonds, which only
enhance investors’ portfolios without filter-
ing down to those at the bottom. Further, as
less revenue is coming into the treasury, it
has the potential to expand the deficit.

Globalization and Rising
Economic Inequality

Increasingly, economic policy in the United States is forced to grapple with globalization,
which is the process of increasing interdependence between nations. In the globalized world,
economic crises in other countries have an impact on the economic health of the United States.

Supporters of globalization tout it as a sign of progress and often support free trade, reduced
government spending, and lower taxes so that the United States can compete better in the
global marketplace. Opponents of globalization often want to erect trade barriers in order to
protect the domestic economy. Often, in a global economy where goods and capital can easily
move across national borders, many U.S. companies flee the United States, where wages are
higher, particularly in manufacturing, and relocate to developing nations where wage rates
are considerably lower. As a result of globalization, the United States finds itself with a two-
tiered economy where at the top of the income distribution are highly educated (skilled) and
highly paid workers and at the bottom are poorly educated (unskilled) and poorly paid work-
ers. In between, the middle class that used to exist is no longer.

This has led to another issue very much alive in the current political debate, which is eco-
nomic inequality and the widening gap between the top and the bottom classes. This drives
discussions on the types of policies that ought to be pursued. Should government be spending
more on education and training programs so that workers will be better prepared for the new

Congress often pursues. Often, they are labeled “stimulus” plans because the objective is to
stimulate demand for goods and services by increasing the purchasing power of individuals.

Monetary Policy
Monetary policy involves making money more available, usually by lowering interest rates,
which makes it easier for individuals to obtain money to purchase big-ticket items such as
cars and houses and for firms to obtain money to invest, which may create jobs. Then, during
inflation, interest rates are raised in order to make money more expensive and more difficult
to obtain, thereby leading to less spending and ultimately the lowering of prices.
As a policy tool, monetary policy is usually inferred from the language of the Employment
Act of 1946, but it is usually administered by the Board of the Federal Reserve System, often
referred to as the Fed. The Fed has two principal tools in its policy toolbox. The first are the
reserve requirements, the amount of money that member banks are required to keep on
hand. The more banks are required to maintain, the less they have to loan, which results in
a higher interest rate, thereby making money more expensive. The second are the discount
rates, which are the interest rates the Fed charges to its favorite member banks. The lower
the discount rate, the lower overall interest rates will be, thereby making money more avail-
able because it is cheaper to obtain. Monetary policy, however, usually involves a tradeoff
between employment and inflation. By pumping money into the economy in order to create
jobs—raise employment—the inevitable result is usually inflation. But by controlling for the
effects of inflation by contracting the money supply, the inevitable result is a slowdown in the
economy, thereby leading to higher unemployment.
Theories of Economic Management
With the tools of fiscal and monetary policy at the government’s disposal, is there an ideal
way for it to manage the economy? Various economic theories offer prescriptions that the
government can espouse to maintain stable economic growth. The two main approaches can
be described as Keynesian economics and supply-side economics.
Keynesian Economics
John Maynard Keynes (1964) was a British economist in the early part of the 20th century who
maintained that unemployment is caused by the absence of demand for goods and services in
the aggregate. Keynesian economics suggests that by creating programs that enhance pur-
chasing power, government could stimulate demand for goods and services, thereby leading
to an economic recovery. The Keynesian approach embraces the use of fiscal policy and gov-
ernment spending, and critics, including economist Milton Friedman, argued that using mon-
etary policy was a better way of ensuring stability. Using monetary policy may be more desir-
able because it may be politically neutral, whereby the government is not choosing to spend
on one person’s good over another’s. Furthermore, monetary policy is administered by the
Fed, which is politically independent: In other words, the Fed is not subject to the political
pressures of Congress and can therefore make hard and otherwise unpopular choices.

© Bettmann/Bettmann/Getty Images
British economist John Maynard Keynes theo-
rized that, in times of recession, the govern-
ment should run deficits to boost the economy.
His theories were vital to the U.S. economy
when it was trying to come out of the Great
Depression and all the economic problems
that it produced.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 267 3/24/16 1:48 PM

Section

11.5 Social Policy

economy? Should government enact barriers to trade? Liberals often argue that government
should pursue policies that help workers adjust. Conservatives, however, argue that barriers
to free trade should be eliminated and that the responsibility for education and (re)training
should be on the workers themselves.

11.5 Social Policy

Social policy in the United States often revolves around issues of welfare, including education,
health care, and retirement security. It is not always clear what is meant by “welfare,” though,
which makes social policy controversial. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution mentions
forming a “more perfect union” to promote the general welfare. Yet welfare brings with it
multiple meanings tied to physical security, health, and economic security, and different defi-
nitions result in different policy approaches. It is often around welfare issues that we see
glaring differences among conservatives, liberals, and libertarians.

Background

Many of the nation’s social poli-
cies are centered on preventing
individuals from falling below the
poverty level by ensuring that they
have income. They include Social
Security, unemployment insurance,
Medicaid, and other social insur-
ance programs, through which
the government protects individu-
als from economic concerns and
risks. In the United States, poverty
is defined in terms of an official
poverty line developed by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture; it is
intended to be the minimum level
of income a family would need in
order to subsist. Consequently, a
poor person may live above the poverty line. Individuals lacking job skills will more likely be
employed in the low-wage labor market, where wages are insufficient to lift them above the
poverty line.

The American welfare state is essentially a bifurcated one whereby insurance is provided to
the middle class and public assistance is provided to the poor. The Social Security Act of 1935
contained two essential components: retirement savings for the elderly, which they were
entitled to because they paid into it, and public assistance for the poor through Aid to Depen-
dent Children (ADC). Recall from Chapter 3 that ADC was a children’s program, with assis-
tance going to their mothers. During the 1960s, ADC was expanded into what became known
as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). This bifurcated state essentially reflected

Associated Press/Bill Clark

People hold signs in support of food stamp funding.
The Farm Bill’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Pro-
gram (SNAP) is one type of national welfare program
that was instituted by the federal government.

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Section 11.5 Social Policy

a traditional distinction between “worthy” and “unworthy” poor: One school of thought held
that poverty is a function of market failure. Poor people have insufficient income because the
market failed to provide enough jobs that would enable them to live out of poverty. If one is
poor, it is through no fault of one’s own. Another school of thought held that poverty is a func-
tion of individual moral character and behavior. People are poor because of a moral defect.

By some measures, the effect of the
bifurcated welfare state was to stig-
matize the poor. By other measures,
however, many of the poor relief
programs (food stamps, Medicaid,
and so on) reflected the assumption
that poor people needed assistance
and that their poverty was not their
fault. During the 1960s, as the Civil
Rights Movement was fighting for
political empowerment, a so-called
legislative “War on Poverty” would
create various programs aimed at
providing more opportunities for
poor people. For some, the War on
Poverty was the next phase of the
ongoing Civil Rights Movement,
shifting the focus of African Ameri-
cans’ struggle from political to eco-
nomic empowerment. Eventually,

though, a political backlash would emerge demanding welfare reform based on the assump-
tion that those collecting public assistance were actually unworthy.

By the 1980s, and into the 1990s, social policy discussions were marked by calls for wel-
fare reform. Critics believed that welfare encouraged individuals to have more children out of
wedlock just in order to collect more welfare, and many proposals centered on attempting to
force people back into the labor market. Some advocated the complete elimination of welfare.
Others argued that welfare recipients should be required to work in exchange for their ben-
efits. This was the idea that welfare should be replaced with workfare. Critics of workfare,
however, claimed that workfare programs were akin to slavery. To force recipients to work in
exchange for their benefits was essentially punishing them for being poor. Such an approach
was considered to be all the more punitive if the recipients were just doing “busy work” and
not acquiring real, transferable job skills.

In the summer of 1996, Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity
Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), the most dramatic welfare reform since its inception with
the Social Security Act of 1935. The new welfare program imposed cumulative time limits,
required recipients to participate in work programs, called for reduced funding for food
stamps by $28 billion over a 6-year period, and denied assistance to legal immigrants for at
least 5 years. The new law’s most radical aspect was that it put an end to welfare’s entitle-
ment status and its guarantee of national funding and subjected it to the annual appropria-
tions process.

Associated Press

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Secu-
rity Act into effect in 1935. The Act provided the elderly
with retirement savings and gave public assistance to
the poor.

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Section 11.5 Social Policy

Health Care

In recent years, social policy has been expanded to include health care. Health policy is an
issue that has evoked a great deal of emotion in many people. It has certainly been an issue
that has affected the key policy goals listed at the beginning of the chapter. The key issues in
health care have been access and cost. Until the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, the
United States did not really have a health care policy like those of many other industrial coun-
tries. Britain, for example, has socialized medicine, whereby hospitals are run by the govern-
ment and doctors and nurses are government employees. Canada, on the other hand, has a
single-payer system, whereby every citizen is covered by the state insurance system. Doctors
are in private practice, as they are in the United States, and hospitals are also private.

The United States has traditionally had what can be referred to as a health care regime, which is
effectively an arrangement between public and private actors for the provision of some com-
mon goods. Most Americans get their insurance from their employers. Medicare is government-
sponsored health insurance for the elderly, and Medicaid is government-sponsored insurance
for the poor. Those who have not received insurance from their employers have often gone
uninsured, and the costs of purchasing insurance have been prohibitive. The issue of the unin-
sured becomes even more acute during a recession, when many lose their insurance when they
lose their jobs. Therefore, the limited access becomes a matter of personal economic security. It
also becomes a matter of efficiency because when uninsured people get sick and have to go to
the hospital, the cost is ultimately picked up by the broader population, especially those who
are insured. An increasing number of uninsured people means that those who are insured will
be paying higher premiums.

When Medicare was enacted in
1965, it was viewed by many as the
first step toward universal health
insurance. But there was intense
opposition from many groups,
including insurance companies,
businesses, and the American Med-
ical Association. The result was that
Medicare remained a health care
program for the elderly. Bill Clinton
was elected in 1992 on a platform
of health care reform, but his pro-
posal for managed care, which still
relied heavily on employers to pro-
vide health insurance, went down
to defeat. He had convened a panel
chaired by his wife, Hillary Rodham
Clinton, to draw up a plan. What it
produced was 2,000 pages of fed-
eral regulation, and it created ample
opportunity for those opposed to
mount a public relations campaign

against it. What resonated with the public was the idea that it would not only limit their free-
dom of choice, but also result in the rationing of care.

Associated Press/Evan Vucci

Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human
Services, testified before the House Energy and Com-
merce Committee in October 2013. There were failures
with the government website created for Affordable
Care Act implementation. As a consquence, Americans
initially had trouble signing up for government health
care. Sebelius resigned in 2014.

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Section 11.5 Social Policy

Still, the issue of affordable health care did not disappear, and costs continued to rise. Finally,
in 2010, Congress passed, and President Obama signed, the Affordable Care Act (ACA). While
the ACA may have increased access to insurance, its rollout was not without problems. First,
the government websites were not working, and people could not sign up. Then, many people
who had had affordable insurance received cancellation notices from their insurance compa-
nies because their policies no longer met federal minimum requirements. With insurance
canceled, they were now forced to purchase more expensive insurance. Companies that pro-
vided what was referred to as “Cadillac” insurance were to be subject to a tax, all but ensuring
their employees would be forced into cheaper plans of less quality. In particular, the individ-
ual mandate was challenged in the Supreme Court: Could the government require individuals
to purchase something, or was the mandate tantamount to a tax? The Obama administration
had always maintained that it was not a tax. In 2012, the Supreme Court held that it was, on
the grounds that the penalty for not purchasing insurance was a tax and Congress had the
authority to impose taxes.

Three years later, the ACA was
again before the U.S. Supreme Court
on the basis of more technical if not
overly arcane arguments. When
Congress set up the law, it had pro-
vided for subsidies to be available
to qualified individuals who signed
up through state exchanges. Many
states opposed to the ACA refused
to set up these exchanges, so the
federal government made these
subsidies available to those signed
up through the federal exchange.
The ACA, however, stipulated that
these subsidies were to be available
through “state” exchanges and did
not mention the federal exchange.
A group of states challenged the law on the grounds that these subsidies constituted federal
overreach. In a 6–3 decision in June 2015, the Court did not quite see it that way. Although the
Court acknowledged that Congress had been sloppy in writing the legislation, it also stated
that it did not believe that it had been Congress’s intention to deny subsidies to those living
in states that failed to create their own exchanges. Now, it was a foregone conclusion that the
ACA was here to stay unless a compositional change in Congress and the White House would
result in its repeal.

Social Policy and Core American Values?

Given the American political and cultural tradition of individualism, social policy raises a fun-
damental question: Do Americans have a right to be taken care of ? Conservatives often main-
tain that social insurance and public assistance lead to moral hazard, in which the recipients
may be motivated to act differently if they feel protected against harm or loss. Although it is
noble to care for the poor, does the receipt of public assistance create a disincentive to work?
If individuals can collect money and do nothing, why would they go to work, especially if it is

Associated Press/Andrew Harnik

Senators speak in support of the Affordable Care Act,
which was enacted by Congress in 2010.

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Section 11.6 Foreign and Defense Policy

low-wage work? The United States has a tradition of rugged individualism, whereby people
rely on themselves and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. In fact, it is American
mythology that if one works hard, one can be self-sufficient and potentially become wealthy.
But liberals believe that if people are poor through no fault of their own, then providing assis-
tance and creating opportunities for them can enable them to live their lives with some dig-
nity, which in and of itself is a precondition for human agency. Though this is an ongoing
debate, it is important that in American politics the poor have always tended to be stigma-
tized. In evaluating policy, it is not enough to ask whether it works and whether monetary
benefits outweigh monetary costs, but also whether it conforms to American values.

11.6 Foreign and Defense
Policy

Like all nations, the United States pursues
both a foreign policy and a defense policy.
Defense policy often involves the strategic
use of military force and decisions about the
scale of those forces to defend the nation.
Defense policy is first and foremost about
national security and maintaining secure
borders. It can also involve the protection
of U.S. interests abroad. Foreign policy,
however, is much broader and deals with an
array of military, diplomatic, economic, and
security exchanges that the United States
has with other nations. On leaving office, the
first president, George Washington, warned
his countrymen against getting involved
in foreign entanglements. For most of the
nation’s history, the United States could be
characterized as isolationist, in that it has
sought to isolate itself from the rest of the
world. That did not mean the United States
did not strive to defend its basic interests.

Monroe Doctrine

Perhaps the first major statement of foreign policy regarding European nations was given by
President James Monroe in 1823. This statement, which came to be known as the Monroe
Doctrine, stated that European efforts to colonize land or interfere in states in North, Cen-
tral, and South America would be viewed by the United States as acts of aggression requiring
U.S. intervention. This particularly applied to Caribbean islands off of U.S. shores. In effect,
the United States was making it clear that it would maintain a zone of influence: It would not
tolerate European countries’ presence in its backyard, where these countries would then be
better positioned to possibly invade the United States.

Portrait by William James Hubbard, ca. 1832

The Monroe Doctrine, given by President
James Monroe in 1823 during his State of the
Union address, emphasized that any coloni-
zation efforts by Europe in North, Central, or
South America would be viewed by the United
States as acts of aggression.

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Section 11.6 Foreign and Defense Policy

American Imperialism

During the late 1800s into the early 1900s, especially under President Theodore Roosevelt,
the United States began to assert itself in Latin American and Caribbean countries. As Euro-
pean nations were colonizing land in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the United States, in
part as an extension of the Monroe Doctrine, sought to colonize some territories close to
home. The principal reason for this was a fear that, if it did not, European countries would
move in.

Although the United States sought to be politically isolated from European countries and the
rest of the world, it certainly wanted to trade around the world in order to grow its economy.
Although the United States did not really enter the imperial realm until 1898 with the Spanish-
American War, it was beginning its march to becoming an imperial power in the 1850s.

By the turn of the 20th century, the United States was becoming a world power. It had inter-
ests around the world and was particularly interested in securing its market share in China.
During the presidency of William McKinley, Secretary of State John Hay initiated what would
come to be known as the Open Door Policy, which declared that all nations trading with
China should have equal privileges and also opposed the partition of China by foreign pow-
ers. Essentially, Hay was demanding that China grant the United States most favored nation
status, which held that if Country A (such as China) has a special relationship with Country B
(such as Great Britain), then the United States should also have a special relationship with
Country A because the United States is an ally of Country B.

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt issued the corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, which
reasserted American opposition to European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. Roos-
evelt claimed that the United States had a right to intervene in the domestic affairs of its
neighbors if they proved unable to maintain order and national sovereignty on their own.
Ostensibly, the corollary was intended to ensure that other powers would not enter into the
region, but it did pave the way for the United States to intervene in a number of Caribbean
countries, including Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. Moreover, the United States was
able to consolidate its dominance in the hemisphere with the opening of the Panama Canal in
1914.

The Road to Being a
Superpower

When World War I broke out dur-
ing the summer of 1914, the United
States declared its neutrality. But
the United States was eventually
pulled into the war in 1917 despite
President Woodrow Wilson’s best
efforts to keep the nation out of it.
In 1918, with the end of the war,
President Wilson went to Versailles
to participate in the treaty nego-
tiation. Wilson sought to create the

When the United States entered World War I in 1917,
men were recruited to join the army.

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Section 11.6 Foreign and Defense Policy

League of Nations in the belief that, through collective security, it would prevent future wars.
The U.S. Senate never ratified the Treaty of Versailles, nor did the United States enter the
League of Nations. Rather, the American tradition of isolationism reared its head. Still, the
United States emerged from the first world war stronger, as a creditor nation rather than a
debtor nation.

Isolationism remained very strong through the next two decades and made it very difficult
to get involved in World War II even as Britain and its allies were close to being overrun by
the Germans. It was not until the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor that the
United States finally entered World War II, at the end of 1941. When the war was over, the
United States emerged as one of two superpowers, with the Soviet Union emerging as the
other. Both the United States and the Soviet Union possessed large nuclear arsenals and could
dispatch military forces quickly around the world. In 1947, President Harry Truman issued
what came to be known as the Truman Doctrine, which made it clear that it was the inten-
tion of the United States to support free peoples who were resisting attempted subjugation by
armed minorities or by outside pressures. This doctrine would then inform the U.S. policy of
containment, which would represent the United States’ attempt to limit, or contain, Soviet or
other Communist influence to where it already existed. Where there was an attempt to spread
Communist influence, the United States and its allies, through the North Atlantic Treaty Orga-
nization (NATO), would seek to stop it. At the same time, the Soviets also practiced their own
version of containment through the Warsaw Pact to stop the spread of Western and demo-
cratic values.

The Return to Isolationism

The doctrine of containment was also used to justify wars with perceived Soviet surrogates
such as North Korea and North Vietnam. However, as the United States continued fighting
a seemingly hopeless guerilla war in Vietnam from the 1960s until 1975, Americans essen-
tially began to call for a return to isolationism. The death toll of the Vietnam War was being
broadcast into American living rooms across the country. When the Selective Service adopted
a lottery system for the draft, which meant that the children of the affluent could no longer
be excused from military service because of student deferments, massive protests against the
war broke out. Aside from the fact that Americans could not see the value of involvement in
foreign entanglements, there was no clear sense of victory, as there had been in World War II,
where both Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally. This only created a sense of
self-doubt. Unless it was clear that the United States could be absolutely victorious, Ameri-
cans preferred that military might be eschewed.

Still, the Cold War continued through the 1980s. The United States and the Soviets still had
large stockpiles of nuclear weapons. During the Cold War, U.S. nuclear policy was informed by
the principle of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which presumed that neither super-
power would be the first to launch a nuclear attack because such an attack would lead to
certain destruction. But the principle of MAD also assumed that nation states were rational
actors—that they could calculate what was in their best interests and that nuclear war was
not because rational beings sought to live. Did this apply to all countries? Do all nations share
Western rationality? Nevertheless, there were attempts during the Cold War to negotiate
nuclear arms control and reduction treaties.

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Section 11.6 Foreign and Defense Policy

The New World Order and Terrorism

With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States was left as the world’s only
superpower with military bases and interests to protect around the world. Among those inter-
ests were protecting the flow of oil into the country. When Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, attacked
Kuwait in 1990 and was on the doorstep of American ally and major oil producer Saudi Arabia,
President George Herbert Walker Bush organized an international coalition to eject Iraq from
Kuwait. Coalition forces, however, stopped short of toppling the Saddam Hussein regime.

During the 1990s, U.S. interests around the
world fell victim to terrorist attacks, but
the country chose to treat these matters as
law enforcement issues and not acts of war.
When the U.S.S. Cole was attacked while
docked in Yemen and the Khobar Towers
in Saudi Arabia were bombed, the United
States sent over FBI agents to investigate
and talked about bringing the perpetrators
to justice through arrest and trial.

When, on September 11, 2001, the twin
towers of the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon were attacked by terrorists flying
airplanes into them, killing more than 3,000
Americans, the United States would no lon-
ger treat terrorism as a simple law enforce-
ment matter. This was now an act of war.
President George W. Bush declared a war
on terror and made it clear that the United
States would use force against terrorists
and those nations that harbored terrorists.
Because al-Qaeda, the group responsible for
the September 11th attacks, had been train-
ing in Afghanistan, the United States felt
it was within its rights to declare war on
Afghanistan as part of the larger war on ter-
ror. Because Saddam Hussein was financing
terrorists, even though no link could be established to the September 11th attacks, the United
States decided to go to war in Iraq too. This time, the goal was regime change, where the objec-
tive would be a change not only in government, but also in the underlying political culture.

With these twin wars in the Middle East came Bush’s doctrine of preemption, which enunci-
ated that the United States would be permitted the use of force to prevent hostile acts (such
as those using weapons of mass destruction), even when it was not clear when and where
an enemy attack occurred. Moreover, these hostile acts needed to be prevented in order to
protect U.S. national interests, which consisted of the constellation of military, economic,
and ideological concerns surrounding the nation’s security. It was now deemed to be in the
United States’ national interests to engage in nation-building, where the United States would
remake other nations, preferably into democracies modeled on the United States.

Associated Press/Patrick Sison

The World Trade Center, as well as the Penta-
gon, were the sites of a terrorist attack on Sep-
tember 11, 2001.

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 275 3/24/16 1:49 PM

Summary and Resources

Chapter Summary
Public policy reflects the collective will of communities attempting to achieve things for them-
selves. The policy process in the United States is a very political one, which does not easily
follow a linear flow diagram. Because different groups seeking to serve their interests seek
to attain different objectives, there will never be a clear definition of what constitutes a pol-
icy problem, let alone what the solutions are. Groups see these issues through the prism of
not only their respective interests, but also their respective political ideologies. It is through
policy that American politics is played out, because the outcome of policy tells us much about
who has power, when they have it, and how they have it. The type of policy that the United
States pursues as a nation also says something about how Americans define terms such as
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from the Declaration of Independence.

Public policy in the United States has fallen into three principal domains: economic, social,
and foreign/defense. In economic policy, the government seeks to manage the economy with
the goal of maintaining high levels of employment and generating opportunities. It often
pumps more money into the economy during periods of recession through fiscal stimulus
packages and monetary policy centered on low interest rates. In social policy, government
creates a safety net to ensure that people do not fall below the poverty line, and in recent
years social policy has been expanded to include health care. In foreign/defense policy, the
United States seeks to secure its interests around the world. This often means maintaining
access to markets for American goods. In the past, it meant preventing other countries from
having influence in the U.S. sphere of influence. And yet, despite the United States being the
only superpower today, much of its foreign and defense policy is informed by a deep-seated
tradition of isolationism.

Key Ideas to Remember

• Public policy reflects the collective will of the political community.
• Policy in the United States is often designed around the objectives of efficiency,

equity, security, and liberty.
• Agenda setting, which is key to formulating policy, is inherently a political process.
• Government seeks to manage the economy through the use of both fiscal and mon-

etary policy.
• Social policy in the United States has revolved around issues of welfare, which often

include education, health care, and retirement security.
• The United States pursues both foreign and defense policy.
• The United States has long had a tradition of isolationism in foreign policy.
• Over time, the United States has become a global superpower, but American foreign

policy politics often revolves around the desire of many to remain isolated from the
rest of the world.

Timeline: Evolution of U.S. foreign policy

Photo credits (top to bottom): JimLarkin/iStock/Thinkstock, moodboard/moodboard/Thinkstock, Niyazz/iStock/Thinkstock, Culver
Pictures, Inc./SuperStock, Underwood Photo Archives/SuperStock

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 276 3/24/16 1:49 PM

Summary and Resources
Summary and Resources
Chapter Summary
Public policy reflects the collective will of communities attempting to achieve things for them-
selves. The policy process in the United States is a very political one, which does not easily
follow a linear flow diagram. Because different groups seeking to serve their interests seek
to attain different objectives, there will never be a clear definition of what constitutes a pol-
icy problem, let alone what the solutions are. Groups see these issues through the prism of
not only their respective interests, but also their respective political ideologies. It is through
policy that American politics is played out, because the outcome of policy tells us much about
who has power, when they have it, and how they have it. The type of policy that the United
States pursues as a nation also says something about how Americans define terms such as
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness from the Declaration of Independence.
Public policy in the United States has fallen into three principal domains: economic, social,
and foreign/defense. In economic policy, the government seeks to manage the economy with
the goal of maintaining high levels of employment and generating opportunities. It often
pumps more money into the economy during periods of recession through fiscal stimulus
packages and monetary policy centered on low interest rates. In social policy, government
creates a safety net to ensure that people do not fall below the poverty line, and in recent
years social policy has been expanded to include health care. In foreign/defense policy, the
United States seeks to secure its interests around the world. This often means maintaining
access to markets for American goods. In the past, it meant preventing other countries from
having influence in the U.S. sphere of influence. And yet, despite the United States being the
only superpower today, much of its foreign and defense policy is informed by a deep-seated
tradition of isolationism.
Key Ideas to Remember
• Public policy reflects the collective will of the political community.
• Policy in the United States is often designed around the objectives of efficiency,
equity, security, and liberty.
• Agenda setting, which is key to formulating policy, is inherently a political process.
• Government seeks to manage the economy through the use of both fiscal and mon-
etary policy.
• Social policy in the United States has revolved around issues of welfare, which often
include education, health care, and retirement security.
• The United States pursues both foreign and defense policy.
• The United States has long had a tradition of isolationism in foreign policy.
• Over time, the United States has become a global superpower, but American foreign
policy politics often revolves around the desire of many to remain isolated from the
rest of the world.
Timeline: Evolution of U.S. foreign policy
Photo credits (top to bottom): JimLarkin/iStock/Thinkstock, moodboard/moodboard/Thinkstock, Niyazz/iStock/Thinkstock, Culver
Pictures, Inc./SuperStock, Underwood Photo Archives/SuperStock

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Summary and Resources

Questions to Consider

1. What are the principal objectives of public policy, and what are the tradeoffs
between them?

2. What is the principal difference between the polis and the market, and what are the
implications of this distinction for policy in the United States?

3. What is the difficulty in defining a policy problem and determining whether such a
problem is placed on the agenda?

4. What are the four types of public policy politics that James Q. Wilson identifies, and
how do they coincide with Theodore Lowi’s three types of politics?

5. What are the implications for policy of how liberals, conservatives, and libertarians
view the role of government?

6. In terms of economic management, what is the difference between fiscal and mon-
etary policy and supply-side economics?

7. How do liberals and conservatives differ on how policy should respond to increasing
globalization?

8. What distinguishes social policy from economic policy?
9. In what ways does welfare reform represent a return to the American tradition of

individualism?
10. What has been the impact of isolationism on the evolution of American foreign and

defense policy?
11. Does the Truman Doctrine represent a radical departure from the Monroe Doctrine,

or is it actually a continuation of it?
12. In what ways does the war on terror demonstrate the limitations of isolationism?

Key Terms

client politics When politicians view con-
stituents as clients who need to be served
and where benefits are concentrated but
costs are distributed.

containment Refers to a military strategy
that attempts to limit the enemy’s expan-
sion and influence; during the Cold War, the
United States practiced containment when it
sought to limit both Soviet and Communist
influence to where it was and prevent its
expansion.

Council of Economic Advisors An office
in the White House that prepares annual
reports on the state of the economy; created
by the Employment Act of 1946.

defense policy The government’s strategic
use of military forces and decisions about
the scale of those forces.

discount rates The interest rates that the
Fed charges its favorite banks.

entrepreneurial politics Where the ben-
efits of policy are distributed, but the costs
are concentrated.

fiscal policy The government’s approach
to spending and taxation, with the goal of
influencing the nation’s economy by affect-
ing consumer spending.

foreign policy The government’s approach
to the array of military, diplomatic, eco-
nomic, and security exchanges it has with
other nations.

globalization Refers to a process whereby
there is greater economic interdependence
between nations.

inflation The rise in prices of goods and
services.

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Summary and Resources

interest-group politics When politicians
seek to satisfy interest groups and both ben-
efits and costs are concentrated.

isolationist Refers to a foreign policy
approach that aims to keep a country out of
the affairs of others; a historically U.S. desire
to separate from the rest of the world in for-
eign affairs and avoid entanglements abroad,
specifically in Europe.

majoritarian politics When politicians
appeal to large blocs of voters and where
benefits are broadly enjoyed and costs are
widely shared.

monetary policy The central bank’s
approach to influencing the size and rate of
growth of the money supply through inter-
est rates, with the goal of influencing the
nation’s economy.

Monroe Doctrine Articulated by President
James Monroe; stated that European efforts
to colonize land or interfere in states in
North, Central, and South America would be
viewed as acts of aggression, thereby war-
ranting U.S. intervention.

most favored nation status Refers to the
special treatment one country gives another
in international trade.

mutually assured destruction (MAD)
A principle that presumed that neither
superpower would be the first to launch a
nuclear attack because it was understood
that such an attack would lead to certain
destruction.

nation-building Refers to attempts by one
power to remake another, preferably into a
familiar model (e.g., the United States trying
to install democracies in other countries).

Open Door Policy The United States’ policy
that declared that all nations trading with
China should also have equal privileges in
China.

policy entrepreneurs People both inside
and outside government who are able to put
together coalitions of support and achieve a
legislative majority.

preemption A foreign policy principle
emphasized by George W. Bush that held
that the United States is permitted to use
force to prevent hostile acts.

proactive public policy Policy measures
intended to prevent problems in the future.

public policy A plan of action that reflects
the collective will of the political community.

reactive public policy Policy measures
taken in response to specific problems that
have already occurred.

rent-seeking When actors in the market-
place seek benefits. Applied to politicians, it
means that they are seeking something like
constituent support in exchange for deliver-
ing something like a desired policy.

reserve requirements Refers to the
amount of cash that member banks of the
Federal Reserve System must keep on hand.

social insurance Usually refers to an array
of government programs to ensure that indi-
viduals will have economic security and will
be immunized from risk and the vagaries of
the marketplace.

supply-side economics An economic the-
ory that holds that big tax cuts should go to
the wealthy because they will invest respon-
sibly, thereby creating jobs and benefits for
those at the bottom.

Truman Doctrine Policy that asserted that
it was the intention of the United States to
support free peoples who were resisting
attempted subjugation by armed minorities
or by outside pressures.

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Summary and Resources

underemployed Usually refers to those
who would like to be employed full time but
took part-time jobs because that was all that
was available.

unemployment insurance (UI) Funds
that workers receive while unemployed that
allow them more time to search for jobs that
are a better match for their skills.

workfare A welfare reform whereby recipi-
ents of public assistance were required to
work in exchange for their benefits.

Further Reading
Heclo, H. (1978). Issue networks and the executive establishment. In A. King (Ed.), The political system

(pp. 87–124). Washington, D.C.: The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Katz, M. B. (1989). The undeserving poor: From the war on poverty to the war in welfare. New York, NY: Pantheon
Books.

Keynes, J. M. (1964). The general theory of employment, interest, and money. New York, NY: Harvest/Harcourt.

Mead, L. C. (1986). Beyond entitlement: The social obligations of citizenship. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Mead, L. C. (1992). The new politics of poverty: The nonworking poor in America. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Murray, C. (1984). Losing ground: American social policy, 1950–1980. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Rushefsky, M. E. (2008). Public policy in the United States: At the dawn of the twenty-first century. Armonk, NY:
M. E. Sharpe.

Schattschneider, E. E. (1975). The semisovereign people: A realist’s view of democracy in America. Hinsdale, IL:
Dryden Press.

Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York, NY: Anchor Books.

Stone, D. (2002). Policy paradox: The art of political decision making. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.

Wilson, J. Q. (1992). American government: Institutions and policies. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company.
Specifically Chapter 15: “The Policy-Making Process.”

fin82797_11_c11_255-280.indd 280 3/24/16 1:49 PM

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