American Government and Organization PS1301 Wednesday, 14 April

Announcements Midterm scores are posted Average score is 75 and the top score is 100 Add 2 points to your score

Ideological Bias Polls show that roughly half of all Americans believe the news media are ideologically biased Most complaints accuse journalists of a liberal bias The claim that the media promote liberal causes and undermine conservative ones might seem odd. After all, three times in the 1980s and once again in 2000, the American public elected a conservative candidate president; conservative hosts, as we have seen, dominate talk radio; and Bill Clinton certainly received considerable negative news coverage.

Coverage of Bush and Clinton

Attention to News and Bush Approval Prior to 9/11 What is the hypothesis? Dependent and independent variables? How do we read the table? Sum along categories of the independent variables, interested in how the distribution of the dependent variable varies across categories of the independent variable. What are some problems with this? Think back to the criteria for establishing causation? Timing a happens before b; covariation; rival hypothesis? Can we be sure that news viewing is causing disapproval or approval of Bush. Source: Pew Research Center For The People & The Press, 15 July 2001

Approaches to Studying Media Effects Public Opinion Surveys* Experiments Compare aggregate opinion data and media content (content analysis)* Merging of content data with survey data (for each individual)

Attention to News and Bush Approval – September 6 This table looks similar? What would we expect to happen after September 11? Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? Source: Pew Research Center For The People & The Press, 6 September 2001

Attention to news and Bush Approval After 9/11 Source: Pew Research Center For The People & The Press, 19 September 2001

Media Effects Selective perception People often see the same events differently; recall the role of party id.

Direct Democracy Rather than voting for representatives, citizens are able to draft and vote directly on policy Citizens as Legislators

Devices of Direct Democracy The Initiative The Referendum The Recall

Where Direct Democracy is used

Opinions about Direct Democracy What do you think?

Advantages Allows citizens to circumvent unresponsive legislatures (example of term limits and other reforms) Allows citizens to remove unpopular representatives (example of Gray Davis) Empowers voters

Reasons Californians Support Direct Democracy Source: Table 7.1, p. 135 Donovan and Bowler

Voter Evaluations of Representative versus DD Source: Table 7.2, p. 136 Donovan and Bowler

Criticisms of Direct Democracy Original intent of the framers was for a republican form of government Laws are poorly written Too much money and “special interest” influence Voters are incompetent Minority rights

Effects on Policy Initiatives can advance policies that run counter to the self-interests of elected officials States with the initiative process are more likely to have adopted policies that constrain how legislators govern. Examples: Term limits, supermajority requirements for new taxes, tax and expenditure limits, campaign finance reform

Effects of Politics Increased turnout Higher levels of knowledge about politics (particularly with highly visible initiatives) Strengthen efficacy (the feeling that you have a say)