Lanahan Readings...Again

Mr. McKeehan is really loading it on us now. We have to read eight excerpts from our Lanahan book, four sections out of our book, complete two+ online political ideology surveys, then write a three page paper on it...all by Wednesday. Today's Monday.

So here goes...I've already read a few excerpts and done the essay, so this will be relatively short.

V.O. Key - Public Opinion and American Democracy

Key attempts to explain the relation between people's opinions and the political leadership's opinions. In his opinion public opinion is useful as a parameter the ruling elite can maneuver in. This concept refers to what Key calls "Opinion Dikes." He says this because public opinion never exercises any initiative. It is more static. He finishes by saying the responsibility for indecision, decay, and disaster rests with the opinion-leader group because they influence public opinion, which in turn provides broad ideals of what is acceptable for governmental leaders to accomplish.

Lawrence Jacobs/Robert Shapiro - Politicians Don't Pander

The title says it all. The authors argue that politicians create a version of public opinion that coincides with their own objectives, and the media takes this view and makes it appear to the public that the politician's version of public opinion is in fact true public opinion. Gradually this effect shapes public opinion itself into what politicians want. The authors say that only the "heat of an imminent presidential election and the elevated attention that average voters devote to it motivate contemporary politicians to respond to public opinion and absorb the costs of compromising their policy goals." This seems to suggest that parties have different agendas and policy goals than do the people, which is a reasonable assumption. Politicians use to crafted words to simulate responsiveness. They create the appearance of responsiveness.

Walter Dean Burnham - Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics

Walter Dean Burnham talks about "critical realignments" and several key characteristics of this types of elections. First, they are associated with short and intense disruptions of traditional patterns of voting behavior. Second, the elections are characterized by abnormally high intensity, including the intensity of ideological polarizations. This intensity causes incumbent leadership to become more dogmatic, which in turn contributes to the intensity. Abnormally high voter turnout is also present. These realignments are like a train going slightly off course and then snapping back on to the rails with a bang. They occur with startling periodicity. These realignments are the result of the inability for parties to make gradual adjustments along vecotrs of emergent political demand.


That's all for tonight, folks.