The Political System

This is a macro-level perspective that allows for the integration of the subjects in Government and

Politics.

Political Environment

Inputs

Demands

Supports

Demands are articulated or expressed by individual actors such as voters or Interest Groups Spokespersons or by Groups

Demands seek some valued output

Support provides the system with “support”

Inputs

• Demands would include issues raised on policy agendas such as

– lower taxes or changes in the taxing structure,

– prescription drug medicare coverage,

– protection from NAFTA regulations,

– constituent requests for help with individual case.

• Demands are expressed in some way by political actors -- citizens, groups, prominent participants.

• The expression can be conventional or unconventional methods of making demands:– Conventional would include traditional

lobbying, individual letter writing, or individual requests.

– Unconventional could include demonstrations, boycotts, picketing and the like.

Supports

• The “supports” are considered to be essential by systems analysis. These can be considered as fuel on which the system operates.

• Examples of supports include:– Voting– Campaigning or working for candidates– Patriotic statements.

– Paying taxes– Not complaining but speaking well of the

government, officials, and policies.

• The System cannot function without some level of support from the citizenry.

• Again, getting students to “look” for supports or supporting activities is sort of an interesting scavenger hunt.

• A good example of understanding the purposes of voting would include selecting officials AND providing the system with support.

Intermediaries

Political Parties

GroupsIG/PACs

Mass Media

Intermediary Institutions

• These are informal or formal filters that screen, skew, articulate demands and supports.

• They are often “extra-constitutional” (outside the constitution).

• Some can claim they are essential to the system and to politics, but in theory they are NOT vital.

• All three of these intermediary institutions clearly “fit” into politics and we can provide any number of examples of how they function in terms of filtering demands and supports.

• Political Parties aggregate demands from a fairly wide set of interests and people– Liberal Democrats and Moderates, even

Conservatives– Arch-Conservative Repub. and Moderates.– All interests are NOT aggregated inside the two

major parties.

• Parties bundle policy preferences and candidate preferences into a single “act” -- voting.

• Parties perform other functions in the Political System as well, but consider that they are– funneling and channeling (and filtering out

or screening) demands and– providing supports.

• Interests articulate demands and provide supports for the system.

• This means the demands expressed by an interest group may be louder and “heard” more clearly than if expressed by individual actors.

• These kinds of demands are so evident that it is hard NOT to find examples.– Lobbying for specific policies is certainly

“demanding.”– Leading and organizing demonstrations is

“demanding.”

• IG Supports, come in various forms– Mobilizing members (voters) is the best

example.– Getting members to work on campaigns or

make monetary contributions.

• PACs are the current prime example of Campaign contributions as a form of “support” in return for access or influence.– Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Govt PAC (2000) may

illustrate the Supreme Court’s efforts at change this filtering device.

– Soft-Money also illustrates the blending of support and Demands.

• These examples can “go on forever.”

• The Mass Media is a last example of a tremendous filtering device in the Political System.– The Media influence behavior and beliefs

and knowledge of individuals and officials.– The Media may distort information flowing

both directions in this process.– The Media certainly sets many institutional

agendas and raises agenda items for various actors to consider.

The Policy Making Institutions

Congress

President

Judiciary

Bureaucracy

The BLACK Box or Policy Making Institutions

• This is the traditional heart of American Government and Politics.

• Using the Political System perspective the institutions can be seen as responding to demands and supports from various actors and interests.

– The institutions, though separate still depend on each other for support, demands, and action.

• This means understanding the presence of BOTH the Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances.

• These are different concepts.

– These institutions cannot ignore FEDERALISM and the presence and the power of states, although that is often forgotten in the study of US Government and Politics.

• Inter-institutional cooperation and conflict is a very important features of these policymaking institutions.

• The responses of each set of institutions to various kinds and sources of demands and supports is a central piece of the government and politics scheme.

• As one example of this, BUREAUCRACY has constituents, but they do not elect (vote directly for) bureaucrats.– Constituents are the clientele of the agency

who are regulated by the agency or receive benefits from the agency.

• These may be individuals or• organized groups or corporations or• both individuals and groups.

– They provide the agency with political support by advocating the agency before Congress.

– The agency responds by providing benefits or “favorable” regulatory policies to these constituents.

– The agency may also articulate clientele demands to Congress, claiming agency expertise that requires statutory (policy) changes that will benefit the clientele.

– Agency and Clientele support each other before Congress for policy authority and for budgets.

– Clientele do VOTE for legislators which indirectly supports agencies.

• This rough outline is a sophisticated framework for explaining a large part of the infamous Iron Triangle or Sub-government.

• You can develop your own symbiotic connections between other institutions and “constituents or clientele.– The Courts– The Chief Executive (President)– The Congress (each house is different)

Public Policies

or

OUTPUTS

Public Policies

• Here, the best way of testing these is NOT necessarily teaching a number of substantive policies.

• Some textbooks have a chapter on Foreign Policy and another on Domestic Policy.

• Perhaps teaching ONE substantive policy area -- let the students choose? -- will work.

Feedback

Feedback

• Feedback provides intermediates and actors with information, benefits, policies that they were seeking or demanding.

• These actors may be satisfied with the policies or they may be dissatisfied.

• The result of these feedback loops are more, modified demands and supports.

• Groups and actors may be quite happy with the policy or the institutional response to their demands. That may provide the system with “quietude” or stability.

• Dissatisfaction may produce something from grumbling to riots depending on the level of acceptance.

• Generally, a Political System that produces no satisfactory results is in trouble of collapsing.

• Our system, no matter what the level of grumbling and dissatisfaction is not likely to crumble, although some dissatisfied groups may want it to do that.

• The Political Environment is important and need not be ignored in this scheme.

• This includes Political Culture and Public Opinion.

• It includes population demographics as well if you want to bring that in to the discussion.

• This part of the system is the background and the setting in which demands, processes of policymaking, and outputs occur.