Politics

Political parties are some of the key players in electoral politics since they are in charge of essential functions such as organizing the government and the electorate. Given the importance that political parties have in the political realm; fully discuss the following concepts from the outline below.

*Be sure that essay has an introduction, body, conclusion and that is grammatically correct (1 point).

A. Political Ideology

Ideology- Define it within the essay (1 point)
Provide at least two functions of political ideology (1 point)
Liberalism-Define it within the essay (1 point)
Conservatism- Define it within the essay (1 point)

B. Political Party

Political party- Define it within the essay (1 point)
Provide at least two functions of political parties (1 point)

C. Responsible Political Party

Responsible political party: Define within the essay (1 point)
Provide an example of a country that has a responsible party (1 point)

D. Rational Political Party

Rational party: Define it within the essay (1 point)
Provide an example of a country that has a rational party (1 point)
Draw how the political spectrum looks like during the primary election and the general election day(You may copy and paste the drawing from the lecture notes in this section) (1 point)
Hotelling- Define within the essay (1 point)
Anthony Downs- Discuss about him and his book within the essay (1 points)
Median voter- Define within the essay(1 point)
Ambiguity- Define and explain within the essay (1 point)
Convergence- Define and explain within the essay (1 point)
List the 3 solutions provided to get rid of rational parties (1 point)

The three solutions that Anthony Downs proposes to get rid of rational political parties in our country or lessen their rational behavior are:

1. Decrease the number of risk Acceptant voters who are willing to take a chance on the candidate even though they do not have sufficient information. These voters support their rational political party no matter what. I: they enable rational political parties in our country.
2. Increase risk adverse voters who question the behavior of the political party and will not support it if the party engages in ambiguity and convergence. I: they force the parties to be more responsible.
3. Add a strong third party or have a multi-party system. If we have a multi-party system political parties can’t change their positions on issues and candidates have to be clear about what they really believe in.

 

Define and explain about risk adverse and risk acceptant voters (2 points)
Outline: Total Points= 20 points