lectam4

Interest Articulation

For the next several weeks we study the systemic process known as interest articulation.

Interest articulation focuses on the processes through which demands are made upon the political system. Demands are one of the three basic inputs into the political system (the others being supports and expectations).

Supports and expectations focus upon attitudes, values, opinions and beliefs associated with a political culture. Thus one of the things that we will study is PUBLIC OPINION.

We will also explore the various entities which can make demands:

INDIVIDUALS: what are their opinions? what shapes them? how do they acquire them? (political socialization) what is ideology and how is it distributed in America? INTEREST GROUPS: what are the types of interest groups? what are their resources? how do they influence the system? POLITICAL PARTIES: how do they operate? who "controls" them? and the ways these actors make demands: LOBBYING: how do interest groups lobby? why are some groups successful and others not? are there controls on lobbying? ELECTIONS: what are the characteristics of elections in America? what are political campaigns like? what are the strategies that parties employ? who belongs to which party?

We will explore these different actors and processes through three distinct avenues:

1) the standard lecture and readings from Dye and Zeigler
2) by doing research from the ExplorIt American Government workbook; and
3) making comparisons between the US and Ruritania

It is now time for you to devote a significant amount of time to accessing the Ruritania webpage!

A great deal of the Ruritania simulation involves providing an alternative examination of the interest articulation process. While we cover these in a standard sequence, it is necessary for you to understand the basica differences, how we will explore them, and where you need to go to access more information to understand the Ruritanian system. The table presented below gives you a quick means of comparison:

	U.S.A.	Ruritania
public opinion	reading/ workbook	Trotter page
interest groups	very important	minimal
political parties	2	10
party type	caucus	all 3
Election characteristics: frequency	regular	episodic
election district size	1 (unit rule)	9 (multimember)
election method	first-past-the-post (plurality)	single transferrable vote

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