...including 843 registered voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 and 4 points for the general population and registered voters, respectively, including design effect. Partisan divisions are 30-24-37 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents among the general population, 33-26-33 percent among registered voters. Scope: The potential for Hillary Clinton to run for President is evident now moreso than ever for the next election. In a hypothetical head-to-head early matchup against five other opponents she leads in the polls. The national survey has Clinton being supported by 53 to 56 percent of registered voters. One of the cited reasons for this is that her husband is a former President and she has a significantly strong political base than her GOP peers. With a 13-point margin voters stipulate they would support Clinton primarily due to her status as the potential first female President. Voters tend to get behind individuals that are trying to create history (Langer, 2015). Clinton’s current base is like cement where she is backed by nine out of ten Democrats that are registered to vote. Due to President Obama’s financial recovery for the country Clinton has an overwhelming amount of support from voters that see income inequality as a major issue. Women also favor Clinton 20 to 24 point margins, men by non-significant 2 to 7 point margins. Clinton also appears to have a strong base with minorities, and adults under 40 and lower-income voters. Keep in mind early...
Words: 709 - Pages: 3
... recent years have shown a slow but steady trend in declining voter turnouts at our triennial elections. There are many reasons that account for the turnout decline in New Zealand over time, many of which can be attributed to the changes in New Zealand society causing citizens to be less engaged in politics, especially youth. It is important to prevent the further decline of voter turnout and there are many ways that this trend can be rectified. New Zealand voter turnout has experienced a slow but steady decline throughout the 20th century; from an average of 85-90% in the...
Words: 1026 - Pages: 5
...political Parties interest to find support from certain groups due to electoral capture. The minorities and lower classes have a lower representation by the Political Parties during elections and need to have more benefits instead of it being focused mainly on the white working class. Though the lower class seems to do better under the Democratic Party, neither of the main Parties seems to represent them well. Voting behavior seems to be in favor of the Democratic Party, but the Republican Party still has a good chance at winning even though most of electorate has been worse under Republican leadership. Bartels suggests that this is due towards the American voters are myopic and are convinced that economically they will be better off. The voters seem to have more of a focus on economic issues than political issues. The voters will then follow bias policies where they can see immediate benefits but lack to comprehend the hidden costs. We can also see a substantial income growth for rich families in comparison to middle class and poor families. Also some groups will look at the campaign and base their vote...
Words: 947 - Pages: 4
...University, Durham, NC Abstract Disagreements about the optimal level of wealth inequality underlie policy debates ranging from taxation to welfare. We attempt to insert the desires of ‘‘regular’’ Americans into these debates, by asking a nationally representative online panel to estimate the current distribution of wealth in the United States and to ‘‘build a better America’’ by constructing distributions with their ideal level of inequality. First, respondents dramatically underestimated the current level of wealth inequality. Second, respondents constructed ideal wealth distributions that were far more equitable than even their erroneously low estimates of the actual distribution. Most important from a policy perspective, we observed a surprising level of consensus: All demographic groups—even those not usually associated with wealth redistribution such as Republicans and the wealthy—desired a more equal distribution of wealth than the status quo. Keywords inequality, fairness, justice, political ideology, wealth, income Most scholars agree that wealth inequality in the United States is at historic highs, with some estimates suggesting that the top 1% of Americans hold nearly 50% of the wealth, topping even the levels seen just before the Great Depression in the 1920s (Davies, Sandstrom, Shorrocks, & Wolff, 2009; Keister, 2000; Wolff, 2002). Although it is clear that wealth inequality is high, determining the ideal distribution of wealth in a society has proven...
Words: 2606 - Pages: 11
...● 01. 6 generalizations about institutions 1. People use institutions to serve specific ends. 2. They divide labor .3. Institutions save everyone's time and energy; in technical language, they reduce transaction costs. 4. Institutions exist independently of the particular people participating in them. 5. Institutions distribute authority. More power inheres in some roles than in others. 6. Participants will attempt to adapt it to their own purposes; but they are difficult to change. ● 02.How do institutions check tyranny? - checks and balances:Social pluralism, we divide government up between three institutions with all the same amount of power, ● 03.Why are institutions difficult to change? Path dependency: reliance on experience, constrained by status quo; solutions based on familiar institutions. Some participants are content with current arrangements and not willing to change. ● 04.Framers consciously designed a set of institutions for making it possible to do politics of this kind. The point is to design a set of institutions that control the effects of factions--by setting them against one another, but dividing authority among institutions ● Problems with the Articles of confederation No ability to tax , No central currency, No way to negotiate treaties ,No executive capacity, difficult to maintain public order, nation security. ● 06.Deals addressed by the constitution Path dependency: reliance on experience, constrained by status quo; solutions based on familiar...
Words: 7682 - Pages: 31
...1. Introduction Social policies are created in order to compensate for the distortions arising from the process of capitalist development, which discriminates and creates an increasing gap between the rich and poor. The role of the state is to provide funds in order to ensure the welfare and to comply with the established constitutional right that is the guarantee to health, education, work and food for every individual. The state comes as a provider of these needs by creating social policies that ensure the survival for those living in extreme poverty. Based on this, income transfer programs were created, with the purpose of, in the short term, alleviate the problems arising from poverty and in the long term, investing in human capital, breaking the poverty cycle. A conditional cash transfer (CCT) is a type of income transfer program with the aim to reduce poverty by creating welfare programs conditional to the beneficiary’s actions. The government only transfers the money to people who meet certain conditions, which may include the enrolment of children in school, going to the doctor and receiving vaccinations, among others. Bolsa Familia is the largest conditional cash transfer in the world and it was implemented in Brazil (World Bank, 2005). and it consists in the financial aid to poor families as long as they keep their children often at school and vaccinated. The program aims to reduce poverty in the short and long term through conditional transfers of capital, which...
Words: 5006 - Pages: 21
...In the book, Unequal Democracy author Larry M. Bartels argues that the mass public in the United States is apathetic about economic inequality. Low-income citizens are more concerned about the rich running the country, which threatens egalitarian values. The wealthy are not paying their fair share of taxes, they receive better treatment in court, and the law favors them the majority of the time. To make things worse they also receive better political representation when it comes to dealing with social issues. These political benefits are given because the wealthy contribute heavily to political campaigns. It is given that the wealthy are better informed about politics than the poor, which makes them politically active. The poor on the other...
Words: 1867 - Pages: 8
...third parties. The Electoral College, with its undemocratic ways, tosses the value of the electorate’s votes into the trash. In the case of a tie, the results of the presidential election is placed into the hands of the House of Representative in which every state casts one vote. “Because each state only casts one vote,” says Bradford Plumer, “the single representative from Wyoming, representing 500,000 voters, would have as much say as the 55 representatives from California, who represent 35 million voters.” (Doc F) This shows that smaller states have more influence over the outcome of the presidential election and thus, the Electoral College promotes political inequality. Furthermore, this stage in the process throws the electorate’s votes into the trash because the states’ representatives can decide without any influence from the public (Background Essay). This indicates that the population’s opinion is no longer of value and therefore terminates democracy, the principle that declares that people rule in a democratic government. As a consequence of promoting political inequality through overcompensating smaller states in its decision-making and terminating the value of the popular vote through its tiebreaker strategy, the Electoral College is undemocratic and should thus be abolished. Not only are small states overrepresented during a tiebreaker, they are also overrepresented in the Electoral College in general. A combination of the electoral votes of the 12 smallest states and...
Words: 1032 - Pages: 5
...According to media sources, the current political climate is intense. Many Americans are angry, “dissatisfied with the state of the country, and 64.7% believe that the country is on the wrong track.” In fact, Congress is only getting a few positive nods—about 16% to be exact—from the citizens it serves, because 61% of all voters believe that “most representatives are selling their votes.” (Gallup, 2015) In general, people in the U.S believe the wealthy and special interest groups can easily buy congressional support. The distrust of the government plays a huge part in Americans’ skepticism and panic; in search for a new president, they’re looking for someone to subside their unrest. My candidate, Bernie Sanders, hears the issues at hand and...
Words: 1916 - Pages: 8
...Racial inequality a topic completely relevant today. The African American people have experienced all sorts of inequality for centuries. From being forced into a different country to becoming slaves for hundreds of years. It is proven that if you are born African American you will live a much harder life than somebody who is white. From police brutality, financial inequality, and social injustices. For years, African Americans have been fighting for their equal rights. The movie SELMA (2014) shows how the Civil Rights Act legally desegregated the South. Even with the ending of slavery blacks struggled to live a civilized life in the United States. The movie shows us the 3-month campaign that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led. King, believed that a second bill was necessary in all places buts mostly places like Alabama where only a short percentage of blacks were registered to vote. With such low amounts of registered black voters King as well as other SCLC members began protesting. On February 1st, Martin Luther King and Ralph Abernathy started a march of approximately 250 people. They all protested to the Selma courthouse for slow voter registration. At that point both King and Abernathy were arrested and had to spend five days in jail. Another activist Malcom X visited Selma and wished the best for King. It is after that visit...
Words: 608 - Pages: 3
...In the 1787 Constitutional Convention, the members debated on methods on how to pick the President of the United States. Finally the Committee of Eleven proposed an indirect election, which is the Electoral College. The voters elect the electoral college which then elects the President. However there is much room for mistakes through this process. Therefore, due to the corruption and inequality, the Electoral College is not a fair and equitable way to elect the President of the United States. Over the years, there have been times when the Electoral College elects a candidate that did not win the popular vote. For example in the election of 1824, Andrew Jackson won the popular vote with 152,933 votes but John Quincy Adams became president...
Words: 819 - Pages: 4
...Book analysis-----“Winner-Take-All Politics” Jingshu Xu This book discusses the rising income inequality in America. During the last 30 years, the very wealthy people enjoy the unbalanced government politics and the middle class goes missing. The richer you are, the more you have benefited from economic changes. On the opposite, the poorer get the worse economic life and the middle class become vulnerable. The author give some statistics, since 1978—the richest 1% gaining 256% after inflation while the income of the lower earning 80% grew only 20%. In addition, the authors point out that it is not the market that makes this happen, but the politics. This book is divided into three parts. First, in Part One, the authors raise a question about the how the puzzling politics of winner-take-all politics formed. In chapter 1, the authors use Piketty and Saez’s results of research. Rather than talking to witnesses, which is useless because it is not easy to find the super rich people and know their exact income, Piketty and Saez’s look into their income reported when paying taxes. However, the authors mention that argue that many of the explanations simply don't explain what is going on because it does not consider the government’s effect on incomes as well as tally up private noncash compensation. While the authors agree that technological change is part of the reason, they consider that politics plays a key role. Chapter 2 talks about the how the winner-take-all economy was made...
Words: 739 - Pages: 3
...We are the same from the inside why should race and gender matter? Holmes is trying to make people understand that our social inequalities are being perceived as normal when in reality they aren't. He talks about how migrant workers have been treated for years being looked down upon as something less in our society. The whole concept is that Holmes is exposing the harsh reality and that we need to change the way we treat certain people politically, legally, and symbolically. Moreover, another label society has imprinted as normal in the past, but has come a long way, is the ideal of men being better than women ultimately getting the upper hand. Gender inequality has made a major impact on our society throughout the years making changes in how our politics, culture (socially), and economics are handled and seen. We, as a society, need to keep encouraging people to look beyond stereotypes and recognize the contributions that each person, female or male, can make to the workplace and our social order. Furthermore, women have had to fight for equality in politics in the United States by winning the right to vote, as well as a seat at the political table. The Nineteenth Amendment in our Constitution gave women the right to vote in 1920. Although, gender stereotypes about female politicians and voters still exist till this day. Since gaining the right to vote, women have worked in many levels of government in the United States. For example, President Ronald Reagan named Sandra Day...
Words: 1176 - Pages: 5
...Currently today, segregation has been gone for quite some time now and so has many racial inequality. But of recent events that have happened, African Americans have been standing up in ways just like Medgar Evers in order to pursue the goal of equality. Lately it's been said that all people in America are equal, yet many forms of discrimination still go on. Civil Rights Activists such as Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr. didn't fight for inequality among people to continue in America. In this year, decade, and so on, there has been an increase in discriminated situations. A current topic that's going on is “Black Lives Matter”, it's shown the side of America that still seems to be quite racist and believe that African Americans are still not considered equal to them, “When we blame private prejudice, suburban snobbishness, and black poverty for contemporary segregation, we not only whitewash our own history but avoid considering whether new policies might instead promote an integrated community.”-Richard...
Words: 1705 - Pages: 7
...give up resources in order to pay for them; every member of society would agree to be coerced since such coercion makes each citizen better off than he would be in a free market (172). Since governments are primarily concerned with the effects their actions have upon future utility incomes of voters due to the concept that voters base their vote decisions on their future income prospects – governmental...
Words: 766 - Pages: 4
