Rich elections lecture

1 files changed, 57 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/rich/27_elections b/rich/27_elections
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7c9151f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rich/27_elections
@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+- Elections, especially in democracy, control political
+  behavior/decisions
+    - The system can be manipulated
+    - The gov't doesn't represent everybody; it represents voters
+        - Young people don't vote, so they aren't pandered to
+            - Belief that the issues being discussed are distant
+        - So you need to participate
+            - Because your future is being decided now
+
+How Dr. Rich socializes his kids to their civic duty
+- Mocked up ballot box, voter ID, "I voted" stickers
+- Brings his kids to the polls, or involves them with mail-in ballots
+- Election participation is a civic duty
+    - Has a profound impact
+    - Ex: suffrage rights
+
+"All men are created equal" was in no way correct. Liberalist idealism
+- In some states, only 10% voted.
+- Property qualifications, "economic stake=political stake"
+
+Suffrage is now, in the letter of the law, for every adult citizen who
+hasn't "violated their civic responsibility" (like prisoners).
+How did it develop over time?
+- African Americans
+    - 1865-70 "Civil War Amendments"
+    - (Only) during Reconstruction--2 black people elected to Senate and
+      14 to House
+        - After Reconstruction ends with Union soldiers leaving, they
+          get redisenfranchised.
+        - After 1901, next to serve was 1972
+            - Southerners did much of the active prohibition of voting
+            - But federal gov't and many Northerners stood by
+        - Literacy tests and "Character tests" (very low pass rate)
+        - Employer permission to vote
+        - Restrictions on voter registration
+    - 1965 Voting Rights Act
+        - An active law; funding withheld from states
+        - Turnout was low in first few years, but they eventually
+          returned.
+- Women
+    - Could, sometimes, inherit property from husbands or male
+      relatives.
+    - When only property determined voting rights, women could vote.
+    - But by 1910, only 4 states had given women the right to vote.
+    - Powerful interests opposed suffrage
+        - Southern whites didn't
+        - Manufacturers didn't
+            - because women would vote against child labor (very cheap)
+        - Catholic Church
+            - "Vote is contrary to the proper role of women"
+    - British women's suffrage movement
+        - Gave a playbook/methods for influencing change
+        - Cannot be a private act; must be public like marches,
+          protests
+        - Also have to make those in power (men) care about the issue
+            - Women boycott domestic work
+        - Well-timed, uses WWI. 19th Amendment 1920