Happy Election Day!

For the 117th time, Americans will elect Representatives and Senators to meet in Congress next year. And for the 59th time, we'll pick a president to govern & lead the nation.

If that doesn't get your romantic patriotism going, I can't help you. [THREAD]1/

Now, elections don’t work like the “folk theory” most believe. See @jbview ( http://shorturl.at/mpBIN ) & this great @jennifernvictor ( http://shorturl.at/wEWY9 ) piece to be disabused of that.

But they do have a huge impact on policy. 2/

Many people, however, still get wrong *how* they influence public policy. Here's a blog post I wrote on this topic. The rest of this thread is the summary version, along with piles of more pictures to pull at your heart. 3/

https://gai.georgetown.edu/elections-matter/

The most obvious way, of course, is that elections reconstitute the government with new political actors, who have different preferences about public policy.

That’s where the story starts and stops for most people. 4/

But elections also provide strong signals to both new and returning elected officials about what choices about public policy will likely succeed or fail in the public sphere, and/or reward and punish them in the future. Even those who weren't on the ballot. 5/

Elections also create and destroy leaders, as elites struggle to understand and shape the probable political meaning of the blunt vote results. The thinking of these new leaders about public policy is also influenced by the elections. 6/

Other political actors come out of elections already looking forward to the next election, considering how they may run for president, for example, and what choices they should make about public policy between now and then. 7/

And then the non-elected actors, who greatly outnumber the elected officials. Appointed actors in the executive branch, interest groups, lobbyists, those who finance campaigns (large and small), party actors, and yes, even individual citizens; they will all look for signals. 8/

And the signal they receive will affect their strategies: what they push for (or don’t), who they support, who they fund, what they expend resources on, who they rely on, and how they operate. And, of course, they will not just receive the signal, but actively try to shape it. 9/

Our system is far from perfect. Especially if you compare it to your normative fantasies and the folk theory of democracy.

But democracy as actually practiced, warts and all, is close to a human miracle in comparison with the alternatives. https://twitter.com/MattGlassman312/status/1014466800384438272?s=20

At the individual voter level, elections barely matter. People don’t vote on issues. They can’t and don’t retrospectively hold pols accountable. But the aggregate election itself is a cataclysmic exogenous shock on the political system, and redefines the game for all players. 11/

This morning, we stand on one side of that cataclysm. Tomorrow, we will be on the other. As it does every two years, America is about to change. Forever.

That’s a good thing. See you on the other side. /end