Define salience. Using several examples from history, explain why ...

[nmorano1]

Define salience. Using several examples from history, explain why it varies over time.
 
  Answer:

Question 2

The state of Oregon uses mail-in ballots exclusively. What are the benefits and drawbacks of such a system?
 
  Answer:

[janeli1]

Answer to Question 1

An ideal response will:
1. Define salience as issues that people believe are important to them.
2. Provide one or more examples of a particular salient issue in politics. Then, highlight change in saliency. This may be done by focusing on how one issue changes in saliency over time or how, during key historical periods, specific issues were more salient than others.

Answer to Question 2

An ideal response will:
1. Describe the benefits of vote-by-mail as lower cost and easier to administer than an in-person voting process held on only one day. Vote-by-mail has been found to increase turnout, at least in the initial period after adoption, and in Oregon it continues to foster greater turnout in presidential general elections.
2. Identify the drawbacks as potential abuses of the process, fraudulently cast ballots, or bribing a person to vote a certain way and then mailing in that person's ballot. Some see value in casting a ballot in public with other voters on a designated day. More fundamentally, some question the value of making it easier for people to vote, which voting by mail does. This viewpoint is based on the perceived importance of citizens being willing to invest time and effort, which in-person voting requires.