Chapter 10 – Political Parties

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts and terms from Chapter 10 on political parties, their functions, types, and systems.

Political party

A group seeking to elect office-holders under a given label.

Interest aggregation

The melding of separate interests into a general party platform.

Partisan identification (party ID)

An enduring psychological attachment to a political party, often formed in childhood.

Mobilization

Rousing people to participate in politics, especially to vote.

Centralization (of parties)

Control exercised by a party’s national headquarters over candidates, funds, and strategy.

Coherence

A party’s ability to stick together and present a consistent, rational whole.

Cadre party

A party run by a few political professionals, active mainly at election time.

Mass party

A party that seeks a large, dues-paying, ideologically committed membership.

Devotee party

A party built around a single dominant personality.

Catchall party

A large, ideologically loose party that welcomes diverse groups to win elections.

Weltanschauung party

(German: “world-view”) A party that tries to sell a comprehensive ideology.

Center-seeking competition

When parties moderate their positions to win the many voters in the political center.

Center-fleeing competition

When parties become more extremist, ignoring middle-of-the-road voters.

Polarized pluralism

A party system in which numerous parties compete in a center-fleeing, extremist manner.

Electoral system

The legal rules for running elections; the two main types are single-member district and proportional representation.

Single-member district / First-past-the-post

An electoral rule in which the candidate with the most votes (even a plurality) wins the only seat in the district.

Proportional representation (PR)

An electoral rule using multimember districts that allocates seats to parties in proportion to their vote share.

Party system

The pattern of interaction among the political parties in a country.

Dominant-party system

Opposition parties exist but one well-organized party consistently controls government, often using patronage or media advantages.

Two-party system

A system in which two major parties have realistic chances of winning national office.

Multiparty system

A system with several competing parties that can all win seats and form coalitions.

Two-plus party system

Two large parties dominate but one or more smaller parties are electorally relevant.

One-party system

A single legal party monopolizes political power.

Fluid / Inchoate party system

An unstable system where parties quickly appear, split, and disappear, often without clear programs.

Instability (of cabinets)

Frequent changes of government causing difficulty in long-term policymaking.

Immobilism

Paralysis of government when leaders cannot agree on major issues.

Personalistic party

A party based chiefly on the personality of a strong ruler rather than on program or ideology.

Political appointment

A government job given to a non-civil servant, often as a reward for political support.

Transparency (political finance)

The openness of money flows and transactions to public scrutiny.

Nationalization (of industry)

Placing major industries under state ownership.

Politburo

The ruling committee of a Communist party.

Standing Committee (China)

The top seven-member governing body of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo.

Apparatchik

A full-time Communist Party functionary; literally, a person of the apparatus.

Opportunists

Individuals who join or use a party primarily for personal gain.

Responsible party government

A system in which voters can clearly reward or punish the governing party for its policies.

Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson’s ambitious 1960s program of social reforms in the United States.

Tea Party

A movement of very conservative U.S. Republicans that emerged after 2009 and resists compromise.

Neo-institutional theory

The idea that political institutions can take on lives of their own, sometimes disconnected from voter demands.

Cross-tabulation (cross-tab)

A table showing the relationship between two variables, used to reveal patterns in data.