Chapter 12: Political Parties

A ballot prepared and distributed by government officials that places the names of all candidates on a single list and is filled out by voters in private. First adopted in the United States in 1888, the Australian ballot replaced oral voting and party-supplied ballots.

Australian ballot

A closed meeting of a political or legislative group to choose candidates for office or to decide issues of policy.

caucus

A gathering of delegates to select a party’s presidential and vice presidential ticket and to adopt its national platform.

national party convention

An electoral alliance that was the basis of Democratic dominance from the 1930s to the early 1970s. The alliance consisted of Catholics, Jews, racial minorities, urban residents, organized labor, and white southerners.

New Deal coalition

State or local party organizations based on patronage. They work to elect candidates to public offices that control government jobs and contracts, which, in turn, are used by party leaders (often denigrated as “bosses”) to reward the subleaders and activists who mobilize voters for the party on Election Day.

party machines

The practice of awarding jobs, grants, licenses, or other special favors in exchange for political support.

patronage

A coalition of people who seek to control the machinery of government by winning elections. Not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, political parties make mass democracy possible by, among other functions, coordinating the group activities necessary to translate public preferences into public policy.

political party

An election held before the general election in which voters decide which of a party’s candidates will be the party’s nominee for the general election.

primary election

A period of American history extending roughly from 1880 to 1920 and associated with the reform of government and electoral institutions in an attempt to reduce corruption and weaken parties.

Progressive Era

The act of voting for candidates from different political parties for different offices—for example, voting for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator.

split ticket

A delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is eligible to attend because they are an elected party official. The Democrats reserve a specific set of delegate slots for party officials.

superdelegate

A political system in which only two major parties compete for all of the elective offices. Third-party candidates usually have few, if any, chances of winning elective office.

two-party system