American Politics Today - Block 3

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Interest group

an organization of people sharing a common interest or goal that seeks to influence the making of public policy by electioneering and lobbying

Lobbying

Efforts to influence public policy through contact with public officials on behalf of an interest group

Collective action problem

a situation in which the members of a group would benefit by working together to produce some outcome, but each individual is better off refusing to cooperate and reaping benefits from those who do the work.

Selective incentives

Benefits that can motivate participation in a group effort because they are available only to those who participate, such as member services offered by interest groups.

Party in government

all of the elected and appointed officials who identify with a political party

Party in the electorate

The group of citizens who identify with a specific political party.

Party in service

The role of parties in recruiting, training, fundraising, and campaigning for congressional and presidential candidates. This aspect of party organization grew more prominent during the sixth party system.

Primary

election in which voters choose their party's candidate for the general election

Caucus

A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.

Unified Government

The same party controls the White House and both houses of government.

Divided Government

Governance divided between the parties, especially when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.

Duverger's Law

The principle that in a democracy with single-member districts and plurality voting, like the United States, only two parties' candidates will have a realistic chance of winning political office.

Retrospective Evaluation

a citizen's judgement of an officeholder's job performance since the last election

Hard Money

Political contributions given to a party, candidate, or interest group that are limited in amount and fully disclosed.

Soft Money

Funds obtained by political parties that are spent on party activities, such as get-out-the-vote drives, but not on behalf of a specific candidate.

Electoral College

group of persons chosen in each state and the district of Columbia every four years who make a formal selection of the president and vice president

Swing State

In a presidential race, highly competitive states in which both major party's candidates stand a good chance of winning the states' electoral votes

Public Opinion

Citizens' attitudes about political issues, leaders, institutions, and events

Latent Opinions

an opinion formed on the spot, when it is needed (as distinct from a deeply held opinion that is stable over time)

Sampling Error

A calculation that describes what percentage of the people surveyed may not accurately represent the population being studied. Increasing the number of respondents lowers the sampling error.

Polarization

The alignment of both parties' members with their own party's issues and priorities, with little crossover support for the other party's goals

Filtering

The influence on public opinion that results from journalists' and editors' decisions about which of many potential news stories to report

Slant

The imbalance in a story that covers one candidate or policy favorably without providing similar coverage of the other side.

Priming

The influence on the public's general impressions caused by positive or negative coverage of a candidate or issue.

Framing

The influence on public opinion caused by the way a story is presented or covered, including the details, explanations, and context offered in the report.

Civil Rights

Rights that guarantee individuals freedom from discrimination. These rights are generally grounded in the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and more specifically laid out in laws passed by Congress, such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Strict Scrutiny Test

These are the three tests the courts apply to equal protection clause cases depending on classification, The highest level of scrutiny the courts use when determining whether unequal treatment is justified by the effect of a law. It is applied in all cases involving race. Laws rarely pass the strict scrutiny standard; a law that discriminates based on race must be shown to serve some "compelling state interest" in order to be upheld.

Intermediate Scrutiny Test

The middle level of scrutiny the courts use when determining whether unequal treatment is justified by the effect of a law; this is the standard used for gender-based discrimination cases and for many cases based on sexual orientation.

Reasonable Basis Test

The use of evidence to suggest that differences in the behavior of two groups can rationalize unequal treatment of these groups, such as charging sixteen- to twenty-one-year-olds higher prices for auto insurance than people over twenty-one because younger people have higher accident rates.