Parties, Elections, interest groups, and media Vocab

Political participation

the different ways in which individuals take action to shape the laws and policies of a government.

Pac

an organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns.

Linkage institutions

channels that connect individuals with government, including elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

Social movement

large groups of citizens organizing for political change.

Suffrage

the right to vote in political elections.

26th amendment

allows those eighteen years old and older to vote.

24 amendment

prohibits Congress and the states from imposing poll taxes as a condition for voting in federal elections.

Poll tax

fee required to vote

Voter turnout

the number of eligible voters who participate in an election as a percentage of the total number of eligible voters.

Demographic characteristics

measurable characteristics of a population, such as economic status, education, age, race or ethnicity, gender, and partisan attachment.

Socioeconomic status

a measure of an individual’s wealth, income, occupation, and educational attainment.

Political efficacy

a person’s belief that he or she can make effective political change.

Political mobilization

efforts by political parties to encourage their members to vote.

Absentee ballot

voting completed and submitted by a voter before the day of an election.

Rational choice voting

voting based on what a citizen believes is in his or her best interest.

retrospective voting

voting based on an assessment of an incumbent’s past performance.

Prospective voting

casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to enact policies favored by the voter in the future.

Party line voting

voting for candidates who belong only to one political party for all of the offices on the ballot.

Electoral college

a constitutionally required process for selecting the president through slates of electors chosen in each state, who are pledged to vote for a nominee in the presidential election.

Winner take all system

a system of elections in which the candidate who wins the plurality of votes within a state receives all of that state’s votes in the Electoral College.

Battle ground states

a state where the polls show a close contest between the Republican and Democratic candidate in a presidential election.

Swing state

a state where levels of support for the parties are similar and elections swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans.

Get out the vote

efforts to mobilize voters.

Super pac

an organization that may spend an unlimited amount of money on a political campaign, as long as the spending is not coordinated with the campaign.

Political parties

an organized group of party leaders, officeholders, and voters who work together to elect candidates to political office.

Party identification

an individual’s attachment to a political party

Straight ticket voting

voting for all of the candidates on the ballot from one political party.

Split ticket voting

voting for candidates from different parties in the same election.

Party platform

a set of positions and policy objectives that members of a political party agree to.

Recruitment

the process through which political parties identify potential candidates.

Party coalition

interest groups and like

Realignment

when the groups of people who support a political party shift their allegiance to a different political party.

Critical elections

a major national election that signals a change in the balance of power between the two parties.

Party eras

time period when one party wins most national elections.

Era of divided government

a trend since 1969, in which one party controls one or both houses of Congress and the president is from the opposing party.

Nomination

the formal process through which parties choose their candidates for political office.

Delegates

a person who acts as the voters’ representative at a convention to select the party’s nominee.

Primary election

an election in which a state’s voters choose delegates who support a particular presidential candidate for nomination or an election by a plurality vote to select a party’s nominee for a seat in Congress.

Open primaries

a primary election in which all eligible voters may vote, regardless of their party affiliation.

Closed primaries

a primary election in which only those who have registered as a member of a political party may vote.

Superdelegates

usually, a party leader or activist who is not pledged to a candidate based on the outcomes of the state’s primary or caucus.

Front load

a decision by a state to push its primary or caucus to a date as early in the election season as possible to gain more influence in the presidential nomination process.

National convention

a meeting where delegates officially select their party’s nominee for the presidency.

Candidate centered

a trend in which candidates develop their own strategies and raise money with less influence from the party elite.

Interest group

voluntary association of people who come together with the goal of getting the policies that they favor enacted.

Social movement

large groups of citizens organizing for political change.

Theory of participatory democracy

large groups of citizens organizing for political change.

Civil society

the network of voluntary organizations, groups, and individuals separate from the government and business

Pluralist theory

a theory of democracy that emphasizes the role of groups in the policymaking process.

Elitist theory

theory of democracy that the elites have a disproportionate amount of influence in the policymaking process.

Policy agenda

the set of issues to which government officials, voters, and the public are paying attention.

Collective action

political action that occurs when individuals contribute their energy, time, or money to a larger group goal.

Collective good

also called a public good; a public benefit that individuals can enjoy or profit from even if they do not help achieve it.

Free riders

individual who enjoys collective goods and benefits from the actions of an interest group without joining.

Selective benefits

benefit available only to those who join the group.

Economic interest groups

a group advocating on behalf of the financial interests of members.

Public interest groups

group that acts on behalf of the collective interests of a broad group of individuals.

Single issue groups

association focusing on one specific area of public policy, often a moral issue about which they are unwilling to compromise.

Government interest groups

organization acting on behalf of local, state, or foreign governments.

Lobbying

interacting with government officials in order to advance a group’s public policy goals.

Revolving door

the movement of individuals between government and lobbying positions.

Amicus curiae brief

a brief filed by someone who is not a party to a case in an attempt to persuade the court to agree with the arguments set forth in the brief.

Iron triangle

coordinated and mutually beneficial activities of the bureaucracy, Congress, and interest groups to achieve shared policy goals.

Issue network

webs of influence between interest groups, policymakers, and policy advocates.

Grassroots lobbying

mobilizing interest group members to pressure their representatives by contacting them directly through phone calls, email, and social media.

Protest

a public demonstration designed to call attention to the need for change.

Civil disobedience

the intentional refusal to obey a law to call attention to its injustice.

Media

a broad term that includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, radio, internet sources, blogs, and social media postings.

Social media

forms of electronic communication that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking.

Agenda setting

the media’s ability to highlight certain issues and bring them to the attention of the public.

Mass media

sources of information that appeal to a wide audience, including newspapers, radio, television, and Internet outlets.

Wire service

an organization that gathers and reports on news and then sells the stories to other outlets.

Investigative journalism

an approach to newsgathering in which reporters dig into stories, often looking for instances of wrongdoing.

Broadcast media

outlets for news and other content that rely on mass communications technology to bring stories directly into people’s homes.

Media consolidation

the concentration of ownership of the media into fewer corporations.

Partisan bias

the slanting of political news coverage in support of a particular political party or ideology.

Horse race journalism

coverage of political campaigns that focuses more on the drama of the campaign than on policy issues.