Political Parties and Elections Vocab

Candidate-centered campaigns

Political processes in which individuals, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence.

Gender gap

The tendency of white women and men to differ in their political attitudes and voting preferences.

Grassroots party

A political machine organized at the level of the voters and dependent on their support for its strength.

Hard money

Campaign funds given directly to candidates to spend as they choose.

Linkage institution

An organization that serves to connect citizens with government. These include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

Median voter theorem

The idea that parties in a two-party system can maximize their vote by locating themselves in the political center and appealing to voters there.

Money chase

A term used to describe the fact that U.S. campaigns are very expensive and candidates must spend a great amount of time raising funds in order to compete successfully.

Multiparty system

A system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition.

Nomination

The designation of a particular individual to run as a political party’s candidate in the general election.

Packaging (of a candidate)

A term of modern campaigning that refers to the process of recasting a candidate’s record into an appealing image.

Party-centered campaigns

Election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence.

Party coalition

The groups and interests that support a political party

Party competition

A process in which conflict over society’s goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern.

Party organizations

The party organizational units at national, state, and local levels; their influence has decreased over time because of many factors.

Party realignments

An election or set of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinarily powerful issue that has disrupted the established political order. It has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties, and the composition of the party coalitions.

Political party

An ongoing coalition of interests joined together to try to get their candidates for public office elected under a common label.

Primary election

A form of election in which voters choose a party’s nominees for public office. In most states, eligibility to vote in this is limited to voters who designated themselves as party members when they registered to vote.

Proportional representation system

A form of representation in which seats in the legislature are allocated proportionally according to each political party’s share of the popular vote. This system enables smaller parties to compete successfully for seats.

Single-member districts

The form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office.

Single-member system

This winner-take-all or plurality system discourages minor parties by reducing their chances of winning anything, even if they perform well by minor-party standards.

Two-party system

A system in which only two political parties have a real chance of acquiring control of the government.