AP Gov Ch 13-14 & 4.2 Vocab

Political participation (pg. 419)

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

Political Action Committee (pg. 419)

an organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns.

Linkage institution (pg. 422)

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

Franchise or Suffrage (pg. 425)

the right to vote in political elections.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment (pg. 425)

allows those eighteen years old and older to vote.

Twenty-Fourth Amendment (pg. 425)

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

Poll tax (pg. 425)

a payment required by a state or federal government before a citizen is allowed to vote.

Voter turnout (pg. 425)

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

Demographic characteristics (pg. 426)

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

Socioeconomic status (SES) (pg. 426)

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

Political efficacy (pg. 427)

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

Absentee ballot (pg. 434)

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

Rational choice theory (pg. 437)

candidates in democratic systems seek to maximize their chance of winning elections, and parties adopt policies that are popular with most voters

Retrospective voting (pg. 437)

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

Prospective voting (pg. 437)

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

Party-line voting (pg 437)

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

Electoral College (pg. 440)

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 (pg. 440)

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.

Battleground state or swing state (pg. 441)

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

Super PAC (pg. 446)

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.

Hard money*

political contributions given to a party. Candidate, or interest group limited in amount and fully disclosed.

Soft money*

Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes.

Coattail effect*

the tendency for a popular political party leader to attract votes for other candidates of the same party in an election.

Clothespin vote*

a vote given to the "less objectionable" candidate despite a distaste for him or her

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act*

a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to regulate the raising and spending of campaign money.

Incumbent*

a current officeholder who is running for re-election to the same political position they already occupy.

Political party (pg. 455)

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

Party identification (pg. 458)

an individual's attachment to a political party.

Straight-ticket voting (pg. 459)

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

Split-ticket voting (pg. 460)

voting for candidates from different parties in the same election.

Party platform (pg. 460)

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

Party coalition (pg. 462)

interest groups and like-minded voters who support a political party over time.

Realignment (pg. 462)

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

Critical election (pg. 462)

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

Party era (pg. 462)

time period when one party wins most national elections.

Era of divided government (pg. 462)

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

Nomination (pg. 467)

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

Delegate (pg. 467)

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

Primary election (pg. 467)

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 primary (pg. 468)

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

Closed primary (pg. 468)

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

Caucus (pg. 468)

a process through which a state's eligible voters meet to select delegates to represent their preferences in the nomination process.

Superdelegate (pg. 469)

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-loading (pg. 469)

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 (pg. 470)

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

Candidate-centered campaign (pg. 472)

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

Two-party system (pg. 474)

a system in which two political parties dominate politics, winning almost all elections.

Proportional representation (pg. 474)

an election system for a legislature in which citizens vote for parties, rather than individuals, and parties are represented in the legislature according to the percentage of the vote they receive.

Single-member plurality system (pg. 474)

an election system for choosing members of the legislature where the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, even if the candidate does not receive a majority of the votes.

Third party (pg. 475)

a minor political party in competition with the two major parties.

Constituency

a body of voters in a given area who elect a representative or senator.

Apportionment (or reapportionment)

the process of determining the number of representatives for each state using census data.

Redistricting

states' redrawing of boundaries of electoral districts following each census.

Gerrymandering

the intentional use of redistricting to benefit a specific interest or group of voters.

Majority-minority districts

a district in which voters of a minority ethnicity constitute an electoral majority within that electoral district.

Malapportionment

the uneven distribution of the population between legislative districts.

Incumbency advantage

institutional advantages held by those already in office who are trying to fend off challengers in an election.