AP Gov Unit #5 Vocab: Parties, Elections, Interest Groups and Media

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Political Participation

The different ways in which individuals take action or shape the laws and policies of a government

Political Action Committees

an organization that raises money for candidates and campaigns

Linkage Institution

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

Franchise (Suffrage)

the right to vote in political elections

Twenty-Sixth Amendment

allows those eighteen years old and older to vote

Twenty-Fourth Amendment

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

Poll Tax

tax 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 (SES)

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

Registration Requirements

the set of rules that govern who can vote and how, when, and where they can vote

Absentee Ballots

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 election 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

a state where the polls show a close contest between the Republican and Democratic candidates 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 (GOTV)

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 Party

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

Party Identifcation

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-minded voters who support a political party over time.

Realignment

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

Critical Election

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

Party Era

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

Delegate

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 Primary

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

Closed Primary

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

Caucus

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

Super Delegate

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

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 Campaign

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

Two-Party System

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

Proportional Representation System

an election system for a legislature in which citizen 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

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

a minor political party in competition with the major parties

Interest Groups

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

Social Movements

large groups of citizens organizing for political change

Theory of Participatory Democracy

the belief that citizens impact policymaking through their involvement in civil society

Civil Society

the formal and informal organizations that are not part of the state apparatus but operate in public

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

individuals 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 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 Disobediance

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

News Media

a broad term that includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, rado, 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 home

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