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Political Party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals.
Political Machines
A political machine is a party organization that recruits its members using tangible incentives (such as money or political jobs) and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity.
National Convention
The meeting of party delegates every four years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform.
Party Platform
A political party's statement of its goals and policies for the next four years. The platform is drafted prior to the party convention by a committee whose members are chosen in rough proportion to each candidate's strength. It is the best formal statement of a party's beliefs.
Critical Election
An electoral "earthquake" where new issues emerge, new coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party.
Electoral Realignment
Realignment means the switching of voter preference from one party to another, in contrast to dealignment (where a voter group abandons a party to become independent or nonvoting).
Electoral De-alignment
is a trend or process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation, without developing a new one to replace it. It is contrasted with political realignment.
Independents
No party affiliation
Majority Representation
is an electoral system where the candidate with the most votes takes the seat using the winner-takes-all principle.
Partisan
a firm adherent to a party, faction, cause, or person. especially: one exhibiting blind, prejudiced, and unreasoning allegiance.
Proportional Representation
An electoral system used throughout most of Europe that awards legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the number of votes won in an election.
Party Identification
A citizen's self-proclaimed preference for one party or the other.
Primary Elections
Primaries are elections that political parties use to select candidates for a general election. Then each party's candidates run against each other in the general election.
National Committee
One of the institutions that keeps the party operating between conventions. The national committee is composed of representatives from the states and territories.
Party Conference
Members of each political party convene in private meetings known as party conferences (or party caucuses) to elect floor leaders, make committee assignments, and set legislative agendas.
Congressional Campaign Committee
Both party conferences in the Senate appoint campaign committees to help elect members of their party to the Senate by recruiting candidates, raising, and distributing funds, and assisting with communications and strategy.
Party Machine
See # 2
Republican Party
The Republican Party, also known as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. It emerged as the main political rival of the Democratic Party in the mid-1850's.
Democratic Party
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States. Since the 1850s, its main political rival has been the Republican Party.
Responsible Party Government
A view about how parties should work, held by some political scientists. According to the model parties should offer clear choices to the voters and once in office, should carry out their campaign promises.
Split Ticket Voting
is when a voter in an election vote for candidates from different political parties when a single election is deciding multiple offices, as opposed to straight-ticket voting, where a voter chooses candidates from the same political party for every office up for election.
Single Member Districts
is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner voting, winner-takes-all, single-member constituencies or single-member electorates.
Two Party System
Political system in which the electorate gives its votes largely to only two major parties and in which one or the other party can win a majority in the legislature The United States is the classic example of a nation with a two-party system.
