Democracy and Participation: US Elections and Political Parties

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering US presidential elections, political parties, campaign finance laws, court rulings, and party factions.

Presidential primary

The process by which political parties nominate their candidate for elected office.

Nominee

The person a political party eventually chooses to run for office.

Presidential Caucus

A series of state-based meetings where party members gather in groups to choose their candidate for the presidency.

Electoral College

The official system for electing the President and Vice-President, consisting of $538$ electors where a candidate must surpass $270$ votes to win.

National Party Conventions

A meeting of primary delegates usually held $4$ months before Election Day to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates, approve the party platform, and deliver acceptance speeches.

PACs (Political Action Committees)

Organised groups established to raise money and fund election candidates.

FECA (Federal Election Campaign Act)

Legislation enacted in $1974$ following the Watergate scandal that established individual donation limits and created the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to monitor campaign finance.

Hard Money

Political contributions directly funded to a candidate or party to finance a campaign, which are strictly capped by federal law.

Soft Money

Money donated indirectly to political parties, PACs, and Super PACs that is not regulated or capped by federal law.

Religious Right

A political faction composed mainly of white Evangelical Christians that traditionally supports the Republican Party and conservative social values.

'Trickle Down Economic'

An economic theory maintaining that increasing the supply of goods and services and lowering taxes will engine economic growth.

Factions

Distinct ideological groups within a broader political party that often take differing views on policy issues (such as the Republican Freedom Caucus).

MAGA

An extreme, populist right-wing faction of the Republican Party that centres around Donald Trump since $2016$.

Progressives

A left-wing faction in American politics that strongly favours extensive social reform, economic equality, and state-backed public welfare programs.

The New Deal

A series of enabling state economic policies and welfare reforms introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the $1930\text{s}$ to alleviate the Great Depression.

Medicare

A federal social reform program introduced by Democrats in the $1960\text{s}$ to provide healthcare coverage for elderly citizens.

The DREAM Act

The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act; pro-migration legislation repeatedly proposed and rejected by Congress.

Invisible Primaries

The preliminary stage of an election where prospective candidates assemble staff, declare candidacies, fundraise, build poll leads, and debate before official voting begins.

Open Primary

A primary election in which any registered voter in the state can participate regardless of their party affiliation.

Closed Primary

A primary election in which only voters officially registered with a particular political party are permitted to cast a ballot.

Safe States

States that consistently and predictably vote for the same political party across successive presidential elections.

Swing States

States in which political support is closely divided and that frequently switch between political parties across election cycles.

Brokered Convention

A national party convention occurring when no single candidate has secured a majority of pledged delegates, requiring the nominee to be chosen through floor voting at the convention.

Super PACs

Independent expenditure-only political action committees that may raise and spend unlimited sums of money to support or defeat political candidates, provided they do not donate to campaigns directly.

SpeechNow.org v FEC (2010)

A Supreme Court ruling allowing groups that make solely independent expenditures to receive unlimited contributions, leading directly to the establishment of Super PACs.

Buckley vs Valeo (1976)

A Supreme Court ruling that upheld expenditure limits on campaign spending but ruled limits on personal political expenditures were unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

Citizens United vs FEC (2010)

A landmark Supreme Court decision granting corporations and labour organisations First Amendment free speech rights, allowing them to fund independent political broadcasts without limitation.

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BICRA / McCain-Feingold Act)

A $2002$ campaign finance reform law that banned national political parties from raising soft money and prohibited corporations and unions from financing issue ads mentioning candidates within $60$ days of an election.

McCutcheon vs Federal Election Committee (2014)

A Supreme Court ruling that struck down aggregate contribution limits on what an individual could donate to all federal candidates and PACs combined, citing First Amendment protections.

Incumbency Factor

The structural, financial, and electoral advantages enjoyed by an officeholder seeking re-election compared to their challengers.

Constituent Services

Non-legislative assistance provided by elected congressional representatives to help citizens in their district, which builds voter loyalty and boosts incumbency advantage.

Coattails Effect

The tendency for a strong, popular candidate at the top of a ticket (such as for president or governor) to pull down-ballot candidates of the same party into office.

Fiscal Conservatives

A Republican faction committed to aggressive tax cuts, balanced budgets, deregulation, and steep reductions in government social spending while preserving defence funding.

Social Conservatives

A traditionalist Republican faction that advocates for robust policing, the death penalty, school prayer, Second Amendment rights, and strict pro-life policies.

Moderates (Republican Party)

A centrist Republican faction open to a broader role for government in society, higher healthcare spending, and constructive compromises on immigration.

Great Society

President Lyndon B. Johnson's domestic policy agenda in the $1960\text{s}$ aimed at eliminating poverty and racial injustice through extensive social legislation.

Republican attitudes towards society

Uneasy about pervasive changes in the 1960s e.g. abortion, gay marriage, recreational drugs

Republican attitudes to role of government

Strong law and order funding the police, army and long jail sentences, reject unions, pro-businesses, anti-immigration, low taxes, global warming sceptics, welfare for those who needs it the most, reject affirmative action, government should intervene in emergencies, limited government intervention, individual liberties, fiscal conservatism, and reduced regulations.

Example of Republican role of government

Trump withdrawing from Paris Accords, TANF Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Emergency Economic Stabilisation Act 2009 created $700 billion