AP Government Chapter 8, 9, 10

Party Competition

The battle of the parties for control of public offices. Ups and downs of the two major parties are one of the most important elements in American politics.

Political Party

According to Anthony Downs, a "team of men (and women) seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election."

Linkage Institutions

The channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the government's policy agenda. In the U.S., linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

Rational-choice theory

A popular theory in political science to explain the actions of voters as well as politicians. It assumes that interest, carefully weighing the costs and benefits of possible alternatives.

Party Image

The voter's perception of what the Republicans or Democrats stand for, such as conservatism or liberalism.

Party Identification

A citizen's self-proclaimed preference for one party or the other.

Ticket-Splitting

Voting with one party for one office and with another party for other offices. It has become the norm in American voting behavior.

Party Machines

A type of political party organization that relies heavily on material inducements, such as patronage, to win votes and to govern.

Patronage

One of the key inducements used by party machines. A patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone.

Closed Primaries

Elections to select party nominees in which only people who have registered in advance with the party can vote for that party's candidates, thus encouraging greater party loyalty.

Open Primaries

Elections to select party nominees in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contests.

National Party Convention

The meeting of party delegates every four years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform

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.

National Chairperson

The person responsible for the day-to-day activities of the party.

Coalition

A group of individuals with a common interest on which every political party depends.

Party Eras

Historical periods in which a majority of voters cling to the party in power, which tends to win a majority of the elections.

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. Critical election periods are sometimes marked by a national crisis and may require more than one election to bring about a new party era.

Party Realignment

The displacement of the majority party by the minority party, usually during a critical election period.

New Deal Coalition

A coalition forged by the Democrats, who dominated American politics from the 1930s to the 1960s. Its basic elements were the urban working class, ethnic groups, Catholics and Jews, the poor, Southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals.

Party Dealignment

The gradual disengagement of people from the parties, as seen in part by shrinking party identification.

Third Parties

Electoral contenders other than the two major parties. American third parties are not unusual, but they rarely win elections.

Winner-take-all system

An electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded only to the candidates who come in first in their constituencies.

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.

Coalition Government

When two or more parties join together to form a majority in a national legislature. This form of government is quite common in the multiparty systems of Europe.

Responsible party model

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.

Blue Dog Democrats

Fiscally conservative Democrats who are mostly from the South and/or rural parts of the United States.

Nomination

The official endorsement of a candidate for office by a political party. Generally, success in the nomination game requires momentum, money, and media attention.

Campaign Strategy

The master game plan candidates lay out to guide their electoral campaign.

National Party Convention

The supreme power within each of the parties. The convention meets every four years to nominate the party's presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to write the party's platform.

McGovern-Fraser Commission

A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation.

Superdelegates

National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the national party convention.

Invisible Primary

The period before any votes are cast when candidates compete to win early support from the elite of the party and to create a positive first impression of their leadership skills.

Caucus

A system for selecting convention delegates used in about a dozen states in which voters must attend an open meeting to express their presidential preference.

Presidential Primaries

Elections in which a state's voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party's nominee for president. Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way.

Front-loading

The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to capitalize on media attention.

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 belief.

Direct Mail

A method of raising money for a political cause or candidate, in which information and requests for money are sent to people whose names appear on lists of those who have supported similar views or candidates in the past.

Campaign Contributions

Donations that are made directly to a candidate or a party and that must be reported to the FEC. As of 2012, individuals were allowed to donate up to $2,500 per election to a candidate and up to $30, 800 to a political party.

Independent Expenditures

Expenses on behalf of a political message that are made by groups that are uncoordinated with any candidate's campaign.

Federal Election Campaign

A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission and provided for limits on and disclosure of campaign contributions.

Political Action Committees

Groups that raise money from individuals and then distribute it in the form of contributions to candidates that the group supports. PACs must register with the FEC and report their donations and contributions to it. Individual contributions to a PAC are limited $5,000 per year, and a PAC may give up to $5,000 to a candidate for each election

Federal Election Commission

A six-member bipartisan agency created by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974. The Federal Election Commission administers and enforces campaign finance laws.

Soft Money

Political contributions earmarked for party-building expenses at the grassroots level or for generic party advertising. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act.

527 Groups

Independent political groups that are not subject to contribution restrictions because they do not directly seek the election of particular candidates. Section 527 of the tax code specifies that contributions to such groups must be reported to the IRS.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

A 2010 landmark Supreme Court case that ruled that individuals, corporations, and unions could donate unlimited amounts of money to groups that make independent political expenditures.

501(c) groups

Groups that are exempted from reporting their contributions and can receive unlimited contributions. Section 501c of the tax code specifies that such groups cannot spend more than half their funds on political activities.

Super PACs

Independent expenditure-only PACs are known as Super PACs because they may accept donations of any size and can endorse candidates. Their contributions and expenditures must be periodically reported to the FEC.

Selective Perception

The phenomenon that people's beliefs often guide what they pay the most attention to and how they interpret events.

Suffrage

The legal right to vote in the United States gradually extended to virtually all citizens over the age of 18.

Political Efficacy

The belief that one's political participation really matters—that one's vote can actually make a difference.

Civic Duty

The belief that in order to support democratic government, a citizen should vote.

Voter Registration

A system adopted by the states that requires voters to register prior to voting. Some states require citizens to register as much as 30 days in advance, whereas others permit Election Day registration.

Motor Voter Act

A 1993 act that requires states to permit people to register to vote when they apply for a driver's license.

Mandate Theory of Elections

The idea that the winning candidate has a mandate from the people to carry out his or her platforms and politics. Politicians like the theory better than political scientists do.

Policy voting

Electoral choices that are made on the basis of the voters' policy preferences and where the candidates stand on policy issues.

Electoral College

A unique American institution created by the Constitution, providing for the selection of the president by electors chosen by the state parties. Although the Electoral College usually reflects a popular majority, less populated states are overrepresented and the winner-take-all rule concentrates campaigns on close states.

Battleground States

The key states that the presidential campaigns focus on because they are most likely to decide the outcome of the Electoral College vote.

Interest Group

An organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals. Interest groups pursue their goals in many arenas.

Pluralism

A theory of government and politics emphasizing that many groups, each pressing for its preferred policies, compete and counterbalance one another in the political marketplace

Elitism

A theory of government and politics contending that an upper-class elite will hold most of the power and thus in effect run the government.

Hyperpluralism

A theory of government and politics contending that groups are so strong that government, seeking to please them all, is thereby weakened.

Iron Triangles

Subgovernments are composed of interest group leaders interested in a particular policy, the government agency in charge of administering that policy, and the members of congressional committees and subcommittees handling that policy; they exercise a great deal of control over specific policy areas.

Potential Group

All the people who might be interest group members because they share some common interest

Actual Group

The people in the potential group who actually join

Collective Good

Something of value that cannot be withheld from a potential group member.

Free-rider problem

For a group, the problem of people not joining because they can benefit from the group's activities without joining.

Selective Benefits

Goods that a group can restrict to those who actually join.

Single-issue groups

Groups that have a narrow internet, tend to dislike compromise, and often draw membership from people new to politics.

Lobbying

According to Lester Milbrath, a "communication, by someone other than a citizen acting on his or her own behalf, directed to a governmental decision maker with the hope of influencing his or her decision."

Political Action Committees (PACs)

Groups that raise money from individuals and then distribute it in the form of contributions to candidates that the group supports. PACs mist register with the FEC and report their donations and contributions to it. Individual contributions to a PAC are limited to $5,000 per year and a PAC may give up to $5,000 to a candidate for each election.

Electioneering

Direct group involvement in the electoral process, for example, by helping to fund campaign, getting members to work for candidates, and forming political action committees.

Union Shop

A provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period, usually 30 days, and to remain members as a condition of employment.

right-to-work laws

A state law forbidding requirements that workers must join a union to hold their jobs. State right-to-work laws were specifically permitted by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947

Public interest lobbies

According to Jeffrey Berry, organizations that seek "a collective good, the achievement of which will not selectively and materially benefit the membership or activists of the organization."

Single-issue groups