DC residents vote get electoral college votes for president
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24th Amendment
banned poll taxes (which had been designed to keep Blacks from voting).
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26th Amendment
suffrage for those 18 and older
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Census
a count of the American population conducted every ten years.
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Civic duty
an obligation citizen’s have to do something (i.e. jury duty, to pay taxes, to register for the selective service, to obey the law)
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Civic responsibility
a belief citizen’s have in an obligation to do something (i.e. to vote, to perform community service, to be a good citizen).
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Civil disobedience
a form of unconventional participation designed to consciously break a
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law thought to be unjust.
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Demography
the science of human populations. Used to break-down voting patterns, etc.
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Electoral college
the institution designated in the Constitution whereby a body of electors selects the president and vice president.
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Exit poll
a poll taken at randomly selected polling places after the citizens have placed their votes.
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Gender gap
a consistent attitudinal pattern where women are more likely than men to express liberal attitudes and to support Democratic candidates.
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Initiative petition
direct democracy technique that allows proposed legislative items to be placed on a statewide ballot when enough signatures are obtained.
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Legitimacy
widely shared belief that a democratic government was elected fairly and freely.
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Mandate theory of elections
the belief that the election winner has a mandate to implement policy promises.
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Motor Voter Act
this legislation requires states to let people register to vote at the same time they apply for a driver’s license.
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Policy voting
occurs when people base their choices on how close a candidate’s issues positions are to their own issue preferences.
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Political Culture
A set of widely shared political beliefs and values.
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Political Efficacy
the belief that ordinary people can influence government.
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Political efficacy
The belief that one's political participation makes a difference.
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Political Ideology
A cohesive set of beliefs about politics, public policy and the role of the government.
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Political Participation
The ways in which people get involved in politics.
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Political Socialization
The process by which political values are formed and passed from one generation to the next. Most important agent is the family.
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Protest
a form of political participation designed to change policy through unconventional tactics.
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Public Opinion
Attitudes about institutions, leaders, political issues and events.
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Random sampling
a polling technique which is based on the principle that everyone has an equal probability of being selected as part of the sample.
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Reapportionment
the reallocation of 435 seats in the House of Representatives based on changes in residency and population found in the census.
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Referendum
direct democracy technique that allows citizens to approve or disapprove some legislative act, bond, issue, or constitutional amendment proposed by a state legislature.
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Sample
a small proportion of the population chosen as representative of the whole population.
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Sampling error
the level of confidence involved in a sample result—the level is dependent on the size of the sample.
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Split-Ticket Voting
Voting for candidates of different parties for different offices in the same election. Recent elections has seen an increase in voters identifying themselves as independents and voting for candidates from both parties.
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Suffrage
the legal right to vote.
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Voter registration
a requirement that citizens register to vote before the election is held
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527 Group
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Amicus Curiae Brief
A "friend of the court" brief filed by an interest group or interested party to influence a Supreme Court decision.
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Broadcast media
one of two kinds of media, includes television and radio.
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Campaign strategy
the way candidates use scarce resources to achieve the nomination or win office.
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Caucus
a meeting to determine which candidate delegates from a state party will support.
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Class Action Lawsuits
a technique used by interest groups which allows groups of people with similar complaints to combine their grievances into a single suit.
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Closed Primary
A primary in which only voters who have identified a party preference before the election are allowed to vote in the primary for that party.
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Coalition
a set of individuals and groups supporting a political party.
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Coalition governments
governments where smaller parties combine with larger parties to control half of the seats in the legislature (happens frequently in multi-party governments, not in 2-party governments like the U.S.)
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Collective good
something of value which cannot be withheld from individuals in the potential group.
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Congressional Redistricting
The reallocation of the number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives.
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Critical Election
An election when significant groups of voters change their traditional patterns of party loyalty.
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Electioneering
helping sympathetic candidates get into office.
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Elite theory
argues that because only a few groups have enough power to influence policy, power is concentrated into a few interlocking power centers.
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Equal Time Rule
an FCC rule that if a broadcaster sells time to one candidate, it must sell equal time to other candidates.
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Federal Election Commission (FEC)
A bipartisan body charged with administering campaign finance laws.
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Free Rider Problem
when individuals let others work to secure a collective good and then enjoy the benefit without contributing anything to the group effort. "Free Riders" are people who benefit from an interest group without making any contributions. (i.e. teacher who didn't contribute to teacher's union but benefits from pay raises)
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Frontloading
states moving up their primaries early in order to maximize their mass media attention and political influence.
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Gerrymandering
The legislative process by which the majority party in each state legislature redraws congressional districts to ensure the maximum number of seats for its candidates.
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Horse-Race Journalism
The tendency of the media to cover campaigns by emphasizing how candidates stand in the polls instead of where they stand on the issues.
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Hyper-Pluralist Theory
The theory that government policy is weakened and often contradictory because there are so many competing interest groups. Also that too many groups get what they want at the expense of underrepresented groups.
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Interest Group
An organization of people whose members share views on specific interests and attempt to influence public policy to their benefit.
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Investigative journalism
the use of detective-like reporting methods to unearth scandals.
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Issue Network
A network that includes policy experts, media pundits, congressional staff members, and interest groups who regularly debate an issue.
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Linkage Institutions
Institutions that connect citizens to government. Example are mass media, interest groups, and political parties.
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Lobbying
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.
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Mass Media
Means of communication such as newspapers, radio, television, and the internet that can reach large, widely dispersed audiences.
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Narrowcasting
strategy of some broadcast channels that appeal to a narrow, rather than a broad, audience (i.e. Fox News or MSNBC)
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National committee
a coalition of representatives from the states and territories charged with maintaining the party between elections.
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National convention
the supreme power within each party, which meets every four years, writes the party platform, and nominates candidates for president and vice president.
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New Deal coalition
the new coalition of forces (urban, unions, Catholics, Jews, the poor, southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals) in the Democratic party that was forged as a result of national economic crisis associated with the Great Depression.
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Nomination
a party’s official endorsement of a candidate for office.
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Olson’s law of large groups
suggests that the larger the group, the more difficult it will be to secure enough of the collective good to encourage participation.
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Open primaries
nomination contests where voters can decide on election day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contest.
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Party dealignment
when voters move away from both parties.
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Party Era
An historical period dominated by one political party.
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Party identification
the self-proclaimed preference for one or the other party.
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Party image
is what voters know or think they know about what each party stands for
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Party machine
a particular kind of party organization that depends on both specific and material inducements for rewarding loyal party members.
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Party neutrality
when voters have an indifferent attitude toward both parties.
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Party platform
the party’s statement of its goals and policies for the next four years.
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Party Realignment
process whereby the major political parties form new support coalitions that endure for a long period.
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Patronage
one of the key inducements used by "political machines" whereby jobs are given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone, also known as the "spoils system", and the opposite of the "merit system".
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Pluralist Theory
The theory that many interest groups compete for the power in a large number of policy areas, and policy is formed through bargaining and compromise.
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Plurality Election
The winning candidate is the person who receives more votes than anyone else, but less than half the total.
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Policy Agenda
A set of issues and problems that policy makers considers important and to be given attention at a given time.
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Political Action Committee (PAC)
A committee formed by business, labor, or other interest groups for the purpose of raising money to make contributions to the campaigns of political candidates whom they support and influence elections.
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Political Party
A group of citizens who organize to win elections, hold public offices, operate the governments and determine public policy.
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Power Elite Theory
The theory that a small number of very wealthy individuals, powerful corporate interest groups, and large financial institutions dominate key policy areas.
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Presidential Election Campaign Fund
Money from the $3 federal income tax check-off goes into this fund, which is then distributed to qualified candidates to subsidize their presidential campaigns.
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Press conferences
meetings with the press (i.e. Presidential Press Conference is when the president talks with media representatives).
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Print media
one of two kinds of media, includes newspapers and magazines.
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Proportional representation
an electoral system where legislative seats are allocated on the basis of each party’s percentage of the national vote.
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Right-to-work law
a state law that rquired forbidding labor contracts from requiring workers to join a union as a condition of employment. These laws essentially enable "free riders" to reap benefits even though they don't pay membership dues to a union.
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Selective benefits
these benefits are goods that a group can restrict to those who are members (no "free riders")
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Single-Issue Groups
Groups so concerned with one matter that their members cast their votes on the basis of that issue only (i.e. abortion, immigration, military, etc.).
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Single-Member District
An electoral district from which one person is chosen by the voters for each elected office and leads to legislatures dominated by two political parties.
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Soft Money
Contributions to political parties for party-building activities and usually a means of circumventing limits on hard money.
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Sound bites
a portion of a speech aired on TV of fifteen seconds or less.
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Subgovernments
exclusive relationships composed of interest groups leaders, government agency personnel, and members of congressional committees who perform mutually beneficial services for each other at the public’s expense.
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Super PACs
political-action committee that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions, individuals and associations. Non-profit groups - 501(c)(4) organizations - are allowed to contribute 49.9% of their money to super PACs without disclosing where their money came from; The most important difference between a super PAC and traditional candidate PAC is in who can contribute, and in how much they can give. Candidates cannot “coordinate” activities of the Super PAC (supposedly).
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Superdelegates
delegates to the Democratic Party’s national convention who obtain their seats on the basis of their positions within the party structure.
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Talking head
a shot of a person’s face talking directly into the camera.
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Third parties
minor parties which either promote narrow ideological issues or are splinter groups from the major parties.
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