AP Gov Unit 4 & 5 Vocab

15th Amendment

suffrage cannot be denied on the basis of race.

17th Amendment

direct election of senators

19th Amendment

women's suffrage

23rd Amendment

DC residents vote get electoral college votes for president

24th Amendment

banned poll taxes (which had been designed to keep Blacks from voting).

26th Amendment

suffrage for those 18 and older

Census

a count of the American population conducted every ten years.

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)

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).

Civil disobedience

a form of unconventional participation designed to consciously break a

law thought to be unjust.

Demography

the science of human populations. Used to break-down voting patterns, etc.

Electoral college

the institution designated in the Constitution whereby a body of electors selects the president and vice president.

Exit poll

a poll taken at randomly selected polling places after the citizens have placed their votes.

Gender gap

a consistent attitudinal pattern where women are more likely than men to express liberal attitudes and to support Democratic candidates.

Initiative petition

direct democracy technique that allows proposed legislative items to be placed on a statewide ballot when enough signatures are obtained.

Legitimacy

widely shared belief that a democratic government was elected fairly and freely.

Mandate theory of elections

the belief that the election winner has a mandate to implement policy promises.

Motor Voter Act

this legislation requires states to let people register to vote at the same time they apply for a driver’s license.

Policy voting

occurs when people base their choices on how close a candidate’s issues positions are to their own issue preferences.

Political Culture

A set of widely shared political beliefs and values.

Political Efficacy

the belief that ordinary people can influence government.

Political efficacy

The belief that one's political participation makes a difference.

Political Ideology

A cohesive set of beliefs about politics, public policy and the role of the government.

Political Participation

The ways in which people get involved in politics.

Political Socialization

The process by which political values are formed and passed from one generation to the next. Most important agent is the family.

Protest

a form of political participation designed to change policy through unconventional tactics.

Public Opinion

Attitudes about institutions, leaders, political issues and events.

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.

Reapportionment

the reallocation of 435 seats in the House of Representatives based on changes in residency and population found in the census.

Referendum

direct democracy technique that allows citizens to approve or disapprove some legislative act, bond, issue, or constitutional amendment proposed by a state legislature.

Sample

a small proportion of the population chosen as representative of the whole population.

Sampling error

the level of confidence involved in a sample result—the level is dependent on the size of the sample.

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.

Suffrage

the legal right to vote.

Voter registration

a requirement that citizens register to vote before the election is held

527 Group

Amicus Curiae Brief

A "friend of the court" brief filed by an interest group or interested party to influence a Supreme Court decision.

Broadcast media

one of two kinds of media, includes television and radio.

Campaign strategy

the way candidates use scarce resources to achieve the nomination or win office.

Caucus

a meeting to determine which candidate delegates from a state party will support.

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.

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.

Coalition

a set of individuals and groups supporting a political party.

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.)

Collective good

something of value which cannot be withheld from individuals in the potential group.

Congressional Redistricting

The reallocation of the number of representatives each state has in the House of Representatives.

Critical Election

An election when significant groups of voters change their traditional patterns of party loyalty.

Electioneering

helping sympathetic candidates get into office.

Elite theory

argues that because only a few groups have enough power to influence policy, power is concentrated into a few interlocking power centers.

Equal Time Rule

an FCC rule that if a broadcaster sells time to one candidate, it must sell equal time to other candidates.

Federal Election Commission (FEC)

A bipartisan body charged with administering campaign finance laws.

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)

Frontloading

states moving up their primaries early in order to maximize their mass media attention and political influence.

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.

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.

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.

Interest Group

An organization of people whose members share views on specific interests and attempt to influence public policy to their benefit.

Investigative journalism

the use of detective-like reporting methods to unearth scandals.

Issue Network

A network that includes policy experts, media pundits, congressional staff members, and interest groups who regularly debate an issue.

Linkage Institutions

Institutions that connect citizens to government. Example are mass media, interest groups, and political parties.

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.

Mass Media

Means of communication such as newspapers, radio, television, and the internet that can reach large, widely dispersed audiences.

Narrowcasting

strategy of some broadcast channels that appeal to a narrow, rather than a broad, audience (i.e. Fox News or MSNBC)

National committee

a coalition of representatives from the states and territories charged with maintaining the party between elections.

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.

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.

Nomination

a party’s official endorsement of a candidate for office.

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.

Open primaries

nomination contests where voters can decide on election day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contest.

Party dealignment

when voters move away from both parties.

Party Era

An historical period dominated by one political party.

Party identification

the self-proclaimed preference for one or the other party.

Party image

is what voters know or think they know about what each party stands for

Party machine

a particular kind of party organization that depends on both specific and material inducements for rewarding loyal party members.

Party neutrality

when voters have an indifferent attitude toward both parties.

Party platform

the party’s statement of its goals and policies for the next four years.

Party Realignment

process whereby the major political parties form new support coalitions that endure for a long period.

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".

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.

Plurality Election

The winning candidate is the person who receives more votes than anyone else, but less than half the total.

Policy Agenda

A set of issues and problems that policy makers considers important and to be given attention at a given time.

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.

Political Party

A group of citizens who organize to win elections, hold public offices, operate the governments and determine public policy.

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.

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.

Press conferences

meetings with the press (i.e. Presidential Press Conference is when the president talks with media representatives).

Print media

one of two kinds of media, includes newspapers and magazines.

Proportional representation

an electoral system where legislative seats are allocated on the basis of each party’s percentage of the national vote.

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.

Selective benefits

these benefits are goods that a group can restrict to those who are members (no "free riders")

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.).

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.

Soft Money

Contributions to political parties for party-building activities and usually a means of circumventing limits on hard money.

Sound bites

a portion of a speech aired on TV of fifteen seconds or less.

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.

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).

Superdelegates

delegates to the Democratic Party’s national convention who obtain their seats on the basis of their positions within the party structure.

Talking head

a shot of a person’s face talking directly into the camera.

Third parties

minor parties which either promote narrow ideological issues or are splinter groups from the major parties.