AP Gov Unit 1 Vocab - Tiller

Bandwagon Effect

where people alter their opinions to the majority view. Such a shift in opinion can occur because individuals draw inferences from the decisions of others, as in an informational cascade.

Bully Pulpit

a public office or position of authority that provides its occupant with an outstanding opportunity to speak out on any issue.

Census

an official count or survey of a population, typically recording various details of individuals

Capitalism

an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit.

Civic Duty

a responsibility that a citizen of a town, state, or country has because they live and benefit from the services provided to them there

Conservative

favoring free enterprise, private ownership, and socially traditional ideas.

Constituency

a body of voters in a specified area who elect a representative to a legislative body.

Culture War

a conflict between groups, especially liberal and conservative groups, that have different cultural ideals, beliefs, or philosophies.

Direct Democracy

a form of government in which policies and laws are decided by a majority of all those eligible rather than by a body of elected representatives.

Divided Government

occurs when different branches of the federal government are controlled by different political parties.

Elitism

the minority has more power than the majority, the advocacy or existence of an elite as a dominating element in a system or society

Equality

he state of being equal, especially in status, rights, and opportunities.

Egalitarianism

relating to or believing in the principle that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities.

External efficacy

that the government will respond to one's demands.

Exit poll

is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations.

Free enterprise

a type of economy where products, prices, and services are determined by the market, not the government.

Gender gap

an undesirable or unfair difference between men and women in terms of opportunities, pay, status, etc.

Grass-roots (participation)

A type of social movement organization that relies on high levels of membership participation to promote social change. it lacks a hierarchical structure and works through existing political structures.

Hyperpluralism

theory of power that states that when a diverse number of groups gain influence in a government, they have the effect of rendering that government less effective and less democratic.

Ideology

a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Individualism

the habit or principle of being independent and self-reliant.

Initiative

a process that enables citizens to bypass their state legislature by placing proposed statutes and, in some states, constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Laissez-faire

abstention by governments from interfering in the workings of the free market.

Liberalism

political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law.

Libertarianism

expansion of individual autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing the principles of equality before the law and the protection of civil rights, including the rights to freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of choice.

Legitimacy

conformity to the law or to rules.

Liberty

the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.

Literacy tests

exam for assessing a person's ability to read and write.

Minority

the smaller number or part, especially a number that is less than half the whole number.

Majority

the greater number.

Moderate

a person who holds moderate views, especially in politics.

Motor Voter Act

advances voting rights in the United States by requiring state governments to offer simplified voter registration processes for any eligible person who applies for or renews a driver's license or applies for public assistance, and requiring the United States Postal Service to mail election materials of a state as if the state is a nonprofit.^[2] The law requires states to register applicants that use a federal voter registration form, and prohibits states from removing registered voters from the voter rolls unless certain criteria are met.

Patronage

the power to control appointments to office or the right to privileges.

Party realignment

is when the country changes from being mostly run by one political party to mostly run by another political party.

Political apathy

lack of interest towards politics.

Political clevages

a historically determined social or cultural line which divides citizens within a society into groups with differing political interests, resulting in political conflict among these groups

Political culture

a set of shared views and normative judgments held by a population

Political efficacy

the citizens' trust in their ability to change the government

Political socialization

how people develop their political knowledge, values, and opinions.

Poll tax

a tax levied on every adult, without reference to income or resources.

Populism

a political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.

Public opinion

views prevalent among the general public.

Public opinion poll

is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample.

Public policy

a goal-directed course of action, taken by government, to deal with a public problem

Random sample

a subset of a statistical population in which each member of the subset has an equal probability of being chosen

Reapportionment

process by which seats in a legislative body are distributed among administrative divisions, such as states or parties, entitled to representation.

Red States

a US state that predominantly votes for or supports the Republican Party

Blue State

a US state that predominantly votes for or supports the Democratic Party.

Referendum

a general vote by the electorate on a single political question that has been referred to them for a direct decision.

Republic

a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

Representative democracy

political system in which citizens of a country or other political entity vote for representatives to handle 

Rule of law

the restriction of the arbitrary exercise of power by subordinating it to well-defined and established laws.

Sampling error

error in a statistical analysis arising from the unrepresentativeness of the sample taken.

Self-selection

the action of putting oneself forward for something.

Single-issue party

involves political campaigning or political support based on one essential policy area or idea.

Socialism

a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Suffrage

the right to vote in political elections.

Ticket-splitting

vote for candidates of more than one party.

Voter Registartion

is the requirement that a person otherwise eligible to vote must register

Voting Rights Act of 1965

federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

Government

the governing body of a nation, state, or community.

Politics

the activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power.

Democracy

a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

American Dream

the ideal by which equality of opportunity is available to any American, allowing the highest aspirations and goals to be achieved.

Margin of Error

The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a survey.

Push Polls

an ostensible opinion poll in which the true objective is to sway voters using loaded or manipulative questions.

Sample

a small part or quantity intended to show what the whole is like.

Social Conservative

political ideology focused on the preservation of traditional values and beliefs. It focuses on a concern with moral and social values which proponents of the ideology see as degraded in modern society by liberalism.

Statist

an advocate of a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs.

Stratified sampling

researchers divide subjects into subgroups called strata based on characteristics that they share

Straw Polls

an unofficial ballot conducted as a test of opinion.

Tracking Polls

responses are obtained in a number of consecutive periods, for instance daily, and then results are calculated using a moving average of the responses that were gathered over a fixed number of the most recent periods, for example the past five days.

Liberal

a supporter of policies that are socially progressive and promote social welfare.

Libertarian

expansion of individual autonomy and political freedom, emphasizing the principles of equality before the law and the protection of civil rights, including the rights to freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of thought and freedom of choice.