Untitled Flashcard Set
(1) Political Party – organized group of people with shared goals and ideals who run people for office in hopes of controlling government so that they might enact their policies
(2) Linkage Institution – groups or institutions through which people’s issues and concerns are translated into government policy; in the US these include elections, political parties, interest groups, media, etc.
(3) Rational-Choice Theory – theory of politics used to explain the action of voters and politicians; says voters want to maximize their chances that policies they favor are adopted by government and politicians want to win elections; therefore parties, who are represented by politicians, will campaign for and when elected should enact policies favored by those that elected them
(4) Ticket-Splitting – voting for candidates of different parties for various offices on the ballot
(5) Straight ticket – voting for candidates of only one party for various offices on the ballot
(6) Party Machines – type of political party organization that relies heavily on material inducements, such as patronage, to win votes and to govern
(7) Patronage – party gives jobs, promotions, government contracts for businesses, etc. for the sole purpose of getting votes and controlling government; used by party machines
(8) Closed Primary – election for party representative for President or Congress where you have to register with the party in advance in order to participate in the election
(9) Open Primary – election for party representative for President or Congress where you can choose to vote in either the Democrat or Republican election on election day; can only vote in one or the other
(10) Blanket Primary – election for party representative for President or Congress where you can vote in BOTH the Democrat and Republican election
(11) National Convention – meeting of party delegates usually held in summer before Presidential election in November every 4 years; their main function is to write the party platform and officially nominate the Presidential ticket for the upcoming Presidential election
(12) National Committee – they represent the National party (Democrat/Republican) in between National Conventions
(13) National Chairperson – they head the national committee and are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the national party (pay bills, fundraising, helping candidates get elected, talking to media, etc.)
(14) Coalition government – when two or more parties join together to form a majority in a national legislature; this is very common in multiparty systems (NOT IN US GOVT)
(15) Party era – time period where one party tends to win the majority of elections therefore controlling the politics of that period
(16) Critical Election – election where new issues emerge, new coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is replaced by the minority party; these elections are often the result of a national crisis such as war, economic issues, etc. (Depression, Civil War, etc.)
(17) Party Realignment – when the majority party is replaced by the minority party in government
(18) Party Dealignment – the gradual disengagement of people and politicians from parties; less and less people identify themselves with either party
(19) Party Neutrality – term used to describe the fact that many Americans are indifferent toward the two major political parties
(20) Third parties – party other than the 2 major parties (Democrats/Republicans); rarely win elections
(21) Proportional representation – system where a candidate wins a portion of a state’s delegates/electors based on the percentage of votes they got an election
(23) Polarization – presence of increasingly conflicting and divided viewpoints between Democrats and Republicans
(23) Responsible party model – a view favored by some political scientists about how parties should work; according to the model, parties should offer clear choices to the voters, who can then use those choices as cues to their own preferences of candidates; once in office, parties would carry out their campaign promises
(24) New Deal Coalition – a coalition forged by 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
(25) Candidate-centered politics – politics that focus on the candidates, their political issues, and character rather than party affiliation
(26) Secular realignments – the gradual rearrangement of party coalitions based more on demographic shifts rather than on shocks to the political system (war, economic crisis, etc.)
(27) Superdelegate – National party leaders who get a delegate slot to the national party convention (only in Democratic Party conventions)
(28) Think tanks – collection of policy-oriented researchers and academics who are a source of policy ideas
(29) Party Platform – a statement of a political party’s goals and policies; the Democrats and Republicans rewrite them every four years at their national convention