Chapter 10

• Political culture - the dominant set of beliefs, customs, traditions, and values that define the relationship btwn citizens and government

  • American core political values: individualism, equality of opportunity, free enterprise system, rule of law, limited government

• Individualism - the belief that individuals should be responsible for themselves and for the decisions they make

  • Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville - one the earliest and most influential essays on American political life and culture

  • Seen in founding documents (individual rights, not collective rights)

• Federalist No. 78

  • Discussion of independent judiciary (maintains rule of law)

  • Argument that an independent judiciary prevents other branches of gov from becoming too powerful and protects citizens’ rights and the rule of law

• Laissez-faire / free enterprise - an economic system in which government intrudes as little as possible in the economic transactions among citizens and businesses

• Rule of law - the principle that no one, including public officials, is above the law

• Aid to Families with Dependent Children - help children w/ parent that was disabled/dead/unable to work in 1930s

• Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act 1996 that gave states more authority over the administration of social welfare programs

• Political socialization - the experiences and factors that shape an individual’s political values, attitudes, and behaviors

• Political ideology - an individual’s coherent set of beliefs about government and politics

• Generational effect - the impact of historical events experienced by a generation upon their political views

• Life-cycle effect - the impact of a person’s age and stage in life on their political views

• Globalization - the increasing interconnectedness of people, businesses, and counties throughout the world

• Multinational corporations - companies that make, transport, and market goods and services in 2 or more countries

• Nongovernmental organizations - independent groups outside the government that work toward a public cause

• Intergovernmental organizations - consists of member states like EU

• North American Trade Agreement - 1993 increased trade between US, Canada, and Mexico

• Trans-Pacific Partnership - regional trade agreement btwn 12 nations along pacific rim

• Outsourcing - when a company moves its business to a place where labor costs are cheaper or production is more efficient because workers work longer hours

Chapter 11

• Public opinion - the sum of individual attitudes about government, policies, and issues

• 2014 Darren Wilson (police) shot Michael Brown (Black man) and used BLM which began in 2013 following the acquittal of George Zimmerman after shooting Trayvon Martin

• 2016 Colin Kaepernick took a knee

• 1996 book What Americans Know about Politics and Why it Matters most americans didn’t know basic gov

• Focus group - a small group of individuals assembled for a conversation about specific issues

• Scientific poll - a representative poll of randomly selected respondents with a statistically significant sample size, using neutral language

• Sample - a group of individuals from a larger population used to measure public opinion

• Random selection - a method of choosing all poll respondents in a way that does not over, or underrepresented any group of the population

• representative sample - a sample that reflects the demographics of the population

• Weighting - a procedure in which the survey is adjusted according to the demographics of the larger population

• Sampling error - margin of error in a poll, which is usually calculated to plus or minus three percentage points

• Mass survey - a survey designed to measure the opinions of the population, usually consisting of 1,500 responses

• Entrance survey - a poll conducted of people coming to an event

• Exit poll - a survey conducting outside a polling place in which individuals are asked who or what they just voted for and why

• Benchmark poll - a survey taken at the beginning of a political campaign in order to gauge support for a candidate and determine which issues are important to voters

• Tracking poll - a survey determining the level of support for a candidate or an issues throughout a campaign

• Random digit dialing - the use of telephone numbers randomly generated by computer to select potential survey respondents

• Question order - the sequence of questions in public order polls

• Question wording - the phrasing of a question in a public opinion poll

• 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act was bipartisan legislation and was passed by ignoring the public’s opinion

Chapter 12

• Political ideology - set of beliefs about what should happen as the result of the process of governance

• Right - something guaranteed, that the government cannot take away

• Privilege - something a person may obtain or receive, but that the government can take away

• 2009 Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

• Party ideology - a party’s philosophy about the proper role of government and its set of positions on major issues

• Party identification - an individual’s attachment to a political party

• Conservatism - an ideology favoring more control of social behavior, fewer regulations on businesses, and less government interference in the economy

• Liberalism - an ideology favoring less government control over social behavior and more greater regulation of businesses and of the economy

• Libertarianism - an ideology favoring very little government regulation and intervention beyond protecting private property and individual liberty

• Laissez-faire economy - economic policy in which governments intrude as little as possible in the economic transactions between citizens and businesses

• Command-and-control economy - economic policy in which government dictates much of a nation’s economic activity, including the amount of production and price for goods

• mixed economy - economic policy in which many economic decisions are left to individuals and businesses, with the government regulating economic activity

• gross domestic product - the total value of goods and services produced by an economy

• Economic recession - a period decline in economic activity, typically defined by 2 consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth

• Unemployment rate - the percentage of people actively looking for work who cannot find jobs

• Inflation - the rise in prices of goods and services

• Consumer price index - the coast of fixed basket of goods and services over time, used to measure the cost of living

• Keynesianism - because prices are somewhat rigid, fluctuations in any component of spending—consumption, investment, or government expenditures—cause output to change. If government spending increases, for example, and all other spending components remain constant, then output will increase.

• Supply-side theory - an economic concept whereby increasing the supply of goods leads to economic growth. Also proposed lower taxes on individuals and businesses as the most effective tool to combat economic downturns

• Fiscal policy - government use of taxes and spending to attempt to lower unemployment, support economic growth, and stabilize the economy

• Monetary theory - the government should match the growth of the money supply to the growth in economic productivity

• Federal reserve system - a board of governors, Federal reserve banks, and member banks responsible for monetary policy

• Monetary policy - a set of economic policy tools designed to regulate the amount of money in the economy

• Medicare - a federal program that provides health insurance to seniors and the disabled

• Medicaid - a federal program that provides health care for the poor

• National federation of independent businesses v. Sebelius SCOTUS upheld constitutionality of individual mandate provision in ACA

• King v. Burwell the constitutionality of the tax credits in the ACA were upheld

Chapter 13

• Political participation- the different ways in which individuals take action to shape the laws and policies of a gov

• Citizens United v Federal Election Commission - 2010 allowed unlimited corporate campaign contributions

• Since Tillman Act of 1907 federal campaign finance laws have prohibited corporations from making direct contributions to candidates

• Political action committees - an organization that raises money to elect and defeat candidates and may donate money directly to a candidate’s campaign, subject to limits

• Soft money loophole - money that could be donated to support a candidate’s campaign but not directly to their campaign

• Buckley v. Valeo - upheld limits on how much money an individual can donate directly to a campaign, but stuck down limits for how much money a candidate can spend

• Linkage institutions - channels that connect individuals with gov, including elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media

• Social movement - the joining of individuals seeking social or political change with the goal of placing issues on the policy agenda

• franchise/suffrage - the right to vote

• 26th amendment - allows 18 year old and older to vote

• 24th amendment - prohibits congress and the states from imposing poll taxes as a condition for voting in federal elections

• Poll tax- payment required by a state or federal government before a citizen is allowed to vote

• Voter turnout - the number of eligible voters who participate in an election as a percentage of the total number of eligible voters

• Demographic characteristics - measurable characteristics of a population, such as economic status, education, race or ethnicity, and gender

• Socioeconomic status (SES) - a measure of an individual’s wealth, income, occupation, and educational attainment

• Political efficacy - a person’s belief that they can make effective political change

• Political mobilization - efforts by political parties to encourage their members to vote

• Registration requirements - the set of rules that govern who can vote and how, when, and where they vote

• Rational choice voting - voting based on what a citizen believe is in their best interest

• retrospective voting - voting based on an assessment of an incumbent’s past performance

• prospective voting - casting a ballot for a candidate who promises to enact policies favored by the voter in the future

• Party-line voting - voting for candidates who belong only to one political party for all of the offices on the ballot

• Electoral college - a constitutionally required process for selecting the president through the slates of electors chosen in each state, who are pledged to vote for a nominee in the presidential election

• Winner-takes-all system - a system of elections in which the candidate who wins the plurality of votes within a state receives all of that state’s votes in the electoral college

• Maine and Nebraska are the only states w/o winner takes all systems

• Battleground states - a state where the polls show a close contest between the candidate in a presidential election

• Swing state - a state where levels of support for the parties are similar and the elections swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans

• Get out the vote (GOTV) - efforts to mobilize supporters

• Super PAC - an organization that may spend an unlimited amount of money on a political campaign, as long as the spending is not coordinated with a campaign

Chap 14

• Political party - an organized group of party leaders and voters who work together to elect candidates to political office

  • Main roles: (1) recruit, nominate, and support candidates for political office (2) In the electorate, they provide labels that voters can use as shortcuts in identifying candidates closer to their political ideologies (3) In gov, they enact policy positions of its members and acts as an opposition to the majority party when it is in the minority

• Party identification - the degree to which a voter is connected to and influenced by a particular political party

• Slight-ticket voting - voting for all the candidates on the ballot from one political party

• Split-ticket voting - voting for candidates from different parties in the same election

• Party platform - a set of positions and policy objectives that members of a political party agree to

• Recruitment - the process through which political parties identify potential candidates

• Party coalition - groups of voters who support a political party over time

• Realignment - when the groups of people who support a political party shift their allegiance to a different political party

• Critical election - a major national election that signals a change in the balance of power between the two parties

• Party era - time period when one party wins most national elections

• Era of divided government - a trend since 1969, in which one party controls one or both houses of Congress and the president is from the opposite party

• Nomination - the formal process through which parties choose their candidates for political office

• Delegate - a person who acts as the voters’ representative at convention to select the party’s nominee

  • They have to vote for the person they ran for for the 1st 2 ballots, 3rd ballot can vote for whoever

• Primary election - an election in which a state’s voters choose delegates who support a presidential candidate for nomination or an election by a plurality vote to select a party’s nominee for a seat in Congress

• Open primary - a primary election in which all eligible voters may vote, regardless of their party affiliation

• Closed primary - a primary election in which only those who have registered as a member of a political party may vote

• Caucus - a process through which a state’s eligible voters meet to select delegates to represent their preferences in the nomination process

• Superdelegate - usually a party leader or activist who is not pledged to a candidate based on the outcome of the state’s primary or caucus

  • Iowa there’s a caucus and New Hampshire has a primary

  • Can vote for however they want in nomination process

• Front-loading - a decision by a state to push its primary or caucus to a date as early in the election season as possible to gain more influence in the presidential nomination process

• National convention - a meeting where delegates officially select their party’s nominee for the presidency

• Candidate-centered campaign - a trend in which candidates develop their own strategies and raise money with less influence from the party elite

• Two-party system - a system in which two political parties dominate politics, winning almost all elections

• Proportional representation system - an election system for a legislature in which citizens vote for parties, rather than individuals, and parties are represented in the legislature according to the percentage of the vote they receive

• Single-member plurality system - an election system for choosing members of the legislature where the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, even if the candidate does not receive a majority of the votes

  • Highest voted candidate

• Third parties - a minor political party in competition with the two major parties

Chap 15

• Interest group - voluntary associations of people who come together with the goal of getting the policies that they favor enacted

  • NAACP

• Social movements - diffuse groups that educate the public and put pressure on policymakers in an effort to bring about societal change

• Net neutrality - internet service providers prohibited from speeding down, block, or slowing down content during Obama

• Theory of participatory democracy - the belief that citizens impact policymaking through their involvement in civil society

• Civil society - groups outside the government that advocate for policy

• Pluralist theory - a theory that political power is distributed among many competing groups, which means that no single group can grow too powerful

• Elitist theory - a theory that the wealthy elite class has a disproportionate amount of economic and political power

• Policy agenda - the set of issues to which government officials, voters, and the public are paying attention

• Collective action - political action that occurs when individuals contribute their energy, time, or money to a larger group goal

• Collective good - aka public good, a public benefit that individuals can enjoy or profit from even if they do not help achieve it

• Free riders - individuals who enjoy collective goods and benefit from the actions of an interest group without joining

• Selective benefits - benefits available to only those who join the group

• Economic interest group - groups advocating on behalf of the financial interests their members

• Public interest group - groups that act on behalf of the collective interests of a broad group of individuals

• Single-issue groups - associations focusing on one specific area of public policy, often a moral issues about which they are unwilling to compromise

• Government interest group - organizations acting on behalf of the local, state, or foreign governments

• Lobbying - interaction with government officials in order to advance a group’s public policy goals

• Revolving door - the movement of individuals between positions in government and lobbying positions

• Amicus curiae brief - a brief filed by someone who is not a party to a case in attempt to persuade the Court to agree with the arguments set forth in the brief

• Iron triangle - the coordinated and mutually beneficial activities of the bureaucracy, Congress, and interest groups to achieve shared policy goals

• Issue network - the webs of influence between interest groups, policymakers, and policy advocates

• Grassroots lobbying - mobilizing interest group members to pressure their representatives by contacting them directly through phone class, email, and social media

• Protest - a public demonstration designed to call attention to the need for change

• Civil disobedience - intentionally breaking a law to call attention to an injustice