AP Gov Unit 1B Test

  1. electorate - The group of people in the electoral college
  2. structural barriers to voting -
  3. retrospective voting - voting on past actions
  4. prospective voting - voting on future plans
  5. party-line voting - voting based purely based on the party
  6. rational-choice voting - based on what the voter thinks is right.
  7. political efficacy - the belief that ordinary people can impact the government
  8. political party - I know this
  9. party platform - The platform that a political party operates on.
    1. partisan - strong supporter of the part
    2. bipartisan - agreement of two parties
    3. two-party system - A government system where two parties prevail
    4. third parties (minor parties) - parties that are outside of the two major parties
    5. critical election - an election that changes the political parties.
    6. realignment - a major shift in the political / voting behavior
    7. dealignment - abandonment of party ties
    8. winner-take-all system - majority rules get all of the votes.
    9. single-member districts - districts with one member
    10. proportional representation - representation that is proportional to the population (vote race gender, etc)
    11. ticket-splitting - a vote that votes across party lines. (two different policies.)
    12. national convention - where the party announces the president and also changes the party platform.
    13. national committee - in charge of the day-to-day operations of the party
    14. divided government - a government that is divided in its political views.
    15. invisible primary - basically just like a pointless primary
    16. delegate - people who select the nominee for the president
    17. frontloading - moving primary earlier to allow for candidates to drop out
    18. incumbent - the current elected official that is running again.
    19. caucus - a closed meeting where nominees decide delegates for the national convention.
    20. Closed Primary - voting limited to registered party members.
    21. Open Primary - a voter can choose which party they may vote for
    22. general election - pres election re-elects lots of people (congress)
    23. midterm election - the midpoint of pres term and some of the senate.
    24. battleground states/swing states - states that are not consistent with which party they elect.
    25. redistricting - the redrawing of districts for the house of reps.
    26. gerrymandering - drawing districts in a wacky way.
    27. malapportionment - drawing the districts in a way that is inaccurate / not proportional.
    28. safe district - basically guaranteed a specific political party.
    29. Baker v. Carr - baker won. one person one vote, and federal courts have the power to decide court cases over “political” manners.
    30. Shaw v. Reno - shaw wins. racial gerrymandering is illegal even if it helps.
    31. hard money - Money donated directly to a candidate
    32. soft money - money donated to parties and not directly to candidates
    33. PACs (political action committees) - pools money from donators to make commercials (5000 max)
    34. SuperPACs - corporations can give unlimited money basically to make commercials.
    35. Citizens United v. FEC - declared that corporations/people have the right to donate however much money they want to campaign stuff.
    36. Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act - banned soft money, increased hard money donating numbers, and made politicians say that they endorse commercials.