American government chapter 8,9 & 10 Flashcards
___________is a team of people seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a dully constituted election
A Political party
The political party can be viewed as the party in the _______, the party as an _______and the party in____. What does each term means
Electorate
Organization
Government
History demonstrates that a successful party rarely strays too far from the middle point of public opinion’ Recently there has been a clear trend in the decline of membership from both major parties and an increase in_____. 21% of the the population call themselves__________
Independent
Independent
In recent years___________ has reached record proportions_________is when someone votes with one party for one office and anothor party for another office
Ticket spliting
Ticket spliting
America is and always has a __party system. Most democratic nations have more than __parties. Also, throughout our history, one party has dominated for long period of times and won numerous elections. This is called a ____________
2
a party era
Punctuating each party era is a __________wherein fissures appear in the party coalition and new issues appeared which divide the electorate. New conditions are formed and ______takes place.___________are typically associated with a major crisis and trauma in the nation’s history(eg, the war)
critical election
Party realignment
party realignment
A___________ exists when there is a president from one party and a congressional majority from the other party. Both houses of congress and the presidency have been controlled bythe same party for only 8.3 years of the 36 years from 1969 to 2004
divided party government
The phenomena of increased divided party governement has led political scientists to speculate the___________is occuring___________means that people are gradually moving away from both parties
Party dealignment(people moving away)
Party dealignement
What is the chief impact of a 2 party systems?
Political parties are similar
not a lot of choices in the two
it’s possible to have viewpoints from each party
gridlock with a divided party system
The future of ___________is uncertain___________areno longer the main source of political information and attention_____has enabled canditates to bypass the party and communicate directly with voters____________have become more influential on legislators than parties
political parties
political parties
TV
interest groups
A major party’s candidate almost always has held office as governor, senator, or representative. This allows the candidate to have an _______
Electoral base
What are some criticisms of the primaries?
Disproportional attention goes to early states
Fund raising plays too big a role. Low voters turned out(20%)
gives the press too much power to define candidates
In 1976 the supreme court in Buckey v Valeo struck down the portion of the Federal elections campaign act which limitted individual contributions to one’s own campaign as a violation of ______-. This allows individuals to finance their own campaigns
Free speech
The FECA also allows for the proliferation of_.
PAC
There has been an explosive growth of PACs in the last 3 decades. PACs are funded by______and this has led many to criticize that this is an open system of graft. Politicians who accept PAC money are beholden to the interest groups behind the PACs
interest groups
_________is the right to vote. Eveyone over the age of 18 has a right to________
Suffrage
18
The____________passed in 1976 tightened controls on campaign finance. What does FECA do?F
Federal election campaign act
It introduced dollar limits on campaign contributions
privide public financing(matching fund)
Limmmitted the amount of money you can spend on the campaign if you take the matching funds
extensive disclosure of campaign donors-keep records on spending
Many voters-especially the youth are apathetic and many people don’t vote because they feel their vote does not make a difference. ________laws also discourage people from voting by requiring registration fr in advanced of elections
voters registrations
The_________is a unique American institution created by the the constition providing for the selection of the president by electors chosen by the state parties. The_____________is criticised and opposed by many political scientists, institutions and voters as undemocratic, complex, ambiguous and dangerous
electoral college
electoral college
An______is an organization of people with similar polocy goals who enter the political process to try to achieve those aims.____support candidates but don’t run their own state of candidated. This is the central difference interest groups and parties
interest groups
interest groups
A___________is a group that has a narrow interest, dislikes compromise and single-mindedly pursues its goal
single issue
There are 4 basic strategies used by IGs to shape polocy. What are they?
lobbysts, election campaigning, appealing to the public, litigation
__________is aiding candidated financially and getting group members to support the canditate. this is accomplished through _______, the majority if the ______money goes to__________-because there is a more likely return on th ePACs investment
election hearing
PACs
PACs
incumbent
What are some criticisms of IGs?
They only care about their issues. Congress people can become corrupted by internet groups
How does the electoral college work?
Each states has a certain numbedr of electoral votes . That number=the number of seats in congress
The state dem/rep parties select individuals/electors to vote ECVs
general election occurs and populate votes is tallied by states by states
election vote in private using a winner takes all system
electoral votes are tallied. 268 ECVs are required to win the election
electoral votes always followed popular votes
