American Parties

Question 1

What is a non-partisan election?

Answer 1

Election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots. (Most local and judicial elections operate this way)

Question 2

What is patronage?

Answer 2

Dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.

Question 3

What is a honeymoon?

Answer 3

Period at beginning of a president’s new term during which he enjoys positive relations with the press and Congress.

Question 4

What are the 5 party functions?

Answer 4

Organize the competition (winning control of government)
Unify the electorate (Gain support and get involved in similar interests)
Organize the Government (Parts of Government organized by parties)
Make policy (Enact policies and campaign promises)
Provide Loyal Opposition (party out of power can monitor party in power)

Question 5

What is a caucus? When was it most popular?

Answer 5

Meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and decide party platform. This was most popular pre-revolutionary period.

Question 6

What is a party convention? Why did this method become less popular?

Answer 6

A meeting of party delegates to vote on matters of policy and in some cases, select party candidates for office.
Criticized as being controlled by party bosses.

Question 7

What is a direct primary?

Answer 7

Each state Democratic Party and Republican Party come together to decide on candidates or directly vote for candidates for their party.

Question 8

What are open primaries?

Answer 8

An election in which any voter may vote regardless of party.

Question 9

What are closed primaries?

Answer 9

Election in which only persons registered in the party holding the primary may vote. (Only certain party may vote).

Question 10

What are jungle primaries?

Answer 10

All the people are on the ballot. You can choose whoever and they pick top two.

Question 11

What is crossover voting?

Answer 11

Voting by a member of one party for a candidate of another party.

Question 12

What were blanket primaries?

Answer 12

Experimented with by California. All voters could vote for any candidate without having to affiliate or declare the party they were voting for. They just voted and whoever got the most votes, won.

Question 13

What was the case of California Democratic Party vs. Jones?

Answer 13

Ruled that the blanket primary system violates the First Amendment freedom of Association Rights (protects right to associate and not to associate together)

Question 14

What are minor parties?

Answer 14

Smaller political parties organized around an ideology that persist over time.

Question 15

What are multiparty systems?

Answer 15

Often found in countries with parliamentary government. Usually have a head of state (president) but also head of government (prime minister)

Question 16

What is proportional representation?

Answer 16

Seen in multi-party systems. Each party running receives proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.

Question 17

What is a winner-take-all system?

Answer 17

An election system in which the candidate with the most votes win.

Question 18

What is Duverger’s law?

Answer 18

With single member districts and plurality voting, only two parties candidates have a realistic chance of winning.

Question 19

How can minor party candidates get their name on the ballot?

Answer 19

Securing required number of signatures on nomination petition.

Question 20

What are brokered conventions?

Answer 20

Occur during presidential election when a political party fails to choose a nominee on first round of delegate voting at nomination conventions. Keep voting until they reach majority.

Question 21

What are office bloc ballots?

Answer 21

Survey where candidates are listed by office position.

Question 22

What are party column ballots?

Answer 22

Shows different candidates you can vote for, and their parties.

Question 23

What are non-partisan ballots?

Answer 23

Ballots not really related to the parties.

Question 24

What were butterfly ballots? Why were they not effective?

Answer 24

They were boards with buttons where you could press who you wanted to vote for.
Did not work because people didn’t know which candidates corresponded with which button.

Question 25

What are realigning elections?

Answer 25

A party change or party realignment in the government or from the people as a result of something happening.

Question 26

What was the realigning election of 1824?

Answer 26

When Andrew Jackson won the election by bringing together the support of different groups. Appealed to the masses rather than the elites creating the Democratic Party. Opposed by the Whig party which had little political success.

Question 27

What were the two first political parties?

Answer 27

Federalists
Democratic Republicans (party in power)

Question 28

What was the realigning election of 1860?

Answer 28

Republican Party formed as a result of Civil War and nominated Abraham Lincoln as first presidential candidate. Republicans continued to be dominant and won next few elections.

Question 29

What was the realigning election of 1932?

Answer 29

When Franklin Roosevelt brought the Democratic Party back to combat Great Depression. (New deal)

Question 30

What is the present political era?

Answer 30

Now the south has largely become Republican even though they used to be Democratic.

Question 31

What is divided government?

Answer 31

Governance divided between the two parties, when one holds presidency and other controls one or both houses of Congress.

Question 32

What are the 4 reasons that there are no strong 3rd parties?

Answer 32

1. Demorepublican party controls the ballots.
2. The DemoRepublican Party controls access to debates and media.
3. Majority election system for elections.
4. Third party candidates have a hard time raising money.

Question 33

An event in which parties formally nominate their candidate for presidency is called…

Answer 33

A national convention

Question 34

What are dealigning elections?

Answer 34

Groups of people left one party and didn’t go anywhere in particular non voters or independents

Question 35

What are noteworthy elections?

Answer 35

Some event or movement will always be associated with it.

Question 36

What was the realigning election of 1800?

Answer 36

It was between Jefferson and Adams. This was one of the most competitive partisan elections. It marked the beginning of political parties and power was transferred peacefully to the Anti-Federalists.

Question 37

What does the 12th amendment do? Why was it created?

Answer 37

Creates separate ballots for the president and vice president. It was created to resolve the conflict that occurred during the election in 1800.

Question 38

Which comes first, primaries or national party conventions when voting for the president?

Answer 38

Primaries because the people elect who their candidate is, then the candidate with most votes gets formally nominated as presidential candidate.

Question 39

Which party uses winner take all representation to select its candidates?

Answer 39

Republicans