ap gov chapter 11 vocabulary

Question 1

political party

Answer 1

an organized group that may include office holders, candidates, activists, and voters who pursue their common interests by gaining and exercising power through the electoral process

Question 2

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 2

principle drafter of the Declaration of Independence; second vice president of the United States; third president of the United States from 1801-1809; co-founder of the Democratic Republican Party

Question 3

political machine

Answer 3

a party organization that recruits voter loyalty with tangible incentives and is characterized by a high degree of control over member activity

Question 4

candidate-centered politics

Answer 4

politics that focus on the candidates, their particular issues, and character rather than party affiliation

Question 5

party realignment

Answer 5

dramatic shifts in partisan preferences that drastically alter the political landscape

Question 6

critical election

Answer 6

an election that signals a party realignment through voter polarization around new issues and personalities

Question 7

secular realignment

Answer 7

the gradual rearrangement of party coalitions, based more on demographic shifts than on shocks to the political system

Question 8

national convention

Answer 8

a party meeting held in the presidential election year for the purposes of nominating a presidential and vice presidential ticket and adopting a platform

Question 9

delegate

Answer 9

role played by representative who votes the way his or her constituents would want, regardless of personal opinions; may refer to an elected representative to Congress or to the party convention

Question 10

superdelegate

Answer 10

delegate to the Democratic Party’s national convention that is reserved for a party official and whose vote at the convention is unpledged to a candidate

Question 11

Donald J. Trump

Answer 11

the forty-fifth president, a Republican, elected in 2016; first president elected without prior political or military experience; an experienced businessman

Question 12

national party platform

Answer 12

a statement of the general and specific philosophy and policy goals of a political party, usually promulgated at the national convention

Question 13

Barack Obama

Answer 13

the first African American president of the United States, a Democrat, who served as forty-fourth president from 2009-2017; member of the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004

Question 14

party identification

Answer 14

a citizen’s attachment to a political party based on issues, ideology, past experience, or upbringing, which tends to be a reliable indicator of likely voting choices

Question 15

Hillary Clinton

Answer 15

first female major party candidate for president of the United States, democrat, who ran against President Donald J. Trump in 2016; secretary of state from 2009-2013; New York senator from 2001-2009; former first lady

Question 16

proportional representation

Answer 16

a voting system that apportions legislative seats according to the percentage of the vote won by a particular political party

Question 17

winner-take-all system

Answer 17

an electoral system in which the party that receives at least one more vote than any other party wins the election

Question 18

partisan polarization

Answer 18

the presence of increasingly conflicting and divided viewpoints between the Republican and Democratic Parties