Ch. 11 VOCAB

Question 1

Barack Obama

Answer 1

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017.

Question 2

candidate-centered politics

Answer 2

Voting became candidate centered, and so parties as mechanisms for understanding candidates, campaigns, and election became less relevant. … These factors led voters to see parties as increasingly irrelevant, and party attachments weakened.

Question 3

critical elections

Answer 3

A realigning election a term from political science and political history describing a dramatic change in the political system. Scholars frequently apply the term to American elections and occasionally to other countries.

Question 4

delegate

Answer 4

a person sent or authorized to represent others, in particular an elected representative sent to a conference.

Question 5

Donald J. Trump

Answer 5

Donald John Trump is the 45th and current President of the United States. Before entering politics, he was a businessman and television personality. Trump was born and raised in the New York City borough of Queens.

Question 6

Hilary R. Clinton

Answer 6

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician and diplomat who served as the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001,

Question 7

national convention

Answer 7

a convention of a major political party, especially one that nominates a candidate for the presidency.

Question 8

national party platform

Answer 8

A political party platform or program is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, in order to appeal to the general public, for the ultimate purpose of garnering the general public’s support and votes about complicated topics or issues.

Question 9

party identification

Answer 9

Party identification refers to the political party with which an individual identifies. Party identification is affiliation with a political party.

Question 10

partisan polarization

Answer 10

Political polarization refers to the cases in which an individual’s stance on a given issue, policy, or person is more likely to be strictly defined by their identification with a particular political party

Question 11

party realignment

Answer 11

A party realignment in the United States is when the balance of power between a country’s political parties changes greatly. Their electoral coalitions (the groups of people who vote for them) change dramatically. Sometimes, this happens when political parties die out or are created.

Question 12

political machine

Answer 12

A political machine is a political group in which an authoritative boss or small group commands the support of a corps of supporters and businesses, who receive rewards for their efforts

Question 13

political party

Answer 13

A political party is a group of voters organized to support certain public policies. The aim of a political party is to elect officials who will try to carry out the party’s policies. A political party offers candidates for public office.

Question 14

proportional representation

Answer 14

an electoral system in which parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them.

Question 15

secular realignment

Answer 15

An election that signals a party realignment through voter polarization around new issues. Term. Secular Realignment. Definition. the gradual rearrangement of party coalitions, based more on demographic shifts than on shocks to the political system.

Question 16

super delegate

Answer 16

(in the Democratic Party) an unelected delegate who is free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination at the party’s national convention.

Question 17

Thomas Jefferson

Answer 17

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and later served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809.

Question 18

winner-take-all system

Answer 18

The District of Columbia and 48 states have a winner-takes-all rule for the Electoral College. In these States, whichever candidate receives a majority of the popular vote, or a plurality of the popular vote (less than 50 percent but more than any other candidate), takes all of the state’s Electoral votes.