Ch.4: Political Parties in Texas Flashcards
5 Benefits of a Political Party?
- help candidates win elections
- assist voters in making decisions
- provide information as well as organize the government
- help raise money
- brand what party they are in, simplifies
The degree to which Republicans have become more conservative and Democrats have become more liberal
partisan polarization
the introduction of individuals into the political culture; learning the underlying beliefs and values on which the political system is based
political socialization
Parties in Texas are organized at a
precinct, county and state levels
the most basic level of political organization at the local level
precinct
the local party official, elected in the party’s primary election, who heads the precinct convention and serves on the party’s county executive committee
precinct chair
the party group, made up of a party’s county chair and precinct chairs, that is responsible for running a county’s primary elections and planning county conventions
county executive committee
the county party official who head the county executive committee
county chair
the committee responsible for governing a party’s activities throughout the state
state executive committee
the two state level leaders in the party
state chair and vice chair
a meeting held by a political party to select delegates for the countyl convention and to submit resolutions to the party’s state platform; XXXXX are held on the day of primary elections and are open to anyone who voted in that election
precinct convention
meeting held by a political party following its precinct conventions, for the purpose of electing delegates to its state convention
county convention
a party meeting held every two years for the purpose of nominating candidates for statewide office, adopting a platform, electing the party’s leadership and in presidential election years selecting delegates for the national convention and choosing presidential electors
state convention
a conservative democrats who abandoned the national Democratic Party in the 1948 presidential election
Dixiecrats
a political party formed In Texas in order to bring attention to the concerns of Mexican Americans
la raza unida party
an election rule that states that the winner rule that states that the winner is the candidate who receives a pluralityl of the votes
first past the post
an electorate that is allowed to elect only one representative for each district
single member district
the observation that in a single member district system of electing representatives a two party system will emergelll
duverger’s law
a multimember district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote
proportional representation
a political movement aimed at limiting the influence of Wall Street and big corporations in American politics; created following government bailouts in 2008
occupy movement
created after Barack Obama’s election, a political movement that advocates lower government spending, lower taxes, and limited government
Tea party movement
a movement led by the Texas governor Allan shivers during the 1950s in which conservative Democrats in Texas supported REpublican candidate Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency because many of those conservative Democrats believed that the national Democratic Party had become too liberal
Shivecrat movement
a voting pattern in which conservatives vote for Democrats for state offices but republicans for presidential candidates
presidential republican
another name for conservative democrats mostly from the South.
blue dog democrats
