Ch.4: Political Parties in Texas

Question 1

5 Benefits of a Political Party?

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

The degree to which Republicans have become more conservative and Democrats have become more liberal

Answer 2

partisan polarization

Question 3

the introduction of individuals into the political culture; learning the underlying beliefs and values on which the political system is based

Answer 3

political socialization

Question 4

Parties in Texas are organized at a

Answer 4

precinct, county and state levels

Question 5

the most basic level of political organization at the local level

Answer 5

precinct

Question 6

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

Answer 6

precinct chair

Question 7

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

Answer 7

county executive committee

Question 8

the county party official who head the county executive committee

Answer 8

county chair

Question 9

the committee responsible for governing a party’s activities throughout the state

Answer 9

state executive committee

Question 10

the two state level leaders in the party

Answer 10

state chair and vice chair

Question 11

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

Answer 11

precinct convention

Question 12

meeting held by a political party following its precinct conventions, for the purpose of electing delegates to its state convention

Answer 12

county convention

Question 13

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

Answer 13

state convention

Question 14

a conservative democrats who abandoned the national Democratic Party in the 1948 presidential election

Answer 14

Dixiecrats

Question 15

a political party formed In Texas in order to bring attention to the concerns of Mexican Americans

Answer 15

la raza unida party

Question 16

an election rule that states that the winner rule that states that the winner is the candidate who receives a pluralityl of the votes

Answer 16

first past the post

Question 17

an electorate that is allowed to elect only one representative for each district

Answer 17

single member district

Question 18

the observation that in a single member district system of electing representatives a two party system will emergelll

Answer 18

duverger’s law

Question 19

a multimember district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote

Answer 19

proportional representation

Question 20

a political movement aimed at limiting the influence of Wall Street and big corporations in American politics; created following government bailouts in 2008

Answer 20

occupy movement

Question 21

created after Barack Obama’s election, a political movement that advocates lower government spending, lower taxes, and limited government

Answer 21

Tea party movement

Question 22

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

Answer 22

Shivecrat movement

Question 23

a voting pattern in which conservatives vote for Democrats for state offices but republicans for presidential candidates

Answer 23

presidential republican

Question 24

another name for conservative democrats mostly from the South.

Answer 24

blue dog democrats