chapter 11

Question 1

barack obama

Answer 1

an American politician who served as the 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2009, to January 20, 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American to be elected to the presidency and previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois.

Question 2

candidate-centered politics

Answer 2

politics that focuses on candidates, their particular issues, and character rather than party affiliation. critical election. an election that signals party realignment through voter polarization around new issues and personalities.

Question 3

critical elections

Answer 3

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

is the 45th and current President of the United States. Trump later started various side ventures, including licensing his name for real estate and consumer products. He managed the company until his 2017 inauguration. He co-authored several books, including The Art of the Deal.

Question 6

hillary r. clinton

Answer 6

an American politician and diplomat who served as the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, U.S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, and as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President of united states

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 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

is affiliation with a political party. Party identification is typically determined by the political party that an individual most commonly supports (by voting or other means).

Question 10

partisan polarization

Answer 10

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 or ideology

Question 11

party realignment

Answer 11

the balance of power between a country’s political parties changes greatly. Their electoral coalitions change dramatically. Sometimes, this happens when political parties die out or are created.

Question 12

political machine

Answer 12

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. The machine’s power is based on the ability of the workers to get out the vote for their candidates on election day.

Question 13

political party

Answer 13

defined as an organised group of people with at least roughly similar political aims and opinions, that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to 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

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

Question 16

superdelegate

Answer 16

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

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. Previously, he had been elected the second Vice President of the United States, serving under John Adams from 1797 to 1801

Question 18

winner-take-all system

Answer 18

in which the candidate who wins the most votes wins all the delegates at stake or by proportional representation as in the Democratic Party primaries, in which any candidate receiving a percentage of the votes above some threshold