Chapter 8: Political Parties Flashcards
an organization that recruits, nominates, and elects party members to office in order to control the government
Political Party
Formal statement of a party’s principles and policy objectives
Platform
Tasks that involve direct contact with voters or potential voters
Grassroots Organizing
political scientists’ view that a function of a party is to offer a clear choice to voters by establishing priorities or policy stances different from those of rival parties
responsible party model
Individuals who identify with or tend to support a party
Party in the Electorate
Unaffiliated voter
Independent
Individuals who identify themselves as a member of one party or the other.
-measured by party registration
Party Identifiers
a role that the party out of power plays, highlighting its objections to policies and priorities of the government in power
Loyal Opposition
Supreme Court interpretation of campaign finance law that enabled political parties to raise unlimited funds for party-building activities such as voter registration drives and get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts
Soft Money Loophole
the partisan identifications of elected leaders in local, county, state, and federal government
party in government
the situation that exists when Congress is controlled by one party and the presidency by the other
divided government
the categorization of the number and competitiveness of political parties in a polity
Created when federalists advocated ratification of the constitution and strong central government, and anti federalists opposed and favored states’ rights
Party System
Shift in party allegiances or electoral support
Realignment
a philosophy supporting the rights and empowerment of the masses as opposed to elites
Populism
the practice of rewarding political supporters with jobs
To the victor goes the spoils
Spoils System
big-city party organization that exerted control over many aspects of life and lavishly rewarded supporters
Political Machine
system in which a party leader rewarded political supporters with jobs or government contracts in exchange for their support of the party
Patronage
Franklin Roosevelt’s broad social welfare program in which the government would bear the responsibility of providing a “safety net” to protect the most disadvantaged members of society
New Deal
the group composed of southern Democrats, northern city dwellers, immigrants, the poor, Catholics, labor union members, blue-collar workers, African Americans, and women that elected FDR to the presidency four times
New Deal coalition
the situation in which fewer voters support the two major political parties, instead identifying themselves as independent, or splitting their ticket between candidates from more than one party
Dealignment
the situation in which voters vote for candidates from more than one party
Ticket Splitting
organizations that candidates form to support their individual election
candidate committees
a party organized as opposition or an alternative to the existing parties in a two-party system
Third Party
electoral system in which the candidate who receives the most votes wins that office, even if that total is not a majority.
winner-take-all
