Chapter 8 Vocab: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns: Defining the Voters' Choice

Question 1

Political party

Answer 1

An ongoing coalition of interests joined together to try to get their candidates for public office elected under a common label.

Question 2

Party-centered campaigns

Answer 2

Election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence. (See also “candidate-centered campaigns”)

Question 3

Candidate-centered campaingns

Answer 3

Election campaigns and other political processes in which candidates, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence. (See also “party-centered campaigns”)

Question 4

Linkage institutions

Answer 4

Institutions that connect citizens with government. Linkage institutions include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

Question 5

Party competition

Answer 5

A process in which conflict over society’s goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern.

Question 6

Grassroots party

Answer 6

A political party organized at the level of the voters and dependent on their support for its strength.

Question 7

Party realignments

Answer 7

Elections or sets of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinarily powerful issue that has disrupted the established political order. A realignment has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties, and the composition of the party coalitions. (See also “party identification”)

Question 8

Two-party system

Answer 8

A system in which only two political parties have a chance at acquiring control of the government.

Question 9

Multiparty system

Answer 9

A system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government, separately or in coalition.

Question 10

Single-member districts

Answer 10

The form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office. (See also “proportional representation system”)

Question 11

Single-member system

Answer 11

Also called a winner-take-all system or a plurality, an electoral system in which the candidate who gets the most votes (the plurality) in an election district is elected to office from that district.

Question 12

Proportional representation system

Answer 12

A form of representation in which seats in the legislature are allocated proportionally according to each political party’s share of the popular vote. This system enables smaller parties to compete successfully for seats. (See also “single-member districts”)

Question 13

Median voter theorem

Answer 13

The theory that parties in a two-party system can maximize their vote by locating themselves at the position of the median voter - the voter whose preferences are exactly in the middle.

Question 14

Party coalition

Answer 14

The group and interests that support a political party.

Question 15

Gender gap

Answer 15

The tendency of women and men to differ in their political attitudes and voting preferences.

Question 16

Party organizations

Answer 16

The party organizational units at national, state, and local levels; their influence has decreased over time because of many factors. (See also candidate-centered campaigns; party-centered campaigns; primary election.)

Question 17

Nomination

Answer 17

The selection of a particular individual to run as a political party’s candidate (its “nominee”) in the general election.

Question 18

Primary election

Answer 18

Also called a direct primary, a form of election in which voters choose a party’s nominees for public office. In most states, eligibility to vote in a primary election is limited to voters who designated themselves as party members when they registered to vote.

Question 19

Money chase

Answer 19

The fact that U.S. campaigns are very expensive and candidates must spend a great amount of time raising funds in order to complete successfully.

Question 20

Hard money

Answer 20

Campaign funds given directly to candidates to spend as they choose.

Question 21

Packaging

Answer 21

In modern campaigning, the process of recasting a candidate’s record into an appealing image.