Page 11-15 Flashcards
Commission that brought significant representation changes to the party. It made future conventions more democratic by including more minority representation.
McGovern-Frasier Commission
The governing body of a political party made up of state and national party leaders
National committee
The governing authority of the political party. They give direction to the national party chairperson, the spokesperson of the party, and the person who heads the national committee, the governing body of the party. They are also the forums where presidential candidates are given the official nod by their parties.
National nominating conventions
A term created by the Democratic Leadership Council in 1992, it denotes a more conservative, centrist Democrat.
New Democrat
A shift away from the major political parties to a more neutral, independent ideological view of party identification.
Party dealignment
A time period characterized by national dominance by one political party. There have been four major party eras in American history—the era of good feeling, the Republican era following the Civil War, the Democratic era following the election of Franklin Roosevelt, and the Republican era following the election of Richard Nixon.
Party eras
The party organization that exists on the local level and uses patronage as the means to keep the party members in line. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall are examples.
Party machine
Voted on by the delegates attending the National Convention, they represent the ideological point of view of a political party.
Party platforms
The signaling resulting from a national election or a major shift in the political spectrum and characterized by the start of a party era.
Party realignment
The different ways an average citizen gets involved in the political process ranging from conventional means of influencing government to more radical unconventional tools that have influenced our elected officials.
Political participation
A group of people joined together by common philosophies and common approaches with the aim of getting candidates elected in order to develop and implement public policy. It is characterized by an organization that is responsible to the electorate and has a role in government.
Political party
Traditional Democratic middle-class voters turning to Ronald Reagan during the 1980s.
Reagan Democrats
An evangelical conglomeration of ultraconservative political activists, many of whom support the Republican Party.
Religious right
Democratic party leaders and elected party officials who automatically are selected as delegates to the National Convention.
Superdelegates
Political parties that can be described as ideological, single-issue oriented, economically motivated, and personality driven. Examples include the Free Soil Party, Know Nothings, Populist, and Bull Moose Parties.
Third political parties
Party regulars meeting in small groups asking questions, discussing qualifications regarding the candidate, and voting on whether to endorse a particular candidate. The Iowa caucus has taken on almost as much important as the New Hampshire primary because of its timing.
Caucus
An increase reflected in presidential preference polls immediately following a party’s nominating convention.
Convention bump
Voters, including cross-over voters from other political parties, can express a preference for candidates.
Direct primary
Where presidential candidates are selected and a separate slate of delegates is also voted on. New Hampshire uses this type of primary.
Dual primary
The presidential candidate backed by the home state at the party’s nominating convention.
Favorite son
A significant deviation between the way men and women vote.
Gender gap
A major characteristic of the modern presidential campaign. The use of paid political ads, 30- and 60-second sports, paid infomercials incorporating charts and graphs, and sophisticated polling techniques have all been used in recent campaigns.
High-tech campaign
Paid political commercials usually lasting longer than the average 30- or 60-second paid political ad.
Infomercials
Key speech at the national nominating convention that outlines the themes of the campaign.
Keynote address
Limited federal funds given to presidential candidates that match private donations raised during the campaign.
Matching funds
Where voters choose delegates who are not bound to vote for the winning primary candidate.
Non-preferential primary
Also known as the party conference, it is a means for each party to develop a strategy or position on a particular issue.
Party caucus
Enrolled party members who are usually active in the organization o fa political party and support party positions and nominated candidates.
Party regulars
Known as PACs, they raise money from the special interest constituents and make contributions to political campaigns on behalf of the special interest group.
Political action committees
Elections held in individual states to determine the preference of the voters and to allocate the number of delegates to the party’s national convention.
Presidential primary
The Tuesday on which a number of primary votes take place, with a heavy concentration of Southern states voting.
Super Tuesday
Paid political ads 30 seconds in duration.
Thirty-second spots
Act that prohibited the use of any registration requirement that resulted discrimination and paved the way for the involvement of the federal government to enforce the law.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
Scrapped in 1987, it provided that the media air opposing opinions of the same issue.
Fairness doctrine
Declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, they were passed by southern states after the Civil War aimed at making reading a requirement for voting so that freed slaves could not vote.
Literacy laws
Consisting of television, radio, newspapers, and magazines, they reach a large segment of the population. It is also considered one of the linkage institutions.
Mass media
Signed into law by President Clinton, it enables people to register to vote at motor vehicle departments.
Motor Voter Act of 1993
Photo opportunities
Photo ops
The factors that determine voting behavior such as family, religions, and ethnic background.
Political socialization
Made illegal by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, it was a tax instituted by mainly southern states as a condition to vote ad had the effect of preventing African Americans from voting.
Poll tax
Scientific surveys aimed at gauging public preference of candidates and issues.
Public opinion polls
Act that resulted in more than 2 million illegal aliens who were living in this country since 1982 being allowed to apply for legal status.
Simpson-Marzzoli Act (1987)
Dominance by the Democratic Party in the South following the Civil War. The Republicans made strong inroads when Ronald Reagan was elected President in 1980 and after the Republicans gained control of the Congress in 1994.
Solid South
30- or 60-second statements by politicians aired on the evening news shows or Sunday morning talk shows.
Sound bites
The right to vote guaranteed to African Americans in the Fourteenth Amendment and women in the Nineteenth Amendment.
Suffrage
A linked conglomerate of computer-generated information also known as the Internet.
Information superhighway
Politicians who use sound bites or other means to present a superficial look at a policy position rather than an in-depth approach in explaining their views.
Talking heads
Act that finally made the Fifteenth Amendment a reality. As a result of this act, any state not eliminating the poll tax and literacy requirements would be directed to do so by the federal government. It also resulted in the establishment of racially gerrymandered congressional districts in the 1980s and 1990s.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Legislation aimed at placing limits on political candidates accepting money and gifts from individuals and special interest groups.
Campaign finance reform
A group theory that revolves around an economic strata of society controlling the policy agenda.
Elite and Class theory
Act that incorporates sunshine laws; opened up the government’s meetings of record to the public and media.
Freedom of Information Act (1974)
Is a group theory characterized by many interest groups vying for control resulting in a government that is tied up in gridlock (Hyperdemocracy).
Hyperpluralism
A public or private organization, affiliation, or committee that has as its goal the dissemination of its membership’s viewpoint.
Interest groups
The primary instruments of fostering a special interests group’s goals to the policy makers. The term comes from people who literally wait in the lobbies of legislative bodies for senators and representatives to go to and from the floor of the legislatures.
Lobbyists
A primary measure of inflation determined by the increase in the cost of products compared to a base year.
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Interest levels established by the Federal Reserve that effect the ability of the consumer to borrow money. Raising and lowering rates is used as a tool to combat inflation.
Discount rates
Results in the government giving benefits directly to people, groups, farmers, and businesses. Typical policies include subsidies, research and development funds for corporations, and direct government aid for highway construction and education.
Distributive policy
Federal body that regulates the money supply by controlling open-market operations; buying and selling of government securities; and establishing reserve requirements, the legal limitations on money reserves that banks must keep against the amount of money they have deposited in Federal Reserve Banks and through discount rates, and the rate at which banks can borrow money from the Federal Reserve System.
Federal Reserve System
Policy that determines how the economy is managed as a results of government spending and borrowing and the amount of money collected from taxes.
Fiscal policy
Currently the key economic measure that analyzes an upward or downward economic trend of the monetary value of all the goods and services produced within the nation on a quarterly basis.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total of all goods and services produced in a year.
Gross National Product (GNP)
French term literally meaning “hands off.” Used to describe an economic philosophy of non-government intervention in economic matters such as regulation of business or establishing tariffs.
Laissez faire
Act that prohibited employers from punishing workers who joined unions and gave labor the right to form unions.
Norris-LaGuardia Act (1932)
The government’s price guarantees for certain farm goods. The government subsidizes farmers to not grow certain crops and also buys food directly and stores it, rather than let the oversupply in the market bring the prices down.
Price supports
Policy that results in the government taking money from one segment of the society through taxes and giving it back to groups in need. It includes such policies as welfare, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, tax credits for business expenses or business investment, and highway construction made possible through a gasoline tax.
Redistributive policy
Policy that results in government control over individuals and businesses. Examples of regulatory policy include protection of the environment and consumer protection.
Regulatory policy
Also called the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, it gave workers involved in interstate commerce the right to organize labor unions and engage in collective bargaining and prevented employers from discriminating against labor leaders and taking action against union leaders.
Wagner Act
Public policy that advocates that the federal budget spend as much money as it receives. Attempt made to pass a constitutional amendment mandating this policy failed.
Balanced budget
Set up by the Congress, this office evaluates the cost of legislative proposals.
Congressional Budget Office
Emergency spending legislation that prevents the shutdown of any department simply because its budget has not been enacted.
Continuing resolution
The government’s meeting budgetary expenses by borrowing more money than it can pay back.
Deficit spending
Money paid directly to the government in the form of income taxes.
Direct tax
Money paid to the government as a result of purchased goods.
Indirect tax
Its director, appointed with the consent of the Senate, is responsible for the preparation of the massive federal budget, which must be submitted to the Congress in January each year. Besides formulating the budget the OMB oversees congressional appropriations.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
A form of fiscal federalism where federal aid is given to the states with few strings attached.
Block grants
The establishment of an income level by government that references the point at which an individual is considered to be living in poverty.
Culture of Poverty
Those benefits guaranteed by law paid to individual by the feral government, such as Social Security.
Entitlements
An alternative to the progressive income tax where individual pay the same percentage regardless of how much they earn.
Flat tax
