Political Parties And Elections & Campaigns Flashcards
Direct Primary
A preliminary election in which a party’s candidates for public office are nominated by direct vote of the people.
National Convention
Meeting of party delegates elected in state primaries, caucuses, or conventions that is held every four years. Its primary purpose is to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates and to ratify a campaign platform.
National Committee
A committee of delegates from each state and territory that runs party affairs between national conventions.
Congressional Campaign Committee
Party committee in Congress that provides funds to members who are running for reelection or to would-be members running for an open seat or challenging a candidate from the opposition party.
National Chairman
A paid, full-time manager of a party’s day-to-day work who eventual by the national committee.
Super Delegate
Party leaders and elected officials who become delegates to the national convention without having to run in primaries or caucuses. Party rules determine the percentage of delegates seats reserved for party officials.
Political Machines
A party organization that recruits its members by dispensing patronage-tangible incentives such as money, political jobs, or an opportunity to get favors from government-and that is characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity.
Patronage
The support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another.
Solidary Groups
Parties organized around sociability, rather than tangible rewards or ideology.
Sponsored Party
Local or state political party that is largely staffed and funded by another organization with established networks in the community. One example is the Democratic party in and around Detroit, which has been developed, led, and to a degree financed by the political-action arm of the United Auto Workers.
Plurality System
Electoral system, used in almost all American elections, in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not receive a majority of the votes.
Caucus
An association of members of Congress created to advocated a political ideology or a regional, ethnic, or economic interest.
Loyal Opposition
Term applied collectively to the opposition parties in the legislature to indicate that the non-governing parties may oppose the actions of the sitting cabinet while remaining loyal to the source of the government’s power.
Party Realignment
When the balance of power between a country’s political parties changes greatly.
New Deal Coalition
Coalition forged by the Democrats who dominated American politics from the 1930’s to the 1960’s. It’s basic elements were the urban working class, ethnic groups, Catholics and Jews, the poor, Southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals.
Civil Service
Proponents denounced the distribution of office by the winners of elections to their supporters as corrupt and inefficient. They demanded nonpartisan scientific methods and credential be used to select civil servants.
Party Dealignment
Process whereby a large portion of the electorate abandons its previous partisan affiliation, without developing a new one to replace it.
Personal Following
The political support provided to a candidate on the basis of personal popularity and network.
Proportional representation
A concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. It means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received.
Coalition
An alliance among different interest groups or parties to achieve some political goal.
Party platform
A list of the actions which a political party, individual candidate, or other organization supports to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said peoples’ candidates voted into political office or complicated topics or issues.
Know-Nothings
Political movement characterized by political xenophobia, anti-Catholic feelings.
Populists
People who hold liberal views on economic matters and conservative ones on social matters. They prefer a strong government that will reduce economic inequality, regulate businesses, and impose stricter social and criminal sanctions.
Bull Moose Party
The Bull Moose Party was a political party created by Theodore Roosevelt when he was denied the Republican Party’s nomination for president in 1912.
Progressives
A person who believes that moral rules are derived in part from an individual’s beliefs and the circumstances of modern life. Progressives are likely to favor government tolerance and protection of individual choices.
Dixiecrats
The States’ Rights Democratic Party (usually called the Dixiecrats) was a short-lived segregationist political party in the United States in 1948.
Strom Thurmond
He ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party (Dixiecrat) candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes.
George Wallace
After four runs for U.S. president (three as a Democrat and one on the American Independent Party ticket), he earned the title “the most influential loser” in 20th-century U.S. politics
American Independent Party
Is a right-wing political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill and Eileen Shearer
Ross Perot
He ran in the1992 and 1996 election for the American independent party
Critical Elections
Describing a dramatic change in the political system.
Incumbent
Person currently in office.
Coattails
The tendency of lesser-known or weaker candidates to profit in an election by the presence on the ticket of a more popular candidate.
Political Action Committee (PAC)
A committee set up by and representing a corporation, labor union, or special-interest group that raises and spends campaign contributions on behalf of one or more candidates or causes.
Primary Election
An election prior to the general election in which voters select the candidates who will run on each party’s ticket. Before presidential elections, a presidential primary is held to select delegates to the presidential nominating conventions of the major parties.
Front loaded campaign
Campaigning heavily in the primaries
Position Issue
An issue dividing the electorate on which rival parties adopt different policy positions to attract voters.
Valence Issue
An issue on which voters distinguish rival parties by the degree to which they associate each party or candidate with conditions, goals, symbols the electorate universally approves or disapproves of.
General Election
Election used to fill an elective office.
Runoff Primary
A second primary election held in some states when no candidates receives majority of the votes in the first primary; the runoff is between the two candidates with the most votes. Runoff primaries are common in the south.
Whistle Stop Train Tour
Style of political campaigning where the politician makes a series of brief appearances or speeches at a number of small towns over a short period of time.
Soft Money
Fund solicited from individuals, corporations, and unions that are spent on party activities, such as voter registration campaigns and voting drives, rather than on behalf of a specific candidate. These funds need not be reported to the Federal Election Commision.
Hard Money
Political contributions given to a party, candidate, or interest group that are limited in amount and fully disclosed.
Prospective voting
Voting for a candidate because one favors his or her ideas for addressing issues after the election.
Retrospective
Voting for or against the candidate or party in office because one likes or dislikes how things have gone in the recent past.
Split Ticket Voting
Voting for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election.
Straight Ticket Voting
Voting for candidates who are all of the same party.
Winner Take All Primaries
Whoever wins the election for a certain place gets all their votes
Super Tuesday
The Tuesday in February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party’s presidential candidates are officially nominated.
Straw Poll
Vote with non binding results.
