Quiz 3 Flashcards
Political Party
An organization that tries to win control of government by electing poeple to office who carry the party level
Party Platform
A party’s statement of its positions on the issues of the day passed at the quadrennial national convention
Two Party System
a political system in which two paragraphs vie on relatively equal terms to win national elections and in which each party governs at one time or another
Multi
Three or more.
Proportional representation
the awarding of legislative seats to political parties to reflect the proportion of the popular vote each party receives
Relignment
The process by which one party supplants another as the dominant party in a two way system
New deal
The programs of the administration of President FDR
New Deal Coalition
The informal electoral alliance of working-class ethnnic groups, catholics, jews, urban dwellers, racial minorities, and the south that was the basis of the democratic party dominance of american politics from the new dea to the early 70s
Divided government
Control of the executive and legislative branches by different political parties
Dealignment
a gradual reduction in the dominance of one political party without another party supplanting it.
Party Identification
The sense of belonging to one or another political party
Liberal
Th political position, combining both economic and social dimensions, that holds that the federal government has a substantial role to play in providing economic justice and opportunity , regulating business in the public interest, overcoming racial discrimination , protecting abortion rights, and ensuring the equal treatment of gays and lesbians.
Conservative
The political position, combining both economic and social dimensions, that holds that the federal government ought to play a very small role in economic regulation, social welfare and overcoming racial inequality , that abortion should be illegal and that daily values and law and order should guide public policies.
Unified governent
control of the executive and legislative branches by the same political party.
Gridlock
A situation in which things cannot get done in Washington, usually because of divided government
active partisans
People who identify with a party, vote in elections, and participate in additional party and party-candidate activities
Leaners
People who are independents but consistently favor one party over another
Which factor listed below is not something political parties can do to make popular sovereignty and political equality possible
Discourage cooperation between parties
This slowly began to disintegrate in the 1968 election and finally collapsed in 1980 with the republican capture of the presidency and the senate.
The new Deal Coalition
The Republican party typically attracts supporters who fit into which of the following categories
Conservative Christians, people in rural areas and those with the highest incomes
Prospective voting model
a theory of democratic elections in which voters decide what government will do in the near future by choosing one or another responsible party
Responsible party
the notion that a political party will take clear and distinct stands on the issues and enact them as policy once elected to office
electoral competition voting model
a form of election in which parties seeking votes move toward the median voter or the center of the political spectrum
median voter
the voter who is ideologically at the center of the politcal issue spectrum
retrospective voting model
a theory of democratic elections in which voters look back at the performance of a party in power and cast ballots on the basis of how well it did in office
provisional ballot
a vote that is cast but not counted until determination is made that the voter is properly registered
plurailty
more votes than any other candidate but less than a majority of all votes cast.
franchise/ suffrage
the legal right to vote
electoral college
representatives selected in each of the states, their numbers based on each state’s total number of its senators and representatives; a majority of electoral college votes elects the presidents
a party convention
a gathering of delegates nominate a party’s presidential candidate
primary election
statewide elections in which voters choose delegates to the national party conventions
party caucuses
the process for selecting delegates to the national party conventions characterized by neighborhood and area-wide meetings of party supporters and activists
turnout
the proportion of either eligible or all voting-age Americans who actually vote in a given election; the two ways of counting turnout yield different results
Referenda
Procedures available in some states by which state laws or constitutional amendments proposed by the legislature are submitted to the voters for approval or rejection
initiatives
procedures available in some states for citizens to put proposed laws and constitutional amendments on the ballot for voter approval or rejection
superdelegates
elected officials from all levels of government who are appointed by party committees to be delegates to the national convention of the democratic party; not selected in primary elections or caucuses.
elecors
representatives who are elected in the states to formally choose the us president
in the electoral competition voting model of democratic elections, unified parties compete for votes by taking
The most popular postition
which of the following is a distinguishing feature of elections in the US
inconsistent election procedures and vote counting
Most delegates to the republican and democratic national conventions are selected when party supporters and activists hold neighborhood and area-wide meetings to select delegates. Called?
Party caucuses
Which factor does not generally influence the likelihood of a person voting
locations
refers to contributions and spending that fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Committee
hard money
When a candidate has more votes than any voter candidate but less than a majority of all votes cast, this is called?
plurality
enumerated powers
powers of the federal government specifically mentioned in the constitituion
elastic clause
article I section 8 of the constitution, also called the necessary and proper clause, gives congress the authority to make whatever laws are necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated powers and other of its powers vested in the constitution
bicameral
as applied to a legislative body, consisting of two houses or cahmbers
Delegate
according to the doctrine articulated by Edmund Burke, an elected representative who acts in perfect accord with the wishes of his or her constituents
trustee
an elected representative who believes that his or her own best judgment, rather than instructions from constituents, should be used in making legislative decisions.
descriptive represenation
Sometimes called statistical representation, the degree to which the composition of a representative body reflects the demographic composition of the population as a whole
constituency
the district of a legislator
constituent
a citizen who lives in the district of an elected official
reapportionment
the reallocation of house seats among the states, done after each national census, to ensure that seats are held by the states in proportion to the size of the populations
redistricting
the redrawing of congressional district lines within a state to ensure roughly equal populations within each district
Partisan
a committed member of a party; also seeing issues from the point of view of the interests of a single party
gerrymandering
redrawing electoral district lines in an extreme and unlikely manner to give an advantage to a particular party or candidate
crack
the act of dividing a district where the opposing party has a large majority, rendering it a minority in both parts of the redrawn districts
Pack
the process of concentrating voters for the other party into fewer districts
majority- minority districts
districts drawn to ensure that a racial minority makes ups the majority of voters
open seat election
an election in which there is no incumbent officeholder
franking privilege
public subsidization f mail from the members of congress to their constituents
casework
services performed by members of congress for constituents
pork
also called pork barrel; federally funded projects designed to bring to the constituency jobs and public money for which the members of congress can claim credit.
congress is organized into
two
this happens when the same party controls both houses of the state legislature and the governors office
partisan redistricting
these types of committees are usually temporary and created by congressional leaders to conduct studies or investigations
select committees
a bill quietly killed in committee can reach the floor only by a device called
discharge pertition
why do members of congress spend less time than in the past questioning members of the executive branch about their activities and practices
under a unified government, members of congress do not want to embarrass their president.
