Unit 3 Flashcards
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting where party leaders and supporters select candidates through discussions and consensus.
Primary
Primaries are the people running in the state election
Delegates
Delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state and vote for its nominee at the national convention.
Party Voting
Describes consistently voting for candidates of the same political party at all levels of government.
Prospective voting
Describes voting based on how a citizen thinks a candidate will act and perform if elected in office.
Retrospective voting
Describes voting based on the recent record in office of a candidate or others in their party.
Rational choice
Describes someone voting in their best interest, supporting the candidate whose platform will give them the most favorable outcomes.
15th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged [decreased] by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
19th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
23rd Amendment
The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as Congress may direct:
A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State, but in no event more than the least populous State; they shall be in addition to those appointed by the States, but they shall be considered, for the purposes of the election of President and Vice President, to be electors appointed by a State; and they shall meet in the District and perform such duties as provided by the twelfth article of amendment.
24th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay poll tax or other tax.
26th Amendment
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
Suffrage
The right to vote in political elections.
Political Efficacy
the citizens’ trust in their ability to change the government
Electoral College
a body of people representing the states of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and vice president.
Swing States
States that not all electoral votes go to one party, votes for both parties.
Battleground States
Presidential election by swing States in votes
Popular Vote
The person that gets majority of the votes
Census
Counting the states population every 10 years
Reapportionment
Calculate population for reps and senators
Gerrymandering
Manipulating the lines of districts to gain advantage and more votes.
Packing
the practice of drawing electoral districts to consolidate the population of a community or constituency into a small number of districts.
Cracking
spreading voters of a particular type among many districts in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting bloc in any particular district.
Barker v. Carr
Issue: The case involved a plaintiff from an underrepresented urban voting district in Tennessee, where state law required districts to be redrawn every decade but hadn’t been for decades. Did the Supreme Court have jurisdiction over questions of legislative apportionment?
Result: The court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, establishing that federal courts could hear cases alleging that redistricting violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Importance: The ruling established the principle of “one person, one vote” and allowed federal courts to review states’ redistricting processes. It led to a significant shift in political power from rural to urban areas, as states reapportioned their districts to balance the weight of votes. These changes often added legislative seats to urban districts and improved voting conditions for minorities, who often lived in urban areas.
Shaw v. Reno
Issue: Did the North Carolina residents’ claim, that the State created a racially gerrymandered district, raise a valid constitutional issue under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause?
Result: The Court held that North Carolina’s reapportionment plan resulting in a district shape was bizarre enough to suggest that it constituted an effort to separate voters into different districts based on race.
Importance: In the aftermath of the Shaw v. Reno decision, redistricting was held to new standards of justification; in general, race could no longer be the sole basis for creating or modifying a voting district.
Linkage Institutions
The structure of linking the citizens to the government using media, elections, political parties, and NAACP
Party polarization
Political polarization is the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, towards ideological extremes.
partisanship
prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias.
Interdependence
The media needs advertisers, and advertisers need an audience.
Content delivery
Ads everywhere.
Audience targeting
The ads are based on what you watch.
Impact on content
Switch up content for bigger and better ads, make content based on how much money they make.
Agenda setting
Media’s influence on public issues needed to be addressed.(Important)
Framing
The way the media deceives that issue that impacts our perception.
Horserace Journalism
The media focuses on the ups and downs of an election but not the actual election people.
United States v. Nixon
Issue: Is the President’s right to safeguard certain information, using his “executive privilege” confidentiality power, entirely immune from judicial review?
Result: Chief Justice Warren Burger said that the President didn’t have an absolute, unqualified privilege to withhold information.“We conclude that when the ground for asserting privilege as to subpoenaed materials sought for use in a criminal trial is based only on the generalized interest in confidentiality, it cannot prevail over the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of criminal justice. The generalized assertion of privilege must yield to the demonstrated, specific need for evidence in a pending criminal trial,”
Importance: The Court granted that there was a limited executive privilege in areas of military or diplomatic affairs, but gave preference to “the fundamental demands of due process of law in the fair administration of justice.” i.e the President is not above the law.
Buckley v. Valeo
was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on campaign finance. A majority of justices held that, as provided by section 608 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, limits on election expenditures are unconstitutional.
FECA/FEC
This page provides access to federal campaign finance legislation, including Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) amendments and legislative recommendations to Congress.
BCRA
81, enacted March 27, 2002, H.R. 2356), commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act or BCRA (/ˈbɪkrə/ BIK-ruh), is a United States federal law that amended the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which regulates the financing of political campaigns.
Citizens United v. FEC
The majority opinion was written by the moderate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who chose to align with the more conservative justices. The court held that BCRA Section 203’s prohibition of all independent political expenditures by corporations and unions violated the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.
Connected PAC
These committees can solicit contributions only from individuals associated with a connected or sponsoring organization. By contrast, nonconnected committees — as their name suggests — are not sponsored by or connected to any of the aforementioned entities and are free to solicit contributions from the general public.
Non-Connected PAC
A nonconnected committee is a political committee that is not a party committee, an authorized committee of a candidate or a separate segregated fund established by a corporation or labor organization.
Super PAC
Super PACs are independent expenditure-only political committees that may receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions and other political action committees for the purpose of financing independent expenditures and other independent political activity.
lobbying
Lobbying is generally described as any attempt to influence the action of any legislative body (e.g., Congress, state legislatures, county boards, city councils, and their staffs) or any federal, state, or local government agency, or to affect the opinions of the general public.
