By the People- Test #4

Freedom of Information Act

A 1966 law that facilitates full or partial disclosure of government information and documents.

Sampling frame

A designated group of people from whom a set of poll respondents is randomly selected.

Proposed rule

A draft of the legal rules published in the Federal Register for the purpose of gathering comments from interested parties.

Whistleblower

A federal worker who reports corruption or fraud.

Push poll

A form of negative campaigning that masquerades as a regular opinion survey. Usually conducted by a campaign or allied group; features strongly critical or unflattering information about an opponent.

Party machine

A hierarchical arrangement of party workers, often organized in an urban area to help integrate immigrants and minority groups into the political system. Most active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Approval rating

A measure of public support for a political figure or institution.

Party caucus

A meeting of all House or Senate members of one or the other main party, usually to discuss political and policy strategies.

Overhead democracy

A system by which the people elect the presidents, who, through their appointees, control the bureaucracy from the top.

Nonpartisan election

An election where candidates run as individuals, without any party affiliation. Many towns and cities feature nonpartisan elections.

Focus group

An extended discussion with a selected small group of people, run by a trained moderator; generally yields in-depth insights into participants' political concerns.

Principal agent theory

Analyses of how policy makers (principals) can control actors who work for them (agents) but have far more information.

New Deal

Broad series of economic programs and reforms introduced between 1933 and 1936 and associated with the Franklin Roosevelt Administration.

Information shortcuts

Cues about candidates and policies drawn from everyday life, party preferences, and significant figures like friends/family and trusted leaders. Most people use these to form basic political opinions.

Political socialization

Education about how the government works and which policies one should support; provided partly at school, partly by party officials and other national institutions.

Spoils system

Government jobs given out as political favors.

Street-level bureaucrats

Government officials who deal directly with the public.

Political elites

Individuals who control significant wealth, status, power, or visibility and, consequently, have significant influence over public debates.

Grand Old Party (GOP)

Long-standing nickname for the Republican Party; ironically, bestowed early in the party's history in the 1870s.

Split-ticket voter

One who votes for at least one candidate from each party, splitting his or her ballot between the two (or more) parties.

Straight-ticket voter

One who votes for the same party for all offices on a ballot.

Political parties

Organizations with public followings that are designed to win elections, often by promoting a set of principles.

Base voters

Party members who tend to vote loyally for their party's candidates in most elections.

Gender gap

Patterned differences in political opinions between women and men.

Demographic group

People sharing specific factors; for example, age, ethnicity/race, religion, or country of origin.

Mandate

Political authority claimed by an election winner as reflecting the approval of the people.

Likely voters

Poll respondents identified as more probable to turn out in an upcoming election. Often preferred by polling organizations, but difficult to specify with great accuracy.

Weighting

Pollsters' method of targeting specific groups of voters by assigning greater or lesser value to respondents from that group.

Private contractors

Private companies that contract to provide goods and services for the government.

Party identification

Strong attachment to one political party, often established at an early age.

Underdog effect

Sympathy for a candidate behind in the polls, contributing to a higher-than-predicted vote total—and sometimes a surprise election victory.

Survey research

Systematic study of a defined population, analyzing a representative sample's views to draw inferences about the larger public's views. Also termed opinion poll.

Party system

The broad organization of US politics, comprising the two main parties, the coalition of supporters backing each, the positions they take on major issues, and each party's electoral achievements.

Margin of sampling error

The degree of inaccuracy in any poll, arising from the fact that surveys involve a sample of respondents from a population, rather than every member.

Boomerang effect:

The discrepancy between candidates' high poll ratings and election performance, caused by supporters' assumption that an easy win means they need not turn out.

Framing effects

The influence, on the respondent, of how a polling question is asked; changes in wording can significantly alter many people's answer.

Policy agenda

The issues that the media covers, the public considers important, and politicians address. Setting the agenda is the first step in political action.

Nonattitudes

The lack of a stable perspective in response to opinion surveys; answers to questions may be self-contradictory or display no ideological consistency.

Party in the electorate

The largest (and least organized) component of a political party, drawn from the public at large: registered members and regular supporters.

Pendleton Civil Service Act

The law that shifted American government toward a merit-based public service.

Central service agencies

The organizations that supply and staff the federal government.

Party organization

The portion of a political party that includes activists, state/local leaders, and affiliated professionals like fundraisers and PR experts.

Party-in-government

The portion of a political party's organization that comprises elected officials and candidates for office.

Bureaucratic pathologies

The problems that tend to develop in bureaucratic systems.

Partisanship

The quality of taking the side of a party, or espousing a viewpoint that reflects a political party's principles or position on an issue. Often decried by those who wish the parties would work together.

Final rule

The rule that specifies how a program will actually operate.

Party boss

The senior figure in a party machine.

Response bias

The tendency of poll respondents to misstate their views, frequently to avoid "shameful" opinions like sexism or racism.

Regulatory capture

The theory that industries dominate the agencies that regulate them.

Rational ignorance

The view that it makes sense to remain relatively uninformed about most policy/political issues, given the enormous effort required to keep up closely with even a few topics.

Party platform

The written statement of a party's core convictions and issue priorities. Generally revised every four years, in time for the national party convention.