Chapter 9 Terms and Concepts

Who was the first elected Republican president?

Abraham Lincoln

Lloyd Garrison created what organization to push for the abolition of slavery?

American Anti-Slavery Society

Proportional Representation

An electoral system that assigns party delegates according to vote share in a presidential primary election or that assigns seats in the legislature according to vote share in a general election

Who has suggested that in a two-party system the party closer to the middle tends to win?

Anthony Downs

Political Party

Broad coalitions of interests organized to win elections in order to enact a commonly supported set of public policies

A ______ Generally requires people to be physically present to vote

Caucus

Every four years, the political parties work to select candidates to run for President. Every state party holds either a primary election, a ______, or some combination of electoral selection methods to determine delegate support for the candidates

Caucus

The cumulative effect of Democratic party reforms was to ______ ______ ______for members of underrepresented groups to exert influence in determining the Democratic Party presidential nominee

Create a gateway

A political party consists of three separate but related entities: the voters who identify with a partisan label, those who work for the party behind the scenes, and elected officials who form the party ______

In government

California Democratic Party v. Jones

June 26, 2000, Supreme Court ruled that blanket primaries are unconstitutional, the right of association means that states cannot force parties to open their primaries to voters who are not party members

Presidential Caucus

Less formal and more personal nomination process in that party members meet together in town halls, schools, and even private homes to choose a nominee

Third parties focus on a single issue, the ______ Party, for example, was explicitly antislavery

Liberty

Ballot

List of candidates who are running for elected office; used by voters to make their choice

Realignment

Long-term shift in voter allegiance from one party to another

third parties face difficulties in even getting on the ballot due to which phenomenon?

Major parties challenge the validity of signatures required to get on the ballot

Who theorized that electoral systems like the one in the U.S. encourage a two-party system?

Maurice Duverger

Third Parties

Minor political parties that present a third alternative to the two dominant political parties in the American political system

According to Anthony Downs, a two-party voting system gives disproportionate influence to whom?

Moderates

Frontloading

Moving a state primary or caucus earlier in the year to increase its influence

California is so large that its statewide elections are considered indicative of ______ ______

National trends

Traditionally, the two earliest presidential contests have been the ______ ______ ______and the ______ ______

New Hampshire Primary, Iowa caucus

Close nominating contests encourage the nominee to choose one of his opponents as a running mate or, if he wins the election, as a member of his cabinet. Give an example.

Obama chose Senator Joe Biden as his running mate and appointed Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State

Responsible Parties

Parties that take responsibility for offering the electorate a distinct range of policies and programs, thus providing a clear choice

In 1883 the ______ ______ reformed the civil service by requiring that government jobs be filled based on merit, not on political connections

Pendleton Act

How do political parties shape the choices voters face in local, state, and federal elections?

Platforms not only define the positions of the presidential and vice presidential candidates but also serve as a general guide to the policy positions of all the candidates running under the party label

Under the most commonly used U.S. electoral system, candidates need to win a ______ of the vote in order to win office

Plurality

Patronage System

Political system in which government programs and benefits are awarded based on political loyalty to a party or politician

As of 1905, how are presidential candidates nominated?

Primaries, caucuses, state conventions, and national nominating conventions

Nonpartisan Blanket Primary

Primary election in which all the candidates, from all parties, who are running for office are listed, and if no majority winner emerges, the top two vote-getters face each other in a runoff election

Semi-closed Primary

Primary election in which party-affiliated voters cast votes in their party's primary, and nonaffiliated voters can choose which party's primary to vote in

Blanket primary

Primary election in which voters are given the ballots from all parties and allowed to cast votes for any party's candidates as long as they cast only one vote per elective office

Open Primary

Primary election in which voters do not have to affiliate with a party before voting. Instead, they are given ballots with each party's list of candidates, and they can choose which ballot to use but are restricted to voting for only one party's nominees

Closed Primary

Primary election in which voters must affiliate with a party before casting a vote, either by registering before the election or on primary election day

A group of people known as the ______ sought to end party bosses by instituting reforms

Progressives

______ _______, combined with the role of ______ ______, allow candidates who do not have a strong majority to stay in the nomination contest and collect delegates longer than under a winner-take-all system

Proportional representation, Super PACs

McGovern-Fraser Commission

Recommended changes in the way that delegates were chosen and awarded to candidates during the primary season

What are the essential functions of local party organizations?

Recruit candidates for lower-level elected offices, register voters, and, most important, ensure that voters get to the polls on election day

The ______ Party originally wanted a strong central government, but now is associated with limiting federal power

Republican

Parties are most ______ to interest groups when they threaten to withdraw their support or start their own party organizations

Responsive

The last reform of federal policy in the area of illegal immigration was signed into law by President ______ ______, 2.8 million illegal individuals were ______

Ronald Reagan, allowed to stay

Who was given credit for using his United We Stand Party to force the two major party candidates in 1992 to address the federal deficit?

Ross Perot

How can a state regulate primary elections?

Some states authorize nominating conventions and primaries, with the primaries taking place only if the challenger to the party nominee receives a certain percentage of votes at the convention or a certain number of citizen petition signatures

The ______ are not chosen through the primary voting process but rather are active members of the party who will be instrumental in turning out party voters in the general election

Superdelegates

The ______ ______ movement, though not officially a political party, illustrates how third parties can force the two major political parties to be more responsive to the policy concerns of voters generally

Tea Party

An example of a third party in today's society is what?

The Green Party

What set of government programs created by Democrats was created for the purpose of helping the poor during the Great Depression?

The New Deal

Americans Elect demonstrated the potential power of ______ ______ in presenting an alternative to the two major parties

The internet

Are political parties a gate or a gateway to democracy?

The potential danger of relying on parties to shape the choices that will serve the best interests of the citizens is that parties become interested only in winning office, not in serving the interests of the people

Median Voter Theorem

Theory that, in a two-party race, if voters select candidates on the basis of ideology and everyone participates equally, the party closer to the middle will win

Why do responsibilities of state political parties vary by state?

They are regulated by state law

what is true of a proportional representation election system?

They give small parties a better chance to win

Which of the following is true of single-member plurality election systems?

They tend to reduce the number of opinions that are actively represented

National Committees

Top level of national political parties; coordinates national presidential campaigns, their members are chosen by each state party organization

In the United States, the single-member plurality system encourages a ______ ______, which in turn encourages political debates that ask Americans to take a "for" or an "against" position on an issue

Two-party system

Identify the four congressional party organizations

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee

Party Platform

Document that lays out a party's core beliefs and policy proposals for each presidential election

General Election

Election in which voters choose their elected officials

Primary Election

Election in which voters select the candidates who will run on the party label in the general election

Winner-take-all System

Electoral system in which whoever wins the most votes in an election wins the election

Single-Member Plurality System

Electoral system that assigns one seat in a legislative body to represent citizens who live in a defined area (a district) based on which candidate wins the most votes

between 1789 and 1796, who nominated presidential candidates?

Elite party leaders

Party Caucuses

Group of party members in a legislature that consistently vote, year after year, for the policies that the parties promise in their platforms

In what ways do political parties allow voters to hold their elected officials accountable for the policies they produce?

Using party labels as a shortcut for the party platform, voters can hold the elected officials accountable for their policy successes and blame them for policy failures.

The relationship between elite state party members and state legislators is ______ ______, so the party controls the gate by determining how ______ or ______ ballot access is for candidates seeking to run for office on the party label

Very close, open, restrictive

Majority Vote

Vote in which the winner needs to win 50 percent plus 1 of the votes cast

Plurality Vote

Vote in which the winner needs to win more votes than any other candidate

Party Alignment

Voter identification with a political party in repeated elections

Presidential Primary

Voters cast a vote for a particular candidate, but what they are really doing is choosing delegates who will support that nominee at the party's national nominating convention

What is split-ticket voting?

Voting one party for Senate and the other party for President

Australian Ballot

Voting system in which state governments run elections and provide voters the option of choosing candidates from multiple parties; also called the secret ballot

What is the main job of the National committee?

to do everything possible to elect the party's presidential nominee every four years, and that requires strengthening all party organizations, from the national down to the local levels, and are also responsible for recruiting qualified challengers to run for seats held by the opposing party and helping to fund their campaigns