chapter 8 vocab
Party realignments
1. the emergence of unusually powerful and diverse issues 2. an election contest or contests in which the voters shift their partisan support 3. an enduring change in the parties' policies and coalitions
party competition
Choice between candidates representing the republican and democratic parties. This narrows voters' options to two and in the process enables people with different backgrounds and opinions to act in unison
grassroots party
Jackson's party that sought a democratic party as the vehicle for change
party centered
This is what US campaigners are in the sense that the Republican and Democratic parties compete across the country election after election
candidate centered
What campaigns are in the sense that individual candidates devise their own strategies, choose their own issues, and form their own campaign organizations
winner-take-all system
What is another name for plurality system?
direct primary
What is another name for primary election?
party realignments
When the republican and democratic parties reorganized themselves with a new basis of support, new policies, and new public philosophies
political party
an ongoing coalition of interests joined together in an effort to get its candidates for public office elected under a common label
political consultants
campaign strategists, pollsters, media producers, and fundraising and get-out-the-vote specialists
plurality system
discourages minor parties by reducing their chances of winning anything, even if they perform well by minor-party standards
primary election
gives control of nominations to the voters
packaging
highlighting those aspects of the candidate's policy positions and personality that are thought most attractive to voters
median voter theorem
if there are two parties, the parties can maximize their vote only if they position themselves at the location of the median voter
proportional representative system
in which seats in the legislature are allocated according to a party's share of the popular vote
nomination
refers to the selection of the individual who will run as the party's candidate in the general election
plurality
the candidate with the most votes
single member districts
the candidates are elected by winning a plurality of the votes in this
party organizations
the democratic and republican parties have organizational units at the national, state, and local levels and these are called ____________
hard money
the money that is given directly to the candidate and can be spent as he or she chooses
median voter
the voter whose preferences are exactly in the middle
linkage institutions
they serve to connect citizens with government
open primaries
this allows independents and sometimes voters of the other party to vote in the party's primary although they can not vote simultaneously in both primaries' parties
top-two primaries
when candidates are listed on the same ballot without regard to party; the top two finishers become the genera; election candidates
money chase
when candidates spend much of their time fundraising, which come primarily through individual contributors, interest groups, and political parties
closed primaries
when participation is limited to voters registered or declared at the polls as members of the party whose primary is being held