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