AP Government Chapter 6

Political Ideology

A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events.

Liberalism

A political ideology that prefers a government active in dealing with human needs, support individual rights and liberties, and give higher priority to social needs than to military needs. Opp. of Conservatism.

Political Participation

All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common means of political participation in a democracy is voting; other means include protest and civil disobedience.

Bandwagon Effect

An effect in which voters may support a candidate only because they see that others are doing so.

Political Culture

An overall set of values widely shared within a society.

Unitary

National government has all the power

Conservatism

Political ideology that fears a growth of government, deplore government drag on private sector initiatives, dislike permissiveness in society, and play priority on military over social needs. Opp. of Liberalism.

Federal

State and national government share power

Confederal

States have power

Political Efficacy

The belief that ordinary people can influence the government.

Public Opinion

The distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.

Motor Voter Act (1993)

The law expanded voting rights by requiring state governments to offer voter registration opportunities to any eligible person who applies for or renews a driver's license or public assistance

Political Socialization

The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others.

Gender Gap

The regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.

Underdog

a competitor thought to have little chance of winning a fight or contest

Leading question

a question that prompts or encourages the desired answer

Split ticket voting

a voter in an election votes for candidates from different political parties when multiple offices are being decided by a single election

Civic duty

actions required by law

Moderate

an individual who is not extreme, partisan, nor radical

How to fix low voter turnout

appeal to unregistered voters, get more people to register, educate public on how to register (europe: automatically registered)

Influences on Socialization

family, school, media, peers, formative political event, and demographics

Progressive

favoring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are, especially in political matters. Time of social reform in America in the 1890s

Straight ticket voting

practice of voting for every candidate that a political party has on a general election ballot

Reasons for low voter turnout

registration regulations more burdensome, longer residency requirements, aliens could not vote if not citizen, hard for AA to vote, educational qualifications adopted in some states, voters had to register in advance of election, serve to cut back on number of people who could participate

Simpson-Marzzoli Act (1987)

required employers to attest to their employees' immigration status and made it illegal to hire or recruit illegal immigrants knowingly

Silent majority

the majority of people, regarded as holding moderate opinions but rarely expressing them