AP Government Chapter 9
Office bloc ballot
A ballot listing all candidates for a given office under the name of that office.
Party column ballot
A ballot listing all candidates of a given party togethor under the name of that party.
Caucus
A closed meeting of party leaders to select party candidates.
Congressional campaign committee
A committee in each party to help elect or reelect members.
Political Party
A group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with a label.
Tammany Hall
A machine that began as a caucus of well-to-do notables in New York City.
National convention
A meeting of elected party delegates every four years to nominate presidential and vice-presidential candidates and ratify a campaign platform.
Factions
A name applied by some of the Gounders to political parties, to connote their tendency toward divisiveness.
Stalwarts
A name for party professionals, as opposed to volunteers.
Mugwumps
A name for party volunteers who later come to form their own reform movement.
Political machine
A party organization that recruits members by dispensing patronage.
Organizational Party
A party that stresses national organization to raise money and give assistance to local candidates and party units.
Machine
A party unit that recruits members with tangible rewards and that is tightly controlled by the leadership.
Hatch Act
Addressed the issue of federal civil service employes taking an active part in political management or campaigns.
Nonpartisan Election
An election in which candidates for office are not identified by party labels.
Initiative
An election in which citizens can place on the legislative agenda proposals by non-government groups.
Referendum
An election in which citizens directly approve or disapprove legislation proposed by the government.
Plurality system
An electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes but not necessarily a majority of votes.
Proportional representation
An electoral system that distributes numerous seats to parties on the basis of their percentage of the popular vote.
Winner-Take-All
An electoral system that gives the only office to the candidate with the largest vote total, rather than apportioning numerous offices by the percentage of the total vote.
Two-party system
An electoral system with two dominant parties that compete in state and national elections.
National committee
Delegates from each state who manage party affairs between conventions.
Superdelegates
Elected officials who serve as delegates to the national convention.
Critical (or realigning) Period
Features a sharp, lasting shift in the popular coalition supporting one or both parties.
Republican
Only third party to ever win a presidential election.
Factional parties
Parties formed by a split within one of the major parties.
Solidary Groups
Parties organized around sociability, rather than tangible rewards or ideology.
Ideological Parties
Parties that value principle above all else.
Sponsored Groups
Party units established or maintained by outside groups.
Anti-Masonic Party
Political party that held the first convention in American history.
Second-Party System
The arrangement of political parties initiated by Andrew Jackson.
National (party) chair
The person elected and paid to manage the day-to-day work of a national political party.
Federalists
The political party founded and led by Alexander Hamilton.
Democratic-Republicans
The political party founded and led by Thomas Jefferson.
Personal following
The political support provided to a candidate on the basis of personal popularity and networks.
Split-Ticket Voting
The practice of voting for one major party's candidate in state or local elections and the other's at the national level.
Solidary incentives
The social rewards that lead people to join political organizations.