political science chapter 8

closed primaries,

where participation is limited to voters registered with the party.

open primaries,

which allow independents and sometimes voters of the other party to vote in the party's primary -The logic of the open primary is that it gives all voters a say in the choices they will have in the general election.

super PACs

which are organizations that can raise and spend money freely on campaigns as long as they do not coordinate their efforts with those of the candidate they support. -In 2016, super PACs spent more than $1 billion on the presidential and congressional races.

FactCheck.org

which monitors ads and assesses their accuracy.

pollsters

whose surveys are used to identify issues and messages that will resonate with voters

E. E. Schattschneider

wrote. "Without this opportunity popular sovereignty amounts to nothing."3

straight ticket

—meaning that they uniformly support their party's candidates.

Local party organization

- Of the roughly 500,000 elective offices in the United States, fewer than 500 are contested statewide and only 2—the presidency and vice presidency—are contested nationally. The rest are local offices; not surprisingly, at least 95 percent of party activists work within local organizations. - In many urban areas, and in most suburbs and towns, the party organizations today do not have enough activists to do organizing work outside the campaign period,

National Party Organizations p237

-are structured much like those at the state level: they have a national committee and a national party chairperson. -Neither the Democratic National Committee (DNC) nor the Republican National Committee (RNC) has great power. -Their power is largely confined to setting organizational policy, such as determining the site of the party's presidential nominating convention and deciding the rules governing the selection of convention delegates. They have no power to pick nominees or to dictate candidates' policy positions. -The national parties' major role in campaigns is raising money.

grassroots party

A political party organized at the level of the voters and dependent on their support for its strength.

party competition

A process in which conflict over society's goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern. -narrows voters' options to two and in the process enables people with different backgrounds and opinions to act in unison.

multiparty system

A system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition

money chase

A term used to describe the fact that U.S. campaigns are very expensive and candidates must spend a great amount of time raising funds in order to compete successfully.

prospective voting

Although some voters are swayed by what candidates promise to do if elected

party realignment

An election or set of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinarily powerful issue that has disrupted the established political order. A realignment has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties, and the composition of the party coalitions. (See also party identification.) 1)The emergence of unusually powerful and divisive 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 -caused by gradual changes in response to several issues.

plurality (winner-take-all) system

An electoral system in which the candidate who gets the most votes (the plurality) in an election district is elected to office from that district. -(sometimes called the winner-take-all system) discourages minor parties by reducing their chances of winning anything, even if they perform well by minor-party standards.

political party

An ongoing coalition of interests joined together to try to get their candidates for public office elected under a common label.

State party organizations

At the state level, each party is headed by a central committee made up of members of local party organizations and local and state officeholders. -Day-to-day operations Page 236are directed by a chairperson, who is a full-time, paid employee of the state party. The state party organizations engage in activities, such as fundraising and voter registration, that can improve their candidates' chances of success. -State party organizations concentrate on statewide races, including those for governor and U.S. senator, and also focus on races for the state legislature. They play a smaller role in campaigns for national or local offices, and in most states, they do not endorse candidates in statewide primaries.

hard money

Campaign funds given directly to candidates to spend as they choose. -The money that candidates raise from political parties, individuals, and interest groups is subject to legal limits (for example, $2,500 from an individual contributor and $5,000 from a group per election).

top-two primaries.

Candidates are listed on the primary ballot without regard to party; the top two finishers become the general election candidates. -California, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington

George McGovern

Democratic nominee, George McGovern, took positions on Vietnam and income security that alarmed many voters; like Goldwater, he was buried in one of the biggest landslides in presidential history.

candidate-centered campaigns

Election campaigns and other political processes in which candidates, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence. (See also party-centered campaigns.) -in the sense that individual candidates devise their own strategies, choose their own issues, and form their own campaign organizations.

party-centered campaigns

Election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence. (See also candidate-centered campaigns.)

Barry Goldwater

Republican nominee, Barry Goldwater, proposed the elimination of mandatory social security and suggested he might be open to the use of small nuclear weapons in the Vietnam conflict—extreme positions that cost him many votes.

single-member districts

The form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office. (See also proportional representation system.)

party coalition

The groups and interests that support a party are collectively referred to as the party coalition

party organizations

The party organizational units at national, state, and local levels; their influence has decreased over time because of many factors. (See also candidate-centered campaigns; party-centered campaigns; primary election.)

Libertarian Party

The strongest ideological party at the moment is the Libertarian Party, which calls for less government intervention in the marketplace and in individuals' lives

the Populists

The strongest ideological party was the Populists,

gender gap

The tendency of white women and men to differ in their political attitudes and voting preferences.

Media consultants

They are adept at producing televised political advertising, generating news coverage, and developing Internet-based strategies.

political consultants

They include campaign strategists who help the candidate plot and execute a game plan. -Fundraising specialists are also part of the new politics. -The consultant ranks also include pollsters -Media consultants are another staple of the modern campaign.

retrospective voting

a greater number respond to past performance

Debates

can be risky encounters because they give viewers a chance to compare the candidates directly. A weak or bumbling performance can hurt a candidate. Yet debates typically serve to reinforce voters' candidate preferences.

Alexis de Tocqueville

claimed that "The People reign in the American political world as the Deity does in the universe."6

single-issue parties

formed around a lone issue of overriding interest to their followers.

whig party

formed during the 1830's was competitive against the Jacksonian Democratic party

A primary election (or direct primary)

gives control of nominations to the voters -Primaries are a barrier to creating a strong party organization.

packaging a candidate

highlighting those aspects of the candidate's policy positions and personality that are thought most attractive to voters.

median voter theorem

holds that, if there are two parties, the parties can maximize their vote only if they position themselves at the location of the median voter—the voter whose preferences are exactly in the middle.

"anti-parties"

in the sense that they arose out of a belief that partisan politics is a corrupting influence. ex: Progressive Party

proportional representation system

in which seats in the legislature are allocated according to a party's share of the popular vote. -This type of electoral system enables smaller parties to compete for power.

Air wars

is the term that political scientist Darrell West applies to candidates' use of televised ads. -The production and airing of televised political ads accounts for roughly half of all campaign spending

Joe Napolitan

labeled elections "the election game."

rapid response

rebut attacks and exploit fast-breaking developments

Nomination

refers to the selection of the individual who will run as the party's candidate in the general election. -Until the early twentieth century, the party organizations picked the nominees

partially open primaries

that allow independents but not registered voters of the other party to participate.

factional parties

that resulted from a split within one of the major parties. -The States' Rights Party in 1948 and George Wallace's American Page 231Independent Party in 1968 are examples of these factional parties. -The most electorally successful factional party was the Bull Moose Party in 1912.

Fundraising specialists

they are adept at tapping donors and interest groups that regularly contribute to election campaigns.

caucus

they meet face-to-face to discuss the candidates before making their choice.

linkage institutions;

they serve to connect citizens with government.