Government Exam 3
Terms
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- Political Action Committees (PACs)
- Federally mandated, officially registered fund-raising committees that represent interest groups in the political process.
- lobbyist
- Interest group representative who seeks to influence legislation that will benefit his or her organization through political persuasion.
- Ethics in Government Act
- established a comprehensive code of ethics for federal officials. It took account of both the House and Senate ethics codes but applied to the entire government, including the executive branch. It required government officers to file financial disclosure statements in order to make it possible to identify conflicts of interest; and it placed tighter restrictions on executive-branch employees' ability to register as lobbyists after leaving government service.
- collective goods
- Something of value that cannot be withheld from a nonmember of a group, for examle, a tax write-off or a better environment.
- selective goods
- Something of value that can be witheld from nonmembers of a group. These only go to those who are in the group, for example, cheaper food.
- free-rider problem
- Potential members fail to join a group because they can get the benefit, or collective good, sought by the group without contributing the effort.
- electioneering
- Campaigning at a polling place.
- disturbance theory,
- Political scientist David B. Truman's theory that interest groups form in part to counteract the efforts of other groups.
- entrepreneurial theory
- Interest groups come about because someone takes the risk to invest human and material capital to create an organization that promotes a particular group’s interest.
- Party Identification
- A citizen's personal affinity for a political party, usually expressed by his or her tendency to vote for the candidates of that party.
- Party in the electorate
- the voters who consider themselves allied or associated with the party.
- Party Organization
- National, State, Local
- Proportional representation
- A voting system that apportions legislative seats according to the percentage of the vote won by a particular political party.
- political machine
- A party organization that recruits its members with tangible incentices and is characterized by a high degree of control over member activity.
- direct primary
- The selection of party candidates through the ballots of qualified voters rather than at party nomination conventions.
- platform
- A statement of the general and specific philosophy and policy goals of a political party, usually promulgated at the national convention.
- third parties
- Party organizations that are not of the two main party organizations.
- temporary organization
- Party organization that exists for a limited time and includes several levels of conventions
- permanent organization
- Party organization that operates throughout the year, performing the party's functions.
- precinct convention
- Precinct party meeting to select delegates and adopt resolutions.
- county convention
- County party meeting to select delegates and adopt resolutions.
- state convention
- Party meeting held to adopt the party's platform, elect the party's executive committee and state chairperson, and in a presidential election year, elect delegates to the national convention and choose presidential electors.
- Political Party
- A group of office holders, candidates, activists, and voters who identify with a group label and seek to elect to public office individuals who run under that label.
- Basic structure of American political parties
- National, State, Local