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Politics Terms Ch. 4-10

Government by the People, Ch. 4-10

Terms

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Lobbyist
A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.
Libertarianism
An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government.
Caucus
A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
Manifest Opinion
A widely shared and consciously held view, like support for homeland security.
Dealignment
Weakening of partisan preferences that points to a rejection of both major parties and a rise in the number of Independents.
Leadership PAC
A PAC formed by an office holder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.
Free Rider
An individual who does not join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.
Political Socialization
The process by which we develop our political attitudes, values, and beliefs.
Fundamentalists
Conservative Christians who as a group have become more active in politics in the last two decades and were especially influential in the 2000 presidential election.
Honeymoon
Period at the beginning of a new president's term during which the president enjoys generally positive relations with the press and Congress, usually lasting about six months.
Candidate Appeal
The tendency in elections to focus on the personal attributes of a candidate, such as his/her strengths, weaknesses, background, experience, and visibility.
Party Registration
The act of declaring party affiliation.
Party Identification
An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood.
Liberalism
A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.
Revolving Door
Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.
Electoral College
The electoral system used in electing the president and vice president, in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for a particular party's candidates.
Presidential Election
Elections held in years when the president is on the ballot.
Issue Advocacy
Unlimited and undisclosed spending by an individual or group on communications that do not use words like "vote for" or "vote against," although much of this activity is actually about electing or defeating candidates.
Realigning Election
An election during periods of expanded suffrage and change in the economy and society that proves to be a turning point, redefining the agenda of politics and the alignment of voters within parties.
Closed Primary
Primary election in which only persons registered in the party holding the primary may vote.
Selective Exposure
The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases.
Direct Primary
Election in which voters choose party nominees.
Federal Election Commission
A commission created by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act to administer election reform laws. Its duties include overseeing disclosure of campaign finance information and public funding of presidential elections, and enforcing contribution limits.
Quid Pro Quo
Something given with the expectation of receiving something in return.
Hard Money
Political contributions given to a party, candidate, or interest group that are limited in amount and fully disclosed.
Minor Party
A small political party that rises and falls with a charismatic candidate or, if composed of ideologies on the right or left, usually persists over time.
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Largely banned party soft money, restored on long-standing prohibition on corporations and labor unions for using general treasury funds for electoral purposes, and narrowed the definition of issue advocacy.
Cross-cutting Cleavages
Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different.
Ethnocentrism
Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.
National Tide
The inclination to focus on national issues, rather than local issues, in an election campaign.
Random Sample
In this type of sample, every individual has a known and random chance of being selected.
Candidate Appeal
How voters feel about a candidate's background, personality, leadership ability, and other personal qualities.
Socialism
An economic and governmental system based on public ownership of the means of production and exchange.
Collective Action
How groups form and organize to pursue their goals or objectives, including how to get individuals and groups to participate and cooperate.
Party Convention
A meeting of party delegates to vote on matters of policy and in some cases to select party candidates for public office.
Australian Ballot
A secret ballot printed by the state.
Lobbying
Engaging in activities aimed at influencing public officials, especially legislators, and the policies they enact.
Horse Race
A close contest; by extension, any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and by how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Open Primary
Primary election in which any voter, regardless of party, may vote.
Political Ideology
A consistent pattern of beliefs about political values and the role of government.
Popular Sovereignty
A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.
Gross Domestic Product
The total output of all economic activity in the nation, including goods and services.
Divided Government
Governance divided between the parties, as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.
Keynesian Economics
Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes, stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.
Political Action Committee
The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members, stockholders, or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.
Safe Seat
An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other, so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted.
Reinforcing Cleavages
Divisions within society that reinforce one another, making groups more homogeneous or similar.
Primary Election
Elections in which voters determine party nominees.
Winner-take-all System
An election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.
527 Organization
A political group organized under section 527 of the IRS code that may accept and spend unlimited amounts of money on election activities so long as they are not spent on broadcast ads run in the last 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a general election in which a clearly identified candidate is referred to and a relevant electorate is targeted.
Attentive Public
Those citizens who follow public affairs carefully.
Socioeconomic Status
A division of population based on occupation, income, and education.
Capitalism
An economic system characterized by private property, competitive markets, economic incentives, and limited government involvement in the production, distribution, and pricing of goods and services.
Libertarian Party
A minor party that believes in extremely limited government.
Proportional Representation
An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.
Federal Register
An official document, published every weekday, which lists the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.
Pluralism
A theory of government that holds that open, multiple, and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.
General Election
Elections in which voters elect officeholders.
Interest Group
A collection of people who share a common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends.
Public Choice
Synonymous with "collective action," it specifically studies how government officials, politicians, and voters respond to positive and negative incentives.
Antitrust Legislation
Federal laws that try to prevent a monopoly from dominating an industry and restraining trade.
Interested Money
Financial contributions by individuals or groups in the hope of influencing the outcome of an election and subsequently influencing policy.
Green Party
A minor party dedicated to the environment, social justice, nonviolence, and a foreign policy of nonintervention.
Prospective Issue Voting
Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.
Single-member district
An electoral district in which voters choose one representative or official.
Closed Shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Nongovernmental Organization
A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.
Reform Party
A minor party founded by Ross Perot in 1995 that focuses on national government reform, fiscal responsibility, and political accountability.
Issue Network
Relationships among interest groups, congressional committees and subcommittees, and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Faction
A term the founders used to refer to political parties and special interests or interest groups.
Midterm Election
Elections held midway between presidential elections.
Public Opinion
The distribution of individual preferences for or evaluations of a given issue, candidate, or institution within a specific population.
Amicus Curiae Brief
Literally, a "friend of the court" brief, filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.
Political Predisposition
A characteristic of individuals that is predictive of political behavior.
Laissez-faire Economics
Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.
Bundling
A tactic in which PACs collect contributions from like-minded individuals and present them to a candidate or political party as a "bundle," thus increasing the PAC's influence.
Patronage
The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.
Name Recognition
Incumbents have an advantage over challengers in election campaigns because voters are more familiar with them, and incumbents are more recognizable.
Turnout
The proportion of the voting-age public that votes, sometimes defined as the number of registered voters that vote.
Crossover Voting
Voting by a member of one party for a candidate of another party.
Conservatism
A belief that limited government ensures order, competitive markets, and personal opportunity.
Open Shop
A company with a labor agreement under which union membership cannot be required as a condition of employment.
Independent Expenditures
The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals, groups, and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates.
Social Capital
Democratic and civic habits of discussion, compromise, and respect for differences, which grow out of participation in voluntary organizations.
Nonpartisan Election
A local or judicial election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots.
Soft Money
Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes.
National Party Convention
A national meeting of delegates elected in primaries, caucuses, or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president, ratify the party platform, elect officers, and adopt rules.
Voter Registration
System designed to reduce voter fraud by limiting voting to those who have established eligibility to vote by submitting the proper documents.
Coattail Effect
The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot, especially the president.
Retrospective Issue Voting
Holding incumbents, usually the president's party, responsible for their records on issues, such as the economy or foreign policy.

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