Government Ch.7 Vocab

Front 1

organizations that seek to achieve power by winning public office

Back 1

political parties

Front 2

system in which competitive parties adopt a plateform of principles, recruting candidates and directing campaigns based on the platform, and holding their elected officials responsible for enacting it.

Back 2

responsible party platform

Front 3

the tendency of the Democratic Party to take more liberal positions and the Republican Party to take more conservative positions on key issues

Back 3

party polarization

Front 4

political party's entry in a general election race

Back 4

nominee

Front 5

polical party's slection of its candidate for a public office

Back 5

nomination

Front 6

tightly disciplined party organization, headed bye a boss, that relies on material rewards - including patronage jobs - to control politics

Back 6

machine

Front 7

appointment to public office based on party loyalty

Back 7

patronage

Front 8

one party controls the presidency while the other party controls one or both houses of Congress

Back 8

divided party government

Front 9

elections in which candidates do not officially indicate their party affiliation, often used for city, country, school board, and judicial elections

Back 9

nonpartisan elections

Front 10

nominating process in which party leaders select the party's nominee

Back 10

caucus

Front 11

division of a city for electoral or administrative purposes or as a unit for organizing political parties

Back 11

ward

Front 12

subdivision of a city, county, or ward for election purposes

Back 12

precinct

Front 13

primary elections in which voters must declare (or have previously declared) their party affiliation and can cast a ballot only in their own party's election

Back 13

closed primary

Front 14

primary election in which a voter may cast a ballot in either party's primary election

Back 14

open primary

Front 15

organized efforts by one party to get its members to cross over in a primary and defeat an attractive candidate in the oppositions party's primary

Back 15

raiding

Front 16

additonal primary held between the top two vote-getters in a primary in wich no candidate has recieved a majority of the vote

Back 16

runoff primary

Front 17

election to choose among candidates nominated by parties and/or independent candidates who gained access to the ballot by petition

Back 17

general election

Front 18

nominating process in which delegates from local party organizations select the party's nominees

Back 18

convention

Front 19

primary elections in the states in which voters in each party can choose a presidential candidate for its party's nomination. Outcomes help determine the distribution of pledged delegates to each party's national nominating convention

Back 19

presiendtial primaries

Front 20

accredited voting members of a party's national presidential nominating convention

Back 20

delegates

Front 21

statement of principles adopted by a political party at its national convention (specific portions of the platform are known as planks); a platformis not bindingon the party's candidates

Back 21

platform

Front 22

self-described identification with a political party

Back 22

party identification

Front 23

declining attractiveness of the parties to the voters, a reluctance to identify strongly with a party, and a decrease in reliance on party affiliation in voter choice

Back 23

dealignment

Front 24

long-term shift in social-group support for various political parties that creates new coalitions in each party

Back 24

realignment

Front 25

electoral system that allocates seats in a legislature based on the proportion of votes each party receives in a national election

Back 25

proportional representation

Front 26

organizations seeking to directly influence government policy

Back 26

interest group

Front 27

tendency of democratic governments to allow the faint preferences of the majority to prevail over the intense feelings of minorities

Back 27

majoritarianism

Front 28

society encrusted with so many special benefits to interest groups that everyon'e standard of living is lowered

Back 28

organizatoinal sclerosis

Front 29

interest groups composed of businesses in specific industries

Back 29

trade associations

Front 30

interest groups that claim to represent broad classes of people or the public as a whole

Back 30

public-interest groups

Front 31

organizations formed to support or oppose government action on a specific issue

Back 31

single-issue groups

Front 32

interest groups that pursue ideolgicially based (liberal or conservative) agendas

Back 32

ideological organiztions

Front 33

person working to influence government policies and actions

Back 33

lobbyist

Front 34

activities directed at government officials with the hope of influencing their decisions

Back 34

lobbying

Front 35

building and maintaining goodwill with the general public

Back 35

public relations

Front 36

meeting and talking with decision makers, a prerequisite to direct persuasion

Back 36

access

Front 37

attempts to influence government decision making by inspring consituents to contact their representatives

Back 37

grassroots lobbying

Front 38

a joining together of interest groups (or indivduals) to achieve a common goal

Back 38

coalition

Front 39

giving or offering anything of value in an effort to influence government officals in the performance of their duties

Back 39

bribery

Front 40

mutually supportive relastionships among interest groups, government agencies, and legislative committees with jurisdictions over a specific policy area

Back 40

iron triangles

Front 41

the movement of individuals from government positions to jobs in the private sector, using the experience knowledge, and contacts they acquired in government employment

Back 41

revolving doors

Front 42

legal disupute brought before a court

Back 42

litigation

Front 43

person or group other than the defendant of the plantiff or the prosecution that submits an argument in a case for the courts consideration

Back 43

amicus curiae