Chapter 7: Political Parties

Question 1

Political Organizations

Answer 1

Parties/interest groups that function as intermediaries between individuals and government

Question 2

Political Parties

Answer 2

Organizations seeking to get power by winning public office

Question 3

Party Identification

Answer 3

Self-described identification with a political party (ex. I’m a democrat/republican)

Question 4

Realignment

Answer 4

Long-term shift in social-group support for specific political parties that creates new alliances in each party

Question 5

Dealighnemtn

Answer 5

Declining attractiveness of parties to voters and a reluctance to identify strongly with a party. A decrease in reliance on party affiliation in voter choice

Question 6

Federalists

Answer 6

Those who supported the U.S. Constitution during the ratification process and later formed a political party to support John Adams’s presidential run

Question 7

Anti-Federalists

Answer 7

Those who did not support the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the creation of a strong national government

Question 8

Majority

Answer 8

Election by more than fifty percent of all votes cast

Question 9

Plurality

Answer 9

Election by at least one vote more than any other candidate in the race

Question 10

Democratic Party

Answer 10

One of the main parties in America. Origins to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. Acquired current name under Andrew Jackson in 1828.

Question 11

Whig Party

Answer 11

Formed in 1836 to oppose Andrew Jackson’s policies. Elected presidents Harrison and Tyler, but disintegrated over the issue of slavery

Question 12

Republican Party

Answer 12

One of the main parties in America. Traces origins back to the antislavery and nationalist forces that united in the 1850s and nominated Abraham Lincoln for president

Question 13

Battlefield Sectionalism

Answer 13

Historic partisan division of Democratic South and Republican North arising from civil war

Question 14

GOP (Grand Old Party)

Answer 14

A popular label for the Republican Party

Question 15

New Deal

Answer 15

Policies of Franklin Roosevelt during the Depression that helped make a Democratic Party coalition of urban working class, ethnic, Catholic, Jewish, poor, and southern voters

Question 16

Fair Deal

Answer 16

Policies of Harry Truman that extended Roosevelt’s New Deal and kept the Democratic Party’s voter coalition

Question 17

Great Society

Answer 17

Policies of Lyndon Johnson that promised to solve the nation’s social/economic problems through government intervention

Question 18

Reagan Coalition

Answer 18

Combination of economic/social conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and defense minded anticommunists who rallied behind Ronald Reagan

Question 19

Responsible Party Model

Answer 19

System where competitive parties adopt a platform of principles, recruiting candidates, and directing campaigns based on that platform and holding their elected officials responsible for enacting it

Question 20

Median Voter Theorem

Answer 20

Two-party political systems tend to create centrist political parties who battle for decisive voters of moderate voters

Question 21

Wedge Issue Theorem

Answer 21

Political parties run on polarizing issues to mobilize their ideological base and force moderate voters to make stark choices or not vote

Question 22

Party Polarization

Answer 22

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

Question 23

Nominee

Answer 23

Political party’s entry in general elections

Question 24

Nominations

Answer 24

Political party’s selections of its candidates for public office

Question 25

Primary Elections

Answer 25

Elections to pick party nominees for public office. Can be opened or closed.

Question 26

Machines

Answer 26

Tightly disciplined party organizations, headed by a boss. Relies on material rewards (patronage jobs, etc.) to control policies

Question 27

Patronage

Answer 27

Appointment to public office based on party loyalty

Question 28

Divided Party Government

Answer 28

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

Question 29

Nonpartisan Elections

Answer 29

Elections where candidates don't officially pick their party affiliations (city, county, school board, judicial elections are common).

Question 30

Caucus

Answer 30

Nominating process where party members/leaders meet to nominate candidates/select delegates to conventions

Question 31

Wards

Answer 31

Divisions of a city for electoral/administrative purpose or as units for organizing political parties

Question 32

Precincts

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Closed Primaries

Answer 33

Primary elections where voters need to declare their party and can cast a ballot only in their own party's primary election

Question 34

Open Primaries

Answer 34

Primary elections where voters can cast ballots in either party's primary election

Question 35

Raiding

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Runoff Primary

Answer 36

Additional primary held between the top two vote-getters in primary where no candidate has received a majority of the vote

Question 37

General Election

Answer 37

Election to pick candidates nominated by parties and independent candidates who gained access to the ballot by petition