Chapter 9

Question 1

What are political parties?

Answer 1

Political parties are coalitions of individuals that organize the political world, recruit candidates, mobilize the public, and link the public to government.

Question 2

What role do political parties play in elections?

Answer 2

Parties recruit and nominate candidates for office, coordinate campaigns, mobilize voters, and raise money for campaigns and advertisements.

Question 3

Which reform was enacted in the early 1900s to weaken party machines in bosses in power boaters?

Answer 3

Primary elections

Question 4

What is the role of political parties in government?

Answer 4

Congress is organized by political parties, with party leaders wielding considerable power over which bills will be voted on applying pressure and party members to support the party and their votes.

Question 5

coalitions of people who form a united front to win control of government and implement policy

Answer 5

political parties

Question 6

identification with or support of a particular party or cause

Answer 6

partisanship

Question 7

a multimember district system that allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote

Answer 7

proportional representation

Question 8

a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in the parliament or other representative body, a candidate need only receive the most votes in the election, not necessarily a majority of the votes cast

Answer 8

plurality system

Question 9

Duverger’s law

Answer 9

a law that holds that plurality-rule elections, where the winner has the most votes but not necessarily a majority within single-member geographic districts, tend to result in a two-party system, whereas proportional representation tends to result in a multiparty system

Question 10

elections held to select a party’s candidate for the general election

Answer 10

primary elections

Question 11

a normally closed political party business meeting of citizens or lawmakers to select candidates, elect officers, plan strategy, or make decisions regarding legislative matters

Answer 11

caucus

Question 12

the tailoring of messages by political campaigns to individuals in small homogeneous groups based on their group interests to support a candidate or policy issue

Answer 12

micro-targeting

Question 13

the formal structure of a political party, including its leadership, election committees, active members, and paid staff

Answer 13

party organization

Question 14

meeting convened by the Republican National Committee or the Democratic National Committee to nominate official candidates for president and vice president in the upcoming election, establish party rules, and adopt the party’s platform

Answer 14

national convention

Question 15

a party document, written at a national convention, that contains party philosophy, principles, and positions on issues

Answer 15

party platform

Question 16

strong party organizations in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American cities; these machines were led by often corrupt “bosses” who controlled party nominations and patronage

Answer 16

party machines

Question 17

the resources available to higher officials, usually opportunities to make partisan appointments to offices and to confer grants, licenses, or special favors to supporters

Answer 17

patronage

Question 18

an individual who identifies a problem as a political issue and brings a policy proposal into the political agenda

Answer 18

policy entrepreneur

Question 19

an individual voter’s psychological ties to one party or another

Answer 19

party identification

Question 20

when citizens can retrospectively hold politicians accountable for their past actions and reward them by voting for them in a future election or punish them by voting against them

Answer 20

retrospective voting

Question 21

the emotional dislike of members of the other party

Answer 21

affective polarization

Question 22

a phenomenon in which people form strong opinions against a political party rather than in support of one

Answer 22

negative partisanship

Question 23

parties that organize to compete against the two major American political parties

Answer 23

minor parties

Question 24

Conflicts in Congress between northeastern merchants and southern farmers in the first few Congresses resulted in political elites in each group organizing their supporters. This resulted in which two political parties?

Answer 24

Antifederalists
Federalists

Question 25

How do political parties form?

Answer 25

-Parties form when societal conflict leads political elites and competing coalitions within government to mobilize popular support.
-Parties form when groups outside of government organize popular support to win control of government.

Question 26

After the decline of party machines, state and local party organizers have become active in which of the following ways?

Answer 26

-recruiting candidates
-spending money on “party-building” activities
-voter registration drives

Question 27

Party machines in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries were strong because they controlled which aspects of politics?

Answer 27

-nominations
-patronage

Question 28

What are the three fundamental problems of democracy that political parties solve?

Answer 28

-mobilizing voters
-regulating the number of people seeking office
-accomplishing legislative goals

Question 29

True or False: Turnout in primary elections is typically low.

Answer 29

True