examgov2.docx

Chapter 11 Vocabulary : Political Socialization and Public Opinion Exit Polls - Polls conducted as voters leave selected polling places on election day Margin of error ? A measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll; +/- 5 Political Ideology ? the coherent set of values and beliefs about he purpose and scope of government held by groups and individuals socialization ? the process through which individuals acquire their political beliefs and values Family, School and Peers Mass Media Religious Beliefs Race and Ethnicity Gender, age, region Impact of events Public opinion ? what the public thinks about a particular issue or set of issues at any point in time Public Opinion Polls ? interviews or surveys with samples of citizens that are used to estimate the feelings and beliefs of the entire population Push Polls ? polls taken for the purpose of providing information on an opponent that would lead respondents to vote against that candidate Random Sampling ? A method of poll selection that gives each person in a group the same chance of being selected Sample ? a subset of the whole population selected to be questioned for the purpose of prediction or gauging opinion Stratified Sampling ? a variation of random sampling; census data are used to divide the country into four sampling regions. Sets of counties and standard metropolitan statistical areas are then randomly selected in proportion to the total national population Straw Polls ? Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues and policies Tracking Polls ? Continuous surveys that enable a campaign to chart its daily rise and fall in support Chapter 12 Vocabulary: Political Parties Candidate-Centered Politics: Politics that focuses directly on the candidates, their issues, and character rather than party affiliation. Civil Service Laws: these acts removed the staffing of the bureaucracy from political parties and created a professional bureaucracy filled through competition. Coalition: a group made up of interests or organizations that join forces for the purpose of electing public officials. Critical Election: an election that signals a party realignment through voter polarization around news issues. Dealignment: a general decline in partisan identification and loyalty in the electorate. Direct Primary: the selection of party candidates through the ballots of qualified voters rather than at party nomination conventions. Governmental Primary: the office holders and candidates who run under a political party?s banner. Hard Money: legally specified and limited contributions that are clearly regulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act and by the Federal Election Commission. Issue-Oriented Politics: politics that focuses on specific issues rather than on party, candidate, or other loyalties. National Convention: a party conclave (meeting) held in the presidential election year for the purposes of nominating a presidential and vice presidential ticker and adopting a platform. National Party Platform: a statement of the general and specific philosophy and policy goals of a political party, usually promulgated at the national convention. Organizational Party: the workers and activists who staff the party?s formal organization. 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 Realignment: a shifting of party coalition groupings in the electorate that remains in place for several elections. Political Machine: A party organization that recruits voter loyalty with tangible incentives and is characterized by a high degree of control over member activity. 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. Proportional Representation: a voting system that apportions legislative seats according to the percentage of the vote won by a particular political party. Secular Realignment: the gradual rearrangement of party coalitions, based more on demographic shifts than on shocks to the political system. Soft Money: the virtually unregulated money funneled by individuals and political committees through states and local parties. Think Tank: institutional collection of policy oriented researchers and academics that are sources of policy ideas. Ticket-Split: to vote for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election. Winner-Take-All-System: an electoral system in which the party that receives at least one more vote than any other party wins the election. Chapter 13 Vocabulary : Voting and Elections Authoritarian System: a system of government that bases its rule on force rather than consent of the government. Ballot Measure: an election option such as the initiative or referendum that enables voters to enact public policy. Closed Primary: a primary election in which on a party?s registered voters are eligible to vote. Conventional Political Participation: attempts to influence the political process through well-accepted, often moderate forms of persuasion, such as writing letters to government officials, making political contributions, and voting. Crossover Voting: participation in the primary of a party with which the voter is not affiliated. Elector: member of the Electoral College chosen by methods determined in each state. Electoral College: representatives of each state who cast the final ballots that actually elect a president. Electorate: citizens eligible to vote. Front Loading: the tendency of states to choose an early date on the primary calendar. General Election: voters decide which candidates will actually fill elective public offices. Gerrymandering: the legislative process through which the majority party in each statehouse tries to assure that the maximum number of representatives from its political party can be elected to Congress through the redrawing of legislative districts. Incumbency: the holding of an office. Initiative: a process that allows citizens to propose legislation and submit it to the state electorate for popular vote. Mandate: a command, indicated by an electorate?s votes, for the elected officials to carry out their platforms. Midterm Election: Election that takes place in the middle of a presidential term. Open Primary: party members in which party members, independents and sometimes members of the other party are allowed to vote. Primary Election: voters decide which of the candidates within a party will represent the party in the general election. Prospective Judgment: a voter?s evaluation of a candidate based on what he or she pledges to do about an issue if elected. Raiding: an organized attempt by voters of one party to influence the primary results of the other party. Reapportionment: reallocation of the number of seats in the House of Representatives after each decennial census. Recall: reallocation of the number of seats in the House of Representatives after each decennial census. Redistricting: redrawing of congressional districts to reflect population changes or for political advantage. Referendum: an election whereby the state legislature submits proposed legislation to the states? voters for approval. Regional Primary: a proposed system in which the country would be divided in to five or six geographic areas and all states in each region would hold their presidential primary elections on the same day. Retrospective Judgment: a voter?s evaluation of the performance of the party in power. Runoff Primary: a second primary election between the two candidates receiving the greatest number of votes in the first primary. Super delegate: slot to the Democratic Party?s national convention that is reserved for an elected party official. Ticket-Splitting: to vote for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election. Turnout: the proportion of the voting-age public that votes. Unconventional Political Participation: political participation that attempts to influence the political process through unusual or extreme measures, such as protests, boycotts, and picketing. Unit Rule: a traditional party practice under which the majority of a state delegation can force the minority to vote for its candidate. Chapter 14 Vocabulary: The Campaign Process Campaign Consultant: private sector professionals and firms who sell to a candidate the technologies, services, and strategies required to get that candidate elected. Campaign Manager: the individual who travels with the candidate and coordinates the many different aspects of the campaign. Candidate Debate: forum in which political candidates face each other to discuss their platforms, records, and character. Communications Director: person who develops the overall media strategy for the candidate, blending the free press coverage with the paid TV, radio, and mail media. Contrast Ad: ad that compares the records and proposals of the candidates, with a bias toward the sponsor. Direct Mailer: a professional who supervises a political campaign?s direct-mail fundraising strategies. Finance Chair: a professional who coordinates the fund-raising efforts for the campaign. 501 © (3) Committees: nonprofit and tax-exempt groups that can educate voters about issues and are not required to release the names of their contributors. 527 Political Committees: nonprofit and unregulated interest groups that focus on specific causes or policy positions and attempt to influence voters. Free Media: coverage of a candidate?s campaign by the news media. General Election Campaign: the part of a political campaign aimed at winning a general election. Get Out The Vote (GOTV): a push at the end of a political campaign to encourage supporters to go to the polls. Hard Money: legally specified and limited contributions that are clearly regulated by the Federal Election Campaign Act and by the Federal Election Commission. Inoculation Ad: advertising that attempts to counteract an anticipated attack from the opposition before the attack is launched. Internet Team: campaign staff that uses Web-based resources to communicate with voters, raise funds, organize volunteers, and plan events. Matching Funds: donations to presidential campaigns from the federal government that are determined by the amount of private funds a qualifying candidate raises. Media Consultant: a professional who produces political candidate?s television, radio, and print advertisements. Negative Ad: advertising on behalf of a candidate that attacks the opponent?s platform or character. New Media: technologies such as the Internet that blur the line between media sources and create new opportunities for the dissemination of news and other information. Nomination Campaign: the part of a political aimed at winning a primary election. Paid Media: political advertisements purchased for a candidates campaign. Political Action Committee (PAC): federally mandated, officially registered fund-raising committee that represents interest groups in the political process. Pollster: a professional who takes public opinion surveys that guide political campaigns. Positive Ad: advertising on behalf of a candidate that stresses the candidate?s qualifications, family, and issue positions, without reference to the opponent. Press Secretary: the individual charged with interacting and communicating with journalists on a daily basis. Public Funds: donations from the general tax revenues to the campaigns of qualifying presidential candidates. Soft Money: the virtually unregulated money funneled by individuals and political committees through state and local parties. Spot Ad: television advertising on behalf of a candidate that is broadcast in sixty, thirty, or ten second duration. Voter Canvass: the process by which a campaign gets in touch with individual voters, either by door-to-door solicitation or by telephone. Chapter 16 Vocabulary : Interest Groups Civic Virtue ? The tendency to form small scale associations for the public good Collective Good ? Something of value that cannot be withheld from a nonmember of a group, (for example a tax write-off or a better environment) Disturbance Theory ? The theory that interest groups form in part to counteract the efforts of other groups Earmark ? Funds that an appropriations bill designates for a particular purpose within a state or congressional district Economic Interest Groups ? A group with the primary purpose of promoting the financial interests of its members 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 Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 ? Lobbying reform banning gifts to members of congress and their staffs, toughening disclosure requirements, and increasing time limits on moving from the federal government to the private sector Interest Group - An organized group that tries to influence public policy Lobbying ? the activities of a group or organization that seeks to influence legislation and persuade political leader to support the groups position Lobbyist ? Interest group representative who seeks to influence legislation that will benefit his or her organization or client through political persuasion Patron ? A person who finances a group or individual activity Pluralist Theory - The theory that political power is distributed among a wide array of diverse and competing interest groups Political Actions Committee (PAC) ? Federally regulated, officially registered fund-raising committee that represents interest groups in the political process. Population Ecology - The theory that the life of a political organization is conditional on the density of the interest group population in a given area Public Interest Groups ? An organization that seeks a collective good will not selectively and materially benefit group members Social Capital ? The myriad relationship that individuals enjoy that facilitate the resolution of community problems through collective action Trade Association ? A group that represents a specific industry Transactions Theory ? The theory that public policies are the result of narrowly defined exchanges among political error