Q1. An ongoing coalition of interests joined
together to try to get their candidates for
public office elected under a common label
A1. political party
Q2. Election campaigns and other political
processes in which political parties, not
individual candidates, hold most of the
initiative and influence
A2. party-centered politics
Q3. Election campaigns and other political
processes in which candidates, not political
parties, have most of the initiative and
influence
A3. candidate-centered politics
Q4. party competition
A4. A process in which conflict over society’s
goals is transformed by political parties into
electoral competition in which the winner
gains the power to govern
Q5. A political party organized at the level of
the voters and dependent on their support for
its strength
A5. grassroots party
Q6. An election or set of elections in which
the electorate responds strongly to an
extraordinarily powerful issue that has
disrupted the established political order. The
displacement of the majority party by the
minority party, usually during a critical
election period
A6. party realignment
Q7. critical election
A7. An electoral “earthquake” whereby new
issues emerge, new coalitions replace old
ones, and the majority party is often displaced
by the minority party. Critical election
periods are sometimes marked by a national
crisis and may require more than one election
to bring about a new party era (Critical
election period is often use synonymous with
party realignment)
Q8. The pattern of voting in which the
individual voter in a given election casts a
ballot for one or more candidates of each
major party
A8. split ticket
Q9. The pattern of voting in which the
individual voter in a given election casts a
ballot for candidates who are all of the same
party
A9. straight ticket
Q10. Voting for a candidate because you agree
and favor his or her ideas for handling issues
A10. prospective voting
Q11. Voting for a candidate because you like
his or her past actions in office
A11. retrospective voting
Q12. two-party system
A12. A system in which only two political
parties have a real chance of acquiring control
of the government
Q13. A system in which three or more political
parties have the capacity to gain control of
government separately or in coalition
A13. multiparty system
Q14. The form of representation in which only
the candidate who gets the most votes in a
district wins office. To get representation you
must win a district
A14. single-member districts
Q15. A form of representation in which seats
in the legislature are allocated proportionally
according to each political party’s share of the
popular vote. This system enables smaller
parties to compete successfully for seats
A15. proportional representation
Q16. party coalition
A16. The groups and interests that support a
political party
Q17. party organization
A17. The party organizational units at the
national, state, and local levels; their
influence has decreased over time because of
many factors
Q18. The designation of a particular
individual to run as a political party’s
candidate in the general election
A18. nomination
Q19. A form of election in which voters
choose a party’s nominees for public office. In
most states, eligibility to vote in this type of
election is limited to voters who are registered
members of the party
A19. primary election (direct primary)
Q20. service relationship
A20. The situation in which party
organizations assist candidates for office but
have no power to require them to support the
party’s main policy positions
Q21. Campaign funds given directly to
candidates to spend as they choose. (subject
to legal limits)
A21. hard money
Q22. Campaign contributions that are not
subject to legal limits and are given to parties
rather than directly to candidates. (These
contributions are no longer legal)
A22. soft money
Q23. money chase
A23. A term used to describe the fact that U.S.
campaigns are very expensive and candidates
must spend a great amount of time raising
funds in order to compete successfully
Q24. A term that refers to the professional
consultants who run campaigns for high
office
A24. hired guns
Q25. A term that refers to the fact that
modern campaigns are often a battle of
opposing televised advertising campaigns
A25. air wars
Q26. The situation in which separate groups
are organized around nearly every conceivable
policy issue and press their demands and
influence to the utmost
A26. single-issue politics
Q27. A set of individuals who are organized to
promote a shared political interest
A27. interest group
Q28. economic groups
A28. Interest groups that are organized
primarily for economic reasons but that
engage in political activity in order to seek
favorable policies from government
Q29. Benefits that a group (most often an
economic group) can grant directly and
exclusively to individual members of the
group
A29. private (individual) goods
Q30. material incentive
A30. An economic or other tangible benefit
that is used to attract group members
Q31. Organized interests formed by
individuals drawn together by opportunities
to promote a cause in which they believe but
that does not provide them significant
individual economic benefits
A31. citizens’ (noneconomic) groups
Q32. purposive incentive
A32. An incentive to group participation
based on the cause (purpose) that the group
seeks to promote
Q33. Benefits that are offered by groups
(usually citizens’ groups) as an incentive for
membership but that are non-divisible (e.g., a
clean environment) and therefore are
available to nonmembers as well as members
of the particular group
A33. public (collective) goods
Q34. The situation in which the benefits
offered by a group to its members are also
available to nonmembers. The incentive to
join the group and to promote its cause is
reduced because nonmembers receive the
benefits (e.g., cleaner environment) without
having to pay any of the group’s costs
A34. free-rider problem
Q35. The process by which interest-group
members attempt to influence public policy
through contacts with public officials
A35. lobbying
Q36. Direct communication between
organized interests and policymakers, which
is based on the assumed value of close
contacts with policymakers
A36. inside lobbying
Q37. A small and informal but relatively
stable group composed of bureaucratic
agencies, interest groups, and congressional
committees. They are characterized by
mutual dependency, in which each element
provides key services, information, or policy
for the others
A37. iron triangles
Q38. An informal grouping of officials,
lobbyists, and policy specialists who are
brought together temporarily by their shared
interest in a particular policy problem.
Participates might come from a variety of
executive agencies, congressional committees,
interest groups, and institutions such a
universities or think tanks
A38. issue networks
Q39. A form of lobbying in which an interest
group seeks to use public pressure as a means
of influencing officials
A39. outside lobbying
Q40. grassroots lobbying
A40. A form of lobbying designed to persuade
officials that a group’s policy position has
strong constituent support
Q41. The organization through which an
interest group raises and distributes funds for
election purposes. By law, the funds must be
raised through voluntary contributions
A41. political action committee (PAC)
A42. news
A42. The news media’s version of reality,
usually with an emphasis on timely, dramatic,
and compelling events and developments
Q43. Those print and broadcast organizations
that are in the news-reporting business
A43. press (news media)
Q44. Newspapers and other communication
media that openly support a political party
and whose news in significant part follows the
party line
A44. partisan press
Q45. A model of news reporting that is based
on the communication of “facts” rather than
opinions and that is “fair” in that it presents
all sides of partisan debate
A45. objective journalism
Q46. The accepted responsibility of the media
to alert the public to important developments
as soon as possible after they happen or are
discovered
A46. signaler(signaling) role
Q47. The power of the media through news
coverage to focus the public’s attention and
concern of particular events, problems,
issues, personalities, and so on
A47. agenda setting
Q48. The media’s function as an open channel
through which political leaders can
communicate with the public
A48. common-carrier role
Q49. The accepted responsibility of the media
to protect the public from deceitful, careless,
incompetent, and corrupt officials by
standing ready to expose any official who
violates accepted legal, ethical, or
performance standards
A49. watchdog role
Q50. A role whereby the media attempt to act
as the public’s representative
A50. public-representative role
Q51. A meeting of party members to select
delegates backing one or another primary
candidates
A51. caucus
Q52. Party leaders and elected officials who
become delegates to the Democratic National
Convention without having to run in
primaries or caucuses
A52. superdelegates
Q53. The recent tendency of states to hold
primaries early in the calendar in order to
capitalize on media attention. At one time, it was
considered advantageous for a state to choose its
delegates late in the primary season so that it
could play a decisive role. However, in recent
years, votes cast in states that have held late
primaries have been irrelevant given that one
candidate had already sewn up the nomination
early on
A53. frontloading
Q54. Federal Election Campaign Act
A54. A law passed in 1974 for reforming
campaign finances. The act created the
Federal Election Commission (FEC), provided
public financing for presidential primaries
and general elections, limited presidential
campaign spending, required disclosure, and
attempted to limit contributions
Q55. Presidential Election Campaign
Fund
A55. Money from the $3 federal income tax
check-off goes into this fund, which is then
distributed to qualified candidates to
subsidize their presidential campaigns
Q56. matching funds
A56. Contribution of up to $250 are matched
from the Presidential Election Campaign
Fund to candidates for the presidential
nomination who qualify and agree to meet
various conditions, such as limiting their
overall spending
Q57. rational-choice theory
A57. A popular theory in political science to
explain the actions of voters as well as
politicians. It assumes that individuals act in
their own best interest, carefully weighing the
costs and benefits of possible alternatives
Q58. A type of political party organization
that relies heavily on material inducements,
such as patronage, to win votes and to govern
A58. party machine
Q59. patronage
A59. One of the key inducements used by
political machines. A patronage job,
promotion, or contract is one that is given for
political reasons rather than for merit or
competence alone.
Q60. A primary election in which voting is
limited to already registered party members
A60. closed primary
Q61. Elections to select party nominees in
which voters are presented with a list of
candidates (one ballot) from all the parties.
Open to any party members
A61. blanket primary
Q62. Elections to select party nominees in
which voters (any party member) can decide
on Election Day whether they want to
participate in the Democratic or Republican
contests. Can only vote in one primary
A62. open primary
Q63. The meeting of party delegates every
four years to nominate the party’s presidential
and vice-presidential candidates and to write
the party’s platform
A63. national convention
Q64. A group of individuals with a common
interest upon which every political party
depends.
Q64. coalition
Q65. party dealignment
A65. The gradual disengagement of people
and politicians from the parties, as seen in
part by shrinking party identification
Q66. In American presidential elections, the
system in which the winner of the popular
vote in a state receives all the electoral votes of
that state
A66. winner-take-all
Q67 electioneering
A67. Direct group involvement in the
electoral process. Groups can help fund
campaigns, provide testimony, and get
members to work for candidates, and some
form political action committees (PACs
Q68. Lawsuits permitting a small number of
people to sue on behalf of all other people
similarly situated
A68. class action lawsuits
Q69. loaded language
A69. Words that imply a value judgment, used to
persuade a reader without having made a serious
argument (media)
Q70. right-to-work law
A70. A state law forbidding requirements that
workers must join a union to hold their jobs.
State right-to-work laws were specifically
permitted by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947
Q71. As opposed to the traditional
“broadcasting,” the appeal to a narrow,
particular audience by channels such as
ESPN, MTV, and C-SPAN, which focus on a
narrow particular interest
A71. narrowcasting
Q72. Information leaked to the media to test
public reaction to a possible policy
A72. trial balloon
Q73. Short video clips of approximately 15
seconds, which are typically all that is shown
from a politician’s speech or activities on
television news
A73. sound bites
Q74. 527 organizations
A74. Organizations that, under section 527 of
the Internal Revenue Code, raise and spend
money to advance political causes. 527
organizations can spend their money on
politics so long as they do not coordinate with
a candidate or lobby directly for that person
Q75. The person already holding an elective
office.
A75. incumbent
Q76. The alleged tendency of candidates to
win more votes in an election because of the
presence at the top of the ticket of a betterknown candidate, such as the president
A76. coattails
Q77. Spending by political action
committees, corporations, or labor unions
that is done to help a party or candidate but is
done independently of them
A77. independent expenditures
Q78. political cue
A78. A signal telling a legislator what values
are at stake in a vote, and how that issue fits
into his or her own political views on party
agenda
Q79. equal time rule
A79. An FCC rule that if a broadcaster sells
time to one candidate, it must sell equal time
to other candidates