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GOPO Unit 2 Vocab.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Attentive Public | those who follow politics and public affairs carefully. |
| Australian Ballot | secret ballot printed at the expense of the state. |
| Balancing the ticket | Occurs when a presidential nominee chooses a vice presidential running mate who has different qualities in order to attract more voters for the ticket. |
| Blanket primary | election to choose candidates that is open to independents, and that allows voters to choose candidates from all the parties. |
| Caucus | Local party meeting. |
| Closed primary | party election to choose candidates that is closed to independents. Voters may not cross the party lines. |
| Coattail effect | the influence of a popular presidential candidate on the election of congressional candidates of the same party. |
| demographics | characteristics of population |
| Direct election | election of an official directly by the people rather than by an intermediary group such as the Electoral College. |
| Direct Primary | election in which the people choose candidates for office. |
| Fixed Terms | terms of office that have a definite length of time. |
| Front loading | scheduling presidential primary elections early. |
| Gender Gap | difference in voting patterns for men and women, particularly in the greater tendency of the latter to vote for democratic presidential candidates. |
| General Election | election in which the officeholders are chosen. Contrast with a primary election. in which only the candidates are chosen. |
| Hard money | campaign contributions donates directly to candidates. |
| Ideology | set of beliefs about political values and the role of government. |
| Incumbent | an officeholder who is seeking reelection |
| Independent | one is not registered with a political party. Independent leaners tend to vote for candidates of one particular party, whereas pure independent have no consistent pattern of party voting. |
| Issue advocacy ads | ads that focus on issues and do not explicitly encourage citizens to vote for a certain candidate. |
| Open primary | elections to choose candidates that is open to independents, and in which voters may choose candidates from any one party. |
| Party Identifications | a sense of affiliation that a person has with a particular political party. |
| Party platform | a list of positions and programs that the party adopts at the national convention. Each position is called a plank. |
| Political culture | the widely shared beliefs, values, and norms that citizens share about their government. |
| Plurality | more voters than anyone else, but less than half. |
| Political Efficacy | capacity to understand and influence political events. |
| Political socialization | `process in which one acquires his/her political beliefs. |
| Realigning election | an election in which there is a long term change in party alignment. |
| Safe seat | an office that is extremely likely to be won by a particular candidate or political party. |
| single member district sysytem | system in which the people elect one representatives per district. With a winner take all rule, this system strengthens the two major parties and weakens minor parties. |
| soft money | campaign contributions that are not donated directly to candidates, but are instead donates to parties. |
| solid South | the south voted solidly Democratic. However, the South is now strongly Republican. |
| Split ticket voting | casting votes for candidates of one's own party and for candidates of opposing parties. |
| straight ticket voting | casting cotes only for candidates of one's party. |
| suffrage | the right to vote |
| superdelegate | A delegate to the democratic national convention who is there by virtue of holding an office. |
| Super Tuesday | a Tuesday in early March in which many presidential primaries, particularly in the South, are held. |
| Swing State | A state that does not consistently vote either democratic or Republican in presidential elections. |