| Term | Definition |
| Political Participation | Different ways individuals take action to shape the laws & policies of government. |
| Political Action Committee | Organization raising money to elect & defeat candidates & may donate money directly to a candidate's campaign, subject it limits. |
| Linkage Institution | Channels connecting individuals with government including elections, political parties, interest groups, & the media. |
| Social Movement | Individuals join government through elections, political parties, interest groups, & the media. |
| Franchise or Suffrage | The right to vote. |
| Twenty-Sixth Amendment | Allows those 18 years or older to vote. |
| Twenty-Fourth Amendment | Prohibits Congress & states from imposing poll taxes as a voting condition in federal elections. |
| Poll Tax | Payment required by state or federal government before a citizen is allowed to vote. |
| Voter Turnout | Number of eligible voters who participate in an election as a percentage of total number of eligible voters. |
| Demographic Characteristics | Measurable characteristics of population, such as economic status, education, age, race or ethnicity, & gender. |
| Socioeconomic Status (SES) | Measure of an individual's wealth, income, occupation, & educational attainment. |
| Political Efficacy | Person's belief that he or she can make effective political change. |
| Political Mobilization | Efforts by political parties to encourage their members to vote. |
| Registration Requirements | Set of rules that govern who can vote & how, when, & where they vote. |
| Absentee Ballot | Voting completed & submitted by a voter before the day of an election without going to the polls. |
| Rational Choice Voting | Voting based on what a citizen believes in his or her best interest. |
| Retrospective Voting | Voting based on assessment of incumbent's past performance. |
| Prospective Voting | Casting a ballot for a candidate promising to enact policies favored by the voter in the future. |
| Party-Line Voting | Voting for candidates who belong only to one political party for all offices on the ballot. |
| Electoral College | Constitutionally required process for selecting president through slates of electors chosen in each state, who are pledged to vote for a nominee in the presidential election. |
| Winner-Take-All System | System of elections where the candidate winning the plurality of voters within a state receives all that state's votes in Electoral College. |
| Battleground State | State where polls show a close contest Republican & Democratic candidate in residential election. |
| Swing State | State where levels of support for the parties are similar & elections swing back & forth between Democrats & Republicans. |
| Get Out The Vote (GOTV) | Efforts to mobilize supporters. |
| Super PAC | Organization that may spend an unlimited amount of money on a political campaign, as long as spending isn't coordinated with a campaign. |
| Kainsianism stimulates the econmoy when it goes down, so ppl got lazy & caused inflation |
| Political Party | Organized group of party leaders, officeholders, & voters who work together to elect candidates to political office. |
| Party Identification | Degree to which a voter is connected & influenced by particular political party. |
| Straight-Ticket Voting | Voting for all of the candidates on the ballot from one political party. |
| Split-Ticket Voting | Voting candidates fro different parties in the same election. |
| Party Platform | Set of positions & policy objectives that members of a political party agree to. |
| Recruitment | Process where political parties identify potential candidates. |
| Party Coalition | Voter groups supporting a political party over time. |
| Realignment | When groups of people supporting a political party shift their allegiance to a different political party. |
| Critical Election | Major national election signaling a change in the balance of power between two parties. |
| Party Era | Time period where one party wins most national elections. |
| Era of Divided Government | 1969 trend, where one party controls one/two houses of Congress & the president is from the opposing party. |
| Nomination | Formal process through which parties choose their candidates from political office. |
| Delegate | Person who acts as the voters' representative at a convention to select party's nominee. |
| Primary Election | Election where state's voters choose delegates supporting a presidential candidate for nomination or an election by plurality vote to select a party's nominee for a seat in Congress. |
| Open Primary | Primary election where all eligible voters may vote, regardless of party affiliation. |
| Closed Primary | Primary election here only registered party members may vote. |
| Caucus | Process where state's eligible voters meet to select delegates to represent their preferences in the nomination process. |
| Superdelegate | Usually a party leader or activist not pledged to a candidate based on outcome of the state's primary caucus. |
| Front-Loading | Decision by state to push its primary or caucus o a date as early in the election season as possible, gaining more influence in the residential nomination process. |
| National Convention | Meeting where delegates officially select party's nominee for the presidency. |
| Candidate-Centered Campaign | Trend where candidates develop their own strategies & raise money with less influence from party elite. |
| Two-Party System | System where two political parties dominate politics, winning almost all elections. |
| Proportional Representation System | Legislator election system in which citizens vote for parties, rather than individuals & parties are represented in legislature according to percentage of vote they receive. |
| Single-Member Plurality System | Choosing members for legislature's election system where winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, even if it isn't the majority. |
| Third Party | Minor political party in competition with the two major parties. |
| pg. 500 |
