Ch. 8 Poliscience

Front 1

air wars

Back 1

applied to candidates' use of televised ads especially by playing off each other's ads, seeking to gain the strategic advantage.

Front 2

candidate-centered politics

Back 2

election campaigns and other political processes in which candidates, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence.

Front 3

dealignment

Back 3

a situation in which voters' partisan loyalties have been substantially and permanently weakened.

Front 4

grassroots party

Back 4

a political party built from the bottom up consisting of committees and clubs at the local, state, and national levels, with membership open to all eligible voters.

Front 5

hard money

Back 5

funding given by a political party and individual contributors to a candidate for office that is regulated by the campaign finance laws and must go directly to the candidate and can be spent as the candidate chooses.

Front 6

hired guns

Back 6

modern day campaign organization consisting of consultants, pollsters, media producers, and fund-raising specialists who charge for their services.

Front 7

money chase

Back 7

term used to explain the activity of candidates who are forced to spend much of their time raising funds because of the high cost of campaigns.

Front 8

multiparty system

Back 8

a system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition.

Front 9

nomination

Back 9

the designation of a particular individual to run as a political party's candidate (its "nominee") in the general election.

Front 10

packaging (of a candidate)

Back 10

the process in a campaign of placing aspects of the candidate's partisanship, policy positions, record, and personality in the context of the voters' "ideal" candidates.

Front 11

party-centered politics

Back 11

election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence.

Front 12

party coalition

Back 12

the groups and interests that support a political party.

Front 13

party competition

Back 13

a process whereby conflict over society's goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern.

Front 14

party organizations

Back 14

party organizational units at national, state and local levels; their influence has decreased over time as a result of many factors.

Front 15

party realignment

Back 15

an election or set of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinarily powerful issue that has disrupted the established political order. A realignment has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties and the composition of the party coalitions.

Front 16

political party

Back 16

an ongoing coalition of interests joined together to get their candidates for public office elected under a common label.

Front 17

primary election (direct primary)

Back 17

a form of election in which voters choose a party's nominees for public office. In most primaries, eligibility to vote is limited to voters who are registered members of the party.

Front 18

proportional representation

Back 18

a form of representation in which legislative seats are allocated proportionally according to each political party's share of the popular vote. This system enables smaller parties to compete successfully for seats.

Front 19

service relationship

Back 19

a situation where party organizations assist candidates for office but have no power to require them to accept or campaign on the party's main policy positions.

Front 20

single-member districts

Back 20

a form of representation in which only a single candidate is elected to a particular office by the voters of that district. This system favors major parties because only candidates who can gain a large proportion of votes in an election district have a realistic chance of winning.

Front 21

soft money

Back 21

process made possible by a loophole in campaign finance regulation which enables a contributor to give an unlimited amount of money to a political party. This money must be spent only on party activities (rather than the candidate individually) building party membership, getting out the vote through ads and registration drives, and advertising campaigns that raise public awareness about political issues.

Front 22

split-ticket voting

Back 22

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. This pattern is the opposite of straight-ticket voting.

Front 23

straight-ticket voting

Back 23

this occurs when a voter in an election casts a ballot that includes only candidates of the same party.

Front 24

two-party system

Back 24

a system in which only two political parties have a real chance of acquiring control of the government.