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35 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a compassionate conservative? |
A republican who is more compassionate to the issues of welfare, education, immigration and poverty |
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What are some ideological differences between Democarts and Republicans? |
- death penalty - prayer in public schools - abortion - gay rights - cutting taxes |
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What does liberal mean? |
A view that seeks to change the political, economic and social status quo in favour of wellbeing, rights and liberties |
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What does conservative mean? |
A view that seeks to defend the political, economic and social status quo and tends to oppose changes |
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What is the Solid South? |
the democratic party's solid political control and electoral control of the South between the Civil War and the 1960s |
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What is red America? |
- more male than female - overwhelmingly white, protestant and rural |
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What is blue America? |
- more female than male - a rainbow coalition of white, black, Asian and Hispanic - less wealthy and urban |
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Where are America's shades of purple? |
- west virginia (red) has Democratic Senators - Massachusetts, New York and Califronia (blue) all have Republican Governors |
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What is partisanship? |
where members of one party are in opposition to the members of another party |
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Why is there a red-blue divide? |
- Reagan wooed Republicans away from Democrats - collapse of the Soviet Union ended the need for consensus - technology allowed ideological soulmates to communicate more effectively |
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What are the different organisational structures of the two major parties? |
- National Committees - Congressional Committees - State-level organisation |
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What is a two-party system? |
when two parties regularly win the vast majority of votes in general elections and control the executive branch of government |
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What are the reasons for the two-party system? |
-FTFP makes life difficult for third parties - the two major parties have such a wide ideological spectrum - primary elections minimise the news for protest voting |
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Why does the US have a two-party system? |
- all presidents since 1853 have been Democrat or Republican - D/R make up 95% of the vote - 98 out of 100 Senators are either D/R - congress is dominated by the two major parties - 49 out of 50 state governors and state legislatures are either D/R |
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Why isn't the US a two-party system? |
- the US has a 50 party system - some states are virtually one-party - the US has a no party system - third parties play a significant role in presidential elections - modern day Americans are more likely to join a group such as the Tea Party movement, the Occupy movement or a pressure group |
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What are some third party difficulties? |
- electoral system - matching funds - ballot access laws - lack of resources - lack of media coverage - lack of suitable candidates - allegations of extremism - co-optation |
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Why is the electoral system a problem for third parties? |
FPTP makes life difficult for third parties because their support is usually widespread - George Wallace (13%) -concentrated votes - Ross Perot (19%) - widespread votes |
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Why are matching funds a problem for third parties? |
- major party candidates qualify by raising $5,000 in small donations of $250 or under - third party candidates only qualify by winning 5% of the popular vote this is very hard to achieve, only Anderson, Wallace and Perot did |
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Why are ballot access laws a problem for third parties? |
each state has laws on how third party candidates can qualify to get their name on the ballot - Tennessee (25 signatures on a petition) - New York/ California (gaina certain number of signatures in every county in the state |
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Why are resources a problem for third parties? |
- matching funds - a lot of spending on ballot access petitions |
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Why is media coverage a problem for third parties? |
news programmes do not think they are sufficiently newsworthy - Nader was excluded from the Bush/Gore debates in 2000 |
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Why are suitable candidates a problem for third parties? |
suffer from lack of well-known, well-qualified candidates |
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Why are allegations of extremism a problem for third parties? |
if third party candidates weren't ideological extremists, they would be running under the umbrella of either the D/R - Americans have a deep seated fear of political extremists due to the 'red scare' and the McCarthy witch hunts |
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Why is co-optation a problem for third parties? |
one or both major parties can adopt a third party's key policies - Wallace - Nixon launched his 'southern strategy' to woo Wallace voters |
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Why do third parties play a significant role in US politics? |
- Ross Perot won 19% of the popular vote - Green Party gained 2.7% of the vote in 2000 - Wallace won 13.5% of the popular vote and 46 EC votes - some states have vibrant third parties |
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Why don't third parties play a significant role in US politics? |
- the two major parties dominate the presidential elections - two major parties dominate congress - two major parties dominate state politics - D/R tend to co-opt third party policies |
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What is party decline? |
the theory that parties were in decline in terms of membership, function and importance |
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What are some reasons for party decline? |
- candidate selection - communication with voters - candidate/ issue centered voting - emergence of movements |
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Why could candidate selection be a reason for party decline? |
parties have lost control over presidential candidate selection - in the 1960s candidates were largely selected by party bosses |
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Why could communication with voters be a reason for party decline? |
today, politicians largely communicate their message through television, while voters 'speak-back' in opinion polls |
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Why could candidate/issue centered voting be a reason for party decline? |
split ticket voting - voting for candidates of two or more parties for different offices in the same election |
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Why could the emergence of movements be a reason for party decline? |
Americans are more prone to to join a movement rather than a traditional party - Tea Party/ Occupy |
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What is party renewal? |
suggests that parties, far from being in decline, are increasingly important in elections |
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What are some reasons for party renewal? |
- theories of party decline were exaggerated - increased party involvement in presidential elections - nationalisation of campaigns increased partisanship in campaigns |
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What are the beliefs of the Tea Party movement? |
- strict adherence to the original intentions of the Framers of the constitution - limited government - reducing size and scope of federal government - reducing the national debt |
