(T)he Media & Public Opinion
A collection of popular views about something, perhaps a person, a local or national event, or a new idea.
What is public opinion?
Allows governments to determine which citizens are allowed to vote and, in some cases, from which list of candidates they may select a party nominee.
What is registration?
Because they are usually not officially affiliated with any political party, they generally have no trouble working with either of the major parties.
What is an interest group?
Citizens use party identification to make decisions by choosing every Republican or Democratic Party member on the ballot.
What is straight-ticket voting?
The process by which we are trained to understand and join a country’s political world.
What is political socialization?
Opinion polls have the greatest measured effect on these events.
What are elections?
It is often 30 days and establishes how long a citizen must live in a state before becoming eligible to register.
Interest groups play a major role in Texas politics by providing this valuable resource for legislators who are crunched for time.
What is information?
Groups do this to influence who the policymakers will be.
What is electioneering?
Groups of people with similar interests who work together to create and implement policies.
What is a political party?
Just like an announcer at the racetrack, the media calls out every candidate’s move throughout the presidential campaign.
What is horserace coverage?
Generally in November following a session of the Texas Legislature, allow voters to consider changes to the state’s constitution recommended by two-thirds of the Texas House and Senate.
What are Constitutional Amendment Elections?
The incentive to benefit from others' work without making a contribution, which leads individuals in a collective action situation to refuse to work together.
What is the free rider problem?
Occurs when the voter applies information about a candidate’s past behavior to decide how the candidate will act in the future.
What is prospective voting?
A form of town hall meeting at which voters in a precinct get together to voice their preferences, rather than voting individually throughout the day.
What are caucuses?
Announced results of these surveys can deter voters from going to the polls if they believe the election has already been decided.
What are exit polls?
Can be triggered automatically or by petition and allow voters to choose whether or not to decrease a jurisdiction’s property tax rate.
What are Rollback Elections?
Founded in Corpus Christi, it is the largest and oldest civil rights organization for Latinos.
What is LULAC?
Was created in the early 1970s to combat growing inequality and dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party that was typically supported by Mexican-American voters.
What is La Raza Unida?
At its most basic level, being a member of the party-in-the-electorate simply means a voter is more likely to voice support for a party.
What are party identifiers?
Bill Clinton's nickname in 1992, after he placed second in the New Hampshire primary despite accusations of adultery with Gennifer Flowers.
What is "Comeback Kid?"
Poll tax amount in 1963.
What is $1.50?
Are formed by designating an official treasurer, who must then file contribution and expenditure reports twice a year, with additional reports due prior to any election in which it is involved.
What is a Political Action Committee?
A movement led by the Texas governor Allan Shivers during the 1950s in which conservative Democrats in Texas supported Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency because many of those conservative Democrats believed that the national Democratic party had become too liberal
What is the Shivercrat Movement?
Written in the late eighteenth century, James Madison noted that the formation of self-interested groups was inevitable in any society.
What are factions?