Voting Behavior
In this form of voting, citizens typically emphasize the economic performance of the incumbent party/administration
What is retrospective voting?
Originally designed to limit democratic influence on the selection of the president, this required 270 votes to win the presidency.
What is the electoral college?
This method of selecting a presidential candidates involves public discussion among party members.
What are caucuses?
This organization can contribute directly to candidates, but there are limits to individual contributions.
They recieve the benefit of a collective good but don't contribute to its creation
Who are free riders?
This has declined as the share of the electorate identifying as independent has increased
What is party identification?
In this form of voting, citizens choose candidates on the basis of their positions they promise to advance in the future.
What is prospective voting?
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, this body decides the presidency.
What is the House of Representatives?
Some states have pledge laws which punish these officials who vote against the presidential candidate who won the most votes in their state?
What are faithless electors?
This organization cannot contribute directly to candidates but there are no donor contribution limits.
What are Super PAC's?
This category of interest group attempts to benefit everyone in a community
What are public interest groups?
What is split-ticket voting?
What is rational choice voting?
These states are very close in polling between Presidential candidates and attract a large share of candidate attention.
What are battleground states?
A Presidential candidate must be at least this age.
What is 35?
In this case, the majority of the court ruled that corporations deserve protections of political speech in the same way as individuals.
What is Citizens United v. FEC?
These are efforts by interest groups to acquire resources and overcome the collective action problem
What are selective benefits?
A strong "party in government" enacts this into policy changes once in office
What is a party platform?
This variable is the strongest influence over the likelihood to vote
What is socio-economic status? (Also accept education)
This party tends to have longer nominating contests because most states award delegates via proportional representation.
What is the Democratic Party?
This legislation attempted to limit PAC's from advertising in weeks prior to primaries/caucuses and general elections.
What is the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold)?
What is the revolving door?
During one of these, party coalitions change dramatically and are often followed by a new party era
What is a critical election?
Because of the relative difficulty of this, US voter turnout rates are relatively lower than most democracies.
What is voter registration?
This approach to selecting a party nominee can encourage more extreme candidates being selected.
What is a closed primary?
This form of awarding electoral votes in 48/50 states discourages third parties from forming.
What is winner-take-all?
This first modern legislation regulating elections established requirements that campaigns disclose donors and establish limits on campaign contributions.
What is the Federal Election Campaign Act, 1971?
Madison's argument in Federalist 10 about how to best deal with factions assumes this theory of democracy to be most accurate
What is the pluralist theory?
States compete with one another for an early placement in the nomination process
What is front-loading?