Political Power Plays
This type of organization can raise unlimited sums of money from corporations and unions but cannot contribute directly to a candidate
What is a Super PAC?
A displacement of the majority party by the minority party, usually during a critical election period.
What is realignment?
A system for selecting convention delegates in which voters must declare their party affiliation in advance.
What is a closed primary?
This theory argues that upper-class elite will hold most of the power and thus in effect run the government.
What is elitist theory?
This amendment lowered the voting age to 18 years old.
What is the 26th Amendment?
The mutually advantageous relationship between a federal agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group
What is an iron triangle?
An electoral "earthquake" where new issues emerge and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party.
What is a critical election?
A system for selecting convention delegates in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contests.
What is an open primary?
The set of issues to which government officials and people outside the government are paying serious attention.
What is the policy agenda?
This amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes in federal elections.
What is the Twenty-Fourth Amendment?
Legal briefs submitted by a "friend of the court" for the purpose of influencing a court's decision.
What is an amicus curiae brief?
A situation in which one party controls the White House and another party controls one or both houses of Congress.
What is an era of divided government?
A system of local gatherings where voters decide which candidate to support and select delegates for nominating conventions.
What is a caucus?
For a group, the problem of people not joining because they can benefit from the group's activities without joining.
What is the free-rider problem?
An electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded to political parties in proportion to the number of votes won in an election.
What is a proportional representation system?
The practice of public officials leaving government service to work as lobbyists for the very interests they once regulated.
What is the revolving door?
A group of individuals with a common interest on which every political party depends.
What is a party coalition?
he recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar year to capitalize on media attention.
What is front-loading?
Goods that a group can restrict to those who actually join or pay dues.
What are selective benefits?
An electoral system in which the candidate who receives the most votes wins that office.
What is a winner-take-all system?
These are webs of influence between interest groups, policymakers, and policy advocates that are more temporary than iron triangles.
What is an issue network?
Historical periods in which a majority of voters cling to the party in power.
What is a party era?
National party leaders who automatically get a delegate slot at the national party convention.
What are superdelegates?
The web of voluntary associations—outside of the state and market—that help people find and use their political voice.
What is civil society?
This theory emphasizes broad participation in politics and civil society.
What is the theory of participatory democracy?