Party Basics
An organized group of people with similar political aims and opinions, that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office.
What is a political party?
The term for periods in which the names of the major political parties, their supporters, and the issues dividing them have remained relatively stable.
When general elections are held.
What is the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November (every 2 years).
The bodies responsible for establishing rules on voter registration, ballot access, and vote counting.
The body of representatives from each state who formally cast votes to elect the president and vice president.
What is the Electoral College?
A formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate for the purpose of garnering the general public's support and votes about complicated topics or issues.
What is a party platform?
A practice where the winning political party gives government jobs to its supporters, friends, and relatives as a reward for working toward victory.
What was the "spoils system"?
A preliminary election in which only registered members of a particular party can vote.
What is a closed primary election?
A major party meeting where delegates formally select the party's nominee for president and vice president.
What is the purpose of a nominating convention?
A ballot on which a voter selects candidates from more than one political party.
What is a split ticket?
What is Party Coalition?
The conflict over slavery and the Civil War led to the rise of this party.
What is the Republican Party?
A term for the question of why citizens vote even though their individual votes stand little chance of changing the election outcome.
What is the paradox of voting?
Organization of Democrats in House/Senate that meets to discuss and strategize party's position and leadership.
Congressional Caucus
A piece of information that helps voters decide how to vote, such as a candidate's party affiliation or endorsement by a trusted group.
What is a voting cue?
A principle that asserts that plurality-rule elections (such as "winner-take-all") structured within single-member districts tend to favor a two-party system.
What is Duverger's Law?
A change in the size or composition of a party coalition or in the nature of issues that divide parties.
What is realignment?
Explain one criticism of the Electoral College system.
a candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election, it gives disproportionate power to less populous states, etc.
Describe two ways parties simplify voting for the electorate.
Voting cues, party platforms, candidate endorsements
What are some common barriers to voting?
Voter registration requirements, voter ID laws, limited polling places, weekday voting, etc.
It refers to the ordinary citizens who identify with a particular political party.
What is party in the electorate?
Give an example of a significant party realignment in US history.
1930s, where many working-class and minority voters shifted their support to the Democratic Party.
The difference between a caucus and a primary.
A caucus is a local gathering where party members discuss and vote for candidates, while a primary is a direct voting process where party members cast ballots.
Give a strategy for how leaders enforce party discipline in Congress.
What is committee assignments, campaign support, access to resources, policy concessions...?
An alternative to plurality voting (most votes wins)
What is ranked choice voting, majority voting, proportional representation, cumulative voting...?