Gov Chapter 9

d. George Washington

a. Whig Party

Early parties were electoral coalitions of elites, mostly in the U.S. Congress. They were mostly designed to help win House elections and the presidency, but they quickly expanded activities to the state level.

a. proportional representation

d. third parties

Third parties bring important issues to the attention of the major parties. They also often serve as spoilers in the elections they enter.

d. national

The democratic party worked hard to build grassroots organizations and maximize the turnout of voters. They also use patronage to grow in popularity.

Election laws make it harder to get on the ballot and the Electoral College makes it harder for third parties to earn votes.

The party organization are active members in supporting party behavior and candidates, party identifiers are mostly citizens and voters who identify with the party.

Positive: Provides voters with distinct choices Negative: Moderates aren't voting or participating in government and it amplifies inter-party conflict.

Parties can't influence and enact policy without winning. They must organize at each level at which elections take place in order to contest elections and develop candidates.

The sorting thesis says that voters change party allegiances in response to shifts in party position. It suggests that polarization is a function of voters' paying more attention to national politics and voting more consistently

They have pulled their respective parties further to the ideological poles and have changed the issues parties consider. They may also have made compromise more difficult.

a process of cooperation through compromise

an election that represents a sudden, clear, and long-term shift in voter allegiances

a condition in which one or more houses of the legislature is controlled by the party in opposition to the executive

a system in which the winner of an election is the candidate who wins the greatest number of votes cast, also known as plurality voting

the manipulation of legislative districts in an attempt to favor a particular candidate

a type of election in which the winning candidate must receive at least 50 percent of the votes, even if a run-off election is required

the legislative party with over half the seats in a legislative body, and thus significant power to control the agenda

the legislative party with less than half the seats in a legislative body

an individual who falls in the middle of the ideological spectrum

individuals who represent themselves in public as being part of a party

the formal structure of the political party and the active members responsible for coordinating party behavior and supporting party candidates

the collection of a party's positions on issues it considers politically important

the shift of party positions from moderate towards ideological extremes

a shifting of party alliances within the electorate

party identifiers who have been elected to office and are responsible for fulfilling the party's promises

members of the voting public who consider themselves part of a political party or who consistently prefer the candidates of one party over the other

a political style that focuses on building direct relationships with voters rather than on promoting specific issues

the election rule by which the candidate with the most votes wins, regardless of vote share

an organization that secures votes for a party's candidates or supports the party in other ways, usually in exchange for political favors such as a job in government

organizations made up of groups of people with similar interests that try to directly influence public policy through their members who seek and hold public office

the lowest level of party organization, usually organized around neighborhoods

a party-based election rule in which the number of seats a party receives is a function of the share of votes it receives in an election

the reallocation of House seats between the states to account for population changes

the redrawing of electoral maps

a district drawn so members of a party can be assured of winning by a comfortable margin

the process in which voters change party allegiances in response to shifts in party position

political parties formed as an alternative to the Republican and Democratic parties, also known as minor parties

a system in which two major parties win all or almost all elections