Terms : Hide Images
| 5323557806 | Party Competition | The battle of the parties for the control of public offices. | 0 | |
| 5323557807 | Political Party | A team of men and women seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election. | 1 | |
| 5323557808 | Linkage Institutions | The channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the governments policy agenda. | 2 | |
| 5323557809 | Rational-Choice Theory | A popular theory in political science to explain the actions of voters as well as politicians. | 3 | |
| 5323557810 | Party Image | The voter's perception of what the Republicans or Democrats stands for. | 4 | |
| 5323557811 | Party Identification | A citizen's self-proclaimed preference for one party or the other. | 5 | |
| 5323557812 | Ticket Splitting | Voting with one party for one office and with another party for other offices. | 6 | |
| 5323557813 | Party Machines | A type of political party organization that relies heavily on material inducements, such as patronage, to win votes and to govern. | 7 | |
| 5323557814 | Patronage | One of the key inducements used by party machines: a patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone. | 8 | |
| 5323557815 | Closed Primaries | Elections to select party nominees in which only people who have registered in advance with the party can vote for that party's candidates, thus encouraging greater party loyalty. | 9 | |
| 5323557816 | Open Primaries | Elections to select party nominees in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democratic or Republican contests. | 10 | |
| 5323557817 | National Convention | The meeting of party delegates every four years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform. | 11 | |
| 5323557818 | National Committee | One of the institutions that keeps the party operating between the conventions. Composed of representatives from the states and territories. | 12 | |
| 5323602783 | National Chairperson | Responsible for the day-to-day activities of the party and is usually handpicked by the presidential nominee. | 13 | |
| 5323616046 | Coalition | A group of individuals with a common interest on which every political party depends. | 14 | |
| 5323627448 | Party Eras | Historical periods in which a majority of voters cling to the party in power, which tends to win a majority of the elections. | 15 | |
| 5323630848 | Critical Election | An electoral earthquake where new issues emerge, new coalitions replace old ones, and the majority party is often displaced by the minority party, Sometimes marked by a national crisis and may require more than one election to bring about a new party era. | 16 | |
| 5323640492 | Party Realignment | The displacement of the majority party by the minority party, usually during a critical election period. | 17 | |
| 5323643481 | New Deal Coalition | A coalition forged by the Democrats, who dominated American politics from the 1930's to the 1960's. Basic elements were the urban working class, ethnic groups, Catholics and Jews, the poor, Southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals. | 18 | |
| 5323652066 | Party Dealignment | The gradual disengagement of people from the parties, as seen in part by shrinking party identification. | 19 | |
| 5323656740 | Third Parties | Electoral contenders other than the two major parties. Not unusual, but they rarely win elections. | 20 | |
| 5323661719 | Winner-take-all System | An electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded only to the candidates who come in first in their constituencies. | 21 | |
| 5323667461 | Proportional Representation | An electoral system used throughout, most of Europe that awards legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the number of votes won in an election. | 22 | |
| 5323678179 | Coalition Government | When two or more parties join together to form a majority in a national legislature. Quite common in the multiparty systems of Europe. | 23 | |
| 5323682446 | Responsible Party Model | A view about how parties should work, held by some political scientists. According to the model, parties should offer clear choices to the voters, who can then use those choices as cues to their own preferences of candidates. Once in office, parties would carry out their campaign promises. | 24 | |
| 5323693209 | Blue Dog Democrats | Fiscally conservative democrats who are mostly from the South and/or rural parts of the United States. | 25 |
