Terms : Hide Images
| 261284535 | Political Party | a voluntary association of people who seek to control the government through common principles based upon peaceful and legal actions, such as the winning of elections. | |
| 261284536 | patronage | Granting favors or giving contracts or making appointments to office in return for political support. | |
| 261284537 | Realigning Election | An election in which the popular support for and relative strength of the parties shift as the parties are reestablished with different coalitions of supporters. | |
| 261284538 | Split ticket | Voting for candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election. | |
| 261284539 | Straight ticket | Voting for candidates who are all of the same party. | |
| 261284540 | National convention | A meeting of party delegates held every four years. | |
| 261284541 | National committee | Delegates who run party affairs between national conventions. | |
| 261284542 | Congressional campaign committee | A party committee in Congress that provides funds to members and would-be members. | |
| 261284543 | National Chairman | A paid, full-time manager of a party's day-to-day work who is elected by the national committee. | |
| 261284544 | Soft money | Funds spent by parties that are not contributed directly to candidate campaigns, and which do not "expressly advocate" the election or defeat of a candidate. | |
| 261284545 | Super delegates | Party leaders and elected officials who become delegates to the national converntion whitout having to run in primaries or caucuses. | |
| 261284546 | Political machine | A party organization that recruits members by dispensing patronage. | |
| 261284547 | Ideological party | A party that values principled stands on issues above all else. | |
| 261284548 | Two party system | An electoral system with two dominant parties that compete in national elections. | |
| 261284549 | Plurality system | An electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not recieve a majority; used in almost all American elections. | |
| 261284550 | Caucus | A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform. | |
| 261284551 | Single-member districts | electoral district from which one person is chosen by the voters for each elected office | |
| 261284552 | New Deal coalition | coalition forged by the Democrats who dominated American politics from the 1930's to the 1960's. its basic elements were the urban working class, ethnic groups, Catholics and Jews, the poor, Southerners, African Americans, and intellectuals. | |
| 261284553 | Divided government | Governance divided between the parties, as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress. | |
| 261284554 | Gridlock | the inability of the government to act because rival parties control different parts of the government | |
| 261284555 | Dealignment | Weakening of partisan preferences that points to a rejection of both major parties and a rise in the number of Independents. | |
| 261284556 | Electorate | all persons having the right to vote |
