Key Concepts in U.S. Government and Politics Part 4
This deck covers 23 essential concepts in U.S. government and politics, including advantages of incumbency, interest groups, political action committees, and more.
advantages of incumbency in Congress
name recognition, credit claiming (office holder brought gov. projects and money into state/district), casework for constituents (office holders may have helped), constituents solve money problems in gov. and bureaucracy, more visible to constituents, media exposure, experience in campaigning, and voting record
Key Terms
advantages of incumbency in Congress
name recognition, credit claiming (office holder brought gov. projects and money into state/district), casework for constituents (office holders ma...
interest groups
group of private citizens whose goal is to influence and shape public policy
Political Action Committees (PAC)
extensions of an interest group that contributes $$ to political campaigns
super PAC
form of a PAC that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of $$ from corporations, unions, individuals, and associations; easy to create, ...
grassroots
average voter at the local level
mass media
all forms of communication that reach a large portion of the population
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| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
advantages of incumbency in Congress | name recognition, credit claiming (office holder brought gov. projects and money into state/district), casework for constituents (office holders may have helped), constituents solve money problems in gov. and bureaucracy, more visible to constituents, media exposure, experience in campaigning, and voting record |
interest groups | group of private citizens whose goal is to influence and shape public policy |
Political Action Committees (PAC) | extensions of an interest group that contributes $$ to political campaigns |
super PAC | form of a PAC that is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of $$ from corporations, unions, individuals, and associations; easy to create, independent expenditure-only committee |
grassroots | average voter at the local level |
mass media | all forms of communication that reach a large portion of the population |
party dealignment | gradual disengagement of people and politicians from the parties, seen by shrinking party identification |
party realignment | displacement of majority party by minority party, usually during critical election period |
Winner Take All | electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded only to the candidates who came in first in their constituencies (in US, winner of popular votes of a state receives all electoral votes) |
National Party Chairperson | appointed by committee as head of party |
soft money | distributed from national political party organization that was not regulated b y law; restricted by Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 |
straight ticket voter | voter voting for all candidates, all of the same party |
linkage institutions | channels or access points through which issues and people's policy preferences get on the government's policy agenda (political parties, interest groups, and mass media) |
New Deal Coalition | alliance of Southern conservatives, religious, and ethnic minorities who supported the Democratic Party for 40 years |
National Party Convention | meeting of party delegates every 4 years to choose a presidential ticket and write the party's platform |
Proportional Representation | electoral system used throughout most of Europe that awards legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the # of votes won in an election |
closed primary | only registered party members can vote |
electioneering | direct group involvement in electoral process; groups can help fund campaigns, provide testimony, and get members to work for candidates; some form PACs |
amicus curiae briefs | friend of the court, interested groups may be invited to file legal briefs supporting or rejecting arguments of a case |
What is a class action lawsuit? | A lawsuit permitting a small number of people to sue on behalf of all other people with the same claim. |
free-rider problem | problem faced by unions and other groups when people do not join because they can benefit from group's activities without officially joining; the bigger the group --> more free-rider problem |
union shop | provision found in some collective bargaining agreements requiring all employees of a business to join the union within a short period (30 days) and to remain members as a condition of employment |
Right-to-Work Law | state law forbidding requirements that workers must join a union to hold their jobs, permitted by Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 |