Chapter 8: Political Parties

• Political Party - A group of people who share a common set of political views and work together to influence the government.
• Party polarization - the extreme differences political parties have in policy and views
• Primary election - an election held by a political party to select its candidate(s) for office
• Party Era - a period where one party dominates the office and wins most of the elections. Most people choose this majority party as it is the one in power
• Critical Election - a political “earthquake” which causes a breakage in coalitions and rise of new political issues. Normally, the minority party replaces the majority party.
• Coalition - a group of individuals with shared interests
• Party realignment - the process by which the composition of the political parties changes over time (minority to majority party)- typically over a critical election.
• Democratic Party - A political party that advocates for the rights of the people, equality of access and the government should be elected by the people.
• Republican Party - A political party that advocates for limited government and individual liberty.
• Third Party - a political party that is not part of the two major political parties (democratic and republican)
• Ideology Party - a party based on a set of beliefs
• Splinter Party - Parties that have split from major parties (ex: Tea Party)
• Party image - a voter's perception of what democratic or republican stands for (how they think about the party; association)
• Party Identification - when a voter identifies themself with a party and prefers that party.
• Rational-Choice Theory - political theory that states voters will vote for a candidate based on their (voters') self-interest and weigh the costs and benefits of possible alternative candidates.
• The Downs Model - (1) Voters want to maximize the policies they support to be adopted by government (2) parties want to win office. Parties should cater to voters and promise policies which majority of voters support to win office.
• 4 main ways of linkage institutions: 1) interest groups 2) political parties 3) media 4) elections
• National (party) convention - the meeting which meets every 4 years to discuss the party’s platform and nominationa for the presidency
• National committee - the institution which keeps the party convention running. It is composed of state representatives and delegates
• National chairperson - the big boss running the political party. They are responsible for managing the on-going activities of the party organization. they also manage funding.
• Party caucus - members of congress who belong to one party meet together to decide how to vote on issues or legislation.
• Congressional campaign committees - these are organized by both Democrats and Republicans, and raise money from individuals and corporations to fund campaigns. The funds raised can only be used for federal races.
• open primaries - candidates can be chosen by ANYONE regardless of party affiliation
• Closed primaries - only registered party members can vote in the primary.