Flashcards Table on Political Parties, Campaigns, And Elections

The key term in the definition of a political party is:

label, to give a candidate party identification

What is true about political parties in the United States?

Parties today are relatively weak, but they are not weak in all areas of the country

Party identification among voters is on way of gauging the strength of a party. Another cited by the text is the:

strength of the organization that recruits and campaigns for candidates

The federal system goes a long way toward explaining why U.S. parties are __________ than their European counterparts

more decentralized

One reason why political parties in the United States today are weaker than in Europe is that, in the United States,

party leaders do not typically select people to run for office

In most states, candidates for office are chosen by:

primary elections

In Europe, almost the only way a person can become a candidate is by

being nominated by party leaders

What role do political parties play in the lives of most Americans?

most Americans separate political parties from other aspects of their lives

George Washington's view of parties may have been influenced by

the constant quarreling between Hamilton and Jefferson in his cabinet

Why should George Washington, among other Founders of our nation, have been so opposed to political parties?

because disputes over policies and elections where not easily separated from disputes over government legitimacy

The founders saw political parties as

factions motivated by ambition and self-interest

The first organized political party in American history was

made up of the followers of Jefferson

Some were so distraught by the election of Thomas Jefferson that they

organized to have New England secede from the Union

During the founding period of U.S. history, political parties could best be described as

small coalitions based more on geography and class than on common economic interests

According to the text, when did political parties in the United States develop a comprehensive organizational form and appeal?

From the time of President Jackson to the Civil War

The first Republican party, with its base of support in the South, was organized in the 1790s by

Thomas Jefferson

The Federalist party could not compete effectively in national elections because

it had such a limited sectional and class base

National party conventions were developed as a reform of

party caucuses

In the Jacksonian era, for the first time a party system was built

from the bottom up

Prior to 1824, presidential candidates were nominated by

caucuses comprising of members of Congress

Party conventions emerged during the Jacksonian era as a means of

giving some measure of local control to the presidential nominating process

The first Convention in American history was that of the _________ party

Anti-Masonic

What is correct about the modern Republican party?

It emerged as a major party only after the Civil War

One effect of the geographic split in parties that occurred as a consequence of the Civil War was the

emergence of strong party factions such as the mugwumps

The ____________, a faction of the Republican party, were opposed to the patronage system and feared the influx of immigrants who could be incorporated into the political machine

progressives

The progressives favored all of the following except

better relations with business

The progressive movement reduced the level of political corruption but ultimately failed to

solve the problem of how to select candidates

Procedures such as the initiative and the referendum arose as efforts to give

citizens a direct say in making laws

Scholars have identified ______ critical or realigning periods in American politics

5

The three clearest cases of critical or realigning elections seem to be

C: 1865, 1896, and 1932

Which of the following were major issues in the three clearest cases of critical or realigning periods?

slavery and economics

The national convention meets every ____ year to nominate a presidential candidate

four

Between the national conventions party affairs are managed by a ______ made up of delegates from each state and territory.

national committee

In Congress each party has a ___________ that helps members of Congress who are running for re-election or would-be members seeking election

congressional campaign committee

This person manages the day-to-day work of the party

national chairman

Beginning in the 1960s, the _____ became more bureaucratized, while the ________ became more factionalized.

Republican party, Democratic party

Who selects the time and place of the national convention and issues a call for the convention?

A party's national committee

The number of convention delegates from each state, along with the rules under which they are chosen, is determined by

the party's national committee

Which of the following statements about the formula by which delegates to the nominating conventions are appointed is correct?

The Democrats and Republicans use different formulas

The formula for the selection of delegates to the Republican national convention generally stresses the importance of

loyalty

Throughout the 1970s, the general thrust of the Democratic rules commissions considering delegate selection was to

weaken the influence of party leaders and enlarge the role of the rank and file

The Republicans changed the goal of their national party to the election of candidates while the Democrats sought to make their party

achieve a fairer distribution of power

Democratic rule changes were drafted in 1972 by a commission headed by

George McGovern

The Hunt commission's changes in the Democratic party rules were designed to

increase the influence of party leaders

The term "superdelegate" refers to

elected officials and party leaders who are not required to pledge themselves in advance to a presidential candidate

All of the following statements concerning the delegates to the 2004 conventions are correct except:

More of the Democrats were male

Over 40 percent of the delegates to the conventions of both parties

were born again Christians

The winner-reward systems of delegate distribution were banned in the campaign of

1992

The 1992 Democratic National Committee penalized states that violated the rules with what percentage loss of their national delegates?

25 percent

The three areas of rule-changes approved by the 1992 Democratic National Committee were

rules violation penalty, winner-reward systems, proportional representation

according to the text, the role of national conventions has been transformed by party rules into a

place where delegates ratify decisions made by voters

Within both major parties, it is the _______ level that has most obviously declined

grassroots

Party machines

are characterized by a high degree of leadership control over member activity

The classical machine-type party was developed and perfected

in the nineteenth century before the large-scale Irish and Italian immigrations

Old-style political machines counted heavily on the support of

civil servants

Unlike political machines, ideological parties tend to be

factionalized

The ideological groups, or reform clubs, of the 1950s and 1960s gave rise to ideological parties composed of

single-issue activists

According to Barbara Mikulski, the training grounds for national political activists today are

social movements

People can join a party for reasons other than patronage. The text cites all of the following other reasons except

to join a delegating committee (caucus groups)

Party organizations based on their members' enjoyment of the sociability of politics are referred to as

solidary parties

The political involvement of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in Detroit provides an example of a(n)