Poli Sci Ch. 5-7
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- selective perception
- the tendency to screen out information that contradicts one's beliefs
- multiple-issue groups
- involved with a board range of issues
- direct primary
- an election in which voters directly choose a party's candidates for office
- coalitions
- a network of interest groups with similar concerns that combine forces to pursue a common goal; may be shortlived or permanent
- setting the agenda
- influencing the process by which problems concidered important and alturnative policies proposed
- public interest groups
- interest groups that chiefly pursue benefits that cannot be limited or restricted to their members
- interest groups
- organizations that try to achieve at least some of their goals with government assistance
- lobbying
- the efforts of interent froups to influence government
- dealignment
- independence of parties
- single-issue groups
- interest groups that pursue a single public interest goal and are characteristically reluctant to compromise
- winner-take-all
- one person is elected from a district or state, the person who recieves the most votes
- political action committee
- a committee established by corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises money and contributes it to a political campaign
- closed primary
- a primary election where participation is limited to those who are registered with a party or declare a prefrence for a party
- political machine
- the machine relied on the votes of the lower classes and, in exchange, provided jobs, and other services
- patronage
- a system in which elected officials appoint their supporters to administrative jobs; used by political machines to maintain themselves power
- divided government
- the situation when one political party controls the presidency and the other party controls one or both houses of congress
- commercial bias
- a slant in news coverage to please or avoid offending advertisers
- symbiotic relationship
- a relationship in which the parties use each other for mutual advantage
- sound bite
- a few key words or phrase included in a speech with the intent that television editors will use the phrase in a brief clip on the news
- private interest groups
- seek economic benefits for their members or clients
- game oriantation
- the assumption in political reporting that politics is a game and that politicians are the players; leads to an emphasis on strategy at the expense of substance in news stories
- realignment
- the transition from one stable party system to another, as occurred when the New Deal coalition was formed
- two-party system
- only two parties compete effectively for presidency
- political party
- to nominate and elect canididates to office
- suffrage
- the right to vote
- open primary
- a primary election that is not limited to members of a particular party; a voter may vote in either party's primary
- New Deal coalition
- the broadly based coalition of southern consercatives, northern liberals, and ethnic and religious minorites that sustained the Democratic Party for some 40 years
- adversarial relationship
- a relationship in which the parties are constantly in conflict with each other
- media events
- an event, usually consisting of a speech and a photo opportunity, that is staged for television and is intended to convey a particular impression of a politician's position on a issue
- scoops
- to obtain information before another reporter; also the information so obtained
- media malaise
- a feeling of cyniciam and distrust toward government and officials that is fostered by media coverage of politics
- ticket splitting
- voting for a member of one party for a high-level office and a member of another party for a different high-level office
- fireside charts
- short radio addresses given by president Franklin D. Roosevelt to win support for his policies and reassure the public during the Great Depression
- presidentail press conference
- a meeting at which the president answers questions from reporters
- horserace journalism
- knew where candidites ran in race but not where they stood on issures
- political bias
- a preference for candidates of particular parties or for certain stands on issues that affects a journalist's reporting
- leaks
- disclosures of information that some government officials want kept secert
- infotainment
- television news stories that, without any sacrifice of probity or responsibility, display the attributes of fiction, of drama