| A | B |
|---|
| Open Primary | All registered voters may participate in the primary, whether they are registered as Democrats, Republicans or independents. |
| Blanket Primary | A primary election in which the names of all the candidates for all the parties are on one ballot. |
| Split Ticket | a ballot cast by a voter who votes for candidates from more than one party. |
| Civil Law | the body of laws of a state or nation regulation regu;ating ordinary private matters as distonct from laws regulating criminal, political, or military matters. |
| Constitutional Law | A body of statutory and case law that is based on, concerns or interprets a constitution |
| Criminal Law | The laws of a state or country dealing with criminal offense and their punishements. |
| Administrative Law | The body of rules and principles that governs the duties and operations of federal or state administrative agencies as commissions and boards. |
| Adversary System | Two sided structure under which criminal courts operate that pits the prosecution against the defense. |
| party convention | occasional meeting of a political party. This is where they decide policies and who to nominate as a candidate. |
| Caucus | a meeting of members in a political party or supporters of a movement in the U.S. This is where they select delegates to a convention or speak about preferences which regard running candidates for office. |
| Third party/minor party | a political party aside from the two major parties (Democratic and Republican). It may be used to cast a protest vote as a form of referendum on an important issue. |
| Keynesian economics | economic theory following the principles of John Mayard Keynes, characterized by a belief in active government intervention in economic matters. Keynes argued that the solution to economic depression was to stimulate the economy through government expenditures as well as reduced interest rates. |
| Party system | a concept in comparative political science concerning the system of government by political parties in a deomocratic country. The idea is that political parties have basic similarities: they control the government, have a stable base of mass popular support, and create internal mechanisms for controlling funding, information, and nominations. |
| Non-partisan election | each candidate for office is eligible based on her or his own merits rather than as a member of a political party. No political affiliation is shown on the ballot next to a candidate. Gerally, the winner is chosen from a runoff election where the candidates are the top two vote-getters from a primary electin. In some elections, the candidates might be members of a national party, but do not run as party members for local office. |
| Iron triangle | a term used by political scientists to describe the policy-making relationship among the congressional committees, the bureaucracy, and interest groups |
| Jim Crow Laws | Laws that legalized segregation of and discrimination against African Americans after the United States Civil War. The expression "Jim Crow" refers to an early minstrel song |
| De Jure Segregation | The spatial and social seperaion of populations that occurs as a consequence of legal measures, segregation |
| De Facto Segregation | The spatial and social seperation of populations that occurs without legal sanction |
| Poll Tax | Money that must be paid in order to vote. There used to be poll taxes in some places in the USA; this tax kept many poor people especially black people from voting since they could not afford to pay the tax. The 24th ammendment to the constitution (ratified in 1964) made poll taxes illegal |
| Civil Rights Act of 1964 | The nations first comprehensive law making it illegal to discriminate on the basis of race,color,religion,sex, and national origin |
| News Media | Mass media that focuses on presenting current news to the public. |
| Issue Ads | Promote policy issues and opinion. Set mobilize constituents, policy makers or regulates in support or opposition to current or proposed policies. |
| Liberal Media Bias | When liberal ideas have undue influence on the coverage or selection of news stories |
| Conservative Media Bias | When conservative ideas have undue influence on the coverage or selection of news stories. |
| Fairness Doctrine | A policy of the U.S Federal Communications Conservative (FCC) that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance in a honest, equitable, and balanced view. |
| P.A.C | an acronym for political action commitee, it's a commitee set up by a corporation, labor union, or interest group that raises money for campaigns from voluntary donations. |
| Issue Advocacy | advocacy over a certain issue. lobbyists are mainly used to push for the advocacy of a certain interest group, for example, people against gay marriage. |
| cross over voting | when someone from one politcal party votes for the opposite party. |
| Lobbying | form of advocacy with the intention of influencing decisions made by legislators and officials in the government by individuals, other legislators, constituents, or advocacy groups.We have learned that politicians tend to follow an ideology of “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine” and help each other out in order to gain higher office or in this case passing certain decisions that will make an individual stand out. |
| Revolving door | name for the movement of personnel between roles as legislators and regulators and the industries affected by the legislation and regulation and on within lobbying companies. |
| Iron Triangle | term used by political scientists to describe the policy-making relationship among the congressional committees, the bureaucracy (executive) (sometimes called "government agencies"), and interest groups. |
| Litigation | A lawsuit, a civil action brought before a court of law |
