| A | B |
|---|
| McGovern-Frasier Commission | It made future conventions more democratic by including more minority representation. |
| National committee | the governing body of a political party made up of state and national party leaders. |
| National nominating conventions | the governing authority of the political party. They are also the forums where presidential candidates are given the official nod by their parties. |
| New Democrat | a term created by the Democratic Leadership Council in 1992, it denotes a more conservative, centrist Democrat |
| Party dealignment | a shift away from the major political parties to a more neutral, independent ideological view of party identification. |
| Party eras | a time period characterized by national dominance by one political party. |
| Party machine | the party organization that exists on the local level and uses patronage as the means to keep the party members in line. Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall are examples. |
| Party platforms | voted on by the delegates attending the National Convention, they represent the ideological point of view of a political party. |
| Party realignment | the signaling resulting from a national election or a major shift in the political spectrum and characterized by the start of a party era |
| Political participation | the different ways an average citizen gets involved in the political process ranging from conventional means of influencing government to more radical unconventional tools that have influenced our elected of ficials |
| Political party | a group of people joined together by common philosophies and common approaches with the aim of getting candidates elected in order to develop and implement public policy. |
| Reagan Democrats | traditional Democratic middle-class voters turning to Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. |
| Religious right | an evangelical conglomeration of ultraconservative political activists, many of whom support the Republican Party. |
| Superdelegates | Democratic party leaders and elected party officials who automatically are selected as delegates to the National Convention. |
| Third political parties | political parties that can be described as ideological, single-issue oriented, economically motivated, and personality driven. |
