PSCI 100 Final

Single Member Districts + Plurality Elections Rules = Two Party System 

•      Single Member Districts 
•           "Winner Takes All" winner is sole/only      
•            representative: gets to represent destrict all by
•            his/herself 

           Another approach- proportional representation: multiple representatives, sharing some protion of representation (depending on vote %) 

•      What is needed to win Plurality Vote:
•           More votes than anyone else 
•               Not necessarily a majority 
•      
•      In all sinarios- majority, plurality--and no matter margin of victory: 
•            Value of finishing anything other than 1st = 0
•            Incentive to vote for party that cannot finish 1st= 0 

A ballot prepared and distributed by government officials that places the names of all candidates on a single list and is filled out by voters in private. First addopted in US in 1888, the Austrailian ballot replaced oral voting and party supplied ballots 

an election system in which legislative seats are awarded to candidates or parties in proportion to the percentage of votes recieved 

State or local party organizations based on percentage. They work to elect candidates to public offices that control government jobs and contracts, which, in turn, are used by party leaders to reward the subleaders and activists who mobilize voters for the party on Election Day 

The practice of awarding jobs, grants, licenses, or other special favors in exchange for political support 

Interest group activity that includes normal lobbying on Captiol Hill, working closesly with members of Congress, and contributing money to incumbents' campaings 

Interset group activities designed to influence elected officials by threatening to impose political costs on them if they do not respond. Tactics include matches, demonstrations, campaign contributions to opponents, and electoral mobilization 

A group that promotes some conseptuion of the public interest rather than a narrowly defined economic or special interst of its members 

Private goods or benefits that include rational actors to participate in a collectiv effort to provide a collective good 

The cost of transmitting a news product to a customer 

Style of journalism born of interse conpetition and characterized by screaming headlines and sensational stories. Coined at the end of the nineteenth century, the term reffered to the yellow ink in which the New York World's comic strips were printed 

Journalistic investigation and exposure of scandles, corruption, and injustice, pioneered during the nineteenth century Progresive Era 

Laws that protect journalists from having to testify about thier sources in court 

In a democracy, the sum of all individual opinions 

A mental device allowing citizens to make complex decisions based on a small amount of information. For example, a candidates party label serves as a shortcut by telling voters much about his or her possitions on issues 

An individual's enduring affection or instrumental attachent to one of the political parties, the most accurate single predictor of voting behavior 

A comprehensive, integrated set of views about governemnt and politics 

A citizen who is highly attentitive to and involved in politics or some related area and to whome other citizens turn for political information and cues 

Money used by political parties for voter registration, public education, and voter mobilization. Until 2002, when Congress passed legislation outlawing soft money, the government had imposed no limits on contributions or expendatures for such purposes 

Money set aside by Congress in the federal budget to pay for projects in the home districts of a member of Congress

A procedure, avaliable in 1997 for the first time, permiting the president to cancel amounts of new descretionarry appropriations (budget authority), as well as new items of direct spending (entitlements) and certain limited tax benefits, unless Congress disapproves by law within a specified period of time. It was declaired unconstitutional in 1998.