| air wars | A term that refers to the fact that modern campaigns are often a battle of opposing televised advertising campaigns.
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| candidate-centered politics | Election campaigns and other political processes in which candidates, not political parties, have most of the initiative and influence. (See also party-centered politics.)
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| factional (minor) party | A minor party created when a faction within one of the major parties breaks away to form its own party.
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| grassroots party | A political party organized at the level of the voters and dependent on their support for its strength.
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| hard money | Campaign funds given directly to candidates to spend as they choose.
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| hired guns | The professional consultants who run campaigns for high office.
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| ideological (minor) party | A minor party characterized by its ideological commitment to a broad and noncentrist philosophical position.
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| money chase | A term used to describe the fact that U.S. political campaigns are very expensive and that candidates must spend a great amount of time raising funds in order to compete successfully.
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| multiparty system | A system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition.
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| nomination | The designation of a particular individual to run as a political party's candidate (its "nominee") in the general election.
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| packaging (of a candidate) | A term of modern campaigning that refers to the process of recasting a candidate's record into an appealing image.
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| party coalition | The groups and interests that support a political party.
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| party competition | A process in which conflict over society's goals is transformed by political parties into electoral competition in which the winner gains the power to govern.
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| party organizations | The party organizational units at national, state, and local levels; their influence has decreased over time because of many factors. (See also candidate-centered politics; party-centered politics; primary election.)
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| party realignment | An election or set of elections in which the electorate responds strongly to an extraordinary issue that has disrupted the established political order. A realignment has a lasting impact on public policy, popular support for the parties, and the composition of the party coalitions. The personal sense of loyalty that an individual may feel toward a particular political party.
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| party-centered politics | Election campaigns and other political processes in which political parties, not individual candidates, hold most of the initiative and influence. (See also candidate-centered politics.)
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| political party | An ongoing coalition of interests joined together to try to get their candidates for public office elected under a common label.
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| primary election (direct primary) | A form of election in which voters choose a party's nominees for public office. In most states, eligibility to vote in a primary election is limited to voters who designated themselves as party members when they registered to vote. A primary is direct when it results directly in the choice of a nominee; it is indirect (as in the case of presidential primaries) when it results in the selection of delegates who then choose the nominee.
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| proportional representation | A form of representation in which seats in the legislature are allocated proportionally according to each political party's share of the popular vote. This system enables smaller parties to compete successfully for seats. (See also single-member districts.)
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| prospective voting | A form of electoral judgment in which voters choose the candidate whose policy promises most closely match their own preferences. (See also retrospective voting.)
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| reform (minor) party | A minor party that bases its appeal on the claim that the major parties are having a corrupting influence on government and policy.
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| retrospective voting | A form of electoral judgment in which voters support the incumbent candidate or party when their policies are judged to have succeeded and oppose the candidate or party when their policies are judged to have failed. (See also prospective voting.)
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| service relationship | The situation in which party organizations assist candidates for office but have no power to require them to accept or campaign on the party's main policy positions.
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| single-issue (minor) party | A minor party formed around a single issue of overriding interest to its followers.
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| single-member districts | The form of representation in which only the candidate who gets the most votes in a district wins office. (See also proportional representation.)
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| soft money | Campaign contributions that are not subject to legal limits and are given to parties rather than directly to candidates.
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| split ticket | The pattern of voting in which the individual voter in a given election casts a ballot for one or more candidates of each major party.
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| two-party system | A system in which only two political parties have a real chance of acquiring control of the government.
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