Edexcel Politics 9. US Politics: Democracy and Participation

Question or Term

Answer

That commission the weaknesses to the presidential nomination process since which are that voter apathy remains high (especially under incumbents), voters are unrepresentative of the population, the process is long (increasing from under 2 months to nearly a year) and expensive, it is dominated by a media unconcerned with policy, often leader to bitter rivalries between candidates, has no peer-review, and can be skewed by super-delegates (Democrats)

The first primaries, seen as crucial in winning the nomination as with Trump - though not with Bill Clinton (1992), George W. Bush (2000), or Barack Obama (2008) - as well as gauging how much candidates meet, beat, or fall short of expectations

Those the rule of thumb of which is that style if often more important than substance (as with Bush's politeness over Gore's arrogance in 2000), verbal gaffes can be costly, good sound bites are helpful (as with Clinton questioning Gore's 'outdated' ideas rather than his age), and they are often more difficult for incumbents

Those two bodies in which 44% of people saw no discernible difference in 1972, decreasing to 19% 2012, having accelerated after 2000, alphabetically

That party which between 2009 and 2017 lost the presidency, 10 Senate seats, 61 House seats, 13 state governorships, and 30 out of their 61 of a total of 98 partisan state legislatures

That stage of the presidential election in which, since 1972, the Republican front-runner has become the party's nominee seven out of eight times, but the Democratic front-runner has become the party's nominee only five out of nine times

Where a state schedules its presidential primaries and caucuses earlier in the nomination cycle in an attempt to increase its influence, with 32 states (down from 42 in 2008) doing so in 2016 as the parties tried to encourage greater deliberation

Those which are often less contested under an incumbent president except where the president is unpopular within the party in which case they may be more contested as occurred with George H. W. Bush, much damaging him in the subsequent election

That party often supported by non-college graduates

Those for whom the televised presidential debates are often more difficult as they have a record to defend, expectations of them are high, and they often haven't debated since the last election

Question or Term

Answer

Those two recent presidents who successfully harnessed the media during the invisible primary, chronologically

States in which the outcome of the presidential election is unclear

A women's rights pressure group that supports female candidates in the early stages of the election process

Those which are criticised as a way of selecting presidential candidates as what it takes to win them does not necessarily translate into what it takes to be a good president

Those bodies that are the primary focus of pressure groups lobbying Congress, focussing on such bodies' chairs and members, thus gaining a role in the legislative process, enhanced due to the small membership of such bodies and that members often contact lobbyists for information

That which pressure groups try to influence by intervening in Supreme Court nominations, elections of judges, and court cases such as by the American Bar Association evaluating Supreme Court nominees or as in cases such as District of Columbia v Heller in which the NRA played a significant role

They which use methods such as electioneering (founding PACs or Super PACs), endorsing candidates, lobbying and informing politicians, providing voting cues to politicians, drawing up scorecards depending on how politicians voted, and organising grassroots activities

A theory that political power does not rest simply with the electorate of the governing elite but is distributed among groups representing widely different interests, being a theoretical basis for pressure group activity

A national party convention in which no candidate achieves enough delegates during the primaries and caucuses for an absolute majority on the first ballot, with delegates voting in subsequent ballots as free agents until one is achieved, last occurring in 1952, though considered possible by Republicans in 2016

Pressure groups that represent the common interest of their members (trade unions, business groups, etc.) such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) or the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO)