- adverse selection
- the concept, borrowed from economic theory, that voters cannot fully educate themselves on everything they must vote on and that this information asymmetry can often benefit the candidate or issue group that controls the distribution of information
- agricultural groups
- economic interest groups that work on behalf of agricultural interests
- ballot initiative
- a mechanism by which voters can directly introduce pieces of legislation and vote to enact them
- business group
- an economic interest group that works on behalf of business interests
- candidate-centered campaign
- the idea that the declining influence of political parties and their decreased ability to mobilize voters’ opinions and actions has set voters politically adrift and that candidates themselves have stepped in to fill the power vacuum
- civil rights groups
- noneconomic interest groups that work to promote and defend the civil rights of a particular group
- collective goods
- goods or services that all members of a group can share
- congressional district method
- a method of allocating electoral votes, used in Maine and Nebraska, where the winner of each congressional district is awarded one electoral vote and the winner of the statewide vote is awarded the state’s two remaining electoral votes
- dark money
- money received by super PACs from shell corporations or donors who do not disclose their identities
- direct democracy
- a democratic system in which citizens make direct policy choices rather than leaving them to elected officials
- disturbance theory
- a political theory that suggests that interest groups form in response to the changing complexity of government and society
- economic bias
- a system in which interests that may be very narrow or seemingly obscure enjoy considerable influence the more socially, monetarily, or institutionally resourced they are
- economic groups
- interest groups that focus on economic issues such as wages, industry protections, job creation, and profit maximization
- Election Day holiday
- where voting day is a national holiday or voters vote on a weekend
- elections
- formal group decision-making processes that elect individuals to public office or, in certain states and countries, allow citizens to select among policy preferences
- Electoral College
- the system of electors, based on the total number of United States Senators, House members, and electors from Washington, DC, by which the president of the United States is chosen
- electoral districts
- in the United States, districts of roughly equal population size in which Americans vote
- eligible voters
- those United States citizens who are aged 18 and older and meet state residency requirements and rules for voting
- factionalism
- when groups of individuals work collectively to promote a narrow, shared interest, possibly at the expense of the majority
- free rider problem
- the phenomenon that occurs when individual members of an interest group benefit from the group’s activities even if they do not personally participate
- golden parachutes
- exit bonuses that reward executives leaving private companies upon entering federal government positions
- grassroots lobbying
- lobbying that involves groups utilizing public pressure to force governmental action; also called outside lobbying or indirect lobbying
- ideological group
- a noneconomic interest group that focuses on promoting interests that align with a particular ideology
- indirect lobbying
- lobbying that involves groups utilizing public pressure to force governmental action; also called outside lobbying or grassroots lobbying
- inside lobbying
- lobbying in which interest groups cultivate contacts and relationships within government in order to seek to influence a political outcome
- interest group
- a group of people who organize in order to seek to influence a political outcome
- interest group liberalism
- the theory that officials respond to well-organized groups not because they are good for society, but because well-organized interests simply do a better job of demanding governmental action
- labor groups
- economic interest groups that work on behalf of workers’ interests
- lobbying
- the attempt by a group to influence a political outcome
- majority rule
- a system in which candidates for statewide office must win at least 50 percent of the vote to win an election
- moral hazard
- the risk a voter takes that a chosen candidate may not, once elected, act in the way the voter hopes
- multiparty system
- a system of government where multiple political parties take part in national elections
- noneconomic groups
- interest groups that work to advance noneconomic issues such as the environment or education
- outside lobbying
- lobbying that rallies public support in order to pressure political actors to consider a cause; also known as indirect or grassroots lobbying
- patronage
- the act of hiring or using state resources in a partisan manner in order to reward political support
- pluralist theory
- a political theory that posits that multiple and diverse interests compete for attention and resources and that political power is distributed among these various interests
- plurality rule
- an election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins an election
- political action committee (PAC)
- an interest group’s official fundraising arm
- political parties
- groups that organize around a shared political ideology, with the primary goal of electing party members to positions in government
- populism
- the appeal on the part of public leaders to the belief of ordinary people that established elite groups disregard their concerns
- professional groups
- economic interest groups that work in the interests of a particular profession
- proportional representation
- an electoral system in which votes cast by the electorate are reflected by the same proportions within the governing body
- public interest group
- a group that benefits a narrow constituency or policy issue (such as the American Association of Retired People) and works to achieve benefits for the larger population, not just for their own members
- recall
- an election in which voters decide whether or not to end the term of an elected official
- referendum
- an election in which voters decide whether to overturn existing law or policy
- registered voters
- voters who have fulfilled the necessary requirements set by the government in order to be able to cast a vote
- single-issue groups
- groups that focus their work on a single issue in order to acquire or maintain benefits for their members (for example, the National Rifle Association)
- single-party system
- an electoral system where one party makes up the government
- snap election
- in Britain, an election the prime minister can call at any time
- social capital
- relationships forged in political and other social networks, resulting from citizen mobilization, that help citizens resolve collective problems
- super PACs
- independent political action committees that can raise unlimited funds in order to campaign for candidates but are barred from directly coordinating with either candidates or parties
- transaction theory
- a political theory, espoused by Robert H. Salisbury, that argues that political actors are not influenced by groups that have mobilized to enact change so much as they are responding to the interests of narrowly focused elites, and that the relationship between interest groups and government is that of an exchange
- two-party system
- an electoral system where two main parties control power in government
- vote of no confidence
- a way for a legislative body to indicate that they no longer support the leader of the government (such as a prime minister) and their cabinet
- voter fatigue
- a phenomenon in which the demands of multiple elections leave voters feeling apathetic or disengaged
- voter registration requirements
- a set of conditions voters must meet and be able to prove in order to be eligible to vote
- voter suppression
- a strategy or in some instances local laws that work to prohibit certain groups from voting
- voter turnout
- the number of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election
- voting eligible population (VEP)
- the population that is eligible to vote, regardless of registration status, not including persons that are not eligible to vote, such as noncitizens and, in certain US states, convicted felons