Reading Review

1. Political Culture:  The attitudes, beliefs, and values which underpin the operation of a particular political system.
2. Political Ideology:  Someone's views about government policy.
3. Equality Of Opportunity: Political ideal that is opposed to caste hierarchy.
4. Equality of Results: Makes sure that everyone turns out the same in the end.
5. Civic Duty: The responsibilities of a citizen
6. Progressive Culture: Reform movement.
7. Orthodox Culture: A culture that sticks to its original beliefs.
8. Political Efficacy:  theoretical concept used to explain political behavior in Political Science.
9. Middle America: average middle-class Americans as a group, as distinguished from the rich or poor or the politically extreme.
10. Silent Majority: any group of people who are not outspoken and who are considered to constitute a majority.
11. Social Status: position in a social hierarchy.
12. Christian Coalition: a US Christian advocacy group, which includes Christian fundamentalists, neo-evangelicals and conservative charismatics.
13. Gender Gap: The differences between men and women reflected in politics.
14. Liberal: Favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs.
15. Conservative: Cautiously moderate or purposefully low.
16. Libertarian: A person who maintains the doctrine of free will.
17. Populist: A member of the People's party.
18. Political Elite: Any society where power is not distributed equally.
19. New Class: Describes the privileged ruling class of bureaucrats and Communist Party functionaries.
20. New Deal Coalition: The alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates.
21. Random Sample: A method of selecting a sample (random sample) from a statistical population.
22. Sampling Error: A statistical error to which an analyst exposes a model simply because he or she is working with sample data rather than population or census data.
23. Weighting: to burden with or as if with weight.
24. Quota Sample: Convenience sample with an effort made to insure a certain distribution of demographic variables.
25. Focus Groups: A representative group of people questioned together about their opinions on political issues.
26. Instant Response Polling: Polls done in the days following a debate or other political event to get immediate public opinions.
27. Push Polls:  Seemingly unbiased telephone survey that is actually conducted by supporters of a particular candidate and disseminates negative information about an opponent.
28. Bandwagon Effect: The phenomenon of a popular trend attracting even greater popularity.
29. Refusal Rate: In the sampling of human populations, the proportion of individuals who, though successfully contacted, refuse to give the information sought.
30. Exit Polls: A poll taken of a small percentage of voters as they leave the polls.
31. Tracking Poll: A type of poll repeated periodically with the same group of people to check and measure changes of opinion or knowledge.
32. Skewed Question: Phrased in such a way that a certain answer is more likely to be given.
33. Context Effect:  The aspect of cognitive psychology that describes the influence of environmental factors on one's perception of a stimulus.
34. Saliency: A projection of the forward line into enemy-held territory.
35. Help America Vote Act 2002: Passed by Congress in October 2002 to making sweeping reforms to the nation's voting process.
36. Motor-Voter Law 1993: Law that enables prospective voters to register when they obtain or renew a driver's license.
37. 15th Amendment: Prohibiting the restriction of voting rights “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”
38. Literacy Test: An examination to determine whether a person meets the literacy requirements for voting
39. Poll Tax: A tax levied per head of adult population.
40. Grandfather Clause:A clause in the constitutions of several Southern states that waived electoral literacy requirements for lineal descendants of people voting before 1867, thus ensuring the franchise for illiterate White people: declared unconstitutional in 1915
41. White Primary: In 1920 Southern states used the white primary as a way of limiting African Americans playing a part in the politics.
42. Voting Rights Act: Eliminated literacy tests and stated that federal examiners could enroll voters who had been denied suffrage by local officials.
43. 19th Amendment: An amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1920, guaranteeing women the right to vote.
44. 26th Amendment: An amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1971, lowering the voting age to 18.
45. 23 Amendment: An amendment to the U.S. constitution, ratified in 1961, allowing District of Columbia residents to vote in presidential elections.
46. Disfranchisement: To deprive a person of the right to vote or other rights of citizenship.
47. Australian Ballot: A ballot containing the names of all the candidates for public office, handed to the voter at the polling station to be marked in secret.
48. Activist: Advocating or opposing a cause or issue vigorously, especially a political cause.
49. Demographics:  The statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education, etc.