AP U.S. Government and Politics · Unit 5

Unit 5: Political Participation

How amendments and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 widened the vote, and the models that explain how people vote

Who turns out to vote, who stays home, and how election rules change turnout

What political parties do, how they change over time, and why third parties rarely win

How interest groups try to shape policy and why some groups organize more easily than others

How presidents are nominated and elected, and why most members of Congress win reelection

How campaign finance rules work after Buckley v. Valeo and Citizens United v. FEC, and the roles the media play

On the exam

Close to a quarter of the multiple-choice section, roughly 13 of its 55 questions, since this unit is about 23 percent of that section

Multiple-choice questions come both as standalone items and in sets built on data, text passages and visuals, and turnout or election data are natural material for the data sets

On the free-response section, the Concept Application question gives a scenario to explain with course ideas, and the FRQ lesson here trains that move with a turnout and campaign scenario

Key terms

22 terms. Say what each one means, then open the card to check.

  • Twenty-sixth Amendment

    The 1971 amendment that bars the national and state governments from denying the vote to citizens aged 18 or older because of their age.

    Example. A 19-year-old college student can vote for governor and for president because the amendment sets the voting age at 18.

  • Voting Rights Act of 1965

    A federal law that suspended literacy tests in the places it covered, sent federal examiners to register voters and required federal approval before covered places changed voting rules.

    Example. After the law passed, federal examiners registered Black citizens in Southern counties where local officials had turned them away for decades.

  • Retrospective voting

    Deciding how to vote by judging how well the people in office have done in the recent past, such as on the economy or a war.

    Example. A voter whose town lost its factory during the governor's term votes against the governor to punish that record.

  • Party-line voting

    Voting for the candidates of one party for every office on the ballot, using the party label as the main guide.

    Example. A loyal member of one party votes for that party's candidates for president, senator, governor and county clerk without studying each race.

  • Voter turnout

    The share of people who could vote that actually cast a ballot, usually counted among eligible citizens or among registered voters.

    Example. If 6 million of a state's 10 million eligible citizens vote, turnout among the eligible is 60 percent.

  • Political efficacy

    A person's belief that taking part in politics matters and that government will respond to people like them.

    Example. A student who saw her letters help change a city rule now believes her vote counts and votes in every election.

  • National Voter Registration Act of 1993

    The federal motor voter law, which requires states to let people register to vote when they apply for or renew a driver's license and at some public offices.

    Example. A woman renewing her license at the state motor vehicle office fills in one extra section and is registered to vote.

  • Linkage institution

    A channel that connects citizens to government and carries their views to officials: parties, interest groups, elections and the media.

    Example. A parent worried about school funding joins a party club, which passes the concern to the party's candidates for the legislature.

  • Realignment

    A lasting shift in which large groups of voters change their party loyalty, often marked by a critical election that sets up a new majority coalition.

    Example. The 1932 election began a long period in which a new coalition of workers, city voters and farmers backed the Democratic Party.

  • Dealignment

    A weakening of party loyalty in which more voters call themselves independents or split their tickets instead of joining a new party.

    Example. A survey finds that the share of adults calling themselves independents rose from a third to more than two-fifths over thirty years.

  • Winner-take-all system

    An election rule in which one seat or prize goes to the single candidate with the most votes, even without a majority, so smaller parties win little.

    Example. A third-party candidate who wins 15 percent in every district of a state still wins no House seats there.

  • Spoiler effect

    When a third-party candidate draws enough votes from one major candidate to change who wins, though the third party itself cannot win.

    Example. A fictional third party takes 6 percent of the vote. Five of those 6 points come from voters who would otherwise have chosen Candidate B, and Candidate A wins by 2 points, so without the third party Candidate B would have won.

  • Free-rider problem

    The difficulty a group faces when people can enjoy the group's wins without paying dues or joining, so many choose to stay out.

    Example. Thousands of anglers enjoy the cleaner river a fishing group fought for, but only a few hundred pay its yearly dues.

  • Iron triangle

    A lasting, three-way working relationship among an interest group, a congressional committee and a federal agency that all gain from one policy area.

    Example. A veterans group, the House veterans committee and the Department of Veterans Affairs work together for years to expand a benefit.

  • Electoral College

    The system that elects the president: each state gets electors equal to its House and Senate seats, DC gets 3, and a candidate needs 270 of 538.

    Example. A candidate who carries the statewide vote in a winner-take-all state with 16 electors gets all 16 of them, even if she won by a single vote.

  • Closed primary

    A primary election in which only voters registered with a party may help choose that party's nominee.

    Example. A registered independent shows up to vote in her state's Republican primary and is told she cannot take part.

  • Incumbency advantage

    The edge that members of Congress running for reelection have over challengers, from name recognition, casework, fundraising and friendly districts.

    Example. A House member who helped hundreds of people with Social Security problems is far better known than her challenger and wins easily.

  • Coattail effect

    The boost that a popular candidate at the top of the ticket, usually for president, gives to the same party's candidates for lower offices.

    Example. A presidential candidate wins a state by a wide margin, and two House candidates of her party win close races there.

  • Super PAC

    A committee that may raise and spend unlimited sums to support or oppose candidates, as long as it does not give to or plan with their campaigns.

    Example. A super PAC spends millions of dollars on ads attacking a Senate candidate, but it never discusses the ads with the rival campaign.

  • Political action committee (PAC)

    A group, often linked to a business, union or cause, that collects money from members and gives limited amounts directly to candidates.

    Example. A nurses' union PAC collects small sums from members and gives a capped amount to each of several House candidates.

  • Horse-race journalism

    News coverage that focuses on polls, strategy and who is ahead instead of on the candidates' policy plans.

    Example. A nightly news story spends three minutes on a new poll and the campaigns' ad budgets and ten seconds on a tax plan.

  • Agenda setting

    The media's power to shape which issues the public and officials think are important by choosing what to cover and how often.

    Example. After weeks of front-page stories about unsafe bridges, voters in a poll name road repair as a top problem for the first time.

In this unit

  1. Voting rights, voting behavior and turnout
  2. Parties, third parties and interest groups
  3. Elections, campaign money and the media
  4. Apply participation ideas to a turnout scenario
  5. Summary
  6. Mastery quiz