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Question or Term
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Answer
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A party system in which two major parties regularly win the vast majority of votes, capture nearly all of the seats in the legislature and alternately control the executive
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Two-Party System
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The percentage of the popular vote that was for Republicans or Democrats in 2004, 2008, and 2012, dropping to 94% in 2016, but increasing from 81% in 1992
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99%
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That process proposed improvements to which include weighting votes in favour of those cast by elected politicians, allowing candidates to select their own delegates, having regional primaries (i.e. the South voting all on one day), etc.
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Presidential Nomination Process
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The two most significant minor parties, alphabetically
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Greens and Libertarians
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That party in which the current conflict is over how to recover from its losses, whether that be by becoming more radical as represented by Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, or through moderation as represented by Joe Biden
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Democratic Party
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That individual who usually wins a presidential election (when standing), thus dissuading some potentially strong challengers from standing, the only three modern examples not to do so (Ford, Carter, and H. W. Bush) all having faced internal opposition and generally failing economies
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Incumbent
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Those in which more ideological candidates such as Bernie Sanders perform well as turnout is low, often consisting of only the most ideological members
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Caucuses
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A women's rights pressure group that supports female candidates in the early stages of the election process
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EMILY's List
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Those unique, active, and registered, who were numbered at 11,862 in 2019, down from a peak of 14,823 in 2007
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Lobbyists
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An environmental organisation formed in 1892 which lobbies for environmental and wildlife protection, endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016 and opposing Trump's border wall
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Sierra Club
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A theory that political power rests with small groups who gain power through wealth, family status, or intellectual superiority
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Elitism
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A 1993 act that mandated federal background checks on firearm purchasers, strongly opposed by the NRA
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Brady Bill
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Those which function differently in the UK compared to the USA as a large proportion are trade unions with direct links to the Labour Party, and lobbying is aimed mostly at the executive (though this is diversifying with the newly assertive Supreme Court and House of Lords)
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Pressure Groups
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The only two independent Senators as of February 2020 - though both caucus with the Democrats - representing Maine and Vermont respectively
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Angus King and Bernie Sanders
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Those the principal functions of which are; representative, educational/informative, to provide an outlet for political participation, to build influence and promote agenda, and to scrutinise government, perhaps challenging it legally as did the ACLU against Trump's 'Muslim Ban'
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Pressure Groups
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That the strengths of which are that it preserves the voice of the small states and is more likely to produce absolute majorities, something the popular vote has done in only three of the last seven elections
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Electoral College
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That group the types of which are; business/trade groups, labour unions and agricultural groups, professional groups, and intergovernmental groups, the last of which lobbies one level of government on behalf of another such as the National Governor's Conference
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Sectional Groups
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A collectively held set of ideas and beliefs, debateable as to whether this is applicable to US parties which are broad and differ widely across the country
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Ideology
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Those which function differently in the USA compared to the UK as lobbying is aimed mostly at Congress though also notably at the judiciary more than in the UK
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Pressure Groups
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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
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Congressional Committees
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