Political Parties Vocabulary Practice Quiz

The American Citizen at NKCHS

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Match the definitions given by each numbered item below with the correct term that is defined. When you're finished, click "submit" to find out your score, how well you know the vocabulary terms related to the role of political parties in our democracy. Keep taking this practice quiz until you get a perfect score!

  1. Our nation’s first political party, created by Alexander Hamilton from a coalition of whose who supported a strong central government, including New England merchants and manufacturers
  2. Your answer:
    Federalists
    Whigs
    Republicans
    Anti-Federalists


  3. A temporary alliance between groups with differing interests or points of view (often, in order to win an election or control government)
  4. Your answer:
    political socialization
    concurrence
    consensus
    coalition


  5. A system of election by which the voters of a city, state, or a country -- as a whole -- elect government officials
  6. Your answer:
    proportional representation
    split ticket voting
    direct vote
    at large


  7. The practice of awarding government jobs to political supporters and friends
  8. Your answer:
    merit system
    one party system
    patronage
    proportional representation


  9. A statement of the goals and principles of a political party
  10. Your answer:
    platform
    nominating convention
    straight ticket
    standard


  11. Andrew Jackson's political opponents in the 1820s and 1830s -- who referred to him as "King Andrew" -- created a major political party that took this name, from the English party that opposed the king's power
  12. Your answer:
    Democrats
    Whigs
    Democratic Republicans
    Federalists


  13. The allocation of legislative seats to each political party in proportion to the votes it receives
  14. Your answer:
    political allocation
    equal representation
    proportional representation
    political representation


  15. A person who does not identify with any particular political party, nor feel any loyalty to a party
  16. Your answer:
    reactionary
    loyal opposition
    independent
    neophyte


  17. When two or more individuals or groups have reached a general agreement about general principles or issues that might have kept them apart, previously
  18. Your answer:
    consensus
    platform
    nominating convention
    coalition


  19. After the Civil War, when many states in the southern U.S. became virtually one-party states, voting overwhelmingly for Democratic candidates, it became known as this
  20. Your answer:
    Southern Confederacy
    single party system
    Rabid Republican
    Solid South


  21. A political party's leadership, fund-raising, and promotional organization
  22. Your answer:
    national committee
    full funding committee
    executive officers
    nominating committee


  23. A political party often that is out of power (not in control of the presidency, or in the minority in Congress, for example) but is loyal to the nation while opposing the policies of the party in power
  24. Your answer:
    broker party
    loyal opposition
    central committee
    missionary party


  25. Political party that is more concerned with gaining votes than with maintaining rigid ideologies, willing to alter policies in order to gain votes
  26. Your answer:
    Democratic Party
    Whigs
    single-issue party
    broker party


  27. One of our nation’s two major political parties, began in 1854 as a coalition of anti-slavery groups and moneyed merchants and manufacturers from the northern states, as well as western farmers
  28. Your answer:
    Republicans
    Democrats
    Federalists
    Whigs


  29. A political system in which two major groups with differing political philosophies compete for control of the government
  30. Your answer:
    splinter party system
    single party system
    two party system
    broker party system


  31. A group of like-minded citizens organized to win elections, control government, and set public policy
  32. Your answer:
    splinter party
    broker party
    interest group
    political party


  33. Our nation’s second political party, founded in the 1790s by Thomas Jefferson in opposition to Alexander Hamilton's plans, it was made up of a coalition of small farmers, Western pioneers, and Southern plantation owners
  34. Your answer:
    Federalists
    Democratic Republicans
    Whigs
    Whigs


  35. The practice of hiring and promoting employer on the basis of objective, competitive testing
  36. Your answer:
    competitive system
    merit employment
    single party system
    spoils sytem


  37. A person or political party with a position in the center of the ideological spectrum
  38. Your answer:
    left wing
    right wing
    centrist
    independent


  39. The meeting of a political party's delegates in a presidential year to write a platform and nominate candidates
  40. Your answer:
    patronage
    party caucus
    nominating convention
    national party


  41. A vote cast on one ballot for candidates of two or more different political parties
  42. Your answer:
    straight ticket vote
    multi-party vote
    delegate selection process
    split ticket vote


  43. Political parties that are highly ideological, firmly devoted to a specific system of political ideas and attitudes, seeking converts and followers more than votes
  44. Your answer:
    single issue party
    broker party
    missionary party
    splinter party


  45. One of our nation’s two major political parties, originally called Democratic-Republicans (a coalition of slave owners, farmers, and those in society who owned money that held together until the Civil War)
  46. Your answer:
    Democrats
    Whigs
    Republicans
    Federalists


  47. A political system with many rival parties competing for control of the government
  48. Your answer:
    single party system
    multi-party system
    rival party system
    confederacy


  49. A vote cast on one ballot for all the candidates of the same political party
  50. Your answer:
    merit system
    patronage
    single party ticket
    straight party ticket


  51. The political party that is out of office -- that does not control the executive or legislative branches, for example
  52. Your answer:
    opposition party
    two-party system
    Democratic Party
    proportional representation


  53. A district in which only the candidate with the largest number of votes wins election to public office
  54. Your answer:
    broker party district
    single-member district
    congressional district
    legislative district



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