Political Terms (U.S.) Quiz

Definition	Term
Election in which the candidates do not formally have a party affiliation.
An elected official who loses political power due to a term limit.
An exceptionally long speech as a form of obstruction in a legislature.
Grand Old Party.
Body of 538 elected representatives who select the President and Vice President.
A little-known, unexpectedly successful candidate.
Gathering of delegates to nominate candidates for elective office.

Definition	Term
Rearrangement of voting districts so as to favor the party in power.
Formal accusation issued by a legislature against a public official.
Meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement.
Oldest political party in the United States.
Political movement driven by the constituents of a community.
Northerners who moved to the South to make a profit from Reconstruction.
Electoral device where voters express preferences to government policy.

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Political Terms (U.S.) Quiz

by Derek

Created Aug 25, 2008 in History
Featured Aug 25, 2008
Game Plays 81,350

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	Cartophiliac:	Aug 25th, 2008 at 12:43 GMT	30 points
	An initiative is also called "referendum" in many states.

	SporcleAdmin:	Aug 25th, 2008 at 16:21 GMT	25 points
	Referendum has been added as an alternative answer now.

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	ojalaque:	Dec 21st, 2008 at 01:53 GMT	24 points
	@Brian: Gerrymandering was named after Elbridge Gerry, so the proper way to spell it is probablly just gerrymander like in his name.

	phw:	Jan 12th, 2009 at 06:58 GMT	15 points
	I'm not sure "Democratic" should count for oldest political party. They're the oldest _currently active_ party by a fairly significant margin, but without that qualification, I think the Federalists have them beaten.

	Agent_Fox:	Apr 20th, 2009 at 06:18 GMT	20 points
	Mason, most elections involving local offices (school board, judges, clerks, etc) are nonpartisan, and are more common than partisan elections. They're simply far less publicized and fewer people tend to vote in said elections.

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	Joseph Geary:	May 30th, 2009 at 01:20 GMT	14 points
	@EB: No, both Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached. Both were acquitted. A censure is essentially a slap-on-the-wrist condemnation of actions with no legal bearing; Andrew Jackson was censured, and he's still on our currency. And in some states it's called a referendum, in others a ballot initiative, and at least in MA it's referred to simply as a "Ballot Question." Perhaps the addition of the word "directly" would serve to make what the question is asking more clear?

	LEE:	Jun 1st, 2009 at 12:51 GMT	-1 points
	i missed lame duck. good quiz.

	Trickle:	Jun 7th, 2009 at 16:55 GMT	6 points
	Good quiz, especially for prepping for the AP US Government and Politics test, heh. Joseph Geary is right, an impeachment is just a formal accusation, and in those cases, particularly done by Congress. The trial is held by the Senate with the Chief Justice as the judge, and that is after the official impeachment. @Cartophiliac & Joseph Geary: Initiative is a completely different process than referendum. There are three different voter-based processes in government, which are the Initiative Petition, Referendum Vote, and Recall Vote. Initiative is the creation of a new policy by voters via petition, which gets voted on the next official ballot, bypassing the legislature. Referendum is when the legislature places an issue onto the voting ballot, but the issue and bill was initiated inside of the legislature, not by petition. Finally, Recall, as many can recall from the California gubernatorial elections, is the removal of a public official by ballot instead of by impeachment.

	alhutch:	Jun 26th, 2009 at 03:40 GMT	1 point
	i don't think the nonpartisan one really makes sense. the clue doesn't make me think of the answer at all.

	Arthur:	Jul 30th, 2009 at 16:24 GMT	1 point
	Damn carpetbaggers.

	DougButcher:	Oct 25th, 2009 at 16:47 GMT	6 points
	Most municipal elections are nonpartisan. Mayoral races outside of large cities are almost always nonpartisan.

	DougButcher:	Oct 25th, 2009 at 16:49 GMT	5 points
	The Nebraska State Legislature is Non-Partisan.

	michaelmagnus:	Apr 28th, 2010 at 14:50 GMT	1 point
	"Electoral device where voters express preferences to government policy." - IMO this more closely describes a PLEBECITE.

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	marsviking:	May 24th, 2010 at 19:45 GMT	1 point
	in canada we have referendums too--the big one is the Quebec referendum where the feds allow the Quebeckers to decide if they want to separate--at a huge cost to taxpayers. why not jut kick em out and be done with it?

	DPA727:	Jun 17th, 2010 at 02:37 GMT	2 points
	isn't it quebecois?

	sobdennis:	Jun 26th, 2010 at 15:44 GMT	8 points
	missed caucus. Sounded more like a rally to me. But the definition is right. @EB:Impeachment is not the conviction. I think of impeachment as a sort of indictment. In the US, the House impeaches a government official. But the Senate then holds a trial to decide guilt or innocence. Only if the Senate votes by 2/3 majority to convict is the official kicked out of office. Two presidents have been impeached, but neither was convicted. Many judges have been impeached and convicted. Also, referendum is a more proper answer than initiative. Initiative is a form of referendum, but not the only form. I am glad referendum was accepted.

	Rachelkachel:	Sep 6th, 2010 at 01:32 GMT	12 points
	I thought lame duck was when the elected official was still in office, finishing out the term, but somebody else had been elected.

	JumpOnCloud:	Feb 28th, 2011 at 21:37 GMT	3 points
	Oh man, I almost got 'carpetbagger,' but I typed it as 2 separate words!

	master_m39:	Jun 6th, 2011 at 17:31 GMT	3 points
	All I could think of for "A little-known, unexpectedly successful candidate" was maverick. Dang Sarah Palin, polluting my brain...

	yomika:	Jul 13th, 2011 at 05:57 GMT	9 points
	The answer is 'carpetbagger', but it should be 'carpetbaggerS' because the clue is in the plural form. Also, the clue about oldest political party should be the oldest, yet still existing political party. The first political parties were the Federalist and the Democratic Republican, but the Democratic-Republicans were called 'Republicans', not 'Democrats'.

	JimmyJames:	Jul 22nd, 2011 at 14:06 GMT	2 points
	"No, no, and no! [sigh] Maybe we should start all over with the electrical college."

	Bobman1:	Sep 10th, 2011 at 06:21 GMT	4 points
	I'd love to see a rewording of the initiative clue. "Expressing preference" could be a description of voting (I prefer HIM). Or the device can be an election, or a poll, or straw poll where people express preferences. I don't think the clue is incorrect, just misleading (too passive)--in my mind, the initiative/referendum process involves members of the electorate taking the reins of the system and creating their own alternatives to be voted on by their peers. My definition is a little more decisive and proactive than merely expressing an opinion. It's a ton of work and to get one of those things on a ballot. Merely expressing a preference can be as lame as saying "I like chocolate more than vanilla." yawn. Okay, just my $0.02.

	semicorrect:	Sep 10th, 2011 at 13:01 GMT	5 points
	@marsviking If you're referring to a candidate losing the popular vote but winning the presidency, it's happened several times before (John Quincy Adams, Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison). If you're making a political jab, it's probably best to leave that off Sporcle.

	grambus:	Sep 10th, 2011 at 19:10 GMT	1 point
	what about proposal for initiative? same thing or different?

	tbagley:	Sep 10th, 2011 at 23:13 GMT	3 points
	never heard an election referred to as A nonpartisan...it should be more clear that it's asking for an adjective

	airborne79:	Sep 11th, 2011 at 01:25 GMT	3 points
	Not good - too many vague answers

	congressrep12:	Jan 21st, 2012 at 16:57 GMT	0 points
	I would not have put dark horse on there, but I did get a 14/14.

	Kmox:	Jan 29th, 2012 at 03:12 GMT	-1 points
	A lot of these are poorly defined. For example plebicite is the correct political science term - the main one you have listed is coloquial (which yes I know I can't spell). Also non-partisan isn't used to discribe a person - they would be an independant. For meeting of supporters you should take convention or rally - a causcus is the body of politicans elected, they have caucus meetings or less commonly "hold caucus" - but this is generally closed meeting not including all party members.

	Kmox:	Jan 29th, 2012 at 03:16 GMT	2 points
	Also to clarify Quebeckers tends to be the english name while Quebecois is the french term....however as with all labels refering to groups of people there are lots of exceptions / arguements over which word is (more) correct.

	laschmela:	Apr 26th, 2012 at 06:34 GMT	1 point
	You could accept "local" or "judge" for "nonpartisan." The way the clue is worded, these would both be correct answers, i.e. "A local election is one in which the candidates do not formally have a party affiliation." Also, a meeting of party or movement supporters is extremely vague--"conference" or "rally" are equally permissible. If you added a bit about the caucus being used to decide party nominees, then it'd be a bit more specific.