Background on the American Political Process

Most home pages on U.S. politics assume that the reader knows everything about the culture, mechanisms, and sometimes esoteric vocabulary of American politics. To assist observers from other countries, and students of U.S. politics, we provide an interactive glossary of political terms, as well as several articles and documents explaining the ways in which the U.S. conducts campaigns and elections.

• Glossary of Political Terms
• Political Parties
• The Nominating Process: Primaries and Caucuses
• How U.S. Campaigns are Run: Polling, Advertising, Volunteers, etc.
• Election Law and Campaign Finance (Includes Fund Raising, the Federal Election Commission, and Finance Reform)
• Demography and Elections
• Women and Politics
• The Electoral College System
• The Media
• Constitutional Limits on Referenda
• Volunteer Group Seeks Registration of 20 Million New Voters
• Civic Education Critical to Democracy

From the 1992 Election Archives:

• Presidential Elections Are Three-stage Process: Primaries, conventions, and campaigning
• The Role of the Media (a 1992 post-election analysis)
• Presidential Transition - A Period of Healing
• 1992 Voter Turnout Set Record