Enhance Your Politics Knowledge

Here are some politics vocabulary that you should know in order to better understand all those politics report out there.

Balancing the ticket: When a candidate has won his or her party's presidential nomination, he or she is then obliged to pick a "running-mate", who - if the pair win the election - will become vice-president. The two candidates are then often referred to as "the ticket".

Candidates are often advised to pick a running-mate who "balances the ticket" - that is, one whose qualities make up for the candidate's perceived weaknesses.

So in 2000, George W Bush - who was thought to be relatively young and inexperienced - selected veteran Republican operator Dick Cheney. And in 2004, John Kerry, a New England liberal, picked John Edwards, a southerner with a populist streak.

Ballot initiative: A number of US states allow for a procedure known as a ballot initiative, whereby citizens are able to draw up a petition for a proposed change in the law, which - if it gathers enough signatures - is placed before voters in a referendum.

If the change is approved by the voters it then becomes law.

Sometimes, political parties may organise ballot initiatives on controversial issues in an attempt to drive up turnout among their core supporters. For example, in 2004, a number of states held referendums on Republican-initiated ballot initiatives to ban gay marriage.

Ballot initiatives are sometimes referred to as "ballot measures" or "propositions".

Bellwether state: A state which, historically, tends to vote for the winning candidate, perhaps because it is - demographically - a microcosm of the country as a whole.

The classic example of a bellwether state is Missouri, which has voted for the winner in every US presidential election since 1904 - except 1956.

The term derives from the name for a sheep which shepherds would fit with a bell. By listening out for this sheep, the bellwether, shepherds were able to locate the position of the entire flock.

Beltway: An American term for the orbital highway or ring-road that often surrounds major cities. In political reporting the term generally refers to congressional business undertaken inside the highway surrounding Washington DC - Interstate 495. For example, "a beltway issue" refers to a political issue or debate considered to be of importance only to the political class and of little interest to the general public.

Alternatively, those considered to have a "beltway mentality" are seen as being out of touch with the ordinary voters elsewhere in the country.