Final answer:
Strong loyalty to a political party is known as partisanship, where individuals show support for their chosen political party and its candidates, often based on their alignment with the party's political ideology or as a rational behavior based on policy preferences.
Step-by-step explanation:
Strong loyalty to a political party is known as partisanship. Essentially, partisanship occurs when an individual supports the actions and policies of a particular political party simply because they identify with that party. This loyalty can be so strong that the individual consistently prefers the candidates of their chosen party in elections, regardless of the specifics of individual issues or the merit of the candidates themselves.
People often register as a member of a political party whose platform aligns with their political beliefs, making use of the party as a heuristic, or a shortcut, in decision-making during elections. A Republican candidate, for instance, will likely hold conservative values that resonate with Republican voters. However, party identification isn't just a shortcut; it often corresponds to a logical alignment of political ideologies. Consequently, voting for your party can also be a rational behavior, as it likely matches your own policy preferences.
Partisanship extends beyond the act of voting to include active engagement in the party organization, which is the formal structure of a political party. Members of the party organization actively coordinate party behavior and support candidates, thus maintaining and promoting the party's ideals and 'brand' within the political landscape.