American National Government Test 4
Which income group had the lowest percentage of donors?
$150,000 and up
Approximately ________ is needed for a candidate to have a reasonable chance of winning a seat in the House of Representatives.
$500,000
Approximately how much did PACs representing transportation groups spend in the past four elections?
$79 million
Which of the following is true?
All other things being equal, Hubert Humphrey was expected to prevail in 1968 and Al Gore was expected to prevail in 2000.
Which of the following is FALSE?
All states distribute electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis.
Which of the following presidential incumbents was reelected when the Consumer Confidence Index was less than 100 on the eve of election?
George W. Bush (2004)
Lobbyists
Have substantial influence in setting the political agenda help to craft specific legislation build coalitions around specific policy issues build coalitions in Washington D.C. in particular (*All of the above is correct*)
Which industry's PACs spent the most money over the past four elections?
Ideology / Single Issue; agribusiness if between the following: Agribusiness Construction Defense Labor
The Congressional results of the 2012 election
In Congress, Democrats retained control of the Senate and Republicans retained control of the house.
Prior to the 1890's, voters cast ballots according to political parties. The advent of _________ allowed voters to choose individual candidates rather than a political party as a whole
Neutral Ballot
During the earliest years of the United States, who nominated the candidates for president?
Nominations were controlled by each party's congressional caucus.
Which of the following is true regarding the 2012 presidential election?
Obama was reelected despite a low level of consumer confidence in the economy.
________ occurs when state legislators concentrate the members of one party in as few districts as possible in order to ensure that their opponents will elect as few representatives as possible.
Packing; part of Gerrymandering
Which three types of factors influence the decisions of voters at the polls?
Partisan loyalty Issues Characteristics of candidates
In the Republican primary, Mitt Romney's *superior organization and financial base* carried him to the nomination, despite challenges from _______________ and ________________ who portrayed themselves as more conservative than Romney.
Rick Santorum; Newt Gingrich
The role of soft money has been
Scrutinized following the 1996 and 2000 elections. This lead to restrictions on soft money in the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
Early presidential primaries and caucuses are more important because they
can help a candidate secure media attention and financial support.
The impact of issues and policy preferences on electoral choice is diminished if
competing *candidates do not differ substantially* or *do not focus their campaigns on policy matters*.
Which industry's PACs spent the least money over the past four elections?
defense
Since the 1930s, the number and scale of interest groups at the national level has ________.
dramatically increased
The Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990 was designed to
encourage administrative agencies to negotiate with important interest groups.
How can interest groups use litigation as a strategy of influence?
filing amicus curiae briefs, financing lawsuits, and bringing a suit on behalf of the group
When candidates for office *sponsor hearings, undertake inspection tours of disaster areas, or meet with foreign dignitaries, the form of publicity* they receive is called ________.
free media
In recent years, the religious right has had a great effect on American politics through ________.
grassroots mobilization
The number of corporate PACs
has declined in the last few years.
The first step in the campaigning involves the organization of supporters to
help the candidate *raise funds* and *create public name recognition*.
Which of the following groups made the lowest level of political contributions as a percentage?
high school diploma or less
What is the most important and beneficial resource that lobbyists provide government officials?
information
What strategy did President Obama use in this video to galvanize support for reforms?
institutional advertising
The organization of private interest into groups to advance their own views is
is a necessary and intrinsic element of the liberty of citizens to pursue their private lives and to express their views, individually and collectively.
The reform of spending practices may appear to advance the goal of political equality
it might do so at the expense of liberty.
The Teamsters and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations are examples of ________.
labor groups
Labor PACs are the
least common type of PAC
A number of important policy domains are controlled not by iron triangles, but by a collection of issue networks that consist of
like-minded politicians Consultants Public officials Political activists Interest Groups having some concern with the issue
Interest groups often turn to
litigation when they lack access or feel they have insufficient influence over the formulation and implementation of public policy.
To counter the growing influence of the lobbying industry, stricter guidelines regulating the actions of lobbyists have been adopted in the last decade; however,
lobbyists have found ways to circumvent many of the new rules.
Three factors influence voters' decisions at the polls:
partisan loyalty, issues, and candidate characteristics.
Before the 1890s, who was responsible for printing election ballots?
political parties
Partisan loyalty
predisposes voters in favor of their party's candidates and against those of the opposing party.
When a coalition of credit card companies form an interest group called the Partnership to Protect Consumer Credit, this indicates that
private interests are hiding behind the ideals of public interests.
Political scientists call voters' choices that focus on *future behavior* ________ voting, while those based on *past performances* are called ________ voting.
prospective; retrospective
If Barack Obama won the plurality of votes in California during the 2012 election, and California had 53 representatives in the House of Representatives, how many electoral votes from California did Obama win?
55 (53 House members + 2 Senate)
________ occurs when a voter must be registered with a party prior to voting in that party's election.
A closed primary
The New Politics Movement
A factor accounting for the explosion of interest-group activity in recent years was the emergency of a new set of forces in American politics
Romney's strength and Obama's struggles in the first presidential debate provided Romney with momentum. Obama won reelection by
putting together a coalition of working-class-voters, women, and minority constituents and winning all but one battleground state.
Primary elections were introduced by
reformers who hoped to weaken the power of party leaders.
In democratic systems, elections can be used to
replace current officeholders Function as a institution of legitimacy Promote government accountability Source of protection for groups in society
Presidential candidates secure a party's nomination by
running in *state party primaries* and *caucuses*.
Most European nations utilize a ________.
system of proportional representation
What is the most important attempt to limit the influence of lobbyists in recent years?
the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act
The modern expansion of governmental economic and social programs has contributed to
the enormous increase in group activity and organization.
The organization of private interests into groups is biased in favor of the
wealthy and powerful who have superior knowledge and opportunity and resources with which to organize.
Surveys of voter opinion, often called public opinion polls, provide:
*(1)* For basic information that candidates and their staffs use to craft campaign strategies *(2)* To select issues, to assess their own strengths and weaknesses as well as those of the opposition *(3)* to check voter response to the campaign, *(4)* To measure the degree to which various constituent parties may respond to campaign appeals.
What are the three types of elections held in the United States?
*(1)* Primary Elections *(2)*General Elections *(3)* Runoff Elections
The next steps of campaigning involve
*Hiring experts* - media consultants, pollsters, and others - to aid in developing issues and a message and communicating them to the public.
Which of the following statements about campaign spending in Senate elections is true?
*Incumbents generally spend more money* than challengers in Senate campaigns.
Interest groups also seek to use the electoral process to
*elect the right legislators in the first place* and to *ensure that those who are elected will owe them a debt of gratitude* for their financial support and campaign activism
Contemporary conventions merely
*ratify a party's platform* and *adopt rules governing the party* and its future conventions.
Organized interest groups enhance American democracy by
*representing the interests of large numbers of people* and encouraging *political participation*.
Which of the following groups is most likely to belong to the New Politics movement?
*upper-middle-class professionals*, for whom the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s were key experiences
Most interest groups share...
... key organizational components including: Leadership Money An agency or office Members
The number of corporate PACs has exceeded ______ since 1980.
1500
Since 1968, the Consumer Confidence Index was lowest on the eve of the election of
1992
How many electoral votes are needed to win a presidential election?
270
Barack Obama won ________ electoral votes in 2012.
332
AARP has approximately ________ members today.
38,000,000 (million)
By 2012, there were approximately ________ PACs in the United States.
5,500
In the 2012 election cycle, which age group made up the single largest group of donors as a percentage?
50-64
PACs representing health groups gave ____ percent to Republican candidates?
55
________ occurs when interest groups generate phony letters and phone calls in order to resemble a grassroots movement.
Astroturf lobbying
Why don't candidates visit the bigger states during a campaign?
Bigger states have strong ties to a specific political party.
According to President Obama, which __________ groups have recently become dangerously powerful.
Business
Nominations of presidential candidates were first made in
Caucasus of a party's members of Congress. This system was replaced in 1830's by nominating conventions, which were designed to be a more democratic , deliberative method of nominating candidates.
was the major concern regarding the Supreme Court's recent decision on direct lobbying.
Corruption
By using donor lists or magazine subscription lists, candidates are able to engage in ________.
Direct-mail solicitations
Campaign finance is regulated by the
Federal Elections Campaign Act of 1971.
What is a referendum?
It is the practice of voting directly for proposed laws.
Why is the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 important to lobbyists?
It requires agencies to create opportunities for public comments before implementing new rules and regulations.
________ was a dark-horse nominee for president.
James Polk; Warren Harding. *(*GRANT WAS NOT!!!!*)*
The fact that interest groups favor the wealthy and well educated can be understood as a reflection of what eternal dilemma in American politics?
Liberty is often inconsistent with equality.
Corporate lobbyists are seeking __________ benefits from Congress today.
NOT SOLIDARITY NOT PURPOSIVE (PROBABLY INFORMATIONAL)
Campaign funds in the United States are provided by
Small, direct-mail contributions Large gifts PACs Political parties 527's, Candidates' personal resources, and Public funding
Americans do not vote directly for presidential candidates. Rather, they choose *electors* who are pledged to
Support a party's presidential candidate.
Swing states like Ohio, Virginia, and Iowa were compared to which cut of meat?
Tenderloin
Most general elections in the United States use what type of system?
The plurality System; a type of electoral system in which, to win a seat in the parliament or other representative body, a candidate need only receive the most votes in an election, *not necessarily a majority of the votes cast*.
Smaller and weaker parties are most likely to have electoral success under which system of elections?
The proportional representation system
What is the "fourth voting process"?
The referendum - Technically not an election. - 18 States have provisions for recall elections - Recall is an electoral device that allows voters to remove governors and other state officials from office prior to the expiration of their terms.
Which of the following is true about public interest PACs?
There are more *public interest PACs* today than any other type. The number of *public interest PACs has increased greatly since 2007*.
What happens to interests that do not engage in extensive lobbying?
They often find themselves "Microsofted."
Most of the time a major-party nomination is necessary for electoral success, candidates must seek a
a party's nomination in primary elections
Interest group politics in the United States tends to have
a pronounced upper-class bias because of the characteristics of interest-group members.
The role played by private money in American politics
affects the relative power of social groups. As a result: *less affluent groups have considerably less power in the political system*
The framers of the Constitution argued for pluralism, in which
all interests are and should be free to compete for influence in the United States. They believed the outcome of this competition would be *compromise and moderation*, since no group would be able to achieve any of its goals without accommodating itself to some of the views of its many competitors.
Lobbying is
an effort by outsiders to influence Congress or government agencies by providing them with information about issues, giving them support, and even threatening retaliation.
An interest group is
an organized group of people that makes policy-related appeals to government.
Candidates ___________ and ____________ always influence voters' decisions.
attributes; personality characteristics
In recent years, the role of the parties during the general campaign has
been transformed by the introduction of high-tech campaign techniques, including polls, use of broadcast media, phone banks, direct mail, professional public relations, and the internet.
State legislators routinely seek to influence electoral outcomes by
manipulating the organization of electoral districts
Because of natural disincentives to join interest groups, groups offer
material, informational, solidary, and purposive benefits to entice people to join.
A(n) ________ does NOT coincide with a presidential election.
midterm election
Going public is a strategy that attempts to
mobilize the widest and most favorable climate of opinion. - Institutional Advertising - Demonstrations - Grassroots mobilization
Which of the following is NOT a job regularly performed by lobbyists?
nominating a candidate to run for political office
The Iron Triangle has
one point in the executive branch program, another in the Senate or House legislative committee or subcommittee, and a third point in an interest group. - The points are mutually supporting and work together for a mutual benefit; they count as access only if they last over a long period of time.
some groups employ a nonpartisan strategy in electoral politics
to avoid giving up access to one party by embracing the other.
In Capital-intensive campaigns, the main technique is to
use the broadcast media to present the electorate with themes and issues that will induce them to support one candidate over another.
Interest groups can
use the courts to affect public policy by bringing suit directly on behalf of the group itself, financing suits brought by individual's suits, or by filing a companion brief as an amicus curiae to an existing case.
The salience of these three bases of electoral choice
varies from contest to contest and from voter to voter.
