Poly Exam 3 Part 1

Since 1972, on average, about ______% of all eligible voters register and vote in presidential elections.

58

Which of the following was a consequence of expanding the voting franchise?

A decline in the percentage of those eligible who turn out to vote

Which of the following is true about the practices of selecting leaders by ballot and limiting suffrage?

These ideas arrived with the settlers from England and many of the suffrage restrictions survived the Revolution.

Campaign messages are often chosen opportunistically, rather than thought out well in advance.

True

Elections create strong links between public opinion and government action in the United States.

True

Party labels provide useful information for performance voting so voters can easily vote for the in-party when the voter thinks the government is doing well and vote for the out-party when the voter thinks the government is doing badly.

True

The basic necessities of any campaign are a candidate, a message, and a way to inform voters about both.

True

The ultimate barrier to a more egalitarian campaign finance system is the First Amendment to the Constitution as it is currently interpreted by the Supreme Court.

True

Voters who coalesce around causes such as gun control or gun rights are examples of single issue voters.

True

Pluralist politics is all about building coalitions, which means:

getting people to agree on an action even in absence of agreement on the purposes of the action.

The framers knew self-government by direct democracy was impossible in the new nation due to:

high transaction costs

The campaign to give women the right to vote was fueled by the hope that their presence in the electorate would:

improve the moral tone of political life

Issue voting is:

made easier by party labels because the typical positions of Republicans and Democrats differ in predictable ways on many issues

In 1972, the Democratic candidate, Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, displayed his ignorance rather than appreciation of Jewish culture when he ordered ______ to go with his kosher hot dog while campaigning in a Jewish neighborhood in Queens, New York.

milk

______—getting people to agree on an action in the absence of agreement on the purposes of the action—is what pluralist politics is all about, and it is as fundamental to electoral politics as it is to governing.

mobilizing

Broadly speaking, campaign finance operates through two parallel systems:

money given directly to candidates, which is regulated and money spent outside of the candidates campaign, which generally is unregulated

The United States holds ______ elections for more public offices than any other nation in the world.

more

Every expansion of suffrage since the adoption of the Constitution has had to do which of the following?

overcome both philosophical objections and resistance rooted in the mundane calculations of political advantage

The best single predictor of how someone will vote in federal elections is:

party identification

Prior to the 2012 election, more than a dozen states adopted a requirement that voters show a picture ID at the polls, which:

raised the cost of participation for poor and minority voters

Elections allow ordinary citizens to, in aggregate:

reward or punish elected officials for their performance in office

Casting a vote is making a prediction about the future:

that electing one candidate will produce a better outcome in some relevant sense than electing another candidate.

The women's suffrage movement grew directly out of:

the antislavery movement

Which of the following is an example of a free rider problem?

voting

______ was a sign put up by Bill Clinton's campaign manager in 1992 to keep focus on the campaign's most powerful message.

"The economy, stupid"

A Staple of political advertising is: A- Repetition B- Simplicity and symbolism C-Exaggeration D-All the above

D-All the Above

The 2010 and 2014 elections both saw large gains by the Democrats in Congress—not previously seen since the Johnson administration.

False

The most important information shortcut voters use to make predictions is the candidates recorded policy positions.

False

The most recent expansion of voting rights lowered the voting age of citizens to 18 years through the motor voter act.

False

There is little to no incentive in an electoral system for officeholders to remain faithful agents.

False

Turnout in midterm elections, generally is higher for the least educated, who don't realize the futility of voting.

False

Universal suffrage for women was achieved in the 19th century with the passage of the 15th amendment.

False

The threat of replacement provides elected officials with:

a powerful incentive to listen to their constituents

Regular, free, and competitive elections:

ameliorates the problem of delegation

The civil war amendments did which of the following

did not effectively extend the vote to African Americans

Which of the following helps to solve the massive coordination problem faced by millions of voters trying to act collectively to control or replace their agents?

elections

Women first gained the right to vote in certain western territories because they were hotbeds of radical democracy.

false

The messages candidates use in their campaigns depend very much on two things:

the national context and what they can afford

Age and education have the strongest influence on voting.

true

In Federalist 10, the purpose of the term "republic" is to emphasize the distinction between democracy as the 18th-century Americans saw it and the proposed new system.

true

One implication of the Electoral College is that the largest states do not necessarily see the most action.

true

Poll taxes, literacy tests, the requirement that voters reregister, and Voter ID laws are all examples of legislative efforts to discourage some groups from voting.

true

Regular, free, competitive elections guard the nation against the dangers that inevitably arise when citizens delegate authority to governments.

true

Research suggests the most persuasive appeal to encourage turnout is a message that stresses the closeness of the election—and therefore increasing people's chances of being pivotal to the outcome.

true

The 2012 focus on the appropriate strategy for invigorating the economy and bringing down the deficit is an example of candidate's opportunistic choice of issues.

true

The most recent expansion of voting rights—the Twenty-Sixth Amendment (1971), which lowered the voting age of citizens to 18 years—also was a political move, one provoked by the Vietnam War.

true

The party system is one durable institutional by-product of political ambition pursued under American electoral rules.

true

Typically, half of Senate incumbents and 70-80% of House incumbents win by default because their opponents spend too little money to make a race of it.

true

Universal suffrage for White men was not fully achieved until the 1840s.

true

Voting, like any delegation of authority, raises the possibility of agency loss.

true