GOVT Unit 2

The territory of Wyoming granted women the right to vote in 1869 and ___ followed as the first state to enfranchise women

Colorado

In modern elections, candidates _____ to learn about voters' interests

Commission public opinion polls

Until 2000, the last time a candidate won most of the popular votes but did not win the presidency was in

1888

Women were granted universal suffrage in

1920

The number of elections votes needed to win a presidency is

270

The typical procedure for an initiative requires petitions to feature the signatures of ___ of the number of registered voters in a state

5-10%

In the 2000 presidential election, after more than a month of ballot counting, recounting, lawsuits, and court decisions, Bush was certified as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes by ____ popular votes

537

Of all the social and economic variables affecting political participation, ___ is the strongest single factor

Education

The standard socioeconomic model of participation chiefly refers to

Education, income, and occupation

In the 2004 presidential election, one of Minnesota's 10 electors voted for vice presidential candidate John Edwards for president instead of presidential candidate John Kerry. This is known as a

Faithless elector

For most people, the first agent of political socialization is

Family

The major agents of early socialization in the US are

Family, school, community, and peers

We elect the president via 50 state elections combined into the electoral college; thus, presidential elections are best described as ___ elections

Federal

The ____ Amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude"

Fifteenth

Which of the following arguments has not been raised a defense of the electoral college?

Historically, polls show public opinion in favor of keeping it

A ___ open primary allows independent voters to vote in a party's primary

Modified

Which of the following presidents failed to win a majority of the popular vote?

John F. Kennedy

In the 2008 presidential election

John McCain accepted public funds, but Barack Obama did not

Psychological explanations of turnout suggest that voting will rise if

More Americans believe that the government is responsive

Incumbents in the House of Representatives historically have won

More than 95% of the time

One criterion that must be met for a country to be democratic is that it must have

More than one political party

Which statement is true about most congressional elections today?

Most congressional elections are not very competitive

Researchers have found that political apathy is ____ in the United States compared to almost all other nations

Much lower

Citizen mobilization to stop construction of a nuclear waste facility near their homes would be an example of the ____ phenomenon

NIMBY

____ primaries weaken parties more because it allows voters to float between parties rather than require the voters to participate in the party in which they are registered

Open

In Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court found ____ is unconstitutional

Preventing blacks from voting in primary elections

A ____ election is preliminary election conducted within a political party to select candidates who will run for office

Primary

Which of the qualifications for voting was virtually eliminated in all states by the 1850s?

Property ownership

In 2016, 31 states adopted

Proportional rules for Republican primaries

According to the text, with respect to political participation, "_____ is the great equalizer..."

Protest

The collective attitude of the citizens on a given issue is known as

Public opinion

Political differences between the South and the rest of the country today are often rooted in attitudes about

Racial politics and social issues

The ___ was backed by the Progressives as they wanted a mechanism to remove elected officials from office

Recall

The effect of the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which enfranchised eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds, was to

Reduce the national voter turnout rate

Which of the following statements is NOT true concerning the 2016 Republican presidential nomination?

Rubio was considered a favorite after winning his home state of Florida

In the modern political system, candidates ___ rely on political parties to conduct a campaign

Seldom

When no incumbent in the White House is seeking reelection,

The presidential nominating process becomes contested in both parties

One critique that Pluralists make of the public as a whole is that

The public seldom demonstrates clear, consistent opinions on daily issues of government

To maintain order, the government has a stake in converting ____ whenever possible

Unconventional participation into conventional participation

Which country was the first to provide for the general election of representatives through mass suffrage?

United States

A primary election in which voters must devalue their party affiliation before they are given the primary ballot is a ___ primary

Closed

Until the 1950s, political campaigns were conducted primarily

through political party organizations.

The text defines suffrage and franchise as the right to

vote

The majoritarian model of democracy favors

voting as the primary means of participation

The current limit for individual contributions to a candidate in an election, as of 2015-2016, is

$2,700

The current limit for PAC contributions to candidates in an election is

$5,000

Typically, what fraction of the voting-age population will vote in a primary election?

1/4

A January 2014 poll showed that __ percent of Americans knew that the Affordable Care Act prohibits companies from denying health insurance to people because of any illness they may have

54

Around the world, the percentage of countries holding regular, free, and fair elections has risen to ___ percent

63%

Women compared to men, and blacks compared to whites, tend to have political participation rates today that are

About the same

By national law, ____ of the seats in the House of Representatives and ___ of the seats in the Senate are filled in a general election held every even-numbered year

All; 1/3

In general today, women politically participate

At about the same rate as men

Some negative ads also promote the positive qualities of the other candidate; however, there are negative ads that advocate nothing positive. These are called ___ ads.

Attack

The fact that ideological conservatives believed even more strongly that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 war after they were informed that subsequent investigations concluded that this was not true is an example of the

Backfire effect

In order to gain campaign information about the voting preferences and issues concerning various groups in the electorate, a candidate would conduct a ___ poll

Benchmark

The literacy tests that were used in the southern states after 1870 worked primarily against

Blacks

Elections, as an institutional mechanism

Bolster the power and authority of the state

Which of the following was the first known act of unconventional political participation in America?

Boston Tea Party

An example of a citizen using "contacting behavior" is

Calling the county animal control office to remove a raccoon from a window well

A method of delegate selection that begins with local meetings and culminates in a state convention is known as the

Caucus method

Beginning with the 2010 election, corporations were free to run ads directly advocating a candidate's election for the first time since 1906, when Congress first banned using general corporate funds in federal election campaigns. This occurred based on which 2010 US Supreme Court decision?

Citizens United v. FEC

According to the text, which of the following is NOT a characteristic of public opinion?

Citizens are typically unwilling to offer opinions on matters outside their experience, even when asked by pollsters

A practical test of whether or not a government is democratic is whether

Citizens can affect its policies by acting through its institutions

A legal action brought by a person or group in behalf of a number of people in similar circumstances is also known as a

Class action suit

An advertisement that criticizes an opponent and advocates policies of the sponsoring candidate is an example of a __ ad

Contrast

Relatively routine behaviors that use the established institutions of representative government such a voting in an election are called ____ participation

Conventional

The standard socioeconomic model recognizes the relationship between socioeconomic status and

Conventional political involvement

When a leader assembles crowds to confront businesses and local governments to demand a hearing, he or she is engaging in

Direct action

The term "electoral college" became known in the US

During the 20th century

A 2013 Supreme Court decisions regarding the Voting Rights Act allowed numerous states to

Enforce new voter identification laws

Campaign finance laws are challenged as a violation of the ___ Amendment

First

A state moves its primary to an earlier date to encourage presidential candidates who would otherwise have skipped that state to campaign there. This is known as

Front-loading

Governments tend to respond to public opinion. In recent years, this has become partially true regarding issues involving

Gay rights

Candidates eventually favored by most party identifiers usually win their party's nomination. There have been only 2 exceptions to this rule: Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and _____ in 1972

George McGovern

Which of the following statements reflects the role public opinion should play according to the majoritarian model of democracy?

Government should do what a majority of the public wants

Which of the following is NOT included in the responsibilities of the Federal Election Commission (FEC)?

Guaranteeing rough equality in fundraising between Republicans and Democrats

A libertarian is most likely to exhibit the characteristics of

High income and high education

Congress and the states moved quickly to pass the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age to eighteen, because they

Hoped to channel student energy away from demonstrations and toward more conventional forms of participation

The contemporary political "gender gap" refers to the tendency of women to

Identify more with the Democratic Party than men do

When a citizen contributes money to a candidate's campaign, he or she is engaging in

Influencing behavior

In 2016, Bernie Sanders clearly followed an ___ strategy when he campaigned against Wall Street and wealth inequality

Issues-oriented

Political scientists know less about unconventional forms of political participation because

It's easier to collect data on conventional practices

In 2014, voters approved a number of ballot propositions, including ones in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington that

Legalized recreational marijuana

Typically, a referenda is placed on the ballot by

Legislators

Because it depends on mass participation in politics, majoritarianism tends to

Limit individual freedom

Characteristics frequently associated with nonvoters are

Low education, low income, and being relatively young

Lack of political knowledge among individual Americans makes the ____ model of democracy. More difficult to sustain

Majoritarian

Which of the following statements concerning ideological "moderates" is correct?

Many people identify as "moderate" because they do not understand the alternatives

During the 2016 presidential campaign, some candidates sent messages to the smart phones of selected voters. This is an example of

Microtargeting

In the text the authors assert that the majority of voters are ideologically more ___ than the voting records of members of Congress would indicate

Moderate

According to the text, Americans were ___ politically apathetic in 2012 compared to 1952

Neither more nor less

In the 2016 presidential race, ____ accepted public funds

Neither party's candidate

The amendment granting women's suffrage is the

Nineteenth Amendment

According to the text, if the criterion is ___, America had the best and most democratic government in the workd

Number of elections held

A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution around a single mode is called a

Normal distribution

Compared with citizens in other democracies, Americans are

Not noticeably apathetic

Someone who asserts that elections "socialize political activity" is contending that elections are mechanisms that maintain

Order

According to democratic theory, the most important factor in determining voter choice in an election should be

Past performance and proposed policies

The process where one becomes aware of politics, learns political facts, and forms political values is called

Political socialization

American political parties operate more in keeping with the ___ model of democracy

Pluralist

The ability of groups to make government respond to their special problems is best related to ____ theory

Pluralist

The acronym PAC stands for

Political Action Committee

The set of values and beliefs that a person holds about the purpose and scope of government is called

Political ideology

The text defines ___ as the actions of private citizens by which they seek to influence or support government and politics

Political participation

Since they were not happy with voting for candidates selected by party leaders, ___ championed the direct primary

Progressives

The goal of the statistical theory of sampling is to

Reflect the views of the population with some predictable degree of accuracy

When sampled, the public strongly favors the death penalty for certain crimes. The graph of such a distribution would characterized as

Skewed

When a political opinion is based on what is considered to be in the best interest of the nation rather than what people think is in their own interest is an example of

Sociotropic responses

The relationship between participation and order is complicated because

Some types of participation promote disorder

According to the text, violent unconventional political participation is

Sometimes worth the risk

A distribution of opinions that shows little change over time is called a ______ distribution

Stable

The 1955 Montgomery bus boycott is an example of a

Successful unconventional political participation

"Independent, expenditures-only political committees" are a legal term by the FEC more commonly referred to as

Super PACs

The SpeechNow.org v. FEC decision legalized

Super PACs

Serving as an election judge in a nonpartisan election or organizing a holiday parade are examples of

Supportive behavior

In an election campaign, ___ determines the content of the messages and the way they are delivered

Synergy

The march from Selma demonstrated to the nation the seriousness of

The civil rights problem

Although terrorism is an unconventional political action, it is generally not counted as unconventional political participation because

Terrorists do not seek to influence a government but to destroy it

The Framers wanted to build public opinion into our government structure by creating

The House of Representatives

One result of ___ was the direct primary, in which candidates must campaign not only for election, but also for the nomination of their party

The Progressive movement in the 1920s

Pressure on an individual to conform to community values or views is strongest when

The community is homogeneous

Perhaps the most significant fact about primary elections in congressional politics today is

The decline in competition for party nominations

The extent of the influence of any socializing agent depends on

The extent of our exposure to it, our communication with it, and our receptivity to it

By law, the US presidential election occurs

The first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

In nearly every other democratic country outside of the US, the burden of registration is placed on

The government

According to psychological explanations, voter turnout in the United States is not likely to increase until

The government does something to restore people's faith in the effectiveness of voting

According to former House Speaker Tip O'Neill, there are 4 party's to any campaign. Which of the following is NOT one of the critical parts of campaigns?

The imcumbent

Which of the following is true about election campaigns?

They have evolved to the candidate being centered

The framers of the Constitution left the issue of voter enfranchisement to

The states

One recent criticism referenda and initiatives is that

They create an expensive "industry" designed around circulating petitions and spending millions

The American emphasis on freedom over equality in political participation work to the benefit of

Those with greater resources

Learning political party identification from parents is known as the ____ model of partisanship

Transmission

The amendment lowering the voting age to eighteen is the

Twenty-sixth Amendment

A voter who voted a Republican for senator and Hillary Clinton for president in 2016

Voted a split ticket

The percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in a given election is callsd

Voter turnout

What's the main way in which citizens control government?

Voting in free elections to choose leaders

Compared with other nations in the world in granting suffrage to women, the United States

Was among the first

A candidate for political office faces 2 important structural factors when planning a campaign: the office the candidate is seeking and

Whether he or she is the incumbent or the challenger

Which of the following statements concerning gender and political beliefs is incorrect?

Women are more likely to face the death penalty

Based on the text, which of these factors does NOT determine the accuracy of the sample?

Year sample is taken

According to the self-interest principle, people tend to

choose what benefits them personally

Each state has one vote in the electoral college for

each of its representatives and senators

In the current American context, a liberal would tend to promote

economic equality ahead of freedom, and freedom ahead of social order

In Oregon, everyone votes by

mail

A direct primary is a

preliminary election to choose party candidates

In 2000, Republican George W. Bush won the presidency despite

receiving fewer popular votes than Al Gore.

If no presidential candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the election is decided by

the House of Representatives

One notable feature of first-past-the-post elections is that

they produce sizable discrepancies between votes won and seats won.