Federal Government Chapter 8

Which are the major political parties in the United States?

- Democratic Party - Republic Party

The Civil War triggered a party realignment. What were the two major parties following this realignment period?

- Democratic Party - Republican Party

Which of the following are true of grassroots parties?

- The are open to all citizens. - They operate at the local level.

Which of the following are true of Hispanic voters in the United States?

- They lean heavily toward the Democratic Party, except for Cuban Americans. - Hispanics tend to be liberal on economic issues and conservative on social issues.

Which of the following sum up the various functions of political consultants?

- advising on how to run a successful campaign - gathering voter opinions - production of promotional materials.

Which of the following characteristics of political campaigns have undergone change?

- amount of money required - length of the campaign - focus of the campaign

Even if a third-party candidate fails to win an election, the candidate has still done which of the following to help the third party succeed?

- drawn attention to an issue previously ignored by the two major candidates - encouraged the major parties to address issues introduced by the third party

Which of the following are roles that national political parties have?

- to raise money for Congressional campaigns - to seek media coverage of party positions and activities - to raise money for presidential campaigns

What percentage of voters today cast a split ticket?

20 percent

The clearest example of a party coalition are African Americans, nearly ______ percent of whom regularly vote for Democrats.

90

What percentage of party activists work within local political party organizations?

95 percent

What is the term Darrell West uses to describes candidates' use of televised ads?

Air wars

Which of the following best describes the voting electorate after the expansion of voting rights during the era of Jacksonian democracy?

All white males

Which of the following voting blocs has moved heavily into the Democratic Party since the 1960s?

Black Americans

What group was most concerned about what Scammon and Wattenberg called the "social Issue"?

Conservative Christains

The most important minor parties in the 20th century have been ______ parties.

Factional

True or false: Local party organizations are stronger today than they were in the days of the political machines.

False

True or false: The Internet has overtaken television as the principal medium of election politics.

False

Which president was elected under his promise that he would do something about the Great Depression?

Franklin D. (Delano) Roosevelt

The fact that more white women than white men vote for the Democratic Party is an example of a(n) ___ gap

Gender

Which type of third party is highly organized around a framework concerning the nature and role of government in society?

Ideologically oriented parties

Political parties began to emerge in the United States

In spite of many of the founding fathers' mistrust of them.

As compared to on television, ______ have greater control over the message on the Internet.

Individual Users

The largest expenditure in presidential campaigns is for which of the following?

Media

What usually happens after a third party is relatively successful in attracting votes during a U.S. national election?

One or both major parties will try to co-opt the issue or issues that made the third party successful.

The highlighting of candidates' attributes is called

Packing

In a proportional representation system, which of the following is true?

Political parties win a number of seats in the legislature in rough proportion to the percentage of the vote each party receives.

Which of the following contributed to the decline of the old system of party organizations?

Primary Elections

A permanent shift in party allegiances or electoral support is known as a party

Realignment

Opposition to slavery gave rise to which party?

Republican Party

______ lost control of the Congress in 2008 after they failed to follow through on policy promises to restore the nation's economy.

Republicans

Which of the following voting blocs was largely notable for its migration to the Republican Party during the 1980s?

Southern Whites

Which of the following led to the start of the political party realignment in the 1930s that worked to the benefit of the Democratic Party?

The Great Depression

Which of the following statements is true regarding a single-member district electoral system?

The candidate with more votes than any opponent wins the election in the district.

Which of the following statements about televised debates in presidential campaigns are true?

They are usually part of presidential campaigns.

How did many of the founders of the United States view political parties?

They viewed political parties with suspicion.

Primaries in which candidates of both parties are on the same ballot and the top-two finishers compete in the general election are called ______ primaries.

Top-two

The U.S. government functions as a(n) ______ system.

Two Party

Because of the increasing cost of political campaigns,

because of the increasing cost of political campaigns

In general, political parties are made up of a ______ constituency of supporters.

board

All party organizations have a responsibility to

build support among voters

A state that prevents members of one political party from voting for another party's nominees has which type of primary?

closed

Third parties that break off from one of the two dominant parties are known as

factional parties

A(n) ______ primary is one in which any registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, may vote.

open

In Britain's 2017 election, the Liberal Democrats received 7 percent of the national vote and, thereby, roughly 7 percent of the seats in Parliament. This is an example of a _____ system.

proportional representation

Voting for a candidate's promises rather than his or her past actions is an example of what is called ______ voting.

prospective

Which type of third party arises from a belief that partisan politics is a corrupting influence that needs to be changed?

reform parties

The national, state, and local organizations of the Republican and Democratic parties are

relatively independent; that is, each level does not have much control over the others.

Voting for a candidate's past performance rather than future promises is an example of what is called ______ voting.

retrospective

Today, political candidates tend to...

set up and run their own campaign organizations.

The Republican Party has advocated for a

smaller government that performs fewer social welfare functions.

What is the purpose of a primary election (direct primary)?

to enable voters to select their respective party's candidates for a general election

Current election laws in the United States favor

two-party system

When does a national party committee defer to the president to chose a national chair?

when the party controls the White House

What is another name for the plurality system?

winner take all system

True or false: Rather than being the result of an abrupt shift in response to a single disruptive issue, realignments are caused by gradual changes in response to several issues.

True

Organizations that nominate and seek to elect candidates to government office are known as

Political Parties

On a ______, citizens vote for candidates from different parties.

Split Ticket

How many major political parties are there in the United States today?

Two (Democrat and Republican)

Which party formed during the 1830s was competitive against the Jacksonian Democratic Party?

Whig Party