govt exam 2
According to a 2012 survey in your text, which of the following individuals is most likely to identify as a Republican?
Earning between $75,000 to $99,999, college degree, male, age between 42-53
The best the Socialist Party has ever done in America was to capture 6 percent of the vote in the election of
1912
the amendment granting women's suffrage is the
19th
The amendment awarding three electoral votes to Washington, D.C. is the
23rd
the amendment lowering the voting age to 18 is
26th
The typical procedure for an initiative requires petitions to feature the signatures of __________ of the number of registered voters in a state.
5 to 10 percent
Nonparty groups that engaged in campaign advertising after 2007, but do not have to disclose their donors, are known as
501(c)4 social welfare organizations.
If voter-turnout was computed on the basis of registered voters, about __________ of Americans vote.
80%
Today, __________ states allow voters to both register and vote on the day of the election.
9
The country with the lowest voter turnout among eligible voters in national elections is
US
Which country was the first to provide for the general election of representatives through mass suffrage?
United States
In the discipline of political science, party identification refers to
a sense of psychological attachment to a party.
At the local level, voters elect about __________ of 13,800 school districts across the nation.
95%
Americans contributing money to a candidate's campaign is best defined as a form of
influencing behavior
What most distinguishes political parties from interest groups like the AFL-CIO and the National Association of Manufacturers is that
interest groups do not nominate candidates to run as their avowed representatives.
During the 1970s, the Republican Party undertook extensive organizational reforms to
make it more effective in raising money and providing better support to its candidates.
most referenda are placed on the ballot by
legislatures
In 2001-2002, over 42 percent of registrations for voting were done though
motor-voter provisions
A voter who determines which candidate he or she will vote for very early in the campaign most likely has based that decision on
party identification
The text defines _________ as the actions of private citizens by which they seek to influence or support government politics
political participation
In Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court found __________ is (are) unconstitutional.
preventing blacks from voting in primary elections
Today, American political parties now exist mainly to
provide services or funds to their candidates
Public demonstrations by Egyptian women in December of 2011 were waged in order to protest
public beatings of women by Egyptian soldiers and forced virginity tests on female prisoners
The effect of the Twenty-sixth Amendment, which enfranchised eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds, was to
reduce the national voter turnout rate.
Activists identified with the tea party movement are associated with which of the following demands?
reduced government spending
A 2009 study showed that half of all voters are unaware that they can:
register at motor vehicle offices.
Which of the following activities requires the most initiative?
running for office
One of the most convincing explanations for the two-party system in the United States lies in its use of
single district winners chosen by a simple plurality of votes.
The framers of the Constitution left the issue of voter enfranchisement to
states
During the Vietnam War, protesting students on college campuses
stopped traffic, destroyed property, and occupied buildings
Studies of the 2010 midterm elections found that
tea party endorsements counted more in primary elections than general elections
Most democratic theorists agree that a modern nation-state cannot practice democracy without
at least two political parties regularly contesting elections
George Wallace's American Independence Party in 1968 could be considered an example of the formation of a
bolter party.
A legal action brought by a person or group on behalf of a number of people in similar circumstances is also known as a(n)
class action suit
In the United States, the death penalty
consistently receives high levels of support in public opinion polls.
The purpose of the literacy tests that were used in the southern states after 1870 was to
discourage African Americans from voting.
Some studies show that direct political action appeals most to those who __________ the political system and have a _________ sense of political efficacy.
distrust; strong
The standard socioeconomic model of participation chiefly refers to
education, income, and occupation.
Petitioning a local government council to rebuild a curb in front of your home is a(n)
example of seeking particular benefits
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.
According to the text, all of the following events increased support for the death penalty except
the vietnam war
The American emphasis on freedom over equality in political participation works to the benefit of
those with greater resources.
The majoritarian model of democracy favors
voting as the primary means of participation.
Compared with other nations in the world in granting suffrage to women, the United States
was among the first
Since the present two-party system was established, how many minor-party candidates have been elected to the presidency?
zero
The text defines suffrage and franchise as the right to
vote
Studies of the party identification and ideological orientation of voters show that
voters tend to identify with the party that most reflects their ideological orientation.
The __________ to the Constitution prohibits states from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
15th
There are a total of __________ votes in the electoral college.
538
the attitude of American people towards political parties
Americans recognize the value of parties but distrust the existing ones
Which of the following forms of political participation are Americans least likely to engage in, according to a 2008 survey?
Attending political meetings
Which of the following was the first known act of unconventional participation in America?
Boston Tea Party
Which of the following is an unconventional form of political participation?
Chanting slogans outside public officials' windows
Beginning in 2010, corporations were free to fund ads directly advocating a candidate's election, due to the U.S. Supreme Court decision
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
Which of the following would be most consistent with the pluralist model of government?
Different parties control different branches of government.
Which of the following is not characteristic of public opinion in the United States?
Governments do not tend to respond to public opinion.
The last governor recalled from office was Governor
Gray Davis of California.
Which of the following statements about unconventional participation is not true?
It consists of relatively routine behavior that uses established institutions of representative government.
Which of the following principles is not part of the responsible party government model?
Legislators should be responsive to their constituencies, even if doing so means voting against their party's program.
Which nation did not extend the vote on equal terms with men until 1971?
Switzerland
Which of the following have not encouraged the dominance of Democrats and Republicans as the nation's two major parties?
The use of proportional representation to distribute electoral college votes
Which of the following statements is not true concerning Super PACs?
They do not have to disclose their individual donors.
which statement concerning recall is incorrect?
Twenty-one state governors have been unseated through recall.
Which means of political participation serves the ideal of equality better than any other?
Voting in elections
How does education affect voter turnout?
Well-educated people are more likely to vote than are their less-educated counterparts.
Who said, "I am not a member of any organized political party —I am a Democrat"?
Will Rogers
Women were first given the right to vote in
Wyonming
Direct action includes
a citizen's group appearing before the city council seeking change in ordinace
In general today, women politically participate
about the same as men
All of the following people were considered part of the "Roosevelt coalition" except
african americans
The South still casts many votes for Democrats because of the high proportion of
african americans
All of the following are regarded in the text as examples of unconventional participation except
all of these are unconventional: Selma, Boston Tea Party, Montgomery bus boycott, "occupy" camps
Elections, as an institutional mechanism:
bolster the power and authority of the state.
A national survey in January 2012 found that people were most likely to say they "learned something" about the presidential campaign or candidates from
cable news
From 1880 to 1920, no Republican presidential candidate
carried any state from the former Confederacy.
A method of delegate selection that begins with local meetings and culminates in a state convention is also known as the
caucus method.
A practical test of whether or not a government is democratic is whether
citizens can affect its policies by acting through its institutions.
Which event helped to shape the partisan patterns of the North and South for nearly a century?
civil war
Each state has one vote in the electoral college for
each of its representatives and senators.
The first objective of campaign advertising is to
ensure that a candidate has a high level of name recognition among voters.
Third parties were the original policy advocates for
female suffrage, the graduated income tax, direct election of senators
Content analysis of the 2012 party convention platforms found that Republicans were more likely to mention the words _________ whereas Democrats were more likely to mention the word __________.
freedom; equality
In Oregon, everyone votes by
Party machines—centralized party organizations at the local level that dominated politics by controlling local elections—declined because
government began to provide the social services that had been the basis of popular loyalty and support for the machines.
Someone who asserts that elections "socialize political activity" is contending that elections are mechanisms that maintain
government stability.
George Washington, generally considered sympathetic to the Federalist Party, felt that political factions
had negative effects on democracy.
The presidency supports the two-party system because the presidency is a big enough political prize to induce parties to
harbor uncomfortable coalitions of voters just to win the electoral vote and the presidential election.
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.
Voting in the United States decreased during the 1970s and 1980s. Other forms of participation
increased or remained stable.
Political scientists know less about unconventional forms of political participation because
it is easier to collect data on conventional practices; they are biased toward institutionalized politics
Americans are less likely to __________ than citizens of other countries.
join demonstrations
Characteristics frequently associated with nonvoters are
low education, low income, and being relatively young.
Primary elections in which voters need not declare their party affiliation and can choose either party's primary ballot are known as
open primaries
Surveys show today that approximately __________ of the American population today think that the United States needs a third party.
over half
a direct primary is a
preliminary election to choose party candidates
Which of the following qualifications for voting was virtually eliminated in all states by the 1850s?
property ownership
Early studies of Super PAC ads during the 2012 Republican nomination found that they
spent over 70 percent of their money on negative ads attacking other candidates.
The presidential elections of 1860, 1896, and 1932 are considered __________ because those elections marked a sharp change in the existing patterns of party loyalty among groups of voters.
spilt elections
Flying the American flag on holidays is an example of _________ behavior.
supportive
While terrorism is an unconventional political action, it is generally not counted as political participation because
terrorists do not seek to influence government but to attack it
The New Hampshire presidential primary gathers the lion's share of political and media attention because
the New Hampshire primary is the first one to occur each election year.
Although the United States has a much lower voter turnout than do other democracies, Americans may actually work harder at being good citizens because
the United States has far more elections than do other countries.
In nearly every other democratic country, the burden of registration is placed on
the government
Before the collapse of communism, the former Soviet Union did not function as a democracy because
there was only one political party
Studies of Americans who engage in "contacting behavior" like complaining to city hall find
they are not more likely to engage in other forms of political activity.
One recent criticism of referenda and initiatives is that
they create an expensive "industry" designed around circulating petitions and spending millions.
The People's Party (or Populist Party) could at least brag that it was the first third party since 1860 to
win any electoral votes
