POLS-2301 Final Exam Review Dr. Easterly Lamar University

Candidates for state office and lobbyists have to file quarterly reports detailing their spending and donations with which agency?

Texas Ethics Commission

The regulation of oil and energy in Texas is performed by

Texas Railroad Commision

Which of the following was part of the annexation agreement between Texas and the United States?

Texas could keep public lands, U.S. Congress would not accept those in exchange for payment of debt; We can divide into a total number of 4 states; 5 including Texas

In Texas, ________ create(s) special purpose districts

Texas voters in the areas that will be covered

Which of the following statements about that Articles of Confederation is INCORRECT

They gave the president too much power.

What is the main purpose of a primary election?

To pick who will run for president for each party

Currently, how many states allow guns to be carried on college campuses?

10

The boundaries of legislative districts in the United States are to be redrawn every ________ years.

10

The origins of ranching and the cattle industry extend back to the late _______ century.

17th

Texas became an independent republic in ___________ and became part of the United States in ___________

1836; 1845

The Latino movement known as La Raza Unida occurred during the

1960's

Labor groups represent ________ percent of the total number of interest groups registered to lobby in Washington.

2

Although __________ percent of the population was of African descent at the time of the Founding, only about _________ percent of this group was free from slavery

20, 1.5

In ________, the Supreme Court ruled that the government could not restrict independent expenditures by corporations or unions in support of candidates.

2010

There are ______ amendments to the U.S. Constitution

27

Approximately ___________ percent of Americans can correctly identify all three branches of the federal government

30%

How many states have legal or constitutional provisions requiring that their proposed budgets are balanced?

49

Discussion of the judicial department is in Article _______ of the Texas Constitution.

5

If a person supports a candidate because he or she is the front-runner in a poll, it is an example of the

Bandwagon effect

Which U.S. Supreme Court case in 2009 created the opportunity for those opposed to powerful incumbents to create organizations without having to disclose their donors?

Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission

Issues such as the environment, health care, retirement benefits, and taxation are on the political agenda in the United States because

Contemporary political parties mainly compete for the support of middle-class Americans and these issues are important to the middle class.

The decision to give the national government control over interstate commerce and finance was motivated primarily by the framers' desire to

Promote economic development and protect property from radical state legislatures

Which of the following statements about ranked-choice voting is MOST accurate

Ranked-choice voting has been implemented in some countries (such as Australia) and in a handful of American states and cities.

A candidate who received 20 percent of the overall vote could

win the election only if the election were held in a plurality system.

What was the primary venue for citizen participation in national politics until the early 1900s?

U.S. House elections

Which statement correctly describes the requirements for membership in a major political party in Texas?

With no requirements, a registered voter simply chooses which party primary to vote in.

The Texas Constitution requires which of the following for amending the state constitution?

a two-thirds vote in both houses of the state legislature and a majority vote from the voters of Texas

The frequent reporting on the federal investigation by Robert Mueller regarding whether anyone close to Trump participated in Russia's 2016 election interference is an example of the media's commitment to

adversarial journalism

Privately owned media companies in the United States earn most of their revenue from

advertising

Which of the following occurs when one party replaces another party that has dominated national politics for a lengthy period of time?

an electoral realignment

In order to vote in Texas, you must meet which of the following requirements?

be a resident, a U.S. citizen, and at least 18 years of age

According to the online processing model, members of the public may appear to be politically uninformed because

by the time they actually voice an opinion on an issue, they are likely to have forgotten much of the information that helped them arrive at their opinion.

News produced by individuals and organizations who are not employed as professional journalists is called

citizen journalism

Who is responsible for setting the county's budget and tax rate?

commissioners' court

Which city governments have officials who act as both executives and legislators?

commissions

The Consumer Confidence Index is based on

consumers' perceptions of current business and employment conditions, as well as their expectations for six months hence regarding business conditions, employment, and income.

Dallas operates under which style of city government?

council-manager form

Who is responsible for issuing marriage licenses as well as birth and death certificates?

county clerk

When deciding how to vote, people will use mental shortcuts. Political scientists call these shortcuts

cues

Which two Texas metropolitan areas are national centers for the high-tech industry?

dallas and austin

During the last decade, the number of newspaper journalists working in the United States has

decreased by 40 percent.

The term big data refers to data sets that

describe any data set that is so large and complex that it is difficult to process using traditional applications.

Since 1992, the percentage of people donating money to political campaigns has

doubled

A major benefit of ranked-choice voting is that it

eliminates the "spoiler" effect that occurs when votes for a third-party or minor candidate are discarded.

The establishment of the Republican Party is a good example of

external mobilization

Interest groups often employ _____________________ as lobbyists in order to gain access to those in Texas government.

former legislators and government officials

The fact that the tax code in the United States is more advantageous to wealthy citizens than that of almost any other western nation supports the claim that Americans

generally tolerate economic inequality

Which of the following is a way in which parties help voters during elections?

give voters a party label they can identify with when deciding how to vote

A representative democracy is a system of government that

gives citizens a regular opportunity to elect top government officials.

________ is a strategy that attempts to mobilize the widest and most favorable climate of opinion.

going public

Which of the following was NOT one of the reprisals enacted by the British in response to the Boston Tea Party?

granting the East India Company the power to sell tea directly in the colonies instead of working through the colonial merchants

Which of the following is an "outsider" strategy?

grassroots mobilization

The economy of Texas grew rapidly in the 1990s and was

grounded in a diversified economic base.

The Republican Party is currently MOST internally divided over the issues of

immigration.

Statewide controversial initiatives on the ballot

increase voter turnout in elections.

The 9/11, terrorist attacks ___________ Americans' trust in government

increased

The fact that a smaller and smaller number of companies owns a larger and larger share of the American media is concerning primarily because it

increases the risks that politicians and citizens who express less popular or minority viewpoints will have difficulty finding a public forum.

Texans are increasingly identifying themselves as

independent

The Federal Communications Commision

is an independent agency of the United States government, created by Congressional statute to regulate interstate communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories

A criticism of interest group pluralism is

its class bias in favor of those with greater financial resources

The Bill of Rights was designed to protect

liberty

The tendency for black Americans to perceive other blacks as members of a group with a common identity and a shared political interest is called

linked fate

In Texas, primary elections are usually held in

march

Public funding for presidential primary campaigns

matches, on a dollar-for-dollar basis, all contributions of $250 or less, up to a total of $48.7 million in 2016.

Americans have generally tolerated great differences among rich and poor citizens because

mobility is possible and based on their efforts

Research into public opinion and public policy has shown that

more-affluent and more-educated citizens have a disproportionate influence over politics and public-policy decision

What are the main sources of revenue for special purpose districts in Texas

municipal utility districts (MUDs)

Which of the following elements dominated the land-based economy of post-Reconstruction Texas and is/are still relevant today?

oil, cotton, cattle

A(n) ________ occurs when a voter can wait until the day of the primary to choose which party to enroll in to select candidates for the general election.

open primary

An election where the winner is the person who receives the most votes, regardless of the percentage of votes received, is called a ________ system.

plurality

Before the 1890s, who was responsible for printing election ballots?

political parties

Thinking about the constitutions of Texas and the United States, both are based upon which fundamental idea?

political power is derived from the people

The _______________ requirement was included in the Voting Rights Act to ensure that states that had previously restricted the political participation of minorities could not use redistricting for partisan gain and against the interest of minority groups.

preclearance

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) focuses on

protecting and promoting equal rights for Latinos, and constitutional rights for all, in four core program areas — education, employment and economic advancement, immigrants' rights, and voting rights and political access.

The New Politics movement gave rise to ________ groups.

public interest

The three steps of John Zaller's model of opinion formation are

receive, accept, and sample.

Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) was important because it

reinforced a nationalistic interpretation of the constitution because it defined the power to regulate interstate commerce broadly, giving the national government supremacy in all matters of interstate commerce that involved more than one state

Similar to other southern states, Texas is

religious and socially conservative

The percentage of Americans without any religious affiliation has

risen from 5 percent of the population in the 1990s to more than 20 percent today.

Women in the United States are ______ the ________ Party

somewhat more likely to support; Democratic

Men in the United States are ______ the ______ Party

somewhat more likely to support; Republican

What type of government is called hidden government because people often do NOT know it exists?

special districts

In order to gain access to politicians, interest groups will often

spend money on entertaining politicians.

Voters who prefer third-party candidates but vote for the major-party candidate whom they regard as the "lesser of two evils" are engaged in

strategic voting.

Who were the Radical Republicans

supported blacks, no confederate leaders

Most European nations utilize a

system of proportional representation

Arguably, the largest and most effective public employee interest group in Texas is made up of

teachers

Who led the Grange and Populist movements of the late nineteenth century?

tenant farmers

The situation in which individuals receive the benefits of collective action without contributing is known as

the "free-rider problem".

Emerging in the late 1780s, America's first two political parties were the

the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans.

Which of the following is an example of a public broadcasting organization?

the National Public Radio (NPR)

Which of the following is NOT a reason that many Americans appear to prefer online news?

the accuracy and objectively compared to traditional media outlets

EMILY's List is a national PAC that is funded by women and focuses on raising money for women candidates at which part of the campaign cycle?

the early part of the campaign cycle

A wealthy businessperson who is very liberal is an example of the

the fact that group memberships never fully explain all of an individual's political views.

What is the "social desirability effect"?

the fact that respondents report what they expect the interviewer wishes to hear or whatever they think is socially acceptable rather than what they actually believe or know to be true

When drafting the Texas Constitution of 1876, the framers wanted to create a government based on which of the following principles?

the necessity of strong limitations on the authority of state officials

The practice of push polling involves

the procedure of asking loaded questions in order to subtly shape the respondents opinion

According to French political philosopher Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, placing the executive, legislative, and judicial powers in different governmental bodies worked very well in

the roman republic

One explanation for why Trump performed better at the ballot box than in the public opinion polls is that

the social desirability effect

In a decision on the Affordable Care Act, the supreme court ruled that

the supreme court upheld all of the affordable care act except the requirement that states expanding medicaid

Duverger's Law states that

there is a systematic relationship between electoral systems and party systems, so that plurality single-member district election systems tend to create two-party systems in the legislature, while proportional representation electoral systems generate multiparty systems.

How much can an individual donate to a campaign for a state-level, nonjudicial office, such as for governor?

there is no limit

Political leaders may prefer communicating through social media because

they can directly transmit unedited messages to their followers without having the content altered by the mainstream press

One of the advantages incumbents have when running for reelection is

they have already been in office

________ states currently require all voters to show some form of identification before voting at the polls.

thirty six

The original purpose of voter registration was to

to reduce corruption by making it more difficult to vote.

Attempts by Congress to regulate child labor and factory conditions in local workplaces were struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in the late nineteenth century because regulating local workplaces was

was beyond the scope of interstate commerce at the time and was therefore perceived to be an unconstitutional exercise of power by the federal government.

If a registered Democratic voter was opposed to abortion and rejected the Democratic Party's pro-choice platform, abortion would be a ________ issue for the voter.

wedge

In the 2017-18 election cycle, individuals could contribute no more than ________ to any candidate for federal office in any primary or general election.

$2,700

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) provides what kind of assistance to conservative state legislators across the country?

ALEC writes pieces of legislation and helps get the legislation passed.

Which racial or ethnic group in Texas is concentrated in East Texas?

African Americans

Who were the authors of the Federalist Papers?

Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison

Which incentives do interest groups engage in to overcome the free rider problem?

All of these are correct. (Special discounts, subscription to a magazine, & access to special information on the Internet)

The U.S House of Representatives was designed to

Ensure majority rights

When intraparty disputes split members into different groups, these groups are referred to as

Factions

In 1985, the federal government stopped enforcing the ________, arguing that it was no longer necessary due to the increasing number of television and radio stations.

Fairness Doctrine

The fact that Democrats referred to the Obama administration's health care initiative as "reform" instead of as "rationing" is an example of

Framing

When congressional districts are drawn to favor one political party over another, it is referred to as

Gerrymandering

The fastest-growing demographic group in Texas is ________, the majority of whom vote ________.

Hispanic; Democrat

The ________ Act is a bill designed to prevent foreign influence on elections by subjecting political ads sold online to the same rules and transparency that applies to TV and radio ads.

Honest Ads

Which of the following cities currently has a city government with and strong mayor-council form of government?

Houston

Which of the following is NOT a reason that digital politics fosters political participation?

Many state governments have made it possible for citizens to vote online rather than in person.

California shifted from a Republican stronghold in the 1970s to a solidly Democratic state today primarily due to

Immigration and demographic changes

Most of the African American population of Texas is concentrated in

Inner Cities and East Texas

During presidential election years, the nation's first caucus is held in ________ and the first primary election is held in ________.

Iowa; New Hampshire

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was important because it

It allowed for cross-ownership of media outlets by media conglomerates.

What were the MOST common favors political bosses distributed to loyal party members during the era of political machines?

Jobs. Traditional party machines depended heavily on patronage, their power to control government jobs. With thousands of jobs to dispense, party bosses were able to recruit armies of political workers, who in turn mobilized millions of voters.

In order to win statewide elections, Democrats in Texas want to mobilize which of the following to vote?

Latinos

_________ dominated the secession convention of 1861

Lawyers and slaveholders

A private group that raises and distributes funds for use in election campaigns is called a(n)

Leadership, money, an agency or office, and members.

The major organizational factors shared by most interest groups are

Leadership, money, an agency or office, and members.

The Articles of Confederation were concerned primarily with

Limiting the powers of the central government

The belief among African Americans that their own self-interests are linked to the interests of their race is called

Linked Fate

Which state's health care law became the template for the 2010 Affordable Care Act?

Massachusetts

By about the 1940s, a split between liberals and conservatives developed in the Democratic Party that focused on

New Deal economic policies and civil rights measures.

The second largest city in Texas today is

San Antonio

In a proportional representation electoral system

Seats in the legislature are allocated to political parties based on the share of the total vote cast in the election

The First Continental Congress was

September 5, 1774

What issue led to the demise of the Whig Party?

Slavery

Which of the following statements best describes where younger and older Americans get their news?

Social media tend to be a secondary news source after television for most Americans but a primary news source for the young.

What is the function of the twenty-four councils of government in Texas today?

They are a regional board meant to coordinate local planning and economic development

Which movement has had the largest impact on state legislative races in recent years?

The Tea Party movement

Battleground Texas is a get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort undertaken by which group?

The Texas Democratic Party

Which of the following statements best summarizes Presidents Herbert Hoover's views on federal action during the Great Depression?

The federal government could do little to alleviate the misery caused by the depression and state and local governments should be responsible for responding to the crisis

Which of the following statements about state and federal budgets is the MOST accurate?

The vast majority of state governments must balance their budgets, but the federal government is allowed to run budget deficits.

What is one of the biggest problems with federal block grants?

There is a need to be sure that the states are following the precise regulations established by the federal government.

The poll tax was made illegal in federal elections with the passage of the

Twenty-fourth amendment