AMERICAN GOV FINAL REVIEW
Since 1972, on average, about ______% of all eligible voters register and vote in presidential elections.
58
city park
A ______ is an example of a public good. a. city park b. fitness class c. country club d. toll road
entitlement
A benefit that every eligible person has a legal right to receive and that cannot be taken away without a change in legislation or due process in court.
Lower-level governments possess primary authority.
A confederation is a form of government best described as which of the following?
true
A confederation is a highly decentralized governmental system in which the national government derives limited authority from the states rather than directly from the citizens.
ad hoc committee
A congressional committee appointed for a limited time to design and report a specific piece of legislation.
highly formal or informal
A constitution may be ______.
true
A controversial conformity cost of the Affordable Care Act is the requirement that everyone purchase health insurance or pay a penalty on their income taxes.
Fred Scott Decision
A controversial ruling made by the Supreme Court in 1857, shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Dred Scott, a slave, sought to be declared a free man on the basis that he had lived for a time in a "free" territory with his master.
Constitution
A document outlining the formal rules and institutions of government and the limits placed on its powers.
Republic
A form of democracy in which power is vested in elected representatives.
Parliamentary Government
A form of government in which the chief executive is chosen by the majority party or by a coalition of parties in the legislature.
Tyranny
A form of government in which the ruling power exploits its authority and permits little popular control.
Bargaining
A form of negotiation in which two or more parties who disagree propose exchanges and concessions to find a course of acceptable collective action.
the free-rider problem
A form of the prisoner's dilemma that often afflicts large groups is when each individual's contribution to the success of the collective activity is quite small is known as ______.
matching grant
A grant of money given by the federal government to a state government for which the federal government provides matching funds, usually between one and two dollars, for every dollar the state spends in some area.
New Deal
A group of government programs and policies established under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s; the New Deal was designed to improve conditions for persons suffering in the Great Depression.
false
A highly qualified member of the minority party receiving a prime government job is an example of the spoils system at work.
Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka
A landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional.
Bakke Decision
A landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of several factors in college admission policy.
Voting Rights Act of 1965
A law passed at the time of the civil rights movement. It eliminated various devices, such as literacy tests, that had traditionally been used to restrict voting by black people.
literacy test
A legal barrier used to exclude African Americans from voting. Local white registrars would require prospective black voters to read and interpret arcane passages of the state's constitution. Since few satisfied these registrars' rigorous demands, by 1910 fewer than 10 percent of black males were voting in the South.
coordination problems
A majority of House members probably would have preferred to censure rather than impeach Bill Clinton in 1998, but the Republican House leaders refused to allow a vote on censure, leaving a vote for impeachment as the only alternative to letting the president off completely. This delegation to party leaders is a function of trying to avoid ______.
true
A member of Congress helping a constituents with a lost Social Security check is an example of casework.
pocket veto
A method by which the president vetoes a bill passed by both houses of Congress by failing to act on it within ten days of Congress's adjournment.
term limits
A movement begun during the 1980s to limit the number of terms both state legislators and members of Congress can serve
condemnation of slavery offered slave-owning southern delegates
A number of Jefferson's listed grievances were removed:
Compromise of 1850
A package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850, which defused a four-year political confrontation between slave and free states regarding the status of territories acquired during the Mexican-American War
cloture
A parliamentary procedure used to close debate. It is used in the Senate to cut off filibusters. Under the current Senate rules, three-fifths of senators must vote for it to halt a filibuster.
standing committee
A permanent legislative committee specializing in a particular legislative area. They have stable memberships and stable jurisdictions.
discharge petition
A petition that removes a measure from a committee to which it has been referred in order to make it available for floor consideration. In the House it must be signed by a majority of House members (218).
Representative Government
A political system in which citizens select government officials who, acting as their agents, deliberate and commit the citizenry to a course of collective action.
white primary
A practice that permitted political parties to exclude African Americans from voting in primary elections. Because historically in the South winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to winning the general election, this law in effect disenfranchised black voters in southern states.
whenever individuals who ultimately would benefit from cooperating with each other also have a powerful and irresistible incentive to break the agreement and exploit the other side
A prisoner's dilemma arises in which of the following instances?
Equal Rights Amendment
A proposed amendment to the US Constitution stating that civil rights may not be denied on the basis of one's sex.
open rule
A provision governing debate of a pending bill and permitting any germane amendment to be offered on the floor of the House.
restricted rule
A provision that governs consideration of a bill and that specifies and limits the kinds of amendments that may be made on the floor of the House of Representatives.
rule
A provision that governs consideration of a bill by the House of Representatives by specifying how the bill is to be debated and amended.
Jim Crow laws
A series of laws enacted in the late nineteenth century by southern states to institute segregation. These laws created "whites only" public accommodations such as schools, hotels, and restaurants.
Missouri Compromise
A settlement of a dispute between slave and free states, contained in several laws passed during 1820 and 1821.
Tragedy of the Commons
A situation in which group members overexploit a common resource, causing its destruction.
Free-Rider Problem
A situation in which individuals can receive the benefits from a collective activity whether or not they helped to pay for it, leaving them with no incentive to contribute.
Prisoner's Dilemma
A situation in which two or more actors cannot agree to cooperate for feat that the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement.
Politicians
A small group of professionals tasked by society with discovering and coordinating mutually attractive collective decisions.
exaggeration simplicity and symbolism repetition
A staple of political advertising is ______.
Unfunded Mandates
A statute or regulation that requires a state or local government to perform certain actions, with no money provided for fulfilling the requirements. Public individuals or organizations can also be required to fulfill public mandates.
dual federalism
A system of government in which both the states and the national government remain supreme within their own spheres, each responsible for some policies.
Direct Democracy
A system of government in which citizens make policy decisions by voting on legislation themselves rather than by delegating that authority to their representatives.
filibuster
A tactic used in the Senate to halt action on a bill. It involves making long speeches until the majority retreats. Senators, once holding the floor, have unlimited time to speak unless a cloture vote is passed by three-fifths of the members.
poll tax
A tax imposed on people when they register to vote. In the decades after the Civil War this tax was used primarily to disenfranchise black voters. With passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment, in 1964, it became unconstitutional.
conference committee
A temporary joint committee of the House and Senate appointed to reconcile the differences between the two chambers on a particular piece of legislation.
select committee
A temporary legislative committee created for a specific purpose and dissolved after its tasks are completed.
special committee
A temporary legislative committee, usually lacking legislative authority.
costless consumption by a large number of individuals of a public good that results in its ruination
A tragedy of the commons occurs in the case of
continuing resolution
A type of appropriations legislation bill that sets aside money for specific federal government departments, agencies, and programs in the absence of a formal budget
unanimous consent agreement
A unanimous resolution in the Senate restricting debate and limiting amendments to bills on the floor.
hate crime
A violent crime directed against individuals, property, or organizations solely because of the victims' race, gender, national origin, or sexual orientation.
focal point
A(n) ______ is some prominent cue that helps individuals recognize the preferences of others with whom they want to cooperate.
true
Abraham Lincoln frequently referred to his job as president as chief clerk.
16th Amendment
Allows the federal (United States) government to levy (collect) an income tax from all Americans. Income tax allows for the federal government to keep an army, build roads and bridges, enforce laws and carry out other important duties.
Many of the early colonies designated official churches which believers and nonbelievers alike were forced to attend and support with taxes.
Although the First Amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, before independence, which of the following was true?
declare war, raise and finance an army and a navy, and call out the state militias to execute laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions
Although the president is designated commander in chief of the armed forces, only Congress can:
local and service-oriented
Americans had paid taxes before, but they were _________.
liberal
Americans seem to support a wide range of economic and social policies that commonly are classified as ______.
those the president's administration thinks are important
Among other responsibilities, the office of solicitor general is responsible for making the Supreme Court aware of which of the following cases?
Collective Action
An action taken by a group of like-minded individuals to achieve a common goal.
Coalition
An alliance of unlike-minded individuals or groups to achieve some common purpose, such as lobbying, legislating, or campaigning for the election of public office.
rider
An amendment to a bill that is not germane to the legislation.
Initiative
An approach to direct democracy in which a proposal is placed on an election ballot when the requisite number of registered voters have signed petitions.
Referendum
An approach to direct democracy in which a state legislature proposes a change to the state's laws or constitution that all the voters subsequently vote on.
Federal Grants
An award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States.
proportional representation
An electoral system in which legislative seats are awarded to candidates or parties in proportion to the percentage of votes received.
Power
An officeholder's actual influence with other officeholders, and, as a consequence, over the government's actions.
closed rule
An order from the House Rules Committee limiting floor debate on a particular bill and disallowing or limiting amendment.
true
An organization's culture can be described as its "persistent, patterned way of thinking about the central tasks of and human relationships within [the] organization. Culture is to an organization what personality is to an individual. Like human culture generally, it is passed on from one generation to the next. It changes slowly, if at all."
true
Article IV of the Constitution obliges the federal government to ensure that all states adhere to republican principles.
Both voter registration and election to office increased dramatically for African Americans.
As a result of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which of the following happened?
members of congress and presidents are elected separately; members of congress are elected from states and congressional districts by plurality vote (whoever gets the most votes wins)
(2) choices made by the Framers regarding the electoral system have profoundly affected the development of Congress:
transaction costs and conformity costs
(2) kinds of costs that are especially relevant for designing and evaluating institutions:
money given directly to candidates, which is regulated, and money spent outside of the candidate's campaign, which generally is unregulated
Broadly speaking, campaign finance operates through two parallel systems:
large (more people=more problems)
Coordination is more difficult for _________ groups.
politicians
Coordination may be unachievable for large numbers and this is why society's collective decisions are generally delegated to a small group of professionals called _________.
increase with
Coordination problems ______ the size of the group.
false
Coordination problems are rare in states figuring out how to deal with each other.
uncertainty; insufficient information
Coordination problems essentially arise from _________ and ________ and may prevent collective undertakings even when a great majority agrees on a corse of action.
civil rights laws
Crosscutting requirements, since the 1960s, have been widely used to enforce ______.
false
Crossover sanctions, such as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, are examples of carrots.
4th
David Riley had his conviction for a shooting thrown out by the Supreme Court because they held that without a search warrant, downloading the contents of an individual's cell phone constituted an "unreasonable searches and seizure." This is an example of the application of which amendment?
avoid becoming "beset by a horde of citizens seeking to advance their own interests"
Delegates to the Constitutional Convention agreed to meet behind locked doors and to keep their deliberations secret until the convention was over in order to
weak institutions
Delegates to the Philadelphia convention all understood that the nation's previous failures stemmed from ______.
authority to assign an agent responsibility to act in your behalf
Delegation is
in terms of which private persons governments find it prudent to heed
Democracies differ from other forms of government
true
Deregulating the bureaucracy and empowering frontline bureaucrats would make agencies more efficient and would also make bureaucrats less accountable to elected officials.
legislation (president can call congress into meeting and can veto laws passed by congress)
Despite its many powers, Congress does not have exclusive authority over _____________.
false
Despite the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was not integrated until the early 1980s.
true
During the last part of the 19th century, the Supreme Court did not always deliver pro-business decisions; for instance, it consistently upheld state prohibitions against the sale of alcohol and occasionally affirmed state regulation of business when the public interest was at stake.
true
During the republic's first century, presidents typically assumed a small role as a governmental actor.
why in any election in which a single winner is chosen by plurality voting, there is a strong tendency for serious competitors to be reduced to two
Duverger's law explains
the upper chamber (Senate) would be composed of two delegates sent from each state legislature who would serve a six-year term
Each side got one of the two legislative chambers fashioned to its liking:
one important issue for them was campaigning for the vote
Early feminists called themselves suffragists because
true
Early government workers were primarily concerned with delivering the mail and collecting duties and taxes.
true
Elections create strong links between public opinion and government action in the United States.
true
Enforcement authority can solve prisoner's dilemmas of all types.
John Locke (1632-1704) popular sovereignty (citizen's delegation of authority to their agents in government, with the ability to rescind that authority);Charles, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)—limited government, powerful idea that best government can be designed; David Hume (1711-1776)—competition among contending interests; Jefferson and Madison acted as political philosophers themselves studying and writing treatises on government.
Enlightenment thinkers:
true
Evidence suggests presidents view going public as a viable alternative to negotiating with the opposition on Capitol Hill.
The 2010 and 2014 elections both saw large gains by the Democrats in Congress - not previously seen since the Johnson administration.
False
There is little to no incentive in an electoral system for officeholders to remain faithful agents.
False
Women first gained the right to vote in certain western territories because they were hotbeds of radical democracy.
False
Mandating primary elections has weakened the role of parties as official components of the electoral system.
False.
Paradoxically, the Progressive Era left the Republican Party and the Democratic Party organizationally much stronger but in a much weaker electoral position.
False.
The parties are the focus of modern political campaigns.
False.
The years of the Monroe presidency were dubbed the Era of Good Feelings because unemployment was low, GDP was high, and there were no international conflicts.
False.
Typically only 20% of voters tell pollsters that the two major parties do such a bad job that a third party is needed.
False.
When it comes to voter identification, the Democratic party supports legislation to require photo identification for voting and to prevent election fraud.
False.
true
Fear of a monarchy led to the Framers limiting the command power in the constitution.
manage to favor the ideological preferences of the president who appointed them
Federal district court judges
false
Federal judges are immune from voter preferences, and therefore, the policy desires of voters often go unheard.
true
Federalism presents opportunities for two kinds of majorities - state and national - to pursue their interests in competition with each other.
false
Federalists supported states' rights while the Antifederalists supported a stronger national government.
Which of the following was true about the 2012 party platforms, which were statements of the policy positions of each party?
Few voters learn of the difference between the parties from them; rather, voters learned about the parties' positions through political news and campaign advertising.
Focal Point
Focus identified by participants when coordinating their energies to achieve a common purpose.
false
If Congress fails to enact a federal budget in some form, new elections must be held with the hopes of finding a Congress more willing to accommodate the executive.
U.S. Supreme Court
If a state were to sue another state, the original jurisdiction of the case would be the ______.
false
If they were around today, the Antifederalists would most likely support the president's use of executive orders in implementing immigration policy.
can get as many as one third of the people they interview to offer opinions on entirely imaginary issues
Ignorance about an issue does not necessarily prevent people from expressing opinions. Pollsters
the clear and present danger test
In 1919, Charles Schenck's advocacy of resistance to the draft led to the Supreme Court's creation of which of the following?
unitary executive
George W. Bush's flirtation with the ______ - a doctrine that could have endowed him with stronger command authority - ended ignominiously as he became unpopular in the nation and ignored in the Congress.
institution
In a democracy, an organization that manages potential conflicts between political rivals, helps them to find mutually acceptable solutions, and makes and enforces the society's collective agreements. Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court are all prominent examples.
two or more distinct levels of government
In a federal system, the constitution divides authority between which of the following?
The South was solidly Democratic, so winning the Democratic primary was the same as winning the election.
In addition to excluding African Americans, the White primary effectively disenfranchised African Americans because of which of the following?
elected politicians experienced in negotiating collective agreements
In addition to experience in self governance, the state assemblies supplied the nation with another vital resource:
their party allies in Congress
In assembling support for their legislation, presidents begin with ______.
true
In deciding how slaves should be counted in allocating congressional representatives to the states, Southerners wanted slaves to be fully included in any population count while Northerners did not.
the House, with the Senate having an unrestricted right to amend them
In distributing power between the House and the Senate, the final compromise regarding the authority to raise or spend money required that bills raising revenue originate in which of the following?
the more incentives it creates for organized political action
In general, the more government does,
Reconstruction
The period after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the Confederacy were brought back into the United States. During Reconstruction, the South was divided into military districts for the supervision of elections to set up new state governments.
with authority so fragmented, government cannot function effectively
The pluralism of competing interests and separated institutions advocated in Federalist Nos. 10 and 51 has been judged less than favorably because
segregation
The political and social practice of separating whites and blacks into dual and highly unequal schools, hospitals, prisons, public parks, housing, and public transportation.
They have been about as successful at winning reelection as they had been in persuading state legislatures to return them to office.
In the time since senators have been popularly elected rather than appointed, which of the following is true?
often combine attitudes linked more by coalitional politics than by principle
In theory, ideologies promote consistency among political attitudes by connecting them to a more general principle or set of principles. In practice, ideologies
The national government monopolizes constitutional authority.
In unitary government systems, which of the following is true?
Preferences
Individuals' choices, reflecting economic situation, religious values, ethnic identity, or other valued interests.
parliamentary government
Instead of separating the executive from the legislature, mosts of the world's modern democracies have fused them in ___________.
status quo bias
Institutional bias that fundamentally favors continuation of current public policy
perform more efficiently or accomplish new collective goals
Institutional reform may enable institutions to
true
Institutions may confer advantages on some interests over others.
stable and resistant to change
Institutions tend to be
principal-agent
Interest group leaders and their constituents are involved in a(n) ______ relationship with all of the familiar problems and challenges such relationships pose.
true
Issue publics are subsets of the population that are better informed about an issue than everyone else because it touches them more directly and personally.
made easier by party labels because the typical positions of Republicans and Democrats differ in predictable ways on many issues
Issue voting is
Which of the following is true about the two-party system in the United States?
It has continued with a few exceptions since very shortly after the nation's founding.
false
It is an informal norm that federal judges are nominated by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate.
Collective goods
Goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone's consumption.
Public Goods
Goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone's consumption.
offices
Government institutions consist of _________ that confer on their occupants specific authority and responsibilities.
offices that confer on their occupants specific authority and responsibilities
Government institutions consist of which of the following?
false
It is illegal to burn the U.S. flag.
false
Governments controlled by popular majorities are more likely to engage in tyranny.
by large groups with conspicuous and contentious issues and focuses on mobilizing members to send messages that reiterate the groups' demands
Grassroots lobbying is used
Which of the following describes the distribution of those willing to call themselves Democrats or Republicans—that is, partisan identification—from 1952 through 2010?
It remained surprisingly stable.
the senate
James Madison was referring to ______ when he wrote in Federalist No. 62 that its necessity was "indicated by the propensity of all single and numerous assemblies to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions."
false
Judicial review's seemingly absolute authority violates the republican principle of balance as much as it does the democratic principle of majority rule.
preemption legislation
Laws passed by Congress that override or preempt state or local policies. The power of preemption derives from the supremacy clause (Article VI) of the Constitution.
pork barrel legislation
Legislation that provides members of Congress with federal projects and programs for their individual districts.
true
Lincoln justified actions during his presidency (suspending the writ of habeas corpus, approving a naval blockade of southern ports, extending voluntary military enlistment to a period of 3 years, and increasing the size of the army and navy) to Congress by relying exclusively on his authority as commander in chief.
true
Local TV news broadcasts are typically rated more positively in terms of believability than any other mainstream news outlet.
false
Local governments are a separate level in a three-tiered approach to understanding federalism.
checks and balances
Madison argues for a separation of powers between the branches, that is, an executive and judiciary that are independent from each other and especially from the legislature
both a and b
Madison contends that the republican form of government in which elected representatives are delegated responsibility for making governmental decisions addresses the tyranny-of-the-majority problem in which of the following ways? a. Representation dilutes the factious spirit. b. It can encompass a large population. c. Individuals can be represented by groups. d. both A and B
to introduce a Bill of Rights at the convening of the First Congress under the new Constitution
Madison was able to appease the Antifederalists concern over the protection of liberty by promising
false
Madison's dreams were realized, and we have prevented majority factions from tyrannizing local minorities.
House of Representatives
Madison's population-based, elective legislature became the ______________ and as an extra compromise to appease Madison's nationalists, House has sole authority to originate revenue legislation (Unanimity replaced by a rule allowing a majority of the membership to pass legislation)
true
Madison, who recognized that people act most forcefully when they have a stake in the outcome, believed tyranny could best be avoided by empowering every faction to look out for its own interests.
majority whip
Majority party official in Congress charged with managing communications between party leaders and members
true
Many early observers of the presidential selection process expected the House to make the choice most of the time.
true
Many rules and procedures adopted in the bureaucracy are to ensure fair - or at least equal - treatment of each citizen by preventing unaccountable, arbitrary behavior.
the council of revision and it was chosen by legislature in the first place
Many saw the proposed legislature as too powerful although Madison had incorporated a check on its power. What was this check?
pulling decisions into the White House through executive orders, centralized administration, and broad assertions of executive privilege
Modern presidents deal with an opposition Congress using vetoes and threats but also by
earmarks
Money set aside by Congress in the federal budget to pay for projects in the home district of a member of Congress
true
Most historians and judicial scholars have read the congressional deliberations and the wording of the Second Amendment itself as guaranteeing the right of local militias to bear armsË- a kind of collective good. But what "good" it was intended to provide was vague.
true
Most policy domains are of concern only to issue publics, so it is usually their opinions, not mass opinion, that matter to politicians.
exert, at most, only a modest effect on a legislator's decisions
Most scholarly research has found that political action committees
false
Most scholarly research has found that political action committees are more influential on legislators than partisanship, ideology, or constituent preferences.
false
Most scholars who study public opinion believe that expressed opinions seldom represent underlying attitudes.
false
Most successful large organizations circumvent the collective action problem by offering selective incentives, which are benefits available to everyone regardless of membership in the group.
true
NASA is an example of an independent executive agency.
13th Amendment
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
false
No Child Left Behind is an example of dual federalism as envisioned by Madison.
they discovered they were able to influence public opinion and, in turn, national politics
Once newspaper publishers and editors freed themselves from party control,
shift the focus of electoral politics from parties to candidates
One consequence of the electoral reforms of the Progressive Era was to
civil rights
The powers or privileges that are conferred on citizens by the Constitution and the courts and that entitle them to make claims upon the government. They protect individuals from arbitrary or discriminatory treatment at the hands of the government.
Busing
The practice of assigning and transporting students to schools in such a manner as to redress prior racial segregation of schools, or to overcome the effects of residential segregation on local school demographics.
true
The presence of ready-made coalitions resolves many conflicts in advance, reducing the transaction costs of negotiating agreements on legislation. The price, however, is loss of autonomy to the party and of authority to leaders.
the Constitution declares it
The president is commander in chief of the nation's armed forces because
true
The presidential honeymoon refers to the initial periods of goodwill where a greater number of survey respondents applaud the president's early performance than the election results suggest.
Speaker of the House
The presiding officer of the House of Representatives. They are elected at the beginning of each congressional session on a party-line vote. As head of the majority party they have substantial control over the legislative agenda of the House.
leave to future generations of leaders to define at the margins the responsibilities and prerogatives of the several branches
One of the tricks to designing durable institutions, as the Framers understood, is to
standing
Only litigants who are directly or adversely affected by a disputed action have the right, otherwise known as ______, to bring the case to court.
less populous states (far less representation than under the Articles); States' rights delegates (worried about state sovereignty)
Opposition grew towards the Virginia Plan from two directions:
true
Organizations that rely on so-called "moral incentives" for joining interest groups tend to grow when opponents run the government.
true
Originating with President Theodore Roosevelt's characterization, bully pulpit refers to the advantageous position afforded the office for rallying public support.
false
Over the past century, determination of national civil liberties policy has shifted from nearly the exclusive jurisdiction of Washington, D.C., to states and communities.
false
Overall, presidents received much more media attention than Congress during the 19th century.
200
PAC contributions to candidates increased by close to ______% between 1974 and 1986.
true
Pack journalism refers to journalists following the same story in the same ways because they talk to one another while reporting and read each other's copy for validation of their own reporting.
false
Paradoxically, the Progressive Era left the Republican Party and the Democratic Party organizationally much stronger but in a much weaker electoral position.
true
Partial preemption is where certain federal laws allow the states to administer joint federal-state programs so long as they conform to federal guidelines.
true
Parties work to achieve coordination and reduce transaction costs, but in the end, members risk incurring conformity costs and agency losses.
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.
they were a faction without the capacity to defend themselves
People do not engage in costly behavior without some expected return. Madison, recognizing that citizens and politicians alike act most forcefully when they have a personal stake in the outcome, believed that tyranny could best be avoided by empowering every faction to look out for its own interests. The problem for African Americans was that
joint committee
Permanent congressional committees made up of members of both the House and the Senate. They do not have any legislative authority; they monitor specific activities and compile reports.
true
Plessy v. Ferguson established, on a national level, the separate but equal doctrine, which officially sanctioned segregation throughout the South.
true
Pluralism welcomes society's numerous diverse interests and generally endorses the idea that those competing interests most affected by a public policy will have the greatest say in policy.
getting people to agree on an action even in the absence of agreement on the purposes of the action
Pluralist politics is all about building coalitions, which means
true
Pluralist systems and the tendency for groups to win when they care most and lose when they care least mean that "special interests" often win out over general interests, leaving members of Congress perpetually open to the charge of violating the public trust.
affirmative action
Policies or programs designed to expand opportunities for minorities and women and usually requiring that an organization take measures to increase the number or proportion of minorities and women in its membership or employment.
true
Political necessity explains the three-fifths rule, the malapportioned Senate, and the Byzantine procedures for electing a president.
not mentioned in the Constitution
Political parties are
in control of
Political scientist John Aldrich observed, "A new form of party has emerged, one that is in service to its ambitious politicians but not ______ them."
false
Politicians can never trust the information provided by a lobbyist, so the costs of doing business are very high.
true
Politicians pay close attention to group differences in polling data because they determine feasible coalition-building strategies.
true
Politics inevitably requires compromises and trades, the results of which leave no one fully satisfied.
true
Preemption legislation is any federal law that asserts the national government's prerogative to control public policy in a particular field.
any federal law that asserts the national government's prerogative to control public policy in a particular field
Preemption legislation is which of the following?
(1)major laws—such as those dealing with taxes and constitutional change—required the endorsement of nine of the thirteen states (2)more fundamental change, such as amending the Constitution, required unanimous agreement (3)national authority was so circumscribed that the delegates saw little purpose for an executive or a judiciary (4)Delegates sought to replicate home rule they had lost
Provisions of the Articles:
they can use to resolve ambiguities and conflicting lower-court decisions
Recognizing that the Court has a strong stake in maintaining standards and coherence within this highly decentralized organization, justices look for cases
a partisan purpose put forth by the Republican Party
Reconstruction can best be characterized as
true
Red tape is the term for the labyrinthine procedures, layers of paperwork, and strict adherence to form for which bureaucracies are legendary.
violated the equal protection clause in the constitution
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) found that the admission quota system used in implementing affirmative action policies
true
Religious conflict is an example of an issue bound to create a factional struggle according to Federalist No. 10.
fashioning an active national government
The Virginia Plan was concerned with
Virginian Edmund Randolph
The Virginia Plan, Madison's blueprint for a new constitution, was introduced by ____________.
Australian
The ______ ballot, introduced during the Progressive Era and still in use today, lists candidates from all parties and is marked in the privacy of a voting booth.
constitution; institutions
The _______ of a nation establishes its governing ________ and the set of rules and procedures these institutions must (and must not) follow to reach and enforce collective agreements.
a novel, hybrid governmental system that is neither national nor confederative in nature
The absence of a dominant majority faction meant intense bargaining during the Constitutional Convention, and shifting alliances led to
true
The absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the president, at times, to ignore Supreme Court rulings.
Coordination
The act of organizing a group to achieve a common goal. It remains a prerequisite for effective collective action even after the disincentives to individual participation (prisoner's dilemma problems) have been solved.
multiple referral
The act of sending a proposed piece of legislation to more than one committee in the same chamber.
true
The act of the Supreme Court that interpreted the 14th Amendment to apply the Bill of Rights to the actions of state and local governments is known as the process of incorporation.
ticket-splitting
The act of voting for candidates from different political parties for different offices - for example, voting for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator
casework
The activity undertaken by members of Congress and their staffs to solve constituents' problems with government agencies.
true
The additional airport screening of Arab-looking males following 9/11 is an example of racial profiling.
14th Amendment
The amendment addresses citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws, and was proposed in response to issues related to former slaves following the American Civil War.
false
The attorney general represents the federal government in cases before the Supreme Court.
714,000; 51%
The average U.S. House member represents _________ people. Nine largest states are home to _____ percent of total U.S. population.
true
The basic necessities of any campaign are a candidate, a message, and a way to inform voters about both.
party identification
The best single predictor of how someone will vote in federal elections is ______.
true
The biggest problem with regard to protecting informational privacy is that the law has trouble keeping up with changing technology.
declare war, maintain an army and navy, and borrow money
The broad list of enumerated powers available to Congress in Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution includes the power to
some capacity of each of the three branches to limit the power of the other two
The checks and balances contained within the Constitution result in which of the following?
true
The civil rights movement inspired and instructed the subsequent stream of organizations that agitated for social change because organizers of social movements quickly imitate successful innovations, and each new group can draw on the experience of its predecessors.
(1) make reneging and defection very expensive (2) create institutions that guarantee agreements are honored
How is the prisoner's dilemma solved?
agreed to provide provisions but failed to do so in timely fashion
How were the states free riding?
false
The collective action problems faced by the civil rights movement involved too many participants and too few resources.
They became wary of delegating too much authority to the executive.
The colonial experience with the king's governors and other royal officials had which of the following effects on the members of Congress?
the constitutional provisions for federalism
The commerce clause, the elastic clause, the supremacy clause, and the 10th Amendment are all examples of which of the following?
An economic recession led to many Republican losses in the 1874 election.
The commitment of northern Republicans to Reconstruction in the South waned after which of the following?
seniority rule
The congressional practice of appointing as committee or subcommittee chairs the members of the majority with the most years of committee service.
implicit zones of protected privacy rights on which the existence of explicit rights depend
The constitutional right to privacy is to be found in the Constitution's penumbras, which are best defined as
Institutional Design
The construction of political institutions and processes for managing conflicts and reaching collective agreements between competing interests.
Transaction Costs
The costs of doing political business reflected in the time and effort required to compare preferences and negotiate compromises in making collective decisions.
politics (i.e. US constitution--need to convince everyone better off with than w/o)
The creation of institutions is a product of ________.
true
The damage done from air pollution is an example of an externality.
false
The decision to elect the president and the legislature separately is modeled after parliamentary systems in Europe.
incumbents; districts
The decline in party loyalty among voters offered _____________ a chance to win votes that would once have gone routinely to the other party's candidate.When they realized their advantage, they sought to increase it by voting to give themselves greater resources for servicing their ___________.
conditional party government
The degree of authority delegated to and exercised by congressional leaders; varies with--is conditioned by--the extent of election-driven ideological consensus among members.
de facto segregation is not mandated by law; de jure segregation is mandated by law
The difference between de facto segregation and de jure segregation is that
Conformity Costs
The difference between what a person ideally would prefer and what the group with which that person makes collective decisions actually does. Individuals pay conformity costs whenever collective decisions produce policy outcomes that do not best serve their interests.
Separation of Powers
The distribution of government powers among several political institutions. In the United States, at the national level power is divided between the three branches: Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court.
holds that the Supreme Court possesses the authority to rule acts of Congress unconstitutional
The doctrine of judicial review
true
The doctrine of judicial review has been so successful because it does not require action from other branches.
true
The early revolution is an example of a prisoner's dilemma: some states were reluctant to contribute out of fear that other states would hold back.
true
The effort to secure civil rights rested less on making formal rules - which Madison noted had little impact on intemperate majorities - and more on configuring politics to allow society's competing interests to check one another.
true
The elastic clause actually undermines the carefully worded and restrictive nature of the enumerate powers.
false
The enumerated powers are a list of what the federal judiciary may or may not rule on when it comes to questions of constitutional law.
false
The executive branch is responsible for controlling the organization of the bureaucracy, the authority, the budgets, and the staffing of the agency.
true
The fact that justices often reflect the preferences of the administration that appoints them implies presidents' policy ideas remain in government longer than the presidents themselves.
true
The fact that the output of many bureaucratic agencies defines measurement means it is difficult to encourage bureaucratic efficiency.
war as the preferred alternative
The fear that a party to a political negotiation may renege on or fail to abide by any agreement may lead to which of the following?
true
The federal civil service mirrors the American population far more accurately than Congress. Thirty percent are minorities, matching the overall population; 45% are women.
the loss of ad revenue caused by the Internet
The financial decline of modern newspapers can best be attributed to
true
The first Continental Congress was a response to Britain's increasing taxation and administrative laws.
true
The first colonial assemblies appeared by about 1650 to initiate laws and levy taxes.
confederation
The first government was a _____________: a highly decentralized governmental system in which the national government derives limited authority from the states rather than directly from the citizenry
inclusion of the Bill of Rights
The first step toward acquiring civil liberties protections in the constitution was
Cabinet
The formal group of presidential advisers who head the major departments and agencies of the federal government. Cabinet members are chosen by the President and approved by the Senate.
majority leader
The formal leader of the party controlling a majority of the seats in the House or the Senate. In the Senate they are the head of the majority party. In the House they rank second in the party hierarchy behind the Speaker.
animal sacrifice and door-to-door solicitations
The free exercise clause of the First Amendment has been interpreted to allow which of the following?
true
The golden age of newspapers was so named because they held a monopoly over mass communication and were the only outlet for national political news.
configuring politics to allow society's competing interests to check one another
The history of Black civil rights depended on
the evolution of a private good to a governmental responsibility
The history of fire protection in America can best be described as which of the following?
has less to do with prosecuting criminals than with preventing law enforcement officers from meting out arbitrary justice
The history of the concept of a public trial
de jure segregation
Segregation enacted into law and imposed by the government.
Law-abiding citizens and their representatives tend to sympathize more with the victims of crime than with the accused.
The incorporation of criminal rights into the 14th Amendment has proven to be challenging for which of the following reasons?
quotas
Specific shares of college admissions, government contracts, and jobs set aside for population groups that have suffered from past discrimination. The Supreme Court has rejected the use of quotas wherever it has encountered them.
grandfather clauses
Statutes stating that only those people whose grandfather had voted before Reconstruction could vote, unless they passed a literacy or wealth test. After the Civil War this mechanism was used to disenfranchise African Americans.
Office
Subdivision of some government department that confers on its occupants specific authority and responsibility.
bargaining and compromise
Success at politics includes __________ and _________.
districts must have equal populations
Supreme Court ruling in Wesberry v. Sanders:
false
The influx of women has surprisingly made Congress far less attentive to issues of sex discrimination and sexual harassment.
Government
The institutions and procedures through which people are ruled.
its costs
The key to successful collective action lies in designing a system that achieves the benefits of a collective efforts while minimizing _________________.
false
The language in the Bill of Rights is best described as explicit, leaving little room for ambiguity or misinterpretation.
necessary and proper clause
The last clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. This clause grants Congress the authority to make all laws that are "necessary and proper" and to execute those laws.
true
The local police chief, Eugene "Bull" Connor, made Birmingham an appealing area for a protest because it would provide a graphic display of the institutional violence that enforced segregation.
quorum
The minimum number of congressional members who must be present for the transaction of business. Under the Constitution, the number in each house is a majority of its members: 218 in the House and 51 in the Senate when there are no vacancies.
true
The modern Supreme Court has contributed to controversy over certain civil liberties, as the Supreme Court has carved out a larger role in public policy and is insulated from the public.
shared federalism
The most accurate conception of American federalism is referred to as which of the following?
true
The most famous leaker in American history was "Deep Throat," who continuously provided news reporters at the Washington Post leads for investigating the June 1972 break-in at Democratic headquarters at the Watergate Hotel.
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.
Great Migration
The movement of 6 million African-Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West that occurred between 1910 and 1970.
Supremacy clause
The national laws are the "supreme" law of the land and therefore take precedence over any laws adopted by states or localities
building the Constitution on the consent of the governed rather than endorsement by the states
The nationalists successfully denied state governments any claim that they could ignore national policy by
true
The nationalization of public policy occurred as politicians sought solutions to problems and responded to the demands of their constituencies, not necessarily as a response to collective action dilemmas.
true
The necessary and proper clause, often known as the elastic clause, is the Constitution's single most extensive grant of power to Congress.
true
The nomination process enables the parties to solve the coordination problem posed by competing presidential aspirants.
true
The object of the Federalist was to sway educated public opinion in favor of the Constitution.
the national government would prevail over states when both governments were acting in a constitutionally correct manner
The original intent of the supremacy clause was to ensure
transaction costs
That a proposed amendment to the Constitution must be endorsed by two thirds of the membership of both houses of Congress and ratified by three fourths of the states is an example of which of the following in the Framer's design?
the fundamental dilemma facing U.S. presidents
That presidents have too little authority to satisfy the expectations for their performance is known as ______.
organizing labor strikes
The "criminal anarchy" for which Benjamin Gitlow was arrested and convicted was which of the following?
the direct and popular election of senators
The 17th Amendment, which came about amid persistent and widespread charges of bribery, mandated which of the following?
Fugitive Slave Law
The 1850 law compelling northerners to honor southerners' property claims to slaves, passed in return for the South's agreeing to admit California as a free state (and hence lose its ability to block legislation in the Senate).
legal representation
The 1963 case of Gideon v. Wainwright resulted in the guarantee of ______ at trial for all defendants charged with a felony.
false
The 1965 Voting Rights Act authorized the Justice Department, under certain circumstances, to send federal officers into communities to directly register voters. Madison would have objected to this policy under his goal of preventing a national veto power over state laws.
true
The 85 essays published between 1787 and 1788 under the joint pseudonym "Publius" that urged the ratification of the Constitution were collected under the title of the Federalist Papers.
true
The APA is an example of a fire alarm mechanism.
false
The Articles of Confederation were adopted by the first Continental Congress.
new, permanent Congress
The Articles transferred power from the Continental Congress to the __________.
false
The Bill of Rights has, during the 20th century, gradually by incorporation, come to be accepted as policies that only apply to the state governments.
limit the capacity of government to impose conformity costs on those individuals and minorities whose views differ from the majority
The Bill of Rights was designed to do which of the following?
did not effectively extend the vote to African Americans
The Civil War amendments did which of the following?
true
The Civil War and North-South divide is not one of the three eras of the Courts.
national government; scope of government
The Civil War settled the supremacy issue in favor of the ______; the actual ______ at both levels remained uncertain.
true
The Clinton administration's National Performance Review sought ways to "cast aside red tape"; encourage entrepreneurial administration that "put customers first"; decentralize authority to "empower those who work on the front lines"; and, in general, produce "better government for less" with a reduced workforce.
true
The Constitution and national laws solve many of these dilemmas that arose during the early years surrounding reneging and shirking by authorizing the federal government to take direct action in raising resources and administering policy.
true
The Constitution gives presidents a modest role in the legislative arena, including the veto and the ability to call Congress into special session.
true
The Constitution has been amended 27 times.
19th Amendment
The Constitution of the United States provides men and women with equal voting rights. The amendment states that the right of citizens to vote "shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."
the extent of its authority over the states
The Constitution opened the door to nationalization by granting the federal government ultimate power to determine, within certain bounds, which of the following?
true
The Democratic Party took advantage of a change in public opinion during the 1960s to become the party of civil rights.
true
The Democratic administration's high-profile sponsorship of civil rights laws led to its emergence as a major campaign issue in the 1964 presidential election.
false
The Department of Justice was the first cabinet-level agency established by the executive branch.
false
The Electoral College is an example of direct democracy.
true
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed refusal to rent or sell housing on grounds of race or religion but exempted citizens who rented or sold their homes without using a real estate agent.
true
The Federalist Papers were written with the intent of influencing delegates to support ratification of the Constitution.
true
The Framers accepted the proposition that, unlike the bicameral legislature, the executive would contain none of the internal checks provided by institutional design or factions by rejecting the idea of a plural executive.
minimize conformity costs and maximize transaction costs
The Framers designed the new government to
true
The Fugitive Slave Act is an example of a compromise the South used with the admittance of California into the Union. They lost the ability to block legislation in the Senate, but Northerners would have to honor southerners' property claims to slaves.
false
The House and Senate "look" like the United States in terms of demographics.
6 months after
The Immigration and Naturalization Service sent word to the Florida flight school where two of the terrorists had been trained that the terrorists' student visas had been approved ______ the 9/11 attacks.
false
The Lemon test is the contemporary method for determining if anything runs afoul of the establishment provision.
Vietnam war; new economic initiatives such as housing subsidies and school nutrition programs; civil rights for African Americans
The New Deal coalition of Democrats began to unravel due to which of the following issues?
Tax (Single-house chamber; equal representation for each state regardless of population; Plural executive; On petition of a majority of states executive can be removed by legislature)
The New Jersey Plan perpetuated the composition and selection of Congress as it functioned under the Articles, but it did give Congress the power to _______.
the president's primary control instrument over the bureaucracy
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is best described as which of the following?
false
The Office of Management and Budget consents to treaties and trade agreements negotiated by the president and informs Congress of any changes.
true
The Republicans' competitive status is threatened, however, by demographic trends. The Republican coalition includes a disproportionate share of White (87%), male, older, religiously active, and socially conservative people, all shrinking portions of the electorate.
true
The Restraining Acts and Coercive Acts closed the port of Boston to all commerce, dissolved the Massachusetts assembly, decreed that British troops in Boston must be quartered in American homes, and ordered that Americans charged with protest crimes and British soldiers charged with crimes against the colonists be sent to England for trial.
17th Amendment
The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislatures.
false
The Sons of Liberty were an early public interest group well known for their subversive activities, including the publication of the Federalist Papers.
It struck down the separate but equal doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson.
The Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka is most notable for which of the following reasons?
cruel and unusual as applied but, since 1976, allowed because the defects in state sentencing procedures were remedied
The Supreme Court has held the death penalty to be which of the following?
false
The Supreme Court has the power to distribute the caseload to the lower courts.
false
The Supreme Court upheld the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801 in the case of Stuart v. Laird when it ruled Congress had the right to reorganize the judiciary.
false
The Supreme Court's decision in NFIB v. Sebelius (2012) is an example removing the federal government's carrots but not the stick.
separate but equal doctrine
The Supreme Court-initiated doctrine that separate but equivalent facilities for African Americans and whites are constitutional under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
false
The U.S. Constitution has lower transaction costs than are found in most parliamentary systems.
reassure diverse interests that they would be better off under the new system
The U.S. Constitution was intended to do which of the following?
true
The Underground Railroad was a network of abolitionists who hid slaves and provided them transportation northward and out of slavery.
self-incrimination
The principle against ______ contained in the Fifth Amendment has been a bedrock of American jurisprudence.
false
The process of acquiring political attitudes is known as political learning.
Politics
The process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common, or collective, action — even as they disagree on the intended goals of that action.
false
The profusion of news across the spectrum of political ideology has resulted in a better-informed citizenry.
to see even more sensationalized news; to select the news sources they find most congenial with their political views; to opt out of political information all together
The proliferation of alternative media gives viewers the opportunity
true
The public prefers bipartisan agreement to partisan bickering; cooperation with the president over conflict between the branches; and, most of all, successful government policies.
false
The pursuit of reelection makes logrolling an unattractive strategy for members of Congress.
democracy
The quality of _______ in modern America reflects the quality of its governing institutions.
true
The real purpose of the Court-packing plan was to give Roosevelt a Court majority sympathetic to his New Deal programs.
Reciprocity
The relationship between 19th-century cabinets and their presidents was characterized by ______.
true
The relationship between politicians and reporters is built on a tension between reciprocity and competition.
true
The relationship between the Supreme Court and the lower courts is an example of a principal-agent relationship.
ways to maximize the potential political benefits and minimize the potential political costs each time they decide to exercise and delegate their authority
The remarkable variety of arrangements adopted to administer government policies is largely a product of the endless search by Congress and the White House for which of the following?
true
The reservation of power to the states to determine voting eligibility and the fragmented constitutional system are two major obstacles faced by African Americans in securing civil rights.
true
The right of assembly under the First Amendment can be thought of as a peripheral right.
Authority
The right to make and implement a decision
false
The right to privacy is explicitly stated in the Ninth Amendment.
suffragists
The right to vote in political elections.
false
The rise of public interest groups and the fragmentation of the interest group universe has increased concern about the role of iron triangles and captured agencies.
iron triangles
The rise of public interest groups and the fragmentation of the interest group universe, as well as the ability of legislators to learn from past mistakes, broke up the ______ made up of members of Congress, lobbyists, and regulatory agencies.
true
The role of a bureaucracy is to turn political choices into policy realities.
true
The role of the Senate in confirming Supreme Court nominees occurs in their advise and consent capacity.
true
The seniority rule arose out of an effort to reduce transaction costs.
elections and appointments
The seniority rule avoids which of the following two unwelcome alternatives in legislative organization?
9
The seventh and final article of the Constitution spells out an important procedure endorsed by delegates in the final days of the convention: "The Ratification of the Conventions of ______ States, shall be sufficient for the Establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Same."
institutional design; solutions: regulations (e.g. limit access and enforcement); privatization
The trick to avoiding tragedy of the commons lies in proper _______________. Solutions include:
from Congress, state legislatures, and municipalities to the Supreme Court
The two major decisions on gun rights regarding D.C. and Chicago have shifted the final word on gun rights
true
The two recent Supreme Court decisions on gun rights have been decided by a 5 - 4 vote.
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.
The Federalists, one of the first two major parties, faded as a national force when which of the following occurred?
Their pro-British leanings put them on the wrong side of the War of 1812.
William Patterson
These two groups coalesced around Ann alternative proposed by New Jersey delegate __________ in response to the Virginia Plan.
the opinion of the people
Thomas Jefferson explained to a friend, "The basis of our government being ______, the very first object should be to keep that right."
district lines may not dilute minority representation, but neither may they be drawn with race as predominant consideration
Thornburg v. Gingles (1986):
"givens"
Those who create government institutions tend to regard preferences as _______--individuals and groups know what they want--that must be reconciled if they are to agree to some common course of action.
limited scope; legislative check; veto
To achieve an independent executive that could not abuse its authority and could moderate excesses of the legislature, the Framers utilized several features:
true
To attract audience attention in the ever-changing media environment, producers and editors will often package the news in more sensational ways.
false
To characterize the news media businesses discredits their integrity as suppliers of vital civic information.
three fifths of the Senate membership, currently 60 votes
To end a filibuster in the Senate, cloture must be invoked by how many votes?
how to acquire information, how to coordinate action, how to resolve conflicts, and how to get members to work for common as well as personal goals
To exercise the powers conferred on them by the Constitution, the House and Senate had to solve some basic problems:
true
To keep the young Republican Party coalition together, Lincoln staffed his cabinet with Republican leaders, even some of his rivals for the presidency.
Privatize
To prevent a common resource from being overexploited by tying the benefit of its consumption to its cost.
conformity and transaction costs (low conformity costs to modern standards, but higher than the Articles of Confederation)
To solve the nation's pervasive collective action problems, the Framers designed a new government that balanced _________ and ____________.
90
Today, almost ______% of television households subscribe to cable or to satellite services.
the time, effort, and resources required to make collective decisions
Transaction costs are
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
The 2012 focus on the appropriate strategy for invigorating the economy and bringing down the deficit is an example of candidates' opportunistic choice of issues.
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% to 80% of House incumbents win by default because their opponents spend too little money to make a race of it.
True
Voting, like any delegation of authority, raises the possibility of agency loss.
True
reducing transaction costs and agency losses
Bureaucratic organization imposes heavy conformity costs on both bureaucrats and the people they deal with in return for which of the following?
Congress's desire to control administration
Bureaucratic red tape often springs directly from which of the following?
false
Bureaucrats are not involved in policy making and therefore may not target benefits to key members of Congress.
true
Bureaucrats must convince their congressional principals that they are good and faithful agents.
1650
By ________ all of the colonies had established elective assemblies (some had experience in dealing with collective agreements and constitution writing)
coordination: the Continental Congress had to become the national government in order to respond to the events of war
By the time the Second Continental Congress met (spring 1775) war had broken out (battles of Lexington and Concord) and there was a need for:
"We reaffirm our support for a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman" is an example of a Republican Party platform.
True.
Fractious coalitions are a common thread running across all the different party systems over the course of U.S. history.
True.
In today's politics, primaries and caucuses effectively determine the parties' nominees.
True.
Many early observers of the presidential selection process expected the House to make the choice most of the time.
True.
Party entrepreneurs, for their part, have simply redesigned party organizations to operate more effectively in today's media-based electoral arena.
True.
President Obama and his Republican Congress are an example of divided government.
True.
Republicans typically favor a smaller, cheaper federal government; they advocate lower taxes, less regulation of business, and lower spending on social welfare. They would be more generous only to the Defense Department.
True.
The Democrat-Republicans protested the aristocratic inclinations of the federalists, eventually becoming known just as Democrats.
True.
The Republicans' competitive status is threatened, however, by demographic trends. The Republican coalition includes a disproportionate share of White (87%), male, older, religiously active, and socially conservative people, all shrinking portions of the electorate.
True.
The chief reason for their longevity is that the institutions created by the Constitution make the payoffs for using parties—to candidates, voters, and elected officeholders—too attractive to forgo.
True.
The legality of political party activities are ensured by the first Amendment's guarantees of freedom to speak, write, and assemble.
True.
The nomination process enables the parties to solve the coordination problem posed by competing presidential aspirants.
True.
The organization of modern Democrat and Republican parties can be depicted as pyramidal organization that function hierarchically.
True.
The superdelegates accounted for almost 20% of the votes at the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention.
True.
The threat of collective punishment by the voters gives the majority party a strong incentive to govern in ways that please voters.
True.
The two-party system has been strengthened by laws that treat the parties as official components of the electoral machinery.
True.
When issues have arisen that split the existing party coalitions in the United States, partisan identities weaken, and the party label may not provide the information voters want.
True.
false
Turnout in midterm elections generally is higher for the least educated, who don't realize the futility of voting.
do such a poor job that a third major party is needed
Typically more than half of voters tell pollsters that the two major parties
true
Under the Articles of Confederation the nation was plagued by free-riding problems.
With no enforcement mechanism in place, no state would contribute its share of the revenue so long as it suspected other states might not meet their obligations.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the states faced a classic prisoner's dilemma for which of the following reasons?
DOMA
Was a United States federal law that, prior to being ruled unconstitutional, defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states
true
Websites that require some form of adult verification before offering products are a violation of free speech.
rules and procedures for making and implementing decisions
What are all organizations governed by?
parties appear to be at the mercy of candidates rather than candidates being at the mercy of parties; candidate's views are what counts, and they may change from day to day in response to the perceived needs of the campaign
What are the results of party-centered elections?
the authority of the national legislature (commerce clause-3; necessary and proper clause-18); allowed for expansion of federal-level power in the future
What did Article 1, section 8 extend?
more government control of effort
What did General Washington urge for?
ruled that Congress could not force the states to expand Medicaid by threatening their existing Medicaid funding
What did the NFIB v. Sebelius (2012) decision accomplish?
colonial assemblies passed resolutions demanding repeal of the tax; assemblies sent delegates to a national conference (the Stamp Act Congress) to draft a unified response
What does "no taxation without representation" mean?
July 4, 1776 by each member of the Second Continental Congress
When and by whom was the Declaration of Independence signed?
They have chosen members of their own parties about half of the time.
When choosing Supreme Court nominees, presidents have done which of the following?
extend his influence unilaterally by issuing executive orders
When critics of a president charge the chief executive is trying to turn the office into an imperial presidency, they mean the president is attempting to do which of the following?
impose taxes, coin and borrow money, regulate interstate and foreign commerce, and spend money for the "common defense" and "general welfare"; "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers...."
What does Article 1, Section 8 authorize congress to do?
institutions and the legally prescribed process for making and enforcing collective agreements
What does a government consist of?
group benefits participants cannot achieve on their own (however, participation may require some substantial cost such as taxes for road constriction)
What does collective action offer?
an officeholder's actual influence with other officeholders and over the government's actions
What does power refer to (it is broader than authority)?
challenges a group's members to figure out what they want to do and how to do it
What does successful collective action do?
# of MCs + # of Senators
What is the electoral college composed of?
reconciling preferences
What is the fundamental problem of governance?
to guide an organization's members in making essentially political decisions (that is, decisions in which the participants initially disagree about what they would like the organization to do)
What is the purpose of rules and procedures?
1968 Democratic National Convention
When did elections shift from party-based to candidate-based?
January: Thomas Paine published over 120,000 copies of "Common Sense" (independence had not been considered seriously earlier on); June: Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee calls for creation new nation separate from Britain
What major events happened in 1776?
whenever collective decisions produce policy outcomes that do not best serve their interests
When do individuals pay conformity costs?
end of the French and Indian war/7 Years war in 1763 which drained Britain economically; British citizens were the most heavily taxed in the world; Colonists would need to share the upkeep (reduce security free riding)
What triggered the strain upon home rule?
disparity between expectations and performance
What two challenges do presidents face when taking office?
control America's foreign commerce thereby guaranteeing itself a market for British manufactured goods and a steady supply of cheap raw materials
What was Britain's first concern?
they issued the nation's first bonds and established a national currency
What was first issued in the Second Continental Congress?
when the number of participants rise
When do transaction costs increase?
when the individual recognizes that their small contribution to the collective enterprise will not affect its success or failure
When does the free rider problem arise?
false
When five justices support hearing a case, the certiorari petition is granted.
Council of Revision composed of the executive and certain judges, which could veto legislation. Its members, however, would be elected by the legislature. Madison proposed allowing a simple majority of Congress to override a council veto.
What was the Council of Revision composed of?
bicameral legislature: members of the lower chamber apportioned among the states by population and directly elected; lower chamber would elect members of the upper chamber from lists generated by the state legislatures AND elect the national executive and judiciary
What was the centerpiece of the Virginia Plan?
Stamp Act (1765) this law imposed a tax on all printed materials, including legal documents, licenses, insurance papers, and land titles, as well as a variety of consumer goods, including newspapers and playing cards (proof of payment of the tax was the stamp affixed to the taxed document)
What was the most aggressive challenge to home rule imposed by Britain?
Served as nucleus of national representation for next decade, but did not establish a national government as suggested by Benjamin Franklin => creation of "committees of observation
What was the point of the First Continental Congress in 1774?
The root causes of this critical shift are technological change and reform politics, particularly the Progressive Movement of the early twentieth century (but also some return to a kind of party-centered politics in the 1990s)
What was the root of the cause behind the shift from party-centered to candidate-centered?
lacked decision-making authority (decisions of consequence had to be approved by all state governments); could not even get available supplies to troops; could not compel states to contribute resources when needed; national government could not coordinate the states' actions
What was wrong with the continental congress?
checks and balances
When Madison fashioned independent executive and judicial branches that could contain efforts by the states to subvert national policy, he was establishing which of the following?
true
When issues arise that split the existing party coalitions in the United States, partisan identities weaken, and the party label may not provide the information voters want.
false
When it comes to principles instead of programs, Americans most likely think of themselves as conservative.
false
When it comes to voter identification, the Democratic Party supports legislation to require photo identification for voting and to prevent election fraud.
true
When modern state governments encountered the same collective action dilemmas that prompted their 18th-century counterparts to send delegates to Philadelphia, they solved these dilemmas in the same way: by shifting responsibility from the state to federal authorities.
the public and fellow politicians
When politicians participate in newsmaking, they usually have two audiences in mind: ______.
a leak
When politicians strategically give important information to the news media on the condition that its source not be identified by name, this is referred to as ______.
real-world events and circumstances
When public opinion is not stable, its movements can usually be explained by which of the following?
it is less likely that debates will degenerate into personal confrontations
When representatives speak on the floor of the House, all remarks are officially addressed to the Speaker because
true
When the National Rifle Association wants to prevent new restrictions on firearms, its members shower Congress with letters, e-mails, faxes, and phone calls supporting its position. This is an example of grassroots lobbying.
the federal government promises to provide matching funds, usually between one and four dollars, for every dollar that a state spends in some area
When the federal government makes a matching grant,
where the issues are simple and the participants know and trust one another
Where could bargaining be used?
the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention
Where does the basic structure of congress come from?
true
Whereas ambitious politicians in the 19th century saw a cabinet post as a stepping-stone to the White House, modern politicians are more likely to view a stint in the cabinet as a suitable conclusion to a career in public service.
K Street
Which Washington, D.C., location has become synonymous with the lobbying firms that represent America's biggest and most powerful interests?
District of Columbia v. Heller
Which of the following adopted the individual right to the Second Amendment?
A stronger national government must be accompanied by explicit safeguards against tyranny - put differently, the Constitution needed a bill of rights; The United States already was too large and too diverse to be well ruled by a single set of laws; Local democracy, the kind found in small homogeneous communities, could approach true democracy
Which of the following are Antifederalist objections to the Constitution?
public housing
Which of the following became a federal responsibility under Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs?
a set of rules prescribing a political process for reaching and enforcing collective agreements
Which of the following best describes political institutions?
They point to the powerful combination of the supremacy clause and the elastic clause to support their argument.
Which of the following best describes scholars who argue that the 10th Amendment - which provides that the powers not taken by the national government belong to the states - is little more than a truism?
Agencies with different missions, clienteles, skills, and ideologies compete for influence, authority over policy, control of implementation, and resources.
Which of the following best explains the bitter infighting between the State and Defense Departments over guidance of policy toward the war in Iraq?
Secretary Hillary Clinton, President Obama, and Representative John Boehner
Which of the following came under heavy criticism following the attack in Benghazi?
United States v. Lopez
Which of the following cases is an example of the use of assertive judicial review - striking down Congress's powers under the commerce clause?
Ballots must be available in Spanish where at least 5% of the population is Hispanic.
Which of the following describes the 1970 extension of the Voting Rights Act?
It remained surprisingly stable.
Which of the following describes the distribution of those willing to call themselves Democrats or Republicans - that is, partisan identification - from 1952 through 2010?
governing by consensus
Which of the following does NOT impose conformity costs on an individual? a. rules that limit the time allotted to a member of Congress for a floor speech b. serving in Iraq c. paying property taxes d. governing by consensus
execution of juveniles
Which of the following has the Court found to be cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment?
Black southern preachers
Which of the following helped the civil rights movement overcome their collective action problems when they switched from a litigation strategy to one of mass mobilization?
treating everyone as individuals (to create a personal feel)
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a bureaucratic institution?
how to get reelected
Which of the following is NOT a problem in congressional organization?
Senators are often more responsive to their constituents because their longer terms allow them to accomplish more significant work.
Which of the following is NOT a reason senators are more vulnerable than members of the House?
Unilateral action is much quicker, and the Framers wanted the president to wage war without approval from Congress.
Which of the following is NOT a reason the Framers provided the president with broader authority to transact diplomatic affairs?
the power to remove Supreme Court justices
Which of the following is NOT an example of an explicit congressional power?
those institutions created by a constitution and the legally prescribed process for making and enforcing collective agreements
Which of the following is a formal definition of a government?
The House allocates seats by population; the Senate is composed of two members from each state.
Which of the following is a major difference between the House and Senate?
to avoid placing bureaucratic layers between the president and the agency
Which of the following is a major reason for delegating authority to an independent executive agency?
a quest for larger budgets
Which of the following is a possible motive for bureaucratic behavior?
Congress may set the jurisdiction of the Court and to create lower courts.
Which of the following is a way in which Congress can control the Court if they disagree with their decisions?
presidential nominations of federal judges
Which of the following is an example of Constitutional authority?
members of a string quartet playing their individual portions of a piece in order to create one coherent performance
Which of the following is an example of a coordination problem?
During negotiations over ratification, New England agrees to provisions about the slave trade while the South agrees to regulate commerce with a majority vote.
Which of the following is an example of a logroll?
efforts to reduce pollution
Which of the following is an example of a tragedy of the commons?
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
Which of the following is an example of an independent regulatory commission?
The Daily Show
Which of the following is an example of an infotainment news program?
Americans regulating intercolony commerce
Which of the following is an example of home rule?
District of Columbia v. Heller
Which of the following is an example of judicial activism?
poll tax
Which of the following is an example of the NAACP's concern over long-standing Supreme Court doctrine requiring that plaintiffs prove a law's discriminatory intent rather than simply demonstrate a bias in its effect?
Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act
Which of the following is an example of the federal government solving a coordination problem among the states?
too many boats chasing too few fish
Which of the following is an example of the tragedy of the commons?
To enforce its policies, the judiciary depends on the compliance of other institutions.
Which of the following is one of the subtle sources of limitations on the absoluteness of judicial review?
law
Which of the following is the most common background for members of Congress?
It conveys the theory of pluralism that guided Madison.
Which of the following is true about Federalist No. 10?
The agents monitor on Congress's behalf.
Which of the following is true about how the interested outsiders recruited by the Administrative Procedures Act monitor the activities of bureaucratic agents?
They are a small segment of the public that forms opinions by paying close attention to political events and issues and from whom the uninformed majority takes cues about the issues.
Which of the following is true about opinion leaders?
It is only behind Defense and Veterans Affairs in number of personnel.
Which of the following is true about the Department of Homeland Security?
The Court concurred that the federal government could not prevent slavery in the territories.
Which of the following is true about the Dred Scott v. Sanford decision?
These ideas arrived with the settlers from England, and many of the suffrage restrictions survived the Revolution.
Which of the following is true about the practices of selecting leaders by ballot and limiting suffrage?
It at first only applied to actions of the federal government.
Which of the following is true about the religious freedom provision of the First Amendment?
They have the force of law; however, the agencies give Congress official advance notice of possible political fallout through the public notice of proposed rules.
Which of the following is true about the rules that agencies make?
It provided a highly decentralized government.
Which of the following is true of the Articles of Confederation?
senate confirmation
Which of the following might Theodore Roosevelt NOT have been discussing in his comment, "The most important factor in getting the right spirit in my administration," wrote Roosevelt, reflecting on his term, "was my insistence upon the theory that the executive power was limited only by specific restrictions and prohibitions appearing in the Constitution or imposed by Congress in its constitutional powers"?
Some of the provisions of the Bill of Rights are still not applied to the states.
Which of the following reflects the current application of the Bill of Rights to the states?
Americans usually dislike both their own representatives and senators and Congress as a whole.
Which of the following statements is NOT true about the population's feelings about Congress?
The first half-century of racial politics in the United States closely followed Madison's prediction of tyranny in the states unconstrained by national majorities.
Which of the following statements is true?
shrank the size of the Supreme Court to five justices
Which of the following was part of the Judiciary Act of 1801?
1982 Voting Rights Act
Which of the following was responsible for increasing the number of minorities in Congress?
compromise of 1850
Which of the following was responsible for the collapse of the Missouri Compromise?
to have the Court order Secretary of State James Madison to perform his duty and deliver Marbury's commission
Which of the following was the purpose of the writ of mandamus requested by William Marbury and several other Federalists?
The parties compromised so the balance in the Senate between free and slave states would be maintained.
Which of the following was the rationale behind the Missouri Compromise of 1820?
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
Which pair of men all became president without winning a majority of the national popular vote?
false
White House staffs were formalized early on, providing the president with direction and implementing policy as needed.
parties
Who is in charge in party-centered electoral politics?
minority students appeared to gain the most from the closing of failing schools
Why did democrats support the NCLB law?
helped president Bush fulfill his promise to improve k-12 education; NCLB made a way to prevent school districts from taking and freely spending federal money w/o accountability
Why did republicans support the NCLB law?
each side recognizes that it will be better off with a collective outcome rather than with trying to act alone
Why do exchanges occur?
(1) with authority assigned to the office, not to the individual holding the office, established institutions persist well beyond the tenure of the individuals who occupy them (2) the people who are affected by institutions make plans on the expectation that current arrangements will remain
Why do institutions tend to resist change?
may be intrinsically rewarding to do so even if the contribution is minor (but most people are inclined to free ride still)
Why do people contribute to collective enterprises given the logic of non participation?
each party needs to find a solution to its conflict or disagreement (a solution requires parties to cooperate)
Why do politics matter?
complicated by an increased # of participants and complexity and divineness of issues; requires too much time and effort; fear of reneging may foster suspicion and lead even so far as civil war
Why do unstructured negotiations rarely lead to acceptable results for all parties?
geography; Americans enjoyed home rule (tradition of self-governance); the British has ceded to American responsibility for managing their own domestic affairs, including taxation
Why was American so well suited to be the First Nation to break with monarchy and embrace republicanism?
true
Campaign messages are often chosen opportunistically, rather than thought out well in advance.
that electing one candidate will produce a better outcome in some relevant sense than electing another candidate
Casting a vote is making a prediction about the future
true
Central clearance and the gag rule are both examples of the executive branch trying to exert control over the administration.
protected the legitimacy of the Court by not politicizing the decision
Chief Justice Robert's vote on the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate accomplished which of the following?
false
Chief Justice Taney's reasoning in the case of Dred Scott v. Sandford resulted in the Court gaining power as it related to questions of slavery.
the Constitution's protections "from" government power
Civil liberties are best described as
false
Civil rights and the defense of civil rights are terms coined only for African Americans.
true
Civil rights are protections the government secures on behalf of its citizens.
The New Deal coalition of Democrats began to unravel due to which of the following issues?
Civil rights for African Americans, the Vietnam War, and new economic initiatives such as housing subsidies and school nutrition programs.
civic rights
Civil rights in colonial times roughly amounted to protections against arbitrary action by the distant British Crown and can be thought of as ______.
additional support and money came from France (self interest in defeating and humiliating Britain) and helped officially end the war in 1783
Collective action problem was partial overcome with outside help:
the efforts of a group to reach and implement agreements
Collective action refers to which of the following?
false
Collective goods are goods paid for by all but enjoyed by a few.
true
Compared with Article I's detailed development of the structure and powers of Congress, Article II is long on generalities and short on details.
cutthroat competition
Competition among states that involves adopting policies that each state would prefer to avoid. For example, states engage in this when they underbid one another on tax breaks to attract businesses relocating their facilities.
nationally organized environmental constituencies that do not
Conflicts arising over the environment frequently pit local resource users who bear the cost of environmental regulations against which of the following?
the difference between what one party prefers and what the collective decisions obligate participants to do
Conformity costs are
true
Congress delegates to independent agencies for many reasons, including to avoid responsibility for an unpopular decision.
legislative vetoes, hearings and investigations, and mandatory reporting
Congress uses a variety of methods to keep its bureaucratic agents in line, including
true
Congress's ability to nullify an adverse judicial decision by writing a new public law that addresses the Court's concern or achieves the same goal in a somewhat different way is an example of the checks and balances in the system.
presidents can order an extended military engagement without a declaration of war
Congress's authority to declare war is, in most respects, a hollow check, for which of the following reasons?
the absence of any public consensus on what should be done about these issues
Congress's difficulty in deciding on a budget, reforming the health care system, or dealing with an array of social problems (poverty, inequality, education, and job loss) reflects
civil liberties
Constitutional and legal protections from government interference into personal rights and freedoms such as freedom of assembly, speech, and religion.
true
Constitutional courts are vested with the general judicial authority outlined in Article III of the Constitution.
coordination problems and prisoner's dilemma
barriers to collective action:
Republican party identifiers have ______ overtime.
become increasingly conservative
block grant
broad grant with few strings attached; given to states by the federal government for specified activities, such as secondary education or health services
Procedural doctrine; Substantive doctrine
______ governs the specific ways in which the lower courts should do their work. ______, more akin to policy making, guides judges on which party in a case should prevail.
"The economy, stupid"
______ was a sign put up by Bill Clinton's campaign manager in 1992 to keep focus on the campaign's most powerful message.
constitution
a document outlining the formal rules and institutions of government and the limits placed on its powers
republic
a form of democracy in which power is vested in elected representatives
tyranny
a form of government in which the ruling power exploits its authority and permits little popular control
bargaining
a form of negotiation in which two or more parties who disagree propose exchanges and concessions to find a course of acceptable collective action
theocracy
a government of religious leaders
The threat of replacement provides elected officials with
a powerful incentive to listen to their constituents
focal point
a prominent cue that helps individuals recognize the preferences of others with whom they want to cooperate
prisoner's dilemma
a situation in which two (or more) actors cannot agree to cooperate for fear the other will find its interest best served by reneging on an agreement (when the individuals find themselves personally better off by pursuing their private interests and undermining the collective effort even when they want it to succeed)
One implication of our winner take all system is:
a smaller number of political parties.
federalism
a system in which power is divided between the national and state governments
shared federalism
a system in which the national and state governments share in providing citizens with a set of goods
In An Economic Theory of Democracy, Anthony Downs defined a political party as:
a team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election.
Divided government:
allows each party to block the other party's more extreme proposals and forces both to compromise when making policy.
Incumbents
already holding office
Regular, free, and competitive elections
ameliorate the problem of delegation
collective action
an action taken by a group of like-minded individuals to achieve a common goal
coalition
an alliance of unlike-minded individuals or groups to achieve some common purpose
proportional representation
an electoral system used throughout most of Europe that awards legislative seats to political parties in proportion to the number of votes won in an election
candidate-centered politics
an encouragement of electoral politics in which candidates operated largely as independent political entrepreneurs (favored by Democrats throughout the second half of the 20the century)
The fact that people with lower incomes are more inclined to support spending on government services helpful to people like them: Social Security, student loans, food stamps, childcare, and help for the homeless, and people with higher incomes are notably less enthusiastic about government spending on social programs or taxing higher incomes at higher rates is best explained by ______.
economic self-interest
public goods
everyone participates in supplying--say through tax dollars--and which anyone can freely consume as much as they desire
16th amendment (federal income tax) and raising federal revenue
example of reducing transaction costs:
Framing coverage of the Ku Klux Klan as a free speech issue resulted in lower support than when the group was framed as a public order issue.
false
Regardless of religious affiliation, the more active people are in religious life, the less socially conservative they are likely to be.
false
Anyone trying to mobilize the citizens to vote has to overcome the electorate's tendency to ______.
free ride
Gibbons v. Ogden
gave federal government authority to regulate commerce
collective goods
goods that are collectively produced and freely available for anyone's consumption
The Framers knew self-government by direct democracy was impossible in the new nation due to ______.
high transaction costs
No matter how well organized, electoral alliances fail:
if they cannot get enough people to vote for their candidates.
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
Political scientist John Aldrich observed, "A new form of party has emerged, one that is in service to its ambitious politicians but not ______ them."
in control of
preferences
individuals' choices, reflecting economic situation, religious values, ethnic identity, or other valued interests
logrolling
members of Congress agree to reciprocally support each other's vote-gaining projects or tax breaks; can lead to prisoner's dilemma
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
Throughout U.S. history, party coalitions have shifted periodically in response to:
new national issues and conflicts.
Political parties are:
not mentioned in the Constitution.
Typically, ______ of voters tell pollsters that the two major parties do such a bad job that a third party is needed.
over one half
Despite their expressed disdain for parties, voters still rely heavily on party cues in making their decisions because:
party labels continue to provide useful, cheap information about candidates.
parties monopolized political organization through a system of precinct and block captains held together with the rewards of patronage
political organization of party-centered politics:
The federal system offers powerful incentives for ______ to win and exercise political power.
political parties
home rule
power given by a state to a locality to enact legislation and manage its own affairs locally (also applies to Britain's administration of the American Colonies)
enumerated powers
powers specifically given to congress in the constitution; including the power to collect taxes, coin money, regulate foreign and interstate commerce, and declare war.
keep their jobs (have to be reelected over and over again)
primary goal of congress members:
gerrymandering
process of redrawing legislative boundaries for the purpose of benefiting the party in power
The vast network of organizations engaged in measuring or trying to influence public opinion underlines the reality that
public opinions influence is rarely simple or unmediated
tragedy of the commons
resembles free riding in that a provision of a public good is divorced from its consumption; costless consumption of a public good (commons) results in its ruination (e.g. you would do stuff in your high school bathroom that you would never do at home)
the old system was truly party centered; parties chose the candidates, determined the issues, disseminated the info, and organized and ran the campaigns
results of party-centered politics:
Roe v. Wade
ruled abortion illegal
McCulloch v. Maryland
ruled that a bank could not be taxed; constitution is the supreme law of the land
Griswold v. Connecticut
ruled that states prohibiting the use of contraceptives was violating privacy of citizens
regulations (costly)
setting up rules limiting access to the commons resource and monitoring and penalizing those who violate them
compromise
settlement in which each side concedes some of its preferences in order to secure others
One consequence of the electoral reforms of the Progressive Era was to:
shift the focus of electoral politics from parties to candidates.
proper institutional design; privatization; regulation
solutions to tragedy of the commons?
The two-party system arises from ______ in the winner-take-all competition for the presidency.
strategic voting
authority
the acknowledged right to make a particular decision
coordination
the act of organizing a group to achieve a common goal; coordination remains a prerequisite for effective collective action even after the disincentives to individual participation have been solved
The women's suffrage movement grew directly out of
the antislavery movement
states' rights
the belief that an individual state may restrict federal authority
representative government
the blending of delegation with majority rule seen in modern democracies
institutional design
the construction of political institutions and processes for managing conflicts and reaching collective agreements between competing interests
conformity costs
the difference between what a person ideally would prefer and what the group with which that person makes collective decisions actually does
separation of powers
the distribution of government powers among several political institutions
cabinet
the formal group of presidential advisers who head the major departments and agencies of the federal government; are chosen by the president and approved by the Senate
The political incentives for parties can best be explained by:
the idea that action requires winning majorities on a continuing basis in multiple settings, organization is absolutely essential.
race to the bottom
the idea that free trade gives states the incentive to lower regulations and standards in order to beat out the competition in producing goods cheaply
Necessary and Proper Clause (aka elastic cause)
the last clause of Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution; grants Congress the authority to make all laws that are necessary and proper and to execute those laws
elastic clause
the part of the Constitution that permits Congress to make any laws "necessary and proper" to carrying out its powers
Because candidates are the focus of modern political campaigns:
the party's activities are aimed more at helping individual candidates compete more effectively than at promoting the party brand.
Tenth Amendment
the powers not delegated to the united states by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
politics
the process through which individuals and groups reach agreement on a course of common, or collective, action--even as they disagree on the intended goals of that action
transaction costs
the time, effort, and resources required to make collective decisions
People choose which leaders to follow and which messages to heed according to
the values and beliefs they accumulate over a lifetime
A truly random sample of any population is rarely feasible because
there is no single directory where everyone is conveniently listed and so can be given a perfectly equal chance of being selected
Which of the following was a consequence of expanding the voting franchise?
there was a decline in the percentage of those eligible who turned out to vote
private goods
things people buy and consume themselves in a marketplace that supplies these goods according to the demand for them (homes, cares, clothes, food, sources of entertainment)
free rider problem
to defect from the agreement by withholding a contribution to the group's undertaking while enjoying the benefits of the collective effort (affects large groups)
separation of powers; staggered legislative terms; an unelected judiciary; limited national authority
while majority rule is visibly present in the framework, it is also constrained by some powerful rules (increase in transaction costs):
Duverger's law explains:
why in any election in which a single winner is chose by plurality voting, there is a strong tendency for serious competitors to be reduced to two.
In general, opinion on whether to take a tougher or more conciliatory approach to dealing with the Soviets varied
with U.S perceptions of Soviet behavior
nationalization
changing something from private to state ownership or control
direct democracy
citizens participate directly in collective decision making (is reserved primarily for small communities and organizations)
Which of the following would be most liberal?
city dweller
Deciding how we feel about an issue by noting who is for it or against it is an example of a(n) ______.
cognitive shortcut
Opinion polls find that almost every American supports the institutional underpinnings of modern democracy. When it comes to the practical application of these abstract values,
consensus breaks down
privatizing (less costly)
converting it from a collective good to a private good
12th amendment
corrected the most egregious flaws of the Electoral College, that is, instead of 2 votes for president (with the second person becoming the VP) ensuring a distinct vote casting for both offices
The "party organization" refers to one part of a connected three-part system that is:
dedicated to electing the party's candidates.
Typically more than half of voters tell pollsters that the two major parties:
do such a poor job that a third major party is needed.
false
Bible reading is allowed in public schools if it is done during the moment of silence at the beginning of the school day.
true
Bicameralism is intended to weaken the legislature's capacity to act too quickly and impulsively.
false
Bill Clinton was the first president to have an in-house pollster taking regular reading of the public's pulse.
true
Black Southern preachers emerged as leaders in the civil rights movement and helped overcome the collective action problem the movement encountered in shifting strategy from litigation to mass demonstrations.
true
Black members of Congress led the fight for sanctions punishing South Africa for its apartheid system in the 1980s.
true
"I make one ingrate and ten enemies" is a quote from President Grover Cleveland describing presidential appointments.
Thomas Jefferson once declared that, with respect to political parties:
"If I could not get to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all."
true
"No taxation without representation" is closely tied to the assertion of home rule.
Declaration of Independence
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness . . ." is part of which document?
ineffective government
Blame for the free riding and other forms of shirking that hampered the early American Revolutionary War effort should be placed on which of the following?
true
Affirmative action refers to a policy that required those employers and schools that had practiced past discrimination to compensate minorities (and subsequently, women) by giving them special consideration in hiring and school admissions.
true
Affirmative action represents a policy that required employers and schools that had practiced past discrimination to compensate minorities (and subsequently, women) by giving them special consideration in hiring and school admissions.
true
Blogs have changed the media in another important way: by providing media outlets and entrepreneurs with space to develop digital-only content.
control their effects
According to Madison, if we can't remove the cases of factions without compromising liberty, then we should ______.
true
Across the world, unitary governments are far more common than federations and confederations combined.
true
Adequately defining obscenity and drafting objective standards that enable judges and police to distinguish the merely pornographic or sexually explicit from the truly obscene has been a problem for the Supreme Court and law enforcement when it comes to obscenity.
reining in majorities that assert their prerogatives over the objections of individuals and groups who did not wish to conform to prevailing social norms and rules
Advances in national civil liberties policy have frequently involved
false
Affirmative action policies require the hiring, admission, or promotion of a minority over a nonminority in areas with a history of discrimination despite qualifications.
delegating authority to the bureaucratic agencies or state governments
How has logrolling been solved?
true
After the Revolutionary War, the citizens of the newly independent states rejected unitary authority in favor of a confederation in which smaller state governments held ultimate power.
a war-torn economy (debt national, purse strings with the states; unwilling to share import duties);Trade barriers at home and abroad (all matters of commerce reserved to the states; cannot negotiate trade agreements);Mounting debt (currency one tenth of prewar value; states have their own currencies leading to widely fluctuating exchange rates); Popular discontent (Shays's Rebellion) => demonstrates that confederation cannot even perform the most basic function of government—keeping the peace
After the war the nation faced new perils and questions as to its survival:
opinion leaders
Aggregate public opinion is given its coherence and focus by ______.
true
Aggregate public opinion on abortion is both highly stable and acutely sensitive to how the issue is framed.
publish the rule or regulation in the Federal Register and hold public hearings if anyone objects to it
Before a rule or regulation can be adopted, the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 requires administrative agencies to
true
As he was winding down his administration, President John Adams nominated and the outgoing Senate quickly confirmed John Marshall as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court.
unstructured negotiation; preferred alternative
As participants and preferences in politics multiply and as issues become more complex and divisive, ____________ rarely yields a collective decision that all parties can accept. (when this occurs we may become the ________________)
delegation
Assigning authority to make and implement decisions to a smaller number of persons who are expected to act on behalf of the larger group's interest is an example of which of the following?
false
Assignments to committees are irrelevant because the chair of a committee can override the appointments and remove any member as he or she sees fit.
decreased from about 55% to roughly 30%
At least in part because of cable television, from 1965 to 2013, the percentage of households that watch the State of the Union address has done which of the following?
candidates with little experience in government frequently enjoyed an advantage over established politicians who might be associated with a particular faction of the party or who, as officeholders, had taken controversial positions on divisive national issues
At the national party nominating conventions, presidential candidates usually were valued a great deal more for their widespread popular appeal and willingness to distribute patronage according to party guidelines than for their policy pronouncements. As a result,
The ______ ballot, introduced during the Progressive Era and still in use today, lists candidates from all parties and is marked in the privacy of a voting booth.
Australian
secretary of state
Before he was chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall served as ______ under President Adams.
Private Goods
Benefits and services over which the owner has full control of their use.
Congress has remained overwhelmingly White and male
Because White males predominated in the lower-level public offices and private careers that are the most common stepping-stones to Congress,
shape and mobilize public opinion on behalf of their causes
Because of the basic constitutional guarantees that allow citizens to express their views and compel government leaders to take those views into account, it is both possible and essential for political leaders and policy advocates to try to
is subject to some measurement error
Because the fit between the words and concepts used in polling questions and how people actually think about issues is never perfect, even the most carefully designed question
they do not stray from mainstream public opinion for long
Because the president nominates and the Senate confirms federal court appointments,
protect; constrain
Detailed procedures both ______ and ______ bureaucrats, so red tape is frequently self-imposed.
true
Disagreement between the three branches of government surrounding 1993's Religious Freedom Restoration Act occurred due to problems with the ambiguous language in the Bill of Rights.
false
District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) banned hand guns in Washington, D.C.
gerrymandering
Drawing legislative districts in such a way as to give one political party a disproportionately large share of seats for the share of votes its candidates win.
fireside chats
During the Depression and World War II, Franklin Roosevelt relied on nationally broadcast radio addresses, known as ______, to rally the American public.
true
During the Great Depression, unemployment rates of 40% were not uncommon.
national and state governments
During the first of the three eras of the Supreme Court, the unresolved questions concerning ______ were at the heart of the judiciary's most significant cases.
false
For most people, basic political orientations fluctuate throughout their lives as a function of their experience and income.
Continued state participation in the selection of national officeholders was as important an issue as how legislative seats would be apportioned.
For the states' rights delegates at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which of the following is true?
as it was the larger and busier body, its collective action problems were more acute
Formal leadership was established more quickly and more powerfully in the House because
politics and political institutions
Founders understood that the nation's previous failures (Articles of Confederation) stemmed from ____________ and ___________.
it saw an opportunity to gain a profitable market niche by differentiating its product from that of CNN and the broadcast networks. Fox News introduced a conservative slant by hiring conservative news anchors and loosening traditional constraints on editorializing while presenting the news.
Fox News became a conservative media outlet because
______ explains how both the mass media and political campaigns can affect people's expressed political opinions.
Framing
the Office of Management and Budget
Franklin Roosevelt required all department communications to Congress that could affect future budgets be cleared through the Bureau of the Budget, the predecessor to ______.
true
Franklin Roosevelt's first fireside chat saw such a large audience and outpouring of support, it prompted him to deliver more national radio addresses.
Institution
In a democracy, an organization that manages potential conflicts between political rivals, helps them to find mutually acceptable solutions, and makes and enforces the society's collective agreements. Among the prominent federal political institutions in the United States are Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court.
false
High transaction costs should make some collective activities less difficult.
false
House party leaders are members' bosses, not their agents.
"popularly" chosen in biennial elections
How are representatives chosen?
boycotts; Boston Tea Party (1773); Sons and Daughters of Liberty
How did Americans counter the taxes imposed by the British designed to weaken the colonial assemblies?
Restraining Acts and Coercive Acts which closed the port of Boston to all commerce, disassembled Massachusetts assembly
How did British respond to the dumping of the tea?
through daily and weekly newspapers with clear party affiliation
How did parties control the flow of information to the voter?
by carrying out the policies promised by the party and are held responsible for their party's performance in governing
How do party-centered represent citizens?
high transaction costs and require consensus to make collective decisions; bill of rights; veto: explicit--presidential, implicit--House Senate, Supreme Court
How do we prevent the government from intruding too far into private life?
citizens limit their decisions to the selection of government officials who, acting as their agents, deliberate and commit the citizenry to collective enterprises
How does a representative government work?
private inducements (e.g. direct benefits that come with membership); force of law to induce participation (Health Care Act) or, more positively, grant a tax break (buy new cars); social status recognition (I Voted stickers)
How does one get around free riding?
We see a party whose control of the media has vanished under a blizzard of competition. We see voters who get most of their information from the electronic mass media in 8-second sound bites on the network news and in 30-second spot commercials during campaigns.
How does party-center elections affect mass media?
a team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election
In An Economic Theory of Democracy, Anthony Downs defined a political party as
true
In Federalist 10, Madison's size principle implies diversity will reduce the dangers of factions.
that a list of rights in the Constitution might imply the federal government had the authority to restrict the freedoms not expressly protected
In Federalist No. 84, Alexander Hamilton poses the question, "Why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?" Which of the following concerns was he expressing?
true
In Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985), the Supreme Court approved the application of federal wage-and-hour laws to state and local employees.
true
In Gibbons v. Ogden, the Supreme Court settled a conflict between New York and New Jersey over each state's efforts to establish an interstate steamship monopoly by ruling that only Congress had the authority to regulate interstate commerce.
The Court did not limit protections to the discovery of physical evidence, and it indicated that even searches not involving "physical penetration" of an individual's space might be illegal.
In Katz v. United States, the Court agreed, breaking new legal ground in two respects:
false
In Thornburg v. Gingles (1986), the Court ruled that district lines must be drawn with race as the predominant consideration.
pluralist politics
In ______, adamant minorities frequently defeat apathetic majorities because the minorities invest more of their political resources - votes, money, and persuasive efforts - in getting their way.
false
In parliamentary systems, government authority rests solely with the prime minister, who is supported by the legislature.
false
In police patrol oversight, Congress designs procedures that allow interest groups and ordinary citizens to raise an alarm when something has gone wrong.
true
In reality, most of the goods and services that governments provide cannot be easily sorted into either the private or the public bin.
It deals with the delegation problem of keeping the citizenry's agents honest.
In short, which of the following is true about Federalist No. 51?
true
In the Samuel Sheppard case, the press compromised the defendant's right to a fair hearing.
president pro tempore
In the absence of the vice president, the formal presiding officer of the Senate. The honor is usually conferred on the senior member of the majority party, but the post is sometimes rotated among senators of the majority party.
the political party that carried the presidency almost always took control of Congress
In the era of political patronage and before election reforms guaranteed voters privacy and an easy opportunity to split their votes among the parties' slates of candidates,
true
Marbury v. Madison did not immediately strengthen the Court's power in its relations with the president or Congress but provided precedent that the other branches' actors did not repudiate and a rationale for the Court's broad authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
true
Medicaid is an example of one of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs.
true
Members of Congress are in a much stronger position to influence PACs than PACs are to influence them.
false
Members of the House, Senate, or the president may directly introduce legislation to Congress.
______ - 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
true
Modern Democratic and Republican parties can be depicted as pyramidal organizations that function hierarchically.
assemble organization; craft platform; produce media; raise money; hire experts
Modern campaigns are candidate centered, and each candidate must rely on her own resources to:
representative government
Modern democracies blend delegation and majority rule together into what is known as which of the following?
scientific polling and public relations
Modern efforts to measure, shape, and exploit public opinion have spawned two linked industries: ______.
true
President Eisenhower's 1959 "goodwill tour" around the world is generally recognized as the first international presidential travel that was taken primarily for the purpose of garnering favorable publicity.
appointing men of superior reputation, education, and means - as well as with financial incentives such as giving customs officials a share of goods seized from smugglers
President George Washington sought to address the problem of delegation in part by
true
President Harry Truman recognition of the state of Israel is an example of the broad interpretation of the phrase "to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers" many presidents have employed.
true
President Obama issued fewer executive orders than any first-term president in the past century.
executive order
President Obama's immigration policy that instructed Homeland Security to defer deporting young illegal aliens who had arrived in the United States before the age of 5 and had lived in the country for at least 5 years is an example of a(n) ______.
false
Presidential appointments require approval by both houses of Congress and final confirmation by the Supreme Court.
true
Presidential success is often problematic and depends on the president's talent as a politician.
executive agreements, which are exempt from Senate ratification
Presidents can sidestep treaty rejections through
raised the cost of participation for poor and minority voters
Prior to the 2012 election, more than a dozen states adopted a requirement that voters show a picture ID at the polls, which
(1)the states, unwilling to give the national government sufficient authority to conduct the war, became chiefly responsible for recruiting troops and outfitting them for battle (shirking) (2)Congress attempted to coordinate the state regiments into a single fighting force; it could borrow money, but could not tax => so what guarantee for buying government bonds? (3)no administrative branch; so Congress had to do all the work, including requisitioning the army
Problems in conduct of the war under the Articles:
Which of the following weakened traditional party organizations and ended their monopoly control of campaigns?
Progressive Era Reforms
15th Amendment
Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen's "race, color, or previous condition of servitude".
tend to grow when opponents run the government and shrink when sympathetic politicians are in power
Prominent public interest groups
true
Republicans typically favor a smaller, cheaper federal government; they advocate lower taxes, less regulation of business, and lower spending on social welfare. They would be more generous only to the Defense Department.
a comprehensive set of economic regulations and relief programs intended to fight the Great Depression
Roosevelt's New Deal was which of the following?
true
Savvy bureaucrats design and manage their programs in ways that enhance political support in Congress.
de facto segregation
Segregation that results from practice rather than from law.
3; states are more populous and diverse than congressional districts; states more than districts have balanced party competition; senators more readily associated with controversial and divisive issues
Senators are ________ times more likely to lose their seats than House incumbents. Why?
Constituent Services
Services a congressperson provides for his/her constituents (ex., helping with government claims like social security & veterans benefits)
Regulation
Setting up rules limiting access to a common resource and monitoring and penalizing those who violate them.
Compromise
Settlement in which each side concedes some of its preferences in order to secure others.
true
Shays's Rebellion was one of the final straws in motivating states to reform the Articles of Confederation.
equal populations
Since the 1964 Supreme Court case Wesberry v. Sanders, congressional districts must have which of the following?
false
Small groups are harder to organize because transaction costs are higher and free riding is more severe.
true
Smith v. Allwright resulted in the end of White primary laws because race was the primary criterion for discrimination, so the laws violated the 15th Amendment.
false
The solicitor general acts as the Court's sole agenda setter.
true
The solution to this dilemma of delegation is built into our Constitution: our system of separated powers provides distinct checks on the bureaucracy.
true
The superdelegates accounted for almost 20% of the votes at the 2008 Democratic Party's presidential nominating convention.
red tape
The term for the labyrinthine procedures, layers of paperwork, and strict adherence to form for which bureaucracies are legendary is which of the following?
dedicated to electing the party's candidates
The term party organization refers to one part of a connected three-part system that is
Great Britain, where the "whipper-in" keeps the hounds together in a pack during a foxhunt
The term whip, as it refers to one of the chief party leaders in Congress, comes from
true
The threat of collective punishment by the voters gives the majority party a strong incentive to govern in ways that please voters.
true
The threat of reversal from the Supreme Court often deters lower courts from deviating from Court doctrine.
politicians frequently found themselves bowing to powerful editors and publishers
The transformation of newspapers into instruments of mass communication meant that
true
United States v. Nixon is an example of the process of judicial review.
false
Universal suffrage for women was achieved in the 19th century with the passage of the 15th amendment.
Plessy v. Ferguson
Upheld the rights of states to pass laws allowing or even requiring racial segregation in public and private institutions such as schools, public transportation, restrooms, and restaurants
bicameral legislatures; govern ships
Using their former colonial governments as models, most states adopted ______________ and all created ____________, generally with limited authority due to difficult relations with royal governors.
roll-call vote
Vote taken by a call of the roll to determine whether a quorum is present, to establish a quorum, or to vote on a question. Usually the House uses its electronic voting system, but when the system is malfunctioning the Speaker directs the clerk to read the names. The Senate does not have an electronic voting system; its roll is always called by a clerk.
true
Voters who coalesce around causes such as gun control or gun rights are examples of single-issue voters.
Which of the following is an example of a free-rider problem?
Voting
ticket-splitting
voting for candidates of different parties for different offices
institutions that minimize transaction costs tend to impose excessive conformity costs and vice versa
transaction and conformity costs tend to be inversely related/involve trade off:
Americans, renowned since Alexis de Tocqueville's day for their egalitarian social and political values, tolerate huge - and growing - differences in wealth and well-being among individuals and groups due to the lack of popular support for mandating equal outcomes.
true
For most people, basic political orientations, whether reflections of ideologies, a few core values, or simple party preferences, are quite resistant to change.
true
If 45% of the respondents in a poll of 1,500 people say they approve of the president's job performance, chances are 19 in 20 that the interval from 42% to 48% (45% plus or minus 3 points) covers the actual level of approval throughout the whole U.S. population.
true
Opinion leaders provide the cues that the rationally ignorant majority uses as shortcuts to forming its opinion.
true
People's opinions on most political issues rely heavily on the cues and signals that the leaders of their preferred political party send to them.
true
Prior to scientific polling, members of Congress used to read the walls of bathrooms to understand how people felt about issues.
true
The fact that in 2008, Barack Obama's vote ran about seven percentage points higher among women than among men is an example of the gender gap in politics.
true
The typically low approval rating in Congress is an example of our cynicism about government.
true
To succeed, politicians should not worry about changing minds but instead focus on framing the choice they are facing favorably.
true
