American Government 5-10 Cengage quizzes

At the time the Constitution was written, groups that pursued some common political interest were considered dangerous in terms of governmental control. What were these groups called?

Factions

Which is a primary agent of political socialization according to the transmission model of partisanship?

Family

Which independent federal agency regulates interstate and international communication by radio, television, telephone, telegraph, cable, and satellite?

Federal Communications Commission

Which constitutional amendment prohibits Congress from abridging the freedom of the press?

First

Which form of political participation best demonstrates the ideal of equality?

Formal rules for counting ballots

Which of the following statements is a correct evaluation of contemporary mass media?

Mass media resists government attempts to infringe on freedom of the press.

As the American population grew and the electorate expanded by the 1820s, political parties invented a new way to nominate presidential candidates, the first of which was implemented in 1831. What was it called?

National convention

Which amendment prohibits states from denying the right to vote on account of a person's sex?

Nineteenth

Which process is used to designate an official candidate for the office of President of the United States?

Nomination

How many political parties existed when the Constitution was written?

None

The Socialist Party has been the most successful party of ideological protest in American history. How many states have been won by Socialist Party candidates for president?

None

Which of the following options describes the rules for who is allowed to vote, how much each person's vote counts, and how many votes are needed to win?

Normative principles of procedural democracy

How do politicians know what policies Americans support?

Opinion Polling

What was progressivism based on?

Ordinary citizens

What type of meeting is held at the beginning of a session of Congress that is used to select party leaders and determine committee assignments?

Party conference

As a voter exited the voting booth, a pollster asked whether they are Democrat or Republican. What information was the pollster requesting?

Party identification

What is the centralized party organization that dominates local politics by controlling elections called?

Party machine

The wording of a party platform can lead to victory or defeat. In analyzing the platforms expressed by the two parties at their 2016 conventions, it was found that Democrats mentioned which words more than three times as often as Republicans?

Equality and inequality

Which factors are considered to determine an individual's socioeconomic status?

Education, occupation, and income

Some elections stand out in history due to a noticeable change in party voting patterns. What occurs for subsequent elections following this type of change?

Electoral realignment

What does a normal distribution resemble?

A bell-shaped curve

What is market-driven journalism?

A process whereby the media tries to increase ratings by tailoring the delivery or content of their news to the desires of their audience.

What is a media event?

A situation that is so newsworthy that mass media are compelled to cover it

What is the most important function of minor parties in the United States?

Allow the expression of discontent with the system

What is a referendum?

An election on a policy issue

Which situation exemplifies high initiative behavior?

Anderson works as a canvasser during a campaign.

An employee at a large waste-reduction company follows political news as a part of the job requirements, particularly when the news might impact the company's programs and policies. If political decisions help or hurt the company's reputation, the employee organizes a press conference to alert the public. What is the employee's role?

Attentive policy elite

What is the main criterion generally used when judging whether a story can be considered newsworthy?

Audience appeal

What do news reporters who practice watchdog journalism tend to do?

Be critical of inaccuracies in facts and weaknesses in arguments posed by politicians.

A political scientist evaluates public opinion data on opinions about registering firearms. After analyzing the data, the political scientist notes that two responses on a survey were chosen with nearly equal frequency. What type of distribution do the findings represent?

Bimodal Distribution

A senatorial candidate is running for office as a Republican. However, the candidate disagrees with many of the other elected officials in the Republican Party. Suppose the candidate decides to form a new party to challenge the other Republican candidates who are running. What type of minority party is the senatorial candidate creating?

Bolter party

What is a closed meeting of the members of a political party to decide questions of policy and the select candidates for office?

Caucus

What does the public tend to associate with the liberal ideology?

Change

What does the television hypothesis propose?

Citizens have a low level of knowledge about public affairs.

Based on normative theory, what should citizens be able to do?

Citizens should be free to participate or not participate in government.

Which current media trend increases the risk that a few powerful individuals could control the news flow to promote their own political interests, in the same way political parties influenced the content of early American newspapers?

Concentrated ownership

Which political party claims to be the oldest political party in existence in the United States?

Democratic

To succeed Washington, Thomas Jefferson was the first person to lead the Republicans. What was the name of the group?

Democratic Republicans

What is unconventional participation that involves assembling crowds to confront businesses and local government to demand a hearing called?

Direct action

A private citizen is highly educated and comes from a wealthy family. The person tends to possess the same political values as other members of the family and similar social groups. Which of the following beliefs is this person likely to hold?

Freedom is more important than social order.

What is occurring when the news editors at a local television station direct the flow of news by deciding to report on a national news story about immigration rather than a local government story about increasing the cost of water usage for residents?

Gatekeeping

What is an accurate description of the democratic ideal?

Government should be run by the people.

What do studies show is a shared characteristic of those who participate in direction action?

High efficacy

The television news that Sasha watches often focuses on which candidate is ahead and who has raised the most money, rather than the candidates' opinions on key issues. What concept does this represent?

Horse race journalism

What characterizes an individual's sociotropic response?

How the country is doing as a whole

What type of behavior seeks to modify or reverse government policy to serve political interests?

Influencing

Communication occurs when one individual transmits information to another individual. What occurs during mass communication?

Information is transmitted to a large and widely dispersed audience.

Which of the following choices is often considered soft news?

Infotainment

Through which procedure can registered voters gather a specified number of signatures to propose an issue to the legislature?

Initiative

When a politician presents issues by selectively invoking particular values or recalling certain events, what is this called?

Issue framing

Which of the following statements is a characteristic of unconventional political participation?

It challenges established institutions instead of relying on them.

How did President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policy demonstrate the conflict between freedom and equality?

It expanded the interventionist role of the government to promote economic fairness.

What most accurately describes an act of terror?

It is perpetrated against noncombatants.

What is watchdog journalism?

Journalism that scrutinizes public and business institutions and publicizes perceived misconduct.

What does available evidence seem to confirm about reporters in major news media?

Journalists are more likely to be liberal than conservative.

In which ideology group are members willing to surrender freedom to promote equality, but are unwilling to do the same to promote order?

Liberals

A senatorial candidate describes themself as a political conservative. In using this term, what is the candidate communicating?

Political ideology

Which entity functions to reduce the number of candidates on the ballot, thereby structuring the voting choice?

Political parties

Which of the following statements do researchers suggests is a trend aligned with the proliferation of opinionated journalism?

Political parties are more polarized.

According to the majoritarian model of democracy, what do political parties accomplish?

Political parties increase government responsiveness through public opinion.

What is the process called through which individuals acquire their political values?

Political socialization

Which best characterizes the ownership of broadcast media in the United States?

Private, except for public television and radio stations

Which religious group tends to be the most conservative on issues of social order?

Protestants

Why type of information is provided by a news report that states most Americans are dissatisfied with federal health care?

Public Opinion

Despite the advent of podcasts and other forms of social media, nine out of ten Americans still use what form of traditional media each week?

Radio broadcasts

Which socialization agent created strong and important political differences for almost one hundred years, but has seen an equalization in recent decades that has greatly diminished these sharp differences?

Region

What do proponents of a majoritarian democracy believe about the role of public opinion in government?

Representatives should base their decisions on public opinion.

What is a set of principles formalizing the ideal role of parties in a majoritarian democracy called?

Responsible party government

What do the terms suffrage and franchise both refer to?

Right to vote

Which form of political participation best demonstrates the ideal of order?

Saying the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of a city council meeting

A private citizen states discontent with a new federal tax law on the basis that more money will be taken out of their paycheck. What concept does this demonstrate?

Self-interest principle

Of the four main functions of mass media in its coverage of the political system, which one do scholars believe gives the media the greatest influence on politics?

Setting the agenda

Which of the following is a good indicator for most types of conventional participation?

Socioeconomic status

The television program Jimmy Kimmel Live is categorized as general entertainment programming but often includes discussion of the current political situation. What is this an example of?

Soft news

When different questions on the same issue produce similar distributions of opinion, and opinions show little change over time, what kind of distribution is indicated?

Stable distribution

Which of the following options describes the relationship between socioeconomic status and political involvement?

Standard socioeconomic model

When Weston places the American flag out front of his home on Veteran's Day it is an example which kind of behavior?

Supportive

What is the ideological label that people use to describe themselves?

Symbolic ideology

When a political scientist asks what the most frequent response was to a survey question, what are they asking for?

The Mode

How are elections decided in a majority representation?

The candidate who collects the most votes will win.

What is public opinion?

The collective attitudes of citizens concerning a given issue or question.

For years, broadcast media was only federally regulated by three rules that promoted the public interest. Which one was repealed in 1987, freeing broadcasters to air more controversial and ideological viewpoints?

The fairness doctrine

A person has identified as a Republican for most of their adult life. Which belief is the person most likely to possess in terms of government spending?

The government should allocate all funds necessary to strengthen national defense.

Nearly every democratic country in the world places the burden of voter registration on the government. Where is the burden in the United States?

The individual voter

Which form of mass media has no gatekeepers and therefore no checks, constraints, or standards affecting its content?

The internet

What has the media's response been to recent widely distributed video footage of police using excessive, sometimes deadly force, against African Americans?

The media promotes equality.

Which of the following statements accurately describes the national party committees?

The national party committees are weak for Democrats and Republicans.

Why was the Prohibition Party an example of a single-issue party?

The party opposed the consumption of alcohol.

Why was the 1965 march on Selma considered unconventional political participation?

The peaceful protest resisted institutions that prevented Blacks from voting.

What is the principle that states what is learned first is learned best called?

The primacy principle

What is one way that elementary school children are politically socialized?

They are introduced to authority figures outside the home.

Why did the Progressives create the recall?

To remove an elected official from office

How do economic models of rational behavior explain voter turnout?

Voter turnout is low because it has no personal payoff.

Voter turnout in the United States is low compared to most other democratic nations. Which of the following statements accurately describes Americans?

Voter turnout is low, but political involvement is high.

What is the most logical way to garner government responsiveness under the majoritarian model?

Voting in elections

What does democratic theory propose is the best way for citizens to control their government?

Voting in free elections

What is the exception to the rule of government restraining information disseminated by the press?

Wartime

What criteria can be used to classify President George Washington as a Federalist?

Washington supported the Constitution.

What is the gender gap?

Women tend to identify more with the Democratic Party than men do.

Which situation would occur during a critical election?

Women, a group that usually votes Democrat, overwhelmingly vote to elect a Republican.