AP Gov Unit 8

How have changes in the candidate nomination process weakened political parties?

Candidates are now nominated by rank-and-file party members.

Party Affiliation

Even though party loyalty has decreased, party affiliation still plays an important role in mobilizing voters and communicating to them information about a candidate's positions. Each political party adopts a platform, or a set of positions on various issues. Party affiliation is a sort of shorthand that lets voters know where a politician likely stands on those issues.

How did the political landscape in the South change in the mid-twentieth century?

It became more firmly Republican.

What was the main effect of the 1973 ban on "soft money" contributions?

It lessened the importance of political parties.

Citizen United v. FEC

Made it easier for unions and corporations to donate "soft money"

Divided government

Occurs more in recent decades bc no party has entire region hold. It means Congress is controlled by one party while the White House is controlled by another. With divided government, political parties do not wield as much power because compromise between the two parties is necessary to get anything done.

Party Platforms

Official party platforms are adopted at the national party conventions. These platforms outline how the party stands on various social, political, and economic issues. When a candidate from a particular party is elected, voters generally assume that he or she will advocate policies in line with the party's platform.

tracking poll

common type of poll used by media outlets during the final weeks of a campaign. This is usually a poll that is repeated on a daily basis to measure little shifts in public opinion as the election gets closer. Critics of these types of polls feel that often they distract from the actual issues for two reasons. First, the changes from day to day are often so small that they can be explained by the poll's margin of error rather than by actual changes in public opinion.6 Second, they often turn the campaign into a sort of "horse race" in which people are more interested in backing the winner, whoever that may be, than in considering the issues or selecting the most qualified candidate.

scientific poll

define population, make sample, construct unbiased questions, conduct poll, and analyze and report data

A policymaker is most likely to follow public opinion polls closely when acting as a

delegate

A poll that is conducted on Election Day immediately after people vote is called a(n

exit poll

If a policymaker is acting as a delegate, he or she is more likely to

follow public opinion polls closely

Franklin D. Roosevelt used new media technology to connect to the American people during the Great Depression b

giving weekly radio addresses to the American people

What fuels negative or cynical views towards politicians?

investigative journalism

"Investigative journalism" refers to

journalists fact-checking the claims of politicians

In what type of scientific polling does each potential voter have an equal chance of being selected to participate?

random sample

Election coverage

reporting on public opinion polls and coverage of debates, speeches, and campaign rallies. Social media has certainly had an impact on this sort of coverage, as clips from a speech or rally posted on social media can easily go viral and reach an incredibly wide audience.

Which type of poll is most likely to be criticized for being slanted towards the opinions of the wealthy or well educated?

straw polls

Bias in the mainstream media is most likely to be found in

subtle word choices that favor one side or the other

Politicians tend to have the most direct connection to the public through which of the following?

the internet

Who is responsible for making sure that party members in Congress stay loyal to the party?

the party leader and party whip

party platforms

the statement of policies of a national political party

investigative journalism

the use of in-depth reporting to unearth scandals, scams, and schemes, at times putting reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders

How likely is an average politician to depart from his or her party?

Very unlikely, because politicians rely on the party for campaign support.

Which of the following is NOT a barrier to minor parties gaining power at the national level?

a lack of interest in minor party issues among Americans

tracking poll

a poll taken for the candidate on a nearly daily basis as election day approaches

What is "divided government"?

a president from one party, and Congress controlled by another party

trustee

a representative who votes based on what he or she thinks is best for his or her constituency

winner take all

an election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins

scientific poll

attempts to predict the opinion of an entire population by asking questions of a group that accurately represents the entire population.

A straw poll is usually conducted

by a newspaper or magazine

What is "narrowcasting"?

cable channels tailored to specific points of view

Which of the following news sources is a young voter most likely to turn to for political updates?

cable news shows

Campaign finance reform in 1973 helped weaken political parties by

prohibiting "soft money" donations

What effect did the Green Party have on the 2000 election?

It helped George W. Bush by taking potential voters from Al Gore

benchmark poll

an initial poll on a candidate and issues on which campaign strategy is based and against which later polls are compared

Political parties

organizations devoted to furthering a particular political agenda. Parties are influential in mobilizing voters and increasing awareness regarding key issues. They also recruit candidates to run for political office, and they provide funding and management for political campaigns of party members. Usually only two parties that dominate the political landscape. Since the Civil War, those two parties have been the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Historically, political parties played a major role in getting people to vote. That was because party affiliation was seen as a large part of a person's identity, and party loyalty was very strong. However, since the middle of the twentieth century, party loyalty has declined, and the percentage of Americans who strongly identify with a particular party has dropped significantly

third parties

parties that organize to compete against the two major American political parties

What is the best predictor of how members of a particular party in Congress will vote?

party platforms

A political party's positions on a set of important issues is called its

platform

Who usually owned and operated early newspapers in the United States?

political parties or factions

Investigative journalism

seeks to uncover otherwise hidden stories, scrutinize claims made by politicians, and bring public attention to things that politicians would often prefer to keep out of the public eye. While this is an important part of keeping politicians accountable, research also suggests that this sort of reporting has also contributed to the public having a relatively cynical or negative view of politicians and public officials

Which of the following can best be considered responsible for the spread of "fake news"?

social media

Which of the following has led to the ratings decline of evening news shows on major broadcasting networks in recent years?

the 24-hour news cycle on cable news channels

Which type of poll is most likely to be criticized for turning an election into a "horse race"?

tracking polls

"Ticket splitting" refers to the practice of

voting for candidates of different parties for different offices

Buckley v. Valeo

A case in which the Supreme Court of the United States upheld federal limits on campaign contributions and ruled that spending money to influence elections is a form of constitutionally protected free speech. The court also stated candidates can give unlimited amounts of money to their own campaigns.

delegate

A person appointed or elected to represent others

How did Donald Trump respond to reports of low approval ratings in the early months of his presidency?

He argued that any negative polls came from fake news sources.

The use of news media to fuel political rivalries is best exemplified by which of the following?

newspapers created by Jefferson and Hamilton during the Washington administration

"fake news"

People tend to trust the search results that appear first, without paying much attention to who created or funded the website they are viewing. In the digital age, concealing the owner and true motives of a website has become particularly easy. Often, stories from unreliable news sites are posted and shared repeatedly on social media sites. This repeated exposure tends to normalize what would have once been considered outrageous or sensationalistic news stories, so that people are more likely to take them seriously. Donald Trump was often known to assert that any negative news comments about him, including negative poll numbers, were simply "fake news." Such a claim was enough to refute any criticism in the minds of some of Trump's supporters. Others, though, contend that many of the sources that Trump and his supporters turn to for information are themselves purveyors of fake news. Another sort of "fake news" that has become a common source of current event updates, particularly for young adults and teens, is the relatively new genre of comedy news shows, such as those once hosted by John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, or John Oliver and Trevor Noah. These shows generally make it clear that their purpose is to entertain, not to inform. However, they are just informative enough that many people feel they can turn to them, rather than the less entertaining mainstream media, for news.

Parties in Congress

Political parties play a significant role in the structure of congressional leadership. The majority party in each chamber of Congress chooses committee leadership. In addition, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate are generally members of the majority party. Thus, the platform of the majority party has tremendous influence in shaping the legislative agenda in both chambers. Each party also has a party leader and a "whip" in each chamber. The leader and the whip are responsible for encouraging members of their party to vote with the rest of the party on various bills. This party leadership is usually pretty effective

Which of the following changes helped lead to the creation of the "popular press" in America?

Rise of Political Parties??????????

sample

The group of respondents in a poll is called the sample. Many polling organizations use a random sample, which means that participants are selected in a way that gives every voter an equal chance of being chosen.1 This usually means that the sample has a high probability of reflecting the opinions of the entire population. Often over 1000

What is one of the problems with straw polls?

The wealthy and well-educated are most likely to participate.

How do political parties support candidates?

They fund their campaigns and mobilize voters.

Why do politicians usually hold news conferences, stage media events, and create websites?

They want to control the story the media tells about them.

Exit polls

conducted on Election Day by interviewing voters immediately after they vote. They are generally used by media outlets to help project the winner of an election. While they are more accurate than tracking polls because they avoid nonvoters and undecided voters, they still leave out absentee voters and other early voters.7 Another potential problem with exit polls is that if results are released before voting closes, those exit polls can actually sway the results of the election.

In recent years, party loyalty among voters has

decreased

Over the course of the twentieth century, the variety of newspapers in most American cities

decreased

The importance of political parties has diminished in recent years because of

decreased party loyalty among voters

The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the president pro tempore of the Senate are generally members of which party?

majority

major parties absorb minor party issues

minor parties are kept from gaining significant power because the major parties tend to absorb minor party issues in order to build a broader coalition of voters who support them. Many minor parties are single-issue parties who feel like their particular issue is being ignored by the major parties. For example, the Green Party focuses primarily on environmental issues and they felt the major national parties failed to pay enough attention to the environment. So, they ran candidates on a platform of pursuing policies that would help protect the environment. Since many members of the Democratic Party are concerned with the environment, the Green Party started taking voters who otherwise might have voted for a Democrat. Green Party candidate in 2000, inadvertently helped George W. Bush win the election by taking potential votes from Al Gore. Now, the Dem Party pays more attention to environmental issues

straw poll

most common poll until the middle part of the twentieth century. newspapers or magazines would publish survey questions and ask readers to send in responses. This was not a very scientific approach to polling because the participants were self-selected rather than randomly selected, and were limited to the readers of that publication.4 Usually this meant that the wealthy and well-educated were overrepresented in straw poll results.

"winner-take-all"

nearly all elections in America can be won by a plurality. In other words, a candidate wins an election by getting the most votes, even if he or she does not get more than half of the votes. With presidential elections—whichever candidate gets a plurality of votes in a state wins all of that state's electoral votes (in most states). This makes it very unlikely that a minor party will ever gain enough electoral votes to win the White House.

Newspapers were largely replaced as the primary source of news for most Americans by

network television news

"popular press"

news that was most likely to attract more readers was the most likely to be printed, as is also the case today.

regional realignment of party loyalties

with Lyndon Johnson, a Texas Democrat, putting his support behind the civil rights movement, plus the effects of the Voting Rights Act, Southern Democrats started to lose their hold on the South beginning with the 1964 election. Today, the Deep South is seen as primarily Republican, but there is no region in the country where one party has an absolute hold