Fed Gov Quiz 4

Between the Civil War and the 1960s, the ________ was a Democratic stronghold.

South

Currently, ________ states have agreed to the compact specified by the National Popular Vote plan.

10

In which of the following years was there an electoral realignment?

1896

A majority system, which is used on a limited basis in the United States, requires that a candidate must win ________ to win an election.

50 percent plus one of all votes cast

"Dark money" comes from

501(c)(4)s.

In 2016, about ________ percent of Latino Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.

65

During the nineteenth century, about ________ percent of eligible voters usually cast a ballot on Election Day.

90

Soft money was made illegal as a result of the

Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act.

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

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)

Journalists dubbed 1992 the "Year of the Woman" because

women doubled their numbers in the House and tripled them in the Senate during that year's election.

Presidential candidates who accept federal funding for their general election campaigns

are subject to strict expenditure limits.

The 1965 Voting Rights Act

authorized the federal government to register voters in states that discriminated against minority citizens.

A proposed law or policy change that is placed on the ballot by citizens or interest groups for a popular vote is called a

ballot initiative.

Early presidential primaries and caucuses are more important because they

can help a candidate secure media attention and financial support.

Both 527 committees and 501(c)(4)s

can spend unlimited amounts on political advocacy as long as their efforts are not coordinated with those of any candidate's campaign.

Digital forms of participation that require little effort and may not actually translate into offline acts of political engagement are often referred to as

clicktivism.

A(n) ________ occurs when a voter must be registered with a party prior to voting in that party's election.

closed primary

During the late 1840s and early 1850s, both the Democratic and Whig parties were divided by

conflicts over slavery.

Plurality and majority systems tend to

decrease the number of political parties.

All of the following are responsibilities of a party's national committee EXCEPT

determining committee assignments for members of Congress.

Latinos tend to favor Democratic Party candidates in national elections because they

disagree with the Republican Party's stance on immigration.

A major benefit of ranked-choice voting is that it

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

According to political scientist John Aldrich, which of the following problems found in democratic governments do political parties help solve?

how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilize voters, and how to achieve the majorities needed to accomplish legislative goals once in office

A serious candidate for a U.S. House of Representatives race must raise at least several ________ dollars, while a serious candidate for a U.S. Senate race must raise at least several ________ dollars.

hundred thousand; million

In 2018, the federal government was shut down over disagreements between Democrats and Republicans on the issue of

immigration.

Soft money was

money contributed directly to political parties and other organizations at the state and local levels for political activities that were not regulated by federal campaign spending laws.

Party activists are ________ likely to contribute time to party affairs and ________ likely to hold more extreme views than the party's rank-and-file voters.

more:more

Research shows that

negative ads tend to focus on important policy differences, while positive ads tend to focus on candidates' personal characteristics.

Local election campaigns tend to be ________, while statewide elections tend to be ________.

organizationally driven and labor intensive; media driven and capital intensive

Retail politics refers to

political campaigns that operate at the local level and use face-to-face communication to generate interest and momentum among voters.

In order for a political party to select a candidate to run in the general election, it holds a(n)

primary election.

Political scientists call voters' choices that focus on future behavior ________ voting, while those based on past performances are called ________ voting.

prospective; retrospective

The American system for electing members of Congress is often referred to as "winner take all" because

runners-up do not gain seats in government.

One reason Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 was because

she did not win enough support of working-class white men.

"Self-sorting" refers to the

tendency of individuals to segregate themselves by choosing to live in liberal or conservative geographic areas.

The American system for electing members of Congress is often referred to as "first past the post" because

the candidate with the most votes wins, even if he or she did not win a majority of the popular vote.

State legislative districts

vary from a few thousand people in some states to nearly a million in California.

Reconstruction after the Civil War was led by the ________ Party.

Republican

From the end of the Civil War to the 1890s, the ________ Party was the party of the North, while the ________ Party was the party of the South.

Republican; Democratic

Passing the federal budget often requires cooperation between Democrats and Republicans in Congress because the

Senate must approve the budget with a supermajority vote (60 out of 100 votes), and rarely does one party hold 60 seats.