Goverent Test

Which of the following activities by interest groups best illustrates attempts to educate members of Congress on public policy?

A green energy group sending a research report to congressional offices

Which of the following scenarios is most closely related to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) ?

A labor union spends millions of dollars to independently run negative advertisements about a presidential candidate shortly before the election.

If a researcher were interested in understanding how much the NRA spent in each state, what visual could be created to accurately display this information in the bar graph?

A map showing the dollar amounts spent by the NRA in each state since 1992

Which of the following is a result of the electoral college system?

Candidates focus on the states with the largest populations.

Which of the following Supreme Court cases is most related to the topic in the cartoon?

Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission (2010)

Which of the following would result from the direct election of presidential candidates?

Each vote would count equally in determining which candidate won the election

Which of the following form an "iron triangle"?

Executive department, Congressional committee, interest group

A chief executive officer (CEO) of a corporation believes that the Republican candidate for president will enact policies that are more beneficial to her business. The CEO donated the maximum amount allowed by law directly to the candidate's campaign fund. To increase the candidate's chances for election, the CEO also directed her corporation to donate funds to an independent political action committee to create ads criticizing the opposing candidate. According to the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which provision of the Constitution protects her actions?

Freedom of speech in the First Amendment

Which of the following best accounts for the lack of success generally encountered by minor political parties in electing members to the House or Senate?

General elections in the United States are based on the winner-take all principle

When none of the presidential candidates receives a majority of the votes in the electoral college, the winner is chosen by the

House of Representatives only

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (McCain-Feingold) did which of the following?

It banned soft money donations to national parties.

Which of the following is true of the electoral college system?

It encourages candidates to concentrate their campaigns in competitive, populous states.

Which of the following scenarios depicts the concept of an iron triangle?

Lobbyists from the energy industry provide information to the Department of Energy before the department head testifies before the Energy and Commerce Committee in the House of Representatives.

Which of the following is the best interpretation of the political cartoon?

Members of Congress receive political contributions from many special interest groups.

Which of the following makes a correct comparison between political parties and interest groups in the United States?

Political parties recruit and run candidates in elections/ Interest groups seek to influence public policy

Which of the following best explains how most candidates are recruited to run for office?

Political parties usually recruit and train people at the local level they believe are most fit to run for office.

Which of the following arguments best supports a claim that the electoral college violates democratic principles?

Smaller states are disproportionately advantaged by the two additional electoral votes granted to each state for its senators.

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 banned soft money and restricted advertisements in the weeks before an election. Parts of this act were challenged and struck down in the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). Which of the following was a consequence of that ruling?

Super PACs may spend unlimited funds on advertisements that are not coordinated with the campaign because they are protected by the freedom of speech.

How is a president chosen when none of the candidates receives a majority of the electoral college vote?

The House chooses a new president by a majority vote of its state delegations

Which of the following is a correct statement about political action committees (PAC's)?

The amount of money that PAC's can contribute directly to an individual candidate is limited by law.

Critics of the winner-take-all aspect of the electoral college are most likely to make which of the following arguments?

The winner-take-all system of the electoral college encourages presidential candidates to focus their time and effort disproportionately on battleground states with larger populations.

Which of the following is true of amicus curiae briefs?

They are used by interest groups to lobby courts.

The primary reason for the current existence of only two major political parties in the United States is that

a winner-take-all electoral system makes it difficult for new parties to emerge and survive

When party members meet to nominate a candidate for office, they participate in which of the following?

caucus

Which of the following is a type of primary election that requires registration as a party affiliate to vote?

closed

A primary election in which voters are required to identify a party preference before the election and are not allowed to split their ticket is called

closed primary

In 1987 the cooperation among the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the United States Supreme Court was an example of

coalition building

An electoral system based on single-member districts is usually characterized by

domination of the legislature by two political parties

Typically, presidential candidates implement their campaign strategies by

focusing on larger, competitive states, because they might tip the balance of the electoral college

In the last thirty years, the single most important variable in determining the outcome of an election for a member of the House of Representatives has been,

incumbency

In response to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold Act), the United States Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), ruled that

independent campaign expenditures by corporations and unions are protected by the First Amendment

An election involving more than two candidates in which the person who receives the most votes is the winner is called

plurality election

The process known as front-loading refers to

the tendency of states to choose an early date on the primary calendar

Interest groups engage in all of the following activities EXCEPT

using the franking privilege