POLI 1090- Final
Quality Challengers in the United States
Affect election outcomes because they reinforce and magnify the effect of national conditions on congressional elections
The sharpest differences of opinion between major groups in U.S. politics occur between which of the following groups?
African Americans and whites
Which of the following is considered a classic example of an iron triangle?
Agriculture, water, and public works
Which of the following was not one of the additional reform efforts progressives advocated in the 19th century?
Allowing registration election day to generate higher levels of voter participation
There is a common assumption about pluralist politics that government programs emerge in response to interest group demands.
Although in reality, interests and interest groups arise in defense of government programs.
What lessons about public opinion can we draw from The Federalist Papers?
American public opinion from the beginning has been treated as a political force to alternatively be shaped, mollified or exploited
One agency supports tobacco farmers while another tries to discourage smoking. These competing goals come about for which of the following reasons?
Because gov pursues overlapping conflicting goals in response to diverse demands Americans place on it
President Andrew Jackson chose Roger Taney to be the successor to Chief Justice John Marshall for which of the following reasons?
Because like Jackson, Taney was an advocate of states' rights
How did the Democratic-Republicans respond to the Federalists rolling up legislative victories in the earliest congresses?
By recognizing they needed more like-minded people in Congress, which involved recruiting and electing candidates
Which of the following statements about trust and the press is accurate?
People say that the news sources they use, as opposed to the news in general, are more likely than not to get things right.
What is the term used to describe elaborately organized sets of political attitudes?
Political ideologies
Which of the following is not an example of a policy or idea promoted by a third- party that ended up in one of the platforms of the major parties?
Prohibition on the manufacture and sale of alcohol by the prohibition party in 1870s
The largest interest group in the United States, AARP, was formed to market insurance to senior citizens, and it thrives by
Providing members with a variety of selective benefits
Bureaucratic organization imposes heavy conformity costs on both bureaucrats and the people they deal with in return for which of the following?
Reducing transaction costs and agency losses
Which of the following statements about religion and political attitudes is true?
Regardless of religious affiliation, the more active people are in religious life, the more socially conservative they are likely to be.
When public opinion is not stable, its movements can usually be explained by which of the following?
Responses to changed conditions
What do the reactions to Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama illustrate about partisanship?
Responses to political actors and events have become increasingly polarized along party lines.
What factors influence the challenge of organizing collective action?
Scale of the group and the stakes of its involvement in public policy
What is one of the major concerns for specialized interest groups working in an issue area?
Similar groups appeal to the same supporters and this makes the formation of coalitions tricky.
Why does the competition between competing groups lead to policy gridlock?
Since there are many groups capable of vigorously defending themselves, it is impossible to initiate any change that imposes concentrated costs to achieve general benefits.
What did the experiences of walnut growers and poultry men in 1959 illustrate about the success of interest groups?
Small groups with intense interests have an organizational advantage.
What was one of the major economic problems caused by the Articles of Confederation that brought the delegates together in Philadelphia?
State raids on property rights
What are the limits faced by the Supreme Court in exercising internal control?
Subordinates do not defer to their principals and seek guidance because the life tenure of judges insulates the judges from one another.
What did the failure of Operation Fast and Furious illustrate about the bureaucracy?
Successfully accomplishing tasks requires coordinated actions of thousands of employees and a hierarchical structure that can pass vital information to top administrators.
Why was free riding a major concern for the early parties?
Supporters were able to enjoy the party's victory whether or not they voted.
Which of the following statements about Supreme Court decisions concerning state regulations of business is accurate?
The Court struggled to develop a consistent doctrine for defining the public interest so the courts were inundated with these cases.
What was one of the consequences for the Supreme Court that resulted from the defeat of the Confederacy during the Civil War?
The Court was obliged to devote more attention than ever before to policies emanating from the lower levels of government.
Which of the following is true about Franklin Roosevelt's appointment of seven new members of the Supreme Court between 1937 and 1941?
The Court, then more in tune with the elected branches' thinking about the government's role in the economy, began to pay attention to civil rights and liberties
The ultimate barrier to a more egalitarian campaign finance system is which of the following?
The First Amendment to the Constitution as it is currently interpreted by the Supreme Court is the ultimate barrier to such a system
Which of the following statements about the development of bureaucracies is accurate?
The Framers did not clearly envision bureaucracies, but the departments, agencies, and bureaus that constitute the executive branch are necessary to turn political choices in policy realities
What does the nomination of federal judges illustrate?
The President nominates and the Senate either accepts or rejects, and this shared responsibility provides politicians in these institutions with their best chance to influence judicial policies.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is best described as which of the following?
The President's primary control instrument over the bureaucracy
The Watergate scandal broke and Richard Nixon was forced to resign largely due to which of the following?
The Senate investigation spurred by the "leaks" of "Deep Throat," later revealed to be the FBI bureaucrat Mark Felt
What does the Supreme Court ruling in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha illustrate about Supreme Court rulings?
The absence of enforcement authority has allowed Congress and the President at times to ignore Supreme Court rulings
Why did David Truman and other scholars argue that the American political system was particularly conducive to pluralist politics?
The decentralized structure offered numerous points of access where groups could bid for favorable policies.
Which of the following are the three layers of organization of the federal judiciary?
The district courts, the circuit courts of appeal, and the supreme court
Evidence of the Supreme Court's historical sympathy for protecting property rights can be seen in its interpretation of the language of the Fourteenth Amendment, which defined corporations as persons to invoke which of the following?
The due process clause
Following the civil rights era, the Court began to start rolling back what constitutional interpretation?
The expansive view of the commerce clause
What is one of the consequences of the efforts to shape and channel public opinion?
The line between campaigning and governing has blurred because presidents are more reliant on grassroots public support for winning policy battles
Which of the following statements about spending in House elections is true?
The more challengers spend, the more likely they are to win, but few spend enough to be competitive.
In general, the more government does
The more incentives it creates for organized political action
What role do national parties play in financing campaigns?
The parties can make coordinated and independent expenditures and encourage incumbents in safe seats to pass some of the money on to needier candidates.
Which of the following criticisms of interest groups is most accurate?
The power and resources possessed by lobbyists tend to reflect the power that the groups they represent have in society.
What role does the press play in helping citizens monitor their elected leaders?
The press ferrets out incompetence and malfeasance when challengers fail to perform due diligence.
What does research say about the influence of negative ads in campaigns?
They inform people about both candidates and may also increase interest in elections
What did the Progressive reformers hope to accomplish?
They sought to destroy the party machines by depriving party leaders of the capacity to reward followers
Prominent public interest groups like Common Cause and Public Citizen that rely on moral incentives find that
They tend to grow when opponents run the government
How can the amount of federal spending increase dramatically despite the fact that the federal workforce has scarcely grown at all?
Through delegation of administrative duties to state and local government agencies, Congress can add programs, which voters like, without increasing the federal bureaucracy, which voters do not like
Which of the following is a problem with a professional civil service?
Career bureaucrats inevitably develop their own personal and institutional interests, and the rules designed to protect them from their political retaliation make it difficult to punish them for shirking incompetence.
Formidable publishing barons such as Hearst and Pulitzer disappeared after which of the following occurrences?
Commercial radio took away their monopoly on the news
In its decision in Stuart v. Laird, what grounds did the Supreme Court use to determine whether the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801 was constitutional?
Congress possessed the power to reorganize the judicial branch
How do bureaucracies prosper?
Convincing their congressional principals that they are good and faithful agents and developing an appreciative constituency
During the Federalist years, federal government workers were primarily occupied with which of the following?
Defending New York Harbor and the capital from foreign invasion
Article III of the Constitution established the entire federal judiciary and provided each level with the same power of judicial review.
False
Congress pays close attention to what its bureaucratic agents are doing because administrative oversight is a high priority since it helps members win reelection.
False
Which of the following is a major reason for delegating authority to an independent executive agency?
To avoid placing bureaucratic layers between the President and the agency
Congress voted to create the Department of Transportation to improve the coordination of plans and policies for various transportation modes as well as reducing pork barrel spending.
False
Due to overwhelming Democratic majorities in Congress, President Roosevelt was able to expand the Supreme Court and protect his New Deal programs.
False
Judicial activism is a term often associated with conservative decisions by the courts restricting the conventional view of criminal or civil rights.
False
Merchants, manufacturers, and ethnic and religious minorities during the colonial era rarely sought favorable policies from the authorities in London as well as from colonial governors and assemblies
False
Not only is there broad popular support for political equality and equality of opportunity, but there is broad support for mandating equal outcomes.
False
Over the past thirty years, the proportion of Americans seeing important differences in what the parties stand for has decreased from 80 percent to about 50 percent
False
Public opinion is routinely manipulated by self-serving elites.
False
Republican presidential candidates since Richard Nixon have sought to build winning coalitions by combining affluent economic conservatives with women, minorities and young people.
False
In An Economic Theory of Democracy, Anthony Downs defined a political party as
a team of men seeking to ontrol the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election
Since the federal government left such a small footprint in the nineteenth century, party members had little interest influencing federal appointments in their states and districts.
False
Surveys find abundant evidence that opinions differ among income classes and the differences are greater than those found in most other modern industrial nations.
False
The Constitution clearly defines what offices constitute the President's Cabinet and any addition requires a constitutional amendment.
False
The United States replaced its republican government with a democratic one
False
The decline in participation between the 1960s and the 1990s resulted from a dramatic increase in public cynicism and mistrust since the 1960s
False
The easy availability of television and the growth of the internet has significantly reduced the cost of political campaigns in the United States
False
The speed and ubiquity with which today's news is produced have generated a vigilant consumer capable of sorting what is presented as evidence and deciding how much weight it deserves.
False
The work to measure and shape public opinion has diminished the ability of individual citizens to act collectively.
False
There are not enough independents and partisan defectors to keep party identification alone from determining who wins or loses elections.
False
Uber's lobbying success shows that the best way to achieve policy successes even in a changed technological environment is relying on providing information to lawmakers.
False
When the leaders of the new government took the steps that led to the creation of the first political parties, they expected and wanted party competition to become a permanent feature of American politics.
False
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 differences between the parties from them; rather, voters learned about the parties' positions through political news and campaign advertising.
Which of the following criteria is not typically employed when the media decide whether or not to include a story in the newspaper or broadcast?
Foreign or domestic policy
The constitution of costs and benefits that surround the decision of the individuals to vote raises what type of collective action problem?
Free Riding
The constellation of costs and benefits that surround the decision of individuals to vote raises what type of collective action problem?
Free riding
When a small segment of the public forms opinions by paying close attention to political events and issues and the uninformed and inattentive take cues from the attentive segment, what collective action problem does it illustrate?
Free riding
Pluralist politics is all about building coalitions, which means
Getting people to agree on an action even in the absence of agreement on the purpose of an action
Regulating railroads and monopolies along with providing services to citizens are examples of what kinds of cases that the Supreme Court faced during its second era of judicial review?
Government regulation of the economy
When the National Rifle Association wants to prevent new restrictions on firearms, its members shower Congress with letters, e-mails, faxes, and phone calls, and this is an example of what kind of lobbying?
Grassroots
As a proportion of the population, the federal workforce
Had actually been shrinking since the 1950s until the onset of the War on Terrorism
Why was the election of 1800 a pivotal event for constitutional developments in the United States?
Had power not been transferred peacefully, it would have put the integrity of the Constitution in doubt and future politicians would have a prisoner's dilemma of abiding by the rules or reneging.
Divided government
allows each party to block the other party's more extreme proposals and forces both to compromise when making policy
The franking privilege
allows members of Congress free access to the postal system for official correspondence.
Lobbying is defined as
appeals from citizens and groups to legislators for favorable policies and decisions.
Politcal alliances
are coalitions that need sustained political efforts to hold together because individuals cooperate only as it serves their purposes.
The activities of the parties today are aimed at helping candidates compete more effectively at promoting the party brand means that parties
are in service to its ambitious politicians but not in control of them
Independent regulatory agencies
are political creations so that unresolved political conflicts may be built into an agency's structure, where they will continue to play themselves out in a new venue
The terms liberal and conservative
are the ideological labels commonly used in American politics.
How did politicians determine public opinion before the advent of scientific polling?
Haphazardly through information supplied by editorials, pamphleteers, and local leaders
How do politicians determine public opinion before the advent of scientific polling?
Haphazardly through information supplied by editorials, pamphleteers, and local leaders
When it came to governing, Andrew Jackson believed that no experience was necessary and thus took which of the following actions?
He advocated rotation in office.
How did Marshall's reasoning in Marbury v. Madison affect the balance of power between the Court and Congress?
He argued that the Constitution was superior to ordinary laws, and therefore, any legislative acts contrary to the Constitution is not law.
Congress uses a variety of methods to keep its bureaucratic agents in line including
Hearings and investigations, mandatory reporting and limitation riders
Why did the Framers have such a pervasive fear of political parties?
Historical experiences about the dangers that resulted from factional strife along with eighteenth century social beliefs caused the fear.
What does the history of the President's Cabinet tell us about the political history of the United States?
It paints a picture of the succession of social and economic interests that have become powerful enough to command this level of political recognition.
How did the party competition affect the spoils system?
It provided a private reward to party activists who helped overcome the free-rider problem, which would have left the parties stillborn.
Marshall's explanation of the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution can be summed up as allowing congressional action
as long as the means are plainly adapted to achieve an enumerated power and not specifically prohibited
What was the effect of more than a dozen states adopting a requirement that voters show a picture ID at the polls before the 2012 election?
It raised the cost of participation for poor and minority voters who are more likely not to possess driver's licenses or passports.
The Federalists passed the Judiciary Act of 1801, which accomplished which of the following?
It sharply raised the number of district and appellate courts and thereby created new judgeships for the outgoing Federalists to fill as well as decreasing the size of the Supreme Court
Why did Congress establish regulatory commissions?
It was an attempt to hedge against the potential political costs of delegation by restricting the influence of presidents and party politics on regulatory decisions
Which of the following statements about the establishment of the Republican Party is not true?
It was at its core a single-issue party that was devoted to the abolition of slavery.
Which of the following is true about the Department of Energy?
It was created by President Jimmy Carter as a political response to the energy shortage of the 1970s and a declaration of his administration's commitment to securing adequate supplies of energy for the nation.
The unprecedented vigor with which the Supreme Court struck down laws regulating business during the 1920s did which of the following?
It won the Court the enmity of many elected officials, who found that the justices obstructed their efforts to respond to the demands and needs of their constituents
Why does bureaucratic organization develop?
Leaders are trying to solve the huge problems of coordination and delegation raised by many forms of large-scale collective action.
Which of the following issues did not cause the New Deal coalition of Democrats to begin to unravel?
Maintaining the Gold Standard
How was the union of press and party politics fully realized during Andrew Jackson's administration?
Many of his closest advisers were seasoned journalists, and he appointed numerous editors to patronage positions, such as postmasters or customs agents
the party brand
May impose conformity costs on politicians because they may need to subordinate their views and ambitions to the party's welfare and reputation.
Broadly speaking, campaign finance operates through two parallel systems:
Money given directly to candidates, which is regulated and money spent outside of the candidates campaign, which generally unregulated
Which of the following statements about partisanship in the 2012 election is correct?
More than 90 percent of strong partisans voted their own party's presidential candidate while weaker partisans were less loyal, but still strongly favored their party's candidate.
How has the importance of making profits affected the news media?
News outlets do everything they can to attract and keep an audience.
By the 1960s, what was the chief source of news for many Americans?
Nightly evening network news
How is successful lobbying similar to the actions that the President takes when trying to gain support from members of congress?
One strategy is getting people to do what he or she wants them to do by convincing them that the action serves their goals.
What are the main conduits of public opinion in a pluralist political system?
Opinion leaders and issue publics
Every expansion of suffrage since the adoption of the Constitution has had to do which of the following?
Overcome both philosophical objections and mundane calculations of political advantage
What is the most important information shortcut voters use to make predictions?
Party label
No matter how well organized, electoral alliances fail
if they cannot get enough people to vote for their candidates
Universal Suffrage for women was achieved
in 1920 with the adoption of the 19th amendment
The assorted demographic and institutional influences on voting produce an electorate
in which wealthy, well-educated, older white people are overrepresented and poor, uneducated, young, and nonwhite people are underrepresented
By the end of the 1960s, households with televisions outnumbered those with
indoor plumbing
during the colonial times, American interests cultivated parliamentary leaders, bombarded members of parliament with information, and arranged for expert testimony as part of what kind of strategy?
insider lobbying
The leadership of political parties
is dominated by full-time professionals who have the skills to build networks of party workers, manage electoral alliances, and mobilize voters on Election Day
Spending in presidential campaigns
is focused on television advertising especially in the battleground states.
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
is subject to some measurement error
The Anti-Saloon League, whose successful lobbying led to the adoption of the Eighteenth Amendment, was successful in part because
it focused only on electing "drys" and defeating "wets"
The opinion of most ordinary citizens regarding abortion can best be described as
less certain about how the issue should be resolved and, uncomfortable with both extremes, unlike the activists on both sides of the issue.
Issue voting is
made easier by party labels because the typical positions of Republicans and Democrats differ in predictable ways on many issues.
All of the innovations in mass communication technology have.
made the news more widely available to consumers.
The main responsibility of the Federal Reserve System is
making monetary policy.
Federal district court judges
manage to favor the ideological preferences of the President who appointed them.
Presidential campaigns begin shortly after the midterm elections, if not earlier, because
most presidential primaries now take place very early in the election year.
One study in 2004 of talk radio programs found
national and state conservative talk programs totaled forty thousand broadcast hours each week compared with three thousand for liberal programs.
Responsibility for nominating presidential candidates during the first party system rested with the
parties' legislative caucuses
The most accurate statement about the differences in opinion between party activists and regular voters is
party activists may hold more extreme views, whether conservative or liberal, than regular voters
For James Madison, factions were by definition
pernicious because they pursue selfish aims contrary to the rights of others or the public interest.
The process of acquiring political attitudes is known as
political socialization
The transformation of newspapers into instruments of mass communication meant that
politicians frequently found themselves bowing to powerful editors and publishers.
Whether pursuing resources or autonomy, all bureaucracies have to engage in
politics that involves mobilizing supporters, gathering allies, negotiating mutually beneficial deals with other politicians, keeping in touch with people whose cooperation is needed, and adapting to the realities of power.
Mitt Romney won the Republican Party presidential nomination by
portraying himself as a "severe conservative" and adopting issue positions consistent with this portrayal combined with superior financial resources
In March 2011, Senator Rand Paul responded to President Barack Obama's nationally televised address on military action in Libya by
posting his own video on YouTube.
Before a rule or regulation can be adopted, the administrative procedure Act of 1946 requires administrative agencies to
publish the rule or regulation in the Federal Register and hold public hearings if anyone objects to it.
Most scholars who study public opinion believe that expressed opinions
reflect underlying attitudes.
The effect of the Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo (1976) was that
reporting requirements and contribution limits were constitutional, but limits on spending violated the free speech protections of the First Amendment
The effect of the Supreme Court decision in Buckley v. Valeo(1976) was that
reporting requirements and contribution limits were constitutional, but limits on spending violated the free speech protections of the First Amendment
The 2014 election
saw Republicans expand their majority in the House of Representatives while recapturing a majority in the Senate.
Voters who coalesce around causes such as gun control or gun rights are
single-issue voters
When it comes to the relationship between public opinion and public policy
studies have demonstrated that public opinion significantly affected public policy in three-quarters of instances.
When local law enforcement jurisdictions follow Miranda guidelines as standard operating procedure when making arrests, it is an example of the Supreme Court using
substantive doctrine
Congressional decision makers need which of the following two related types of information before they can implement policy?
technical information and political information
The system of proportional representation
tends to produce more legislative parties, but it has never been tried in the united states on any significant scale
When polled, a representative sample of lobbying group offices in Washington identified their most important activities as
testifying at hearings and contacting government officials directly to present the group's point of view.
Casting a vote is making a prediction about the future
that electing one candidate will produce a better outcome in some relevant sense than electing another candidate.
One formidable barrier to PAC influence is
that many important issues generate conflicts among well-organized interests so politicians could have access to PAC money regardless of which side they take
The experiences of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush illustrate
that the level of approval for presidents typically varies from month to month with economic conditions and international events.
Jefferson's response to the appointment of members of the defeated Federalist Party by Adams to the federal judiciary was a complaint that
the Federalists had "retired into the judiciary as a strong hold."
Which of the following is true about how the interested outsiders recruited by the Administrative Procedures Act monitor the activities of bureaucratic agents?
the agents monitor on Congress's behalf
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
avoid becoming "beset by a horde of citizens seeking to advance their own interests
Individual opinions sometimes may be badly informed and unstable,
but aggregate public opinion is both stable and coherent.
The First Amendment's guarantees of freedom to speak, write, and assemble
ensured that political party activities would be legal
The use of litigation for interest groups is
especially attractive to groups that can rest claims on constitutional rights and that do not have the clout to influence elected politicians.
Campaign contributions far outweigh the sentiments of constituents, when they can be estimated, in determining roll call votes.
false
Organizations that survive on small contributions from a mass membership have no choice but to find new issues to focus on in order to keep growing the membership base.
false
Proponents of the original FECA hoped to rein in the cost of campaigns, and the flow of campaign money has started lagging behind the pace of inflation
false
Under the civil service system, appointment and advancement depended on political pull rather than merit.
false
Turnout in midterm elections, generally is 27 percentage points higher
for the most educated as compared with the least educated.
Writs of certiorari
force the justices to take a hard, strategic look at petitions before promoting them, so political strategy is an important consideration.
For the 8,000 or so certiorari requests it receives each year, the Supreme Court's rule to determine whether any given case is heard is
four of the nine justices must favor hearing the case
Within a few decades of ratification of the First Amendment, the notion that the free press would guard the citizenry's liberties against the designs of ambitious politicians
had been replaced by the press as dedicated partisan boosters.
Other things being equal, the voting rates for men and women
had been roughly equal but has steadily increased year after year as more women are likely to vote.
One way that lobbyists increase the credibility of their messages is by
hiring scientists or scholars to testify at congressional hearings to back technical claims made by the lobbyists
Although groups like the American Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1833, and the National Trades Union, founded in 1834, had political aims, they are not referred to as "political interest groups" because
they sought to achieve their ends without involving the government.
During the 1920s, when hundreds of radio stations overcrowded desirable spots on the radio dial, the FCC was created in part to solve this classic
tragedy of the commons
A system of proportional representation helps preserve smaller parties because votes for their candidates are not wasted.
true
Proving libel requires injured individuals to prove that a story was false and that a news producer acted with malice by publishing a damaging story it knew to be false.
true
The history of party building is largely a story of the "outs" finding new ways to become the "ins"
true
The union of press and party politics was fully realized during the administration of Andrew Jackson.
true
Under the pluralist argument, interest groups were regarded as essential and valuable participants in the democratic politics of a modern industrial society.
true
When the three broadcast networks dominated the market, they bunched together in the political middle like candidates pursuing the median voter.
true
Duvergers law explains
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.
Successful political campaigns
work to frame the choice in a way that underlines their candidate's strengths and plays down his or her weaknesses.
Which of the following describes the group dubbed the "Whiskey Ring" during the Grant administration?
A group of revenue officials, all political appointees, who conspired with distillers to evade taxes on a massive scale
Although most American consistently say they prefer that control of governments be divided between the parties
A large majority of voters identify themselves as republicans or democrats and loyally vote for their party's candidate
Which of the following interpretations of partisanship is correct?
Empirical research has demonstrated that most Americans change their partisanship frequently.
When the Supreme Court issues rulings on whether an agency has conformed substantively and procedurally to the law's guidelines, it is an example of what kind of authority?
Engaging in statutory interpretation
Issue Networks are which of the following?
Ever-changing sets of politicians, lobbyists, experts, and entrepreneurs who shape policy domains
What is one of the major consequences of V. O. Key Jr.'s definition of public opinion?
Every government, democratic or otherwise, has to pay attention to public opinion in some fashion.
The advantages of delegating authority to a unified executive were clear to the Framers of the Constitution, but so was the potential drawback which was
Executives might pursue ends contrary to those desired by congressional majorities
What does the example of the Pentagon Papers illustrates about the doctrine of prior restraint?
Exercising prior restraint requires the government to demonstrate that the publication of documents would damage national security.
What allowed the penny press to thrive in the nineteenth century?
Expanding the news to include human interest stories and coverage of crime, business, and social events
When was universal suffrage for white men achieved?
In the 1840s, in the wake of the triumph of Jacksonian democracy
Opponents have voiced numerous objections for expanding the franchise, but what has not happened as a result of reducing barriers to voting?
Incumbents continue to win reelection at very high rates
The Tennessee Valley Authority and the US Postal Service are examples of?
Independent Government Corporations
Which of the following statements about spending by efforts of interest groups to influence government is accurate?
Interest groups spend billions more every cycle on lobbying than they do on campaign contributions.
What is one of the advantages of stare decisis for judicial decision making?
It enables the Court to ensure that the lower courts are closely following the decisions of the court in order to reduce the independence of judges
How does the Constitution solve the dilemma of delegation?
It establishes a system of separated powers that provides distinct checks on the bureaucracy.
What was the significance of the 1840 presidential election?
It extended organized two-party competition to every state in the nation, framing not only the contest for president but also competition for offices at all levels of government.
Which of the following is true about the two-party system in the United States?
It has continued with a few exceptions since shortly after the nation's founding
Which of the following statements about the organization of the federal judiciary is accurate?
It is a decentralized organization, physically dispersed across the nation, and administered by individual, life-tenured judges.
Which of the following is true about the Democratic national party convention that convened to re-nominate President Jackson in 1832?
It is considered to be the first national party convention
What was the effect of the Supreme Court's decision upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act?
It made neither side completely happy, but enhanced the credibility of the Court over the long term.
Why does the constitution create incentives for party organization?
The provision for enacting laws and electing leaders puts a huge premium on building majority alliances across institutions and electoral units
What have technological changes done to the "fairness doctrine"?
The rapid spread of broadband Internet as an alternative, wide-open source of political expression has made the fairness doctrine moot.
The dramatic conversion of the Supreme Court agenda and its view of federal power came about through which of the following?
The replacement of retirees with a generation of jurists in closer agreement with the President and Congress
Which of the following is not a way that elections ameliorate the problem of delegation of authority?
The requirement that all citizens must vote ensures that the electorate is representative of all interests.
Why do factions continue to raise serious problems for American democracy?
The resources needed to gain influence-money, access, and expertise-are distributed very unevenly.
What is the effect of ambivalence on people's expressed opinions?
The response to the pollster's questions depends on which considerations come to mind first and seem most weighty.
What affects the margin of error in a poll?
The size of the sample
Which of the following was not a reason why the Literary Digest predicted the 1936 presidential election incorrectly?
The size of the sample was too big so that the margin of error in the poll was not precise.
Why has campaign spending increased in the United States?
The stakes represented by elections are so high because decisions from the federal government affect every aspect of American social and economic life.
Following the adoption of progressive reforms, what happened to voter turnout in the United States?
The various changes combined to produce a significant decrease in voter turnout.
In 1905, in Lochner v. New York, the Supreme Court struck down a New York law restricting which of the following?
The work hours of bakers to ten hours a day or sixty hours a week
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
When it comes to social and moral issues, which of the following is true?
These issues raise conflicting considerations that are difficult to reconcile not only between opposed groups but also for individuals in their own minds.
Which of the Following statements about PACs is not true?
They are only permitted to donate money in congressional election
Politicians pay close attention to group differences in polling data because
They determine feasible coalition building strategies
When Choosing supreme court nominees, presidents have done which of the following?
They have chosen members of their own parties over 90 percent of the time
Originally, the first three departments in the executive branch were which of the following?
Treasury, Foreign Affairs, and War
Abortion is the kind of issue that defies political resolution because the wide disagreement on values leaves little space for agreement on action.
True
According to one estimate, the number of lobbying organizations more than tripled between the 1960s and the 1990s; a subsequent analysis indicated a further doubling between 2000 and 2005.
True
Attitudes introduce bias into perceptions and interpretations of political information because people tend to pay more attention and give more credence to sources and information that confirm rather than challenge their beliefs.
True
Hidden information refers to agents knowing things that principals do not.
True
Independent executive agencies, as organizations, look much like the divisions within regular executive departments and are headed by presidential appointees subject to Senate approval.
True
Presidents and cabinet members can never be aware of every detailed operation of the government they head, even when the bureaucratic failure comes with such a great cost.
True
Strange as it may seem, a sample of 1,500 mirrors a population of 250 million just as accurately as it would a population of 10,000.
True
The Department of Justice is by far the most frequent and most important litigant in the federal court system, where it is the primary representative of the federal government.
True
The Supreme Court typically decides fewer than 100 cases annually.
True
The argument for limiting suffrage boiled down to this: Only the independent and virtuous were fit to govern, and the best evidence of independence and virtue was being a property-holding, white, Protestant male.
True
The overwhelming public outcry against Taney's reasoning in Dred Scott case left the Supreme Court seriously discredited.
True
The scope of federal regulation continues to shift in response to real-world events.
True
There was an irresistible temptation to press hot buttons when campaigns sought to persuade politically unsophisticated and uninvolved people that they had a stake in the election and a compelling reason to vote.
True
Typically, half of Senate incumbents and 70 to 80 percent of House incumbents win by default because their opponents spend too little money to make a race of it
True
When there is no obvious reason to expect significant change, the distribution of opinion tends to be highly stable.
True
Why did the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, and Commerce represent a new type of agency?
Unlike prior departments, which served general social purposes, each of these departments was established to serve the particular clientele indicated by its title
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002
Was the most far-reaching government reorganization in fifty years as it involved more than 180,000 employees and budgets totaling more than $33 billion dollars
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?
Ways to maximize the potential political benefits and minimize the potential political costs each time they decide to exercise and delegate their authority
Which of the following statements about political information is true?
We avoid incurring information costs by delegating opinion formation to reliable agents chosen for that purpose.
The relationship between politicians and reporters can best be described as
built on a tension between reciprocity and competition.
What was one of the consequences of the 2014 midterm election?
While Republicans would not have enough votes to reverse President Obama's signature legislative achievements, voters loudly and clearly repudiated the President.
Innovation in mass communication has resulted in
a dramatic expansion of news as a consumer product
When asked to place themselves on a scale from "very liberal" to "very conservative," about half the people classify themselves as liberal or conservative. Of the rest
about a quarter position themselves in the middle and another quarter do not place themselves at all
Voters may not think much of parties, but large majorities still admit to party preferences and use parties to guide their voting decisions for which of the following reasons?
because party labels still provide the cheap, shorthand cue so useful to rationally ignorant voters
Ignorance about an issue does not necessarily prevent people from expressing opinions. Indeed, pollsters
can get as many as one-third of the people they interview to offer opinions on entirely imaginary issues
The role of infotainment in the current media environment
can prove highly informative for people who are not that interested in public affairs or current events.
During colonial times, it was quite common for
commentaries or reporting that first appeared in a weekly paper to be republished in pamphlet form for wider circulation.
Joseph McCarthy always appeared before television cameras with loose sheets of paper, which he could wave at the camera and claim contained the names of known
communists in the state department
When it comes to principles instead of programs, Americans most likely think of themselves as
conservative
Among which group has the sorting process been most noticeable?
conservative southern whites
The "party organization" refers to one part of a connected three-part system that is
dedicated to electing the party's candidates
Campaign messages
depend on two things: the national context and who is running against them
The Civil War amendments
did not effectively extend the vote to African Americans.
The experiences of Uber demonstrate that
digital social networks can reweigh the calculus of political activism by making it almost costless and that can deliver policy victories.
The sheer size of the new country meant that if Americans were going to govern themselves
direct democracy was going to be impossible and the people would have to delegate their authority to a small number of representative agents.
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
To characterize the news media businesses
does not discredit their integrity as suppliers of vital civic information.
The patterns of public opinion with regard to torture illustrate that
the opinions most people hold on political issues rely heavily on cues and signals the leaders of their preferred party send on the issues.
Social ferment, a growing and increasingly well-educated and affluent middle class, and technological innovations have contributed to
the rapid proliferation of interest groups since the 1960s
"Yellow journalism" was a term first used at the end of the nineteenth century that referred to
the use of outrageous and inflammatory headlines as well as sensational stories to attract readers to newspapers, so called because of the color of ink used in the New York World's comic strips.
