POLS 302 Midterm

The U.S. House elected in ______ was the most polarized in American history.

2014

Minor party presidential candidates can receive public funding for their campaigns if they receive at least ______ percent of the popular vote.

5

Since 1964, the average success rate for incumbents seeking reelection to the U.S. House was ______ percent.

93%

mass membership party

A highly participatory organization in which all three parts of the party are closely linked

a service party

A party organization that supports campaigns with money and other resources as opposed to running the campaigns itself can be termed:

The leader of the Federalists, the first group to resemble a party, was ______.

Alexander Hamilton

Which of the following is most true of the relationship between an individual's income and his or her voting behavior?

Although lower-income people tend to vote Democratic, higher-income people are becoming less Republican.

cadre party

An organization run by a few leaders and activists with little or no broad public participation

campaign finance reform passed in 2002 did what?

Barred the national committees from collecting soft money after the 2002 elections.

The many immigrants who came to the United States before the Civil War were welcomed primarily by the:

Democratic Party

The ______ were the party of farming interests, the less privileged and those on the frontier.

Democratic-Republicans

The assertion that plurality elections in single-member districts tend to produce two-party systems is called:

Duverger's Law

The ______ party pushed for a central banking system and high tariffs on imported goods.

Federalist

Intermediaries

Groups that are considered to be links between citizens and the people in government who make decisions

Error-prone voting machines are most likely to be found where?

In poorer and minority-dominated counties

The high point of local party organizational strength in the U.S. occurred when?

In the late 1800s and early 1900s.

solidary incentives

Intangible benefits that people can gain by associating with others and being a part of a group

patronage

Jobs awarded on the basis of party loyalty rather than qualifications

The strongest vote getter of any minor party in the past quarter century has been the ______ Party.

Libertarian

Why did American politics change markedly in the 1820s?

Most states had eliminated the requirement that only landowners could vote.

______ required the states to let citizens register to vote at driver's license bureaus.

Motor-voter law

Which three forces are strongly interrelated in predicting people's votes?

Party ID, candidate characteristics, and current issues.

split ticket voters

People who tend to support candidates of more than one party

Which of the following is true of state party organizations?

Republican state parties tend to be stronger than Democratic state parties.

Small business owners, wealthy people, and evangelicals lean heavily toward which party?

Republicans

This party tends to be very critical of big government and favorable toward traditional values:

Republicans

Who was the only minor party candidate since 1975 to receive almost 20 percent of the popular vote for president?

Ross Perot

Which of the following is true of party systems?

Some democratic nations have had extensive periods of one party rule

During the past decade, the largest portion of Republican Congress members represent districts in the:

South

Which of the following is NOT an advantage that incumbents have in congressional elections?

Term limits

Which minor party claims credit for public policies such as minimum wage?

The Socialist Party

Due to Progressive reforms in the early 1900s, what limited the influence of state parties on campaigns for state offices?

The direct primary

By what point in American history had nearly all national politicians aligned themselves with an incipient political party?

The mid 1970s

During the past half-century, which of these is true about the relationship between the president and the national committee of the president's party?

The national committee has frequently been dominated by the president.

stratarchy

The relationship between national, state, and local party organizations

purposive incentives

The sense of satisfaction people feel when promoting an issue or cause that matters to them

party coalition

The social, economic, or other groups that are inclined to vote for a party's candidates at a particular time make up

Which of the following is NOT a reason why party activists can limit party leaders' power?

There are so many activists that they can outvote party leaders.

Which is true about "swing districts" in the U.S. Congress?

They have become much less common during the past 25 years

In this party system, economic issues and attitudes toward the growth of huge industrial monopolies were closely linked with regional divisions between the parties.

Third (regional divisions)

Like a social service organization that helped new arrivals with food and funds, ______ smoothed the way for new immigrants in the late 1800s.

Urban party machines

This party had roots in the old Democratic-Republican Party but in a faction that opposed the Jacksonians:

Whig Party

Minor parties tend to be weaker in a system with ______ because they do not have a realistic chance of winning the presidency.

a single executive

how many states currently allow some form of early voting in person or by non-excuse absentee voting?

about two thirds

party organizations are likely to

accept help from whatever volunteers are available

party realignment

an enduring change in the parties' coalition

Nonpartisan elections

are held in most American cities and towns

younger Americans turn out to vote:

at a much lower rate than Americans above 65

The less diverse its people are, in terms of the demographic characteristics that typically divide Republicans from Democrats, the more likely the district is to:

be dominated by one party

As a result of the Great Depression and FDR's New Deal

blacks, who had long been Republicans, increasingly favored the Democratic Party

Republicans are usually linked with _______; and Democrats are usually linked with _____

business; labor and the disadvantaged

The major American parties, in important ways, are:

cadre parties

Individuals' attitudes toward the federal government:

can change when partisan control of the government changes

The parties' Congressional Campaign ("Hill") Committees:

can spend independently in congressional campaigns

Most government workers are now hired under ______.

civil service rules

The Ranney Index measures

competition between the Democrats and Republicans in the states

Political parties in Europe have been more committed to keeping their elected officials faithful to the party's program, while in the U.S., the two major parties:

concentrate on election activities

Public approval of the two major parties has:

decreased in recent years

During the 1960s and 1970s, the proportion of Americans calling themselves strong partisans:

dropped

James Madison noted that ______ are the most common sources of factions.

economic differences

George Washington felt that parties would

encourage people to pursue their narrow self interest at other people's expense

Local parties are currently expanding their efforts in all but one of the following:

enrolling lots of dues-paying members

Party activists tend to be more ______ in their views on issues than most voters in their party.

extreme

Party identification

feeling of closeness to the party itself

Democratic activists are more likely than Republican activists to be:

female, black, or associated with a union

Since 1952, approximately how many members of Congress have been elected on a minor party ticket?

fewer than 5

local party comittees

focus on get-out-the-vote and voter registration activities

Most successful appeals to take part in campaign work come from whom?

friends or acquaintances of the individual

in recent years, Republican party activists have been

further to the Right than Democratic activists are to the Left

In recent decades, the national party organizations have:

greatly increased their funding and other resources

the percentage of voting-age black Americans who are registered to vote in the southern states

has greatly increased since the 1960s

People's party identification has increasingly been characterized by:

hostility toward the opposing party

In the first party system, the main line of conflict was:

how much power the national government should exercise relative to the states

The two national parties' committees have created databases to:

identify the voters most likely to support their party's candidates

Most people start thinking of themselves as a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent:

in childhood

When are people most likely to change their partisanship?

in young adulthood

The great majority of party funds in recent House and Senate races are now spent in the form of:

independent expenditures

Independents who say they feel closer to one of the two parties are called:

independent leaners

People who change their party ID usually change its ______.

intensity

party organizational strength is indicated by

larger budgets and more full-time staff members

The Supreme Court ordered ______ in the 1960s to stop state legislatures from over-representing rural areas and under-representing urban areas

legislative redistricting

Voter turnout in the US is _______ than is most Western industrialized democracies

lower than

districts fashioned by packing as many black voters in a district as possible in order to permit a black candidate to be elected are called:

majority-minority districts

By 2012, the biggest portion of party fundraising came from individuals, but an increasing proportion of party committees' money came from:

members of congress

When the number of swing districts declines, the result has been to eliminate most of the ______.

moderate members of congress

independent spending

money spent by party organizations independently of the candidate they're trying to help

The two national parties now are

more different from one another on issues than has been the case in many decades

The longer an individual holds a particular party ID, the ______ it normally becomes.

more stable

Compared with current local party activists, the activists in the old urban party "machines" in the 1800s and early 1900s were:

more typical of the urban population in education levels and income

The Democratic party coalition currently includes all of the following except

most white men

In a ______, when one single party fails to win a majority of the votes, then two or more parties come together in a coalition in order to govern.

multi party system

Independent candidates

must usually get a lot of signatures on petitions to get on the ballot

Officially, each major party's supreme national authority is the:

national convention

winning candidates are typically told by their party's Hill Committee to spend several hours each day:

on the phone raising money for their next campaign

What is the most common source of our first party identification?

our family's party identification

People who feel a sense of psychological attachment to a particular party are called what

party identifiers or partisans

American political parties can try to increase their electoral success by all but which of the following?

passing laws to outlaw the opposing party

a political party's most effective means of mobilization is:

person to person contact

Scholars have classified party activists into two types. What are they called?

pragmatists and purists

One of the areas of greatest conflict between the national parties and their state and local brethren centers on national party involvement in ______.

primaries

The support of party candidates by ______ is conditional on the candidates' principles.

purists

Someone dedicated to abortion rights, for example, who works for a pro-choice candidate is a likely example of what sort of incentive? You Answered

purposive

Although the party systems are most often characterized by disputes about government's role in the economy, this factor also played a prominent role:

race and civil rights

voter registration prior to Election Day:

reduced voter turnout by adding to the effort needed to cast a ballot

Most state party systems in the U.S. are:

relatively safe for one party or the other

The Electoral College:

required each state to choose a number of presidential voters (electors)

At the state level, the party organization is most often called the:

state central committee

It is accurate to say that:

strong partisans see bigger issue differences between the parties

Local party organizations today are:

stronger than they were in the mid-1900s

material incentives

tangible rewards for activity in a group

In the 2010s, Republican core beliefs include:

tax cuts and less government spending

Before the secret ballot was introduced into American elections, voting was done by

the "oral vote"

The party machine was a method by which ethnic groups, especially ______, gained a foothold in American politics.

the Irish

The main unit of local party organization in most states is the:

the county

Which of these is not one of the three parts of parties?

the county courts

A particularly dramatic recent change in the state party organizations is:

the growth of stronger state Republican parties in the southern states

the chair of the party that holds the presidency is chosen by

the incumbent president

Party committees target their spending on which types of congressional campaigns?

the most competitive races

A major change in the Republican Party in the electorate in the last third of the 1900s was:

the movement of most southern whites from the Democratic to the Republican party

between conventions, the two parties' main governing bodies are

the national committees

American political parties are affected by all of the following except:

the parliamentary system of government

The level of party voting varies over time because individuals' voting decisions are affected by the give and take of two sets of forces:

the strength of their party ID and short-term forces

which of these is an example of the southern states after the Civil War trying to disenfranchise black Americans

the white primary

The biggest social group difference between voters and non voters is:

their level of education

Parties and other political groups have these functions in common:

they all are extremely stable and long lived

a major rationale for establishing majority-minority districts is that:

they are more likely to result in election of a minority representative, which increases minority representation in the legislature

Why is it that leaders of the construction industry are so active politically in states and cities that spend millions yearly on roads and public buildings?

they can get preferments

which of these is true about voter identification requirements?

they have been passed more often by Republican-dominated candidates

What impact did reforms introduced by the national Democratic Party in the late 1960s have?

they reduced the state party's role in selecting a presidential candidate

One of the most distinctive characteristics of American party activists is that compared with the average voter:

they tend to be of higher income and have more formal education

Under which party system did the South become a Democratic bastion?

third

The Progressive reforms:

tried to take power from the great urban party machines

Which of the following is true of religion and voting behavior?

very religious people are more likely to vote Republican than Democratic

the idea of "service parties"

was first developed in the Republican party

Until recently, state party organizations were:

weaker than the local party organizations

Party machines:

were a type of political organization that developed in the cities

Rates of turnout in American elections:

were higher in the late 1800s than they are today

With respect to gender we find that

women's political preferences have moved to the Left in many western democracies

Which of the following is most true of age and voting behavior?

younger voters are usually, but not always, more democratic than older voters