AG-3
Under federal law, PACs can contribute up to ________ per candidate for federal office in a primary election.
$5,000
There are currently ________ voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives and ________ voting members of the U.S. Senate.
435, 100
The minimum amount of money that a Senator must raise to compete in a small state is __________.
5 million
Nearly ________ percent of all PAC contributions go to the incumbents.
85
Which of the following organizations is NOT an example of a single-issue group?
American Conservative Union
The framers of the Constitution saw the ________ as the preeminent component of the federal government.
Congress
Which of the following statements would NOT be accepted by supporters of the pluralist view of interest groups?
The opinion of the majority should always prevail, in a policy dispute, over the opinion of a more intense and directly affected minority.
A bill has been approved in the House and Senate, albeit in slightly different versions. The bill now goes to
a conference committee
A standing committee in the House or Senate
a. is a permanent committee. b. has jurisdiction over a particular policy area. c. has authority to draft, amend, and recommend legislation. *d. is usually organized according to the seniority principle. e. All of these answers are correct.
An informal grouping of officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists who come together temporarily around a policy problem is
an issue network.
A pocket veto differs from a regular presidential veto, in that the pocket veto
can take effect only when the Congress is not in session.
Theodore Lowi's theory of interest-group liberalism
deals with the tendency of officials to support the policy demands of the interest group or groups that have a special stake in a policy.
James Madison argued
for regulation of interests through a governing system of checks and balances.
A main difference between iron triangles and issue networks is that
issue networks are generally less stable than iron triangles, in that the members of an issue network may change as the issue develops.
In the dynamics of an iron triangle, what benefit do interest groups provide to friendly government agencies?
lobbying support for agency programs.
What percentage of state legislators are women?
more than 20 percent
Congress typically takes presidential proposals
only as a starting point.
Grassroots lobbying is based on the assumption that o
pressure from constituents.
For a bill to pass in either chamber of Congress, it must
receive the support of a simple majority of its members.
"Agency capture" occurs when
regulatory agencies side with the industries they are supposed to regulate rather than with the public
James Madison's solution to the problem of factions (special interests) has, in the modern policy process, actually contributed to the problem by
resulting in a fragmentation of authority among policymakers, thereby providing groups more opportunities to get their way.
Senators are generally less likely to take directions from their leaders than House members because
senators think of themselves as being equals and are only willing to be led by persuasion.
A purposive incentive is defined as
the opportunity to contribute to a worthy goal or purpose.
Most of the legislative work of Congress is performed by
the standing committees and their subcommittees with jurisdiction over particular policy areas
In an effort to overcome the free-rider problem, noneconomic groups have
used Internet resources and computer-assisted mailing lists to target potential donors.