Chapter 12 Review Questions

49. What type of election allows the party's voters to nominate candidates?

c. primary

53. Paradoxically, the Progressive Era left the Republican Party and the Democratic Party

d. organizationally weaker but more entrenched than ever in the political system

1. 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

11. Republican presidential candidates since Richard Nixon have sought to build winning coalitions by combining affluent economic conservatives with women, minorities, and young people.

False

21. The "party in the electorate" refers to one part of a connected three-part system that is

a. composed of those voters who identify with the party and regularly vote for its nominees.

6. Political parties are

a. not mentioned in the Constitution.

4. The United States, like most modern democracies, has a two-party system that simplifies choices for voters.

False

41. How did the parties solve the problem of free riding in elections?

a. They made participation exciting and fun.

40. What was the significance of the 1840 presidential election?

b. 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.

64. Divided government

d. allows each party to block the other party's more extreme proposals and forces both to compromise when making policy.

55. The Republicans regained the White House from the New Deal coalition Democrats in 1952 by taking which of the following positions?

a. by promising to administer the New Deal programs more frugally

32. How did the Democratic-Republicans respond to the Federalists rolling up legislative victories in the earliest congresses?

a. by recognizing they needed more like-minded people in Congress, which involved recruiting and electing candidates

56. Which of the following issues caused the New Deal coalition of Democrats to begin to unravel

a. civil rights for African Americans

71. What is one of the most important chores for presidents in the modern party organizations?

a. helping the party raise money and show other donors where to invest their campaign dollars

16. Party labels

a. offer a serviceable shorthand cue that keeps voting decisions cheap and simple for the voters

44. Which of the following statements about the establishment of the Republican Party is true?

b. It appealed to business and commercial interests by promoting a protective tariff and a transcontinental railroad.

12. The 2008 presidential nomination process in both parties left no doubt that party allocation rules matter.

True

13. Over the past 30 years, the proportion of Americans seeing important differences in what the parties stand for has decreased from 80% to about 50%.

False

8. The party conventions provided a forum for politicking that convinced diverse party factions to agree to unite behind a single presidential candidate and a coherent party platform.

False

9. Under the civil service system, appointment and advancement depended on political pull rather than merit.

False

10. Primary elections deprived parties of a crucial political resource: the ability to control access to elective public office by controlling nominations.

True

14. Party units, the party's candidates, outside groups, and wealthy individuals with compatible political and ideological agendas now operate as flexible partisan networks for acquiring and allocating campaign resources.

True

2. Parties grew out of the efforts of political entrepreneurs to build alliances and coordinate the collective activity necessary to gain control of and use the machinery of government.

True

3. 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

5. A system of proportional representation helps preserve smaller parties because votes for their candidates are not wasted.

True

6. Third-party movements contribute to the policy agendas of the major party coalitions even as the winner-take-all electoral system continues to deny third-party candidates public office.

True

7. The history of party building is largely a story of the "outs" finding new ways to become the "ins."

True

25. Party coalitions persist in part for which of the following reasons?

a. Because party organizations remain decentralized, mirroring the decentralized institutions of American federalism.

68. Which of the following was true about the 2012 party platforms, which were statements of the policy positions of each party?

a. Few voters learn of the differences between the parties from them; rather, voters learned about the parties' positions through political news and campaign advertising.

37. How did the 1824 presidential election affect the development of political parties?

a. Martin Van Buren built a national party based on the planters of the South and the plain republicans of the North to contain the most explosive issues of the day.

63. When issues have arisen that split the existing party coalitions in the United States, which of the following has also occurred?

a. Party-line voting has declined and ticket-splitting has increased.

45. How did the 19th-century party machines reflect politics in the United States?

a. Politics was a full-time profession and winning local elections to keep patronage flowing was the paramount goal of party professionals.

54. Why did diverse groups come together in the New Deal coalition?

a. Some supported Roosevelt's policies on economics and social welfare, while others remained part of the Democratic coalition out of tradition.

9. Why does the Constitution create incentives for party organization?

a. The provision for enacting laws and electing leaders puts a huge premium on building majority alliances across institutions and electoral units.

28. Which of the following is an example of a policy or idea promoted by a third party that ended up in one of the platforms of the major parties?

a. The regulatory innovations sought by the Populist Party in the 1890s

34. The Federalists, one of the first two major parties, faded as a national force when which of the following occurred?

a. Their pro-British leanings put them on the wrong side of the War of 1812

11. Political alliances

a. are coalitions that need sustained political efforts to hold together because individuals cooperate only as it serves their purposes.

59. The experiences of George McGovern in 1972 and Jimmy Carter in 1976 under the new rules illustrated that

a. outsiders with tenuous links to others in the party could compete and make it harder to win and govern.

26. The system of proportional representation

a. tends to produce more legislative parties, but it has never been tried in the United States on any significant scale.

50. Which of the following was a reform Progressives advocated in the 19th century?

a. the direct election of U.S. senators by voters

43. What pattern did the Democrats and Whigs set for the future of political parties?

b. Every successful American party has cared more about winning elections than about furthering a consistent set of principles

24. Which of the following is true about the two-party system in the United States?

b. It has continued with a few exceptions since shortly after the nation's founding.

38. Which of the following is true about the Democratic national party convention that convened to renominate President Jackson in 1832?

b. It is considered to be the first national party convention.

65. Which of the following describes the distribution of those willing to call themselves Democrats or Republicans—that is, partisan identification—from 1952 through 2010?

b. It remained surprisingly stable.

48. How did the Australian ballot change the nature of political competition?

b. It was much more difficult for parties to exchange favors for votes because it left no legal way for the parties to know if voters kept their side of the bargain.

14. What effect did the increasing size of the electorate have on American politics?

b. Networks of leaders and activists were assembled to identify and attract new voters and get them to show up at the polls.

23. What are the consequences of Duverger's Law for political candidates?

b. Office seekers usually join one of the two competitive parties rather than pursuing office as independents or third-party nominees.

8. Which of the following statements about the development of political parties is accurate?

b. The party system has changed in important ways over the years as political entrepreneurs have adapted parties to new purposes and opportunities.

1. Although most Americans consistently say they prefer that control of government be divided between the parties,

b. a large majority of voters identify themselves as Republicans or Democrats and loyally vote for their party's candidate.

20. The "party organization" refers to one part of a connected three-part system that is

b. dedicated to electing the party's candidates.

5. The First Amendment's guarantees of freedom to speak, write, and assemble

b. ensured that political party activities would be legal.

12. Many early observers of the presidential selection process

b. expected the House to make the choice most of the time.

3. The role of the two major political parties in the United States

b. has never been healthier based on how people vote and evaluate candidates, who wins elections, and how the nation is governed.

30. The leadership of political parties

b. 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.

51. One consequence of the electoral reforms of the Progressive Era was to

b. shift the focus of electoral politics from parties to candidates.

33. How did the practice of presidential elections change during the first party system in the United States?

c. As competing slates of delegates pledged to support specific presidential candidates, the candidates replaced individual electors as the objects of voters' decisions.

7. Why did the Framers have such a pervasive fear of political parties?

c. Historical experiences about the dangers that resulted from factional strife along with 18th century social beliefs caused the fear.

27. Which of the following statements about third parties is true?

c. Only those third parties that manage to supplant one of the two reigning parties as a viable option in voters' minds gain rather than lose support from strategic voters.

52. Following the adoption of Progressive reforms, what happened to voter turnout in the United States?

c. The various changes combined to produce a significant decrease in voter turnout.

46. What did the Progressive reformers hope to accomplish?

c. They sought to destroy the party machines by depriving party leaders of the capacity to reward followers.

4. In An Economic Theory of Democracy, Anthony Downs defined a political party as

c. a team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election.

66. 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?

c. because party labels still provide the cheap, shorthand cue so useful to rationally ignorant voters

70. Among which group has the sorting process been most noticeable?

c. conservative southern Whites

18. The threat of collective punishment by the voters gives the majority party a strong incentive to

c. govern in ways that please voters.

13. No matter how well organized, electoral alliances fail

c. if they cannot get enough people to vote for their candidates.

58. The effect of the McGovern-Fraser Commission was

c. it changed the system so the party base has more influence than insiders.

10. The first American political parties emerged in Congress because

c. legislative leaders found it advantageous to cultivate a stable group of supporters by forming durable alliances.

17. The party brand

c. may impose conformity costs on politicians because they may need to subordinate their views and ambitions to the party's welfare and reputation.

31. The earliest political parties in the United States developed around

c. measures designed to foster economic development and disagreements over whether the United States should have stronger ties with England or France.

62. The most accurate statement about the differences in opinion between party activists and regular voters is

c. party activists are apt to hold more extreme views, whether conservative or liberal, than regular voters.

29. What is the term used to describe politicians' awarding jobs, offices, government contracts, and other benefits to their supporters?

c. patronage

57. The fight over the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 1968 resulted in

c. reforms of presidential nominations that foster more inclusion.

47. What were two of the more important reforms of the Progressive Era?

c. the Australian ballot and primary elections

67. The most salient difference between the current and the New Deal party systems is which of the following?

c. the Republican Party's increased strength

69. The current party system is marked by

c. the widening ideological divide between the parties in Congress.

35. The years of the Monroe presidency were dubbed the Era of Good Feelings because

c. they lacked any significant party conflict.

22. Duverger's law explains

c. why in a system in which a single winner is chosen by plurality voting, serious competitors will be reduced to two.

42. How did party competition affect the spoils system?

d. It provided a private reward to party activists who helped overcome the free-rider problem, which would have left the parties stillborn.

15. Why was free riding a major concern for the early parties?

d. Supporters were able to enjoy the party's victory whether or not they voted

39. What party found its only presidential success by nominating a popular military hero without known political coloration and obscuring party divisions by not writing a party platform?

d. Whig Party

19. The "party in government" refers to one part of a connected three-part 19. The "party in government" refers to one part of a connected three-pa

d. an alliance of current officeholders cooperating to shape public policy.

72. The activities of the parties today are aimed at helping candidates compete more effectively at promoting the party brand means that parties

d. are in service to its ambitious politicians but not in control of them.

61. The main goal of party conventions in contemporary politics is

d. conveying an attractive image and message to citizens watching the action at home on television.

2. Typically more than half of voters tell pollsters that the two major parties

d. do such a poor job that a third major party is needed.

36. Responsibility for nominating presidential candidates during the first party system rested with the

d. parties' legislative caucuses.

60. Mitt Romney won the Republican Party presidential nomination by

d. portraying himself as a "severe conservative" and adopting issue positions consistent with this portrayal combined with superior financial resources.