final exam

The party that has long stood for an activist federal government that promotes individuals' welfare but with very limited government control over individuals' decisions on abortion is the ______ Party.

Democratic

Judges appointed by ______ tend to be more ______ on issues such as civil rights and crime.

Democrats; liberal

Which of the following has been found to be more effective in activating voters than phone contact?

Door-to-door canvassing.

Which of the following is true about state campaign finance rules?

Each state makes its own campaign finance rules for state-level offices.

Most money contributed directly to candidates comes from where?

Individuals

What causes partisan behavior on the courts?

Judges are usually partisans, and they have some discretion in applying laws to specific cases.

One important effect of candidate-centered campaigns is that:

One important effect of candidate-centered campaigns is that:

Why is turnout in primaries low?

Party ID cannot be used as a shortcut to make voting decisions.

Political groups other than party organizations whose purpose is to raise and spend money to influence elections are called what?

Political Action Committees (PACs).

Which of the following is accurate?

Since Citizens United, money spent on campaigns is hard to trace.

BCRA banned what sort of campaign money?

Soft money contributions to national party organizations.

What consumes the most of a typical presidential campaign's budget?

Television ads.

The GOP's decision to represent the small states more equally with the larger states has advantaged what group?

The conservative wing of the party.

Which key resource assists the chief executive in getting Congress to go along with his or her programs?

The president's popular support.

Which of these is an effect of primary elections?

They advantage incumbents and candidates with high name recognition.

This position in Congress tries to get party members to vote the way the party leadership wants and keeps a head count of each bill's supporters.

Whips

The president's party has almost always seen ______ in its share of House seats in the midterm election,

a decline

Party leaders' endorsements of candidates prior to a primary:

are allowed in some states but not in others

Primaries are likely to give an advantage to candidates who ______.

are well known to the public and have the support of issue activists

Turnout is greater in states with:

better-educated citizenry and a tradition of two-party competition

During the past few national election campaigns:

both the Democrats and the Republicans have won "wave" elections

In American politics, candidates will always have some independence from their party organization because:

candidates are chosen in primary elections, not by party leaders

According to this theory, another vital source of party leaders' power is their ability to control the legislative agenda:

cartel theory

In states with ______ primaries, only voters who have formally declared their affiliations with a party can participate.

closed

Party organizations' leaders benefit most from the use of the ______ primary.

closed

When a president's popularity and success leads other candidates of that party to win their races, we refer to that as:

coattails

The Senate majority leader defers to ______ to a greater degree than his or her House counterpart does.

committee chairs

Legislative parties try to:

coordinate ideas about public policy among the party's members of Congress

The greatest dangers of open primaries from the parties' perspective are:

crossing over and raiding

In public opinion polls, majorities see the Republican Party as stronger than the Democratic Party on:

defense and terrorism issues

After individuals have made their vote choices, attack ads are more likely to:

depress turnout, especially among people who are not strong partisans

Sending personalized letters to millions of people who might be inclined to support a campaign is called:

direct mail

Partisanship in the executive and the judiciary is:

due to the differing values of Democrats and Republicans who hold these positions

State court judges are often ______.

elected rather than appointed

As states have moved their primaries and caucuses closer to the beginning of the nominating season, the nomination process has become highly ______.

front loaded

The two major parties currently are:

further apart in their stands on issues than they have been in a century

Democratic parties began to use "superdelegates" in order to:

give a greater voice to state party leaders and elected officials in nominations

On average, incumbents:

greatly outspend their challengers in congressional elections

Money raised and spent according to FECA rules is called:

hard money

Progressive era reforms that promoted the direct primary have unintentionally made it:

harder to defeat incumbents

A party with clear and consistent principles on a wide range of issues, from the purpose of government to the essence of human nature, is called a(n):

ideological party

House and Senate party leaders have few punishments at their command to convince members to vote with their party, so they tend to rely more on ______.

incentives

At the level of the legislature as a whole, a close division between the two parties can:

increase party voting

The McGovern-Fraser commission:

increased the influence of insurgent Democrats beginning with the 1972 election

Spending by individuals, party organizations or other groups on campaign ads but without consulting with the candidate is called:

independent spending

The use of text messaging by campaigns...

is directed primarily at younger voters.

The seniority rule in selecting committee chairs in Congress

is not used as commonly as it used to be

"Divided control of government":

is when at least one house of Congress is controlled by the party other than the president's party

Challengers usually do better in elections if they campaign on:

issues "owned" by their party

Organizations set up by incumbents to distribute money to other incumbents or challengers in their party are called ______.

leadership PACs

Voter turnout in primary elections currently tends to be:

lower than in a general election

One main reason why individual party members in the House have been more willing to accept strong party leadership since the 1970s is that the members of each party have become:

more ideologically cohesive

Throughout American history, political parties have tended to be:

more pragmatic than ideological

In comparison with the parties in Congress, parties in the state legislatures tend to be:

more variable in strength from one state to another

In state Supreme Court elections:

most of the campaign money comes from groups with an interest in the justices' rulings

Campaign spending in the U.S. is:

much less than Americans spend on lottery tickets per year

Super PACs:

must report to the Federal Election Commission where their money comes from

Campaigns that target their message to specialized "niche" audiences are engaging in:

narrowcasting

In general, party power in the U.S. Congress is:

not as strong as it is in parliamentary democracies

Retention elections:

occur when previously appointed judges must run in a later election

Voters in states with ______ primaries have more freedom to choose which party's primary they want to vote in. They can vote in their choice without having to state publicly which party they favor.

open

The idea of responsible parties is also called:

party government

Any elected or appointed officials who see themselves as belonging to a party are part of the:

party in government

Donald Trump's winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 shows that...

party leaders' endorsements don't always determine primary voters' choices.

In most parts of the democratic world, candidates are selected by:

party leaders, activists, or elected officials

Media coverage of the presidential primaries and caucuses:

pays greatest attention to the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary

Defenders of primary elections can accuratelysay that, in comparison with party caucuses, primaries:

permit the nomination of candidates hostile to party leaders

Bringing supporters to a central location with telephones to dial lists of numbers identified by the campaign's micro-targeting is known as:

phone banking

Generally, partisan influence in the executive branch and the judiciary is:

present in both, to greater or lesser degree

The two major parties use different rules to count the ballots in primaries. The Democrats require state parties to use:

proportional representation

The Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) of 1974:

provided public funding for presidential general-election campaigns

Attack messages disguised as public opinion calls, often done as part of a robo-call, are known as:

push polling

The original design of Congress makes it especially likely to:

put roadblocks in the path of majorities, in order to protect minority rights

Legislative party strength tends to flourish in states such as California where the two parties have:

quite different bases of support

A conscious effort to weaken the other party by voting for their least attractive candidates is called:

raiding

When the parties' supporting coalitions of social groups undergo major change, we call this:

realignment

The federal bureaucracy:

responds to partisan forces over the long run

The presence of divided government makes:

responsible party government impossible

The nomination reforms of the 1970s:

resulted in an increase in the number of state primaries

Voters in presidential primaries tend to be:

slightly older, better educated, and more affluent

Coattail effects since the 1990s have:

strengthened as the parties became more polarized

Champions of party government believe that we need:

strong and decisive government to solve social and economic problems

In many European nations, people become judges by:

studying for and scoring well on a judgeship exam

A ______ district is one in which both parties are competitive.

swing

The group of Democrats in the House, largely from rural and small town districts, typically in the South and West, who took moderate positions on issues such as taxes and business concerns were known as:

the Blue Dog Coalition

Holding a one-day national primary, rather than the current series of state primaries and caucuses, would probably advantage:

the candidate with the most money and name recognition at the time of the primary

From the late 1930s to the late 1960s, conservative Democrats defected to the Republicans over race and other issues. This cross-party alliance was known as:

the conservative coalition

The proportion of roll call votes on which most Democrats vote one way and most Republicans vote the other way is called:

the frequency of party votes

House-to-house canvassing and phone calls that permit communication with a selected group of people is known as:

the ground war

The process of early fundraising and jockeying for media attention and public support has become known as:

the invisible primary

A party's vice-presidential nominee is chosen by:

the party's presidential candidate

In a system of responsible parties, the main focus would be on:

the policies the party has pledged to put into effect

A major roadblock in the path of responsible parties is:

the separation of powers

Whether a state party chooses its national convention delegates in a primary or a participatory caucus is decided by:

the state

An advantage of using the broadcast media to run campaign ads is that:

they are an efficient means to reach large numbers of people

The FECA reforms had this effect:

they slowed the growth of campaign spending by presidential candidates for about three decades

Promoted by the Progressive movement, primary elections:

took the most important power of the party organization—to nominate candidates—away from the party leaders

In congressional elections, campaign spending:

usually makes more of a difference for challengers

Urging social media friends to share campaign news is an example of:

viral marketing

The abortion issue is an example of an issue that:

wasn't a partisan issue till the 1980s, but the Republican platform differs from the Democratic platform on the issue now

National convention delegates tend to be:

wealthier and better educated than is the average voter

Primary elections are more likely to be competitive (i.e., to have more than one candidate for each office):

when the party's prospects for winning the general election are good

Party government is most likely:

when there is strong presidential leadership

Midterm (congressional) election voters are more likely to be:

white, older, and wealthier than those who vote in the general election

State Republican parties are more likely than Democratic parties to use:

winner-take-all rules

One example of a short-lived responsible party arrangement occurred:

with Speaker Newt Gingrich and his "Contract with America"

Groups called 527s and 501cs are allowed to do what in financing campaigns?

Accept unlimited contributions and spend without limit on election advocacy.

What is a major cause of any reduction in the president's party's share of House seats in the midterm election?

Approval ratings of the president have dropped.

This type of primary gives voters greater freedom. The names of candidates from all parties appear on a single ballot in the primary.

Blanket

The Supreme Court ruling that said restricting a candidate's spending infringed on the candidate's right to free speech was:

Buckley v. Valeo (1976)

At the beginning of the country, how were presidential candidates chosen?

By the congressional party caucus.

Which of the following is true with respect to whether campaigns affect election results?

Canvassing has a small but potentially meaningful effect on turnout.

Money spent by party organizations in coordination with a candidate's campaign is called what?

Coordinated spending.