PS103 Ch. 6,7,8,9&10 Post and Pre Tests
The Great Depression was the impetus for the
Third Party System
Which of the following helps an interest group get what it wants?
being the only group interested in an issue
What is another name for public interest groups?
citizen groups
What is the most important thing a survey company must do to ensure a proper sample?
collect a random sample
Newspaper readership has __________ over the past decade
decreased
What is "soft news"?
news that is sensational or entertaining
A __________ is a set of promises explaining what the party's candidates will do if elected.
party platform
To win a party's nomination, a candidate must win the
primary election
A citizen's judgment of an officeholder's job performance since the last election is called
retrospective evaluation
Whom does a shield law protect?
sources
Who is the incumbent?
the current officeholder, running for reelection
Which of the following factors do scholars believe has the greatest effect on a young person's ideology and partisan identification while growing up?
the person's parents
Which of the following is NOT an advantage that the major print newspapers enjoy over other media outlets?
timeliness
Which of the following is an example of wholesale politics?
writing mass newsletters to constituents
__________ strategies involve contact with elected officials or bureaucrats.
Inside
Yellow journalism most influenced public opinion about which war?
Spanish-American War
Why are focus groups helpful in understanding public opinion?
They provide deep insights into why people hold the views that they do.
A runoff election is likely when a state uses __________ voting.
majority
What is the term for media influence on the public's general impression caused by positive or negative coverage of a candidate or issue?
priming
The state of North Carolina has 13 U.S. House members, and therefore the state of North Carolina is allocated __________ members in the electoral college.
15
A __________ is a tax-exempt group that is not subject to contribution limits and spending caps and that is formed primarily to influence elections through voter mobilization efforts and issue ads that do not directly endorse or oppose a candidate.
527 organization
Which of the following groups identify overwhelmingly as Democrats?
African Americans
Which subgroups were most supportive of the statement that the Bible is the actual word of God? Which subgroups were least supportive of the statement that government should reduce the income differences between rich and poor?
African Americans and southerners; those with a bachelor's degree and those making more than $70,000 a year
Which of the following is an example of a selective incentive?
American Automobile Association (AAA) members getting discounts at hotels
Choose all of the following statements that are examples of voting cues.
Amy decides to vote for the incumbent because she is happy with how the government has been performing., Rory votes for the candidate who is from the party he identifies with., Clara votes for the candidate who has the same religious affiliation as she does.
A lobbying method initiated by an interest group that is designed to look like the spontaneous, independent participation of many individuals is called
Astroturf lobbying.
Andrew Jackson was the founder of which political party?
Democratic
The __________ parties defined the Second Party System on the issue of the tariffs (farmers versus merchants) and slavery.
Democratic and Whig
__________ is defined as one party controlling Congress but not the presidency or different parties controlling the House and Senate.
Divided government
__________ states that in a democracy with single-member districts and plurality voting, only two parties' candidates will have a realistic chance of winning political office.
Duverger's Law
The __________ was created with the central goal of preventing any single media company from dominating the airwaves in a geographical area.
Federal Communications Commission
The __________ is (are) in charge of administering election laws, including the complex regulations pertaining to how campaigns can spend money.
Federal Election Commission
The __________ parties defined the First Party System on the issue of the proper role and size of the national government.
Federalist and Democratic-Republican
__________ refers to the media's ability to decide which issues are covered and which are ignored and to provide either more or less information about important political issues.
Filtering
What is the difference between a referendum and an initiative?
Initiatives are put on the ballot by citizens, while referenda begin in the state legislature.
The noted benefits of __________ include a diversity of viewpoints, lower barriers to publication, and a depth of available information.
Internet news
The amount of money spent on lobbying has changed in which of the following ways in the past decade?
It has increased significantly.
What causes generational effects to occur?
Key events in history shape the attitudes of people who experience them.
What is by-product theory as it relates to the media?
Many Americans acquire political information as a by-product of other media activities
Why is the collective action problem an issue for interest groups?
Many of their potential members decide to free ride on the group's efforts.
What does it mean that most political judgments are latent opinions?
Most Americans form their opinions only as needed.
Which of the following statements best represents Americans' evaluations of their government?
Most Americans have a neutral or negative view of their government's performance and low levels of trust in politicians.
Catholics and union members were key groups of what coalition?
New Deal Coalition
What does the research in political science say about interest group influence?
Overall, there is no conclusive evidence that interest groups gain influence for their contributions or lobbying.
What evidence do we have that public opinion is relevant in American politics today?
Politicians and journalists spend lots of time and money trying to figure out what people think.
Why did early scholars of public opinion wrongly conclude that public opinion did not really exist?
Scholars required that public opinion be internally consistent, stable, and based on explainable beliefs.
Choose all of the following party systems that featured the Democrats and Republicans as the two major parties.
Second, Third
Which of the following is the most likely reason that soft news has become so prevalent?
Soft news attracts a bigger audience than does hard news.
The __________ has forced the Republican Party to confront conflicting issues within the party.
Tea Party
There is a common (if unfortunate) saying in the press that "if it bleeds, it leads," meaning that if a story is involves violence or crime, it is likely to make the news. Why is this the case?
The media is a business and as such has to constantly worry about attracting viewers and readers.
If no presidential candidate wins a majority of votes in the electoral college, what happens?
The names of the top three candidates are submitted to the House, where each state will be able to cast one vote.
__________ is made up of politicians who were elected as candidates of a party, while __________ involves the structure of national, state and local parties, including party leaders and workers.
The party in government; the party organization
Which of the following are potential problems with a survey or poll? Select all that apply.
The question may be worded poorly. , The sample may not random., People may not want to express their true feelings.
What does it mean when someone talks to a reporter "on background"?
The reporter can use the information given to him or her by the source so long as it is not attributed to that source.
Which statement best characterizes the nature of political action committees and 527s?
They are not part of the political party organization.
According to the by-product theory, which of the following is the most likely method by which Americans learn about politics?
They watch The Daily Show and learn about politics while laughing at Jon Stewart's reports.
During the __________, the issues of post-Civil War reconstruction and the extent to which the federal government should regulate America's rapidly growing industrial base divided Democrats and Republicans.
Third Party System
Choose all of the following statements that are reasons why people turn out to vote.
Voting is viewed as an obligation of citizenship., People feel guilty for not voting., Voting cues mean people do not need to spend a lot of time collecting information to make a decision on whom to vote for.
Which of the following statements are examples of political socialization? Select all that apply.
Will's parents talked frequently about politics during family dinner., Geordi identifies as African American and tends to associate Democrats with including more African Americans than Republicans.
What does party identification refer to?
a citizen's loyalty to a specific political party
That respondents may provide answers they believe the interviewer wants to hear is
a common problem with surveys.
The opposite type of group from a centralized one is __________, where most of the power is kept in the hands of local organizations.
a confederation
What is a caucus?
a local meeting at which party members select a candidate for the general election
What is a party platform?
a set of objectives outlining the party's issue positions and priorities, which candidates are not required to support
In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail for refusing to divulge her source in an article she had earlier written. Miller could have been protected if the federal government had had what in place?
a shield law
Which of the following individuals would be most likely to vote?
a white, middle-aged college graduate
Which of the following is a brief filed in court?
an amicus curiae
Which of the following media sources suffer from a lack of breadth in their coverage? Choose all that apply.
broadcast Television, radio
A straight ticket is a ballot on which a voter selects
candidates from more than one political party.
Groups with headquarters, often in Washington, D.C., and with members and field offices throughout the country are known as
centralized groups
The Sierra Club, which lobbies on many environmental and animal rights issues, and the Family Research Council, which lobbies on a variety of conservative issues, are examples of what type of interest group?
citizen group
Which type of group is most likely to be harmed by the free rider problem?
citizens' groups
Which of the following represents a legal hurdle for reporters when publishing controversial government information?
clear and present danger test
Pieces of relevant information such as ideology, party identification, religious beliefs, and personal circumstances that come to mind when an opinion is requested are known as
considerations.
News Corp. is a major corporation that owns Fox Broadcasting, Fox News, DirecTV, more than 40 other cable channels, several major newspapers including the Wall Street Journal, several weekly magazines, and a variety of film studios. News Corp. is an example of which of the following media concepts? Choose all that apply.
cross-ownership, media conglomerate
The American political parties are
decentralized organizations with loose coordination across groups.
Over the last several decades, the number of ideologically moderate members in Congress has
decreased significantly.
Increasing the number of respondents __________ in a survey.
decreases the sampling error
In the Prisoner's Dilemma game, the best strategy for a player to take if he or she does not know how the other player will act is to
defect
States hold primaries and caucuses to select
delegates to the Democratic and Republican national conventions
What are generational effects?
differences in opinion that vary by age
If the Democrats control the Senate and the White House and the Republicans control the House of Representatives, what is this an example of?
divided government
The difference between __________ of public opinion and __________ is that the former argued that political opinions did not exist and the latter argued that people's opinions matter.
early theories; contemporary theories
What was the central issue in the 2012 presidential campaign?
economy
Which part of the news is most often "horserace coverage"?
election coverage
What is the Democratic Party's goal in creating superdelegates?
ensure the nominee is someone the officials believe can win the general election
If a lobbyist wishes to influence the way a law is implemented, he or she should contact which branch of government?
executive
J. Jonah Jameson, editor of the newspaper the Daily Bugle, has to decide every day which stories his paper will cover and which they will not. He will generally cover any story involving crime and punishment, but he rarely runs stories about political corruption. This is an example of what media effect?
filtering
Astroturf lobbying is the name given to the artificial form of what type of lobbying?
grassroots
Choose all of the following that are outside strategies
grassroots lobbying , contributing to a politician's reelection fund
A candidate's efforts to mobilize voters all come together on Election Day through his or her
ground game
Which of the following is something that only political parties can do?
have guaranteed positions on electoral ballots
Material benefits include all of the following except
helping a good cause.
What is the process by which many citizens move away from moderate positions and toward either end of the political spectrum?
ideological polarization
Public opinion is considered __________ when many citizens have positions toward either end of the political spectrum.
ideologically polarized
There is a high correlation between both the party identification of parents and their children and the __________ of parents and their children.
ideology
According to previous data, if you are running for a seat in Congress, do you have a better chance of winning against an incumbent or in an open-seat election?
in an open-seat election, because incumbents raise more money
To decrease sample error, a pollster must __________ the number of respondents.
increase
What does grassroots lobbying involve?
interest group members contacting their elected officials
An organization of people who share common political interests and aim to influence public policy by electioneering and lobbying is known as a(n)
interest group.
Are political action committees (PACs) subject to contribution limits? What about 527 organizations?
just PACs
Sasha is asked on a survey about her views on banking reform by the government, a topic that she has not thought about very often. Sasha answers that she is in favor of it. What is her answer an example of?
latent opinion
What is the proper term for an opinion constructed on the spot?
latent political judgment
When the government increases spending, it is generally preceded by a policy mood that is
leaning liberal
Whom do direct lobbyists generally target in their efforts?
legislators who are in favor of the group's goals
Which of the following is most likely to stay consistent over a person's lifetime?
liberal-conservative ideology
On which types of issues would we expect interest groups to be most successful?
low-salience, low-conflict
Runoff elections are usually found in combination with what other election rule?
majority voting
Face-to-face interviews are the __________ sampling technique.
most expensive
What do we call the principal or main body in each party organization in America?
national committee
Which of the following media sources is most limited by the breadth of their coverage?
nightly news programs on the major networks
The fairness doctrine is __________ enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); the equal time provision is __________ enforced by the FCC.
no longer; still
If President Obama's chief of staff meets with an individual reporter with the understanding that the information gathered from the interview can be used only if the source is not referenced, this interview is considered
off the record
Mordor has just been added as the 51st state in the United States. When people go to vote in presidential primaries in Mordor, they get to decide on the day of the election if they are going to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary. This is an example of what kind of primary?
open
Of the various factors that influence voters decisions at the polls, which of the following is consistently the most important?
partisanship
The modern Republican Party's support base is a combination of white evangelical, southern, and white male voters (though it draws support outside that base as well). The Democratic Party's support base is a combination of northeasterners, college graduates, African Americans, and female voters (though it, too, draws support outside that base). These are examples of what?
party coalitions
From 1897 until 1932 one of the major parties-the Republicans-won most presidential elections, while the other major party-the Democrats-won when the Republicans were divided. The major issues of the time were industrialization and immigration. The Republicans had the support of business, while the Democrats relied on urban immigrants and southern whites. This description is an example of a
party system
The theory of __________ argues that interest groups are fundamental as America's political actors.
pluralism
When we want to know the level of public support for expanding the government's role in society, what do we measure?
policy mood
Generally the public looks to __________ who agree with them when they look for political information.
political actors
Which of the following is an organization that runs candidates for office and coordinates the actions of affiliated elected officials?
political party
Which is the process, often shaped by other people and the surrounding culture, by which a person forms political opinions?
political socialization
Choose all of the following that are inside strategies.
preparing a research report, litigation, testifying at a congressional hearing
What is the electoral college?
presidential electors from each state who cast ballots for president and vice president
Choose all of the following that are federal elections for which public funding is available to candidates either as matching funds or as a general handout.
presidential general election, presidential primary election
Which of the following occurs when media coverage of a story affects the importance people place on the issues or events mentioned in the coverage?
priming
An election system that allocates to each political party representation in the legislature equal to its percentage of the total vote is called a
proportional-representation electoral system.
Which of the following terms best matches this definition - citizens' views on politics and government and on what government is and should be doing?
public opinion
A president who attempts to shape public opinion will generally
publicize opinions that people already hold.
Which of the following factors is NOT a reason why citizens who vote regularly are more likely to consider going to the polls?
recognizing they only have the right to complain if they actually participate
Choose all of the following beneficial things that parties do for democracy according to the textbook.
recruit good candidates for office, provide accountability, Coordinate their actions once in office
The ability of parties to ensure that those who run for office do so effectively and that those who win responsibly uphold their elective positions most clearly demonstrates which benefit of political parties?
recruiting good candidates
Because it would be impossible to ask all 300 million people living in the United States their opinion, we instead collect a(n) __________ when doing surveys.
sample
A T-shirt that a group gives you for becoming a member is an example of what kind of benefit or incentive?
selective
What is opposition research?
sending staffers to attend opponents' events with video cameras in the hopes of recording embarrassing behavior or statements
Turnout in presidential elections is __________ when compared to midterm elections.
significantly higher
Members of the House of Representatives are selected by
single-member districts
Duverger's law states that in a democracy with __________, only two parties' candidates will have a realistic chance of winning political office.
single-member districts and plurality voting
The Second Party System ultimately split over the issue of
slavery
A pollster will ask a question indirectly in an attempt to avoid __________ in respondents' answers.
social desirability
Which tools do virtually every political organization in America use some or all of for keeping in touch with supporters and offering their own point of view on the issues they care about?
social media sites
You decide to join a club on campus because you enjoy socializing with other people who share your views. This is an example of what kind of benefit?
solidary
Garland votes for a Democrat for Senate and a Republican for president. This is best described as an example of what kind of voting?
split-ticket
The __________ is one in which individuals who work for the winning party are rewarded with benefits such as jobs in government.
spoils system
Current research on party identification shows that party identification is
stable but occasionally changes when circumstances warrant.
In a spoils system,
supporters of the winning party are rewarded.
The Associated Press, which was the first wire service, was made possible through which of the following technological innovations?
telegraph
According to the Pew Research Center, which of the following types of media outlets is the most common source of news?
television
Modern presidential campaigns are primarily conducted through what kind of advertising?
television
Which is the main source that people use to get their news?
television
The idea that people view balanced coverage as biased against their preferred candidate is known as
the hostile-media phenomenon.
The view that "my vote will not make a difference" is an important part of what question in political science?
the paradox of voting
Scholars describe parties as organizations that are composed of all but which of the following separate and largely independent parts?
the party in media
An experiment conducted in Columbus, Ohio, included two groups of people; the first group was exposed to a news story that focused on threats to public safety that a Ku Klux Klan rally posed, and the second group was exposed to a news story that focused on issues of free speech. What did the results provide clear evidence of?
the power of framing
Suppose you turned on the TV one morning and the local news was showing the following results of a poll on whom people said they were likely to vote for in the upcoming election Lannister: 49 percent Stark: 47 percent Tyrell: 3 percent Undecided: 1 percent Sampling error: +/-3 percent What would you conclude?
the race is too close to call
According to Duverger's Law, if we want to know how many major political parties a country will have, what should we look at?
the rules for determining how many votes are needed to win an election, along with other electoral rules
Framing is the influence on public opinion as a result of
the way a story is presented or covered, including the details, explanations, and context offered in the report.
What do we call a situation in which one party controls the presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives?
unified government
Which of the following is an example of a free rider problem?
watching Sesame Street on PBS but not donating during the fund drives
Which of the following is an example of a free rider problem?
watching Sesame Street on PBS but not donating during the funding drives
If you open a local newspaper or go on many news organizations websites you will find stories written by Reuters and the Associated Press. These companies gather news and sell them to other media outlets. What do these companies exemplify?
wire service
