Political Science (California City College Level)

Front 1

Which of the three key principles in the constitution is the most important?

Back 1

Popular Sovereignty

Front 2

The winner-take-all-system encourages __________________ party system

Back 2

Two party system.

Front 3

What are the four key ingredients for an election system to work?

Back 3

Openness, Structure, Access to Information, Equality of Participation.

Front 4

Explain the openness and structure (two of the four key ingredients of an election).

Back 4

Openness: Implies narrow limits on who gets to vote; implies narrow limits on who we get to represent us.

Structure: One part is participation (voter registration and voting on election day) and periodicity (the idea that elections are held periodically)

Front 5

Explain Equality of Participation and Access to Information (two of the four key ingredients of an election).

Back 5

Access to Information: Voting presumes you can make an educated and informed decision (look at arrow flow chart diagram)

Equality of Participation: Assumes that very citizen's voice and influence is equal. (*enter bad Dr. Joseph pun here*)

Front 6

What is the modern reality of the elections system?

Back 6

We perform best on the first and grow worse as the list goes on.

Front 7

Explain the 'openness' reality.

Back 7

As far as voters go, we have very few limits TODAY. Blacks (1865), women (1920), and eighteen year olds in (1971) can now vote.

Representatives also have few limits.

Front 8

Explain 'Structure' reality.

Back 8

Major improvements have been made. Voter registration has gotten far easier. You register at any government office (DMV, etc.) under the motor law of 1993. No photo ID needed.

Front 9

Explain the different ways to vote.

Back 9

Absentee ballot: A form is sent to your house and you mail to back without ever having to go to a polling place.

Early voting: County offices open days or weeks before election.

In person and Drive-In voting

Front 10

True or False: The US has canceled an election in the past?

Back 10

False. Local Elections are occasionally delayed due to harsh weather but never canceled completely.

Front 11

Explain 'Access to Information' reality.

Back 11

Complete information is usually not complete. Biased information from reporter and people with Agendas.

Front 12

Explain 'Equality of Participation' reality.

Back 12

Gerrymandered districts, money (sending in donations, etc), electoral college, early primary states

Front 13

What causes voting to increase in people statistically?

Back 13

Strong Party Identity & Education.

Front 14

What can cause low voter turn out?

Back 14

A more mobile society: less likely to vote if just moved or continues to move often.

Weaker Political Parties

The two-income family: No time to focus on news and politics

Front 15

True or false? Conservatives vote more than liberals (on average).

Back 15

True.

Front 16

What are the two states that do not choose electors on a winner-take-all basis?

Back 16

Nebraska and Maine.

Front 17

What is a nonpartisan election

Back 17

No party labeling is allowed on the ballot.

Front 18

True or False?The poll tax, the literacy test, and the good-character test were all designed to keep women from voting in 1920s?

Back 18

False. It was to keep African Americans from voting.

Front 19

Who feared that competing opinions could lead to hostile factions that would divide rather than

unify or improve society?

Back 19

James Madison.

Front 20

Straw polls are of little use because the often fail to obtain?

Back 20

a representative sample

Front 21

The Literary Digest poll of 1936 overrepresented

Back 21

the upper-class Americans

Front 22

Most polls have a margin of error of approximately

Back 22

3%

Front 23

Pollsters are very careful to avoid

Back 23

sampling bias

Front 24

Who authored "On Liberty" (pamphlet)

Back 24

John Stuart Mill

Front 25

The most likely source of one's partisan identification is

Back 25

Parents

Front 26

A schema is

Back 26

an intellectual framework for evaluating the world

Front 27

Latency describes feelings that are

Back 27

hidden and unspoken

Front 28

What is the best explanation for why public policy does not directly mirror public opinion in the United States?

Back 28

Separation of powers and checks and balances

Front 29

The Pendleton Act

Back 29

Created a civil service system

Front 30

An iron triangle

Back 30

a relationship among a congressional subcommittee, interest group, and a federal agency

Front 31

The practice of holding congressional hearings and conducting investigations into bureaucratic activity

Back 31

Administrative oversight

Front 32

The federal bureaucracy performs three key governmental functions:

Back 32

regulations, administration, and implementation

Front 33

A system of hiring and promoting employees based on their qualifications

Back 33

The civil service system

Front 34

The progressives argued that that government...

Back 34

Should assume a greater regulatory role over corporations

Front 35

The formal rule the characterizes bureaucracies are sometimes called

Back 35

Standard operating procedures

Front 36

Specialization means that specific tasks should be delegated to

Back 36

The persons with the most experience and training

Front 37

The power of the Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional was created in this case

Back 37

Marbury v. Madison

Front 38

It takes how many justices to accept a case for review?

Back 38

4

Front 39

Judges who believe that they should defer to the legislature, executive branch, and state political actors because the are appointed, not elected

Back 39

The definition of the theory of judicial self-restraint

Front 40

The view that public policy must not be driven by public opinion was held most strongly by

Back 40

Plato

Front 41

The constitution regulates political parties by

Back 41

it says nothing about political parties

Front 42

A party realignment is defined as

Back 42

a generational shift in voting from one party to another

Front 43

How many votes are needed to win the presidency in the electoral college?

Back 43

270.

Front 44

The first presidential primary in the country is always in

Back 44

New Hampshire

Front 45

In summarizing the participation levels of the American citizens, one can conclude that

Back 45

close to half of the population is engaged in some form of politically oriented activity

Front 46

The right of African American males to vote was guaranteed by the

Back 46

15th Amendment

Front 47

All of the amendments expanded political participation except the...

Back 47

18th

Front 48

If the Californian legislature were to ask the voters to approve the sale of state bonds to finance various programs, such as education and prisons, the would be an example of a (n)

Back 48

referendum

Front 49

People who vote for only one party for all elected offices on the ballot are said to be voting

Back 49

straight-party tickets

Front 50

The powerful form of issue voting where voters look back over the last term to judge how well the incumbent candidate or party has performed is called

Back 50

retrospective voting

Front 51

A means of political participation whereby people nonviolently defy laws deemed unjust is called

Back 51

civil disobedience

Front 52

What is the "coattail effect"?

Back 52

the impact on congressional elections of the popularity or lack of popularity of the president

Front 53

An election held in the House if no candidate receives the required majority of votes in the electoral college is referred to as a

Back 53

contingency election

Front 54

In Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court ruled that spending is

Back 54

protected speech

Front 55

What does the constitution do to regulate interest group activity?

Back 55

Nothing

Front 56

For James Madison in The Federalist, no. 10, what are the operating groups in American politics?

Back 56

Factions.

Front 57

For James Madison in The Federalist, no. 10, what was the solution to keep groups in democracy from banding together into a majority, and taking away the rights of the minority?

Back 57

Enlarge the size of the nation to create cross-cutting cleavages

Front 58

The Club for Growth is

Back 58

a conservative group lobbying for tax reductions

Front 59

The groups that band together to bundle small donations into larger donations are called

Back 59

political action committees

Front 60

The McCain-Feingold Act of 2002

Back 60

regulated the campaign work of interest groups
regulated the campaign work of political parties
ended the use of soft money and limited the use of ads

Front 61

The conservative legal interest group that has become predominant in the recommending judicial candidates for appointment during Republican administrations is

Back 61

the Federalist Society

Front 62

The functions of interest groups are to

Back 62

allow for collective action to press for policies and provide information

Front 63

A nonprofit interest group working for the general public interest is known as a PIRG, which stands for

Back 63

Public Interest Research Group

Front 64

Perhaps the best-known public interest group, which lobbies for honesty and openness in government, is

Back 64

Common Cause

Front 65

Among some of the various kinds of interest groups are

Back 65

ideological, civil rights, economic, and probably a host more

Front 66

Approximately how many interest groups operate in the United States?

Back 66

20,000

Front 67

One of the oldest and best -known ideological interest groups is

Back 67

the Americans for Democratic Action

Front 68

A good example of a single-issue interest group that lobbies only one issue is

Back 68

the National Rifle Association (NRA)
the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL)
the Sierra Club, on environmental protection

Front 69

Those people who benefit from the actions of interest groups without actually being members of the group are called

Back 69

free riders

Front 70

The form of lobbying by engaging large numbers of common people, sometimes now on the Internet, to press for action is called

Back 70

grassroots lobbying

Front 71

Which of the following is not a strategy followed by interest groups to lobby for action?

Back 71

Having its head run for political office

Front 72

Soft money, regulated by the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002, is

Back 72

money that is donated for the "good of the party," not a specific candidate

Front 73

The earliest known lobbying in America may well have been

Back 73

with Ulyssess S. Grant in the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Front 74

Which of the following types of interest groups is least willing to compromise?

Back 74

Single-Issue groups