Political Science Test 2

Front 1

The relationship between public opinion and policymaking

Back 1

public opinion can have a strong impact on policymaking

Front 2

In a perfect democracy

Back 2

the gov't would do what its citizens want

Front 3

public opinion is defined

Back 3

the political attitudes and beliefs expressed by ordinary citizens

Front 4

______ ensures that each member of the population has an equal chance of being chosen

Back 4

Random sampling

Front 5

_________ is the process by which individuals acquire their core beliefs about a society's

Back 5

political socialization

Front 6

____ is arguably the strongest predictor of participation in politics

Back 6

education

Front 7

poor people are more likely than wealthy people to be

Back 7

democrats

Front 8

compared to other regions (except perhaps the Mountain West on racial issues), Southerners tend to be

Back 8

conservatives

Front 9

Republican and Democratic identifiers who not only vote but are engaged in other party, candidate, and party-support activities, such as making campaign contributions, and attending candidates meetings are often called

Back 9

active partisans

Front 10

the authors of Struggle for Democracy conclude that

Back 10

lack of detailed knowledge does not mean that public opinion is unstable or irrelevant

Front 11

Americans' collective policy preferences

Back 11

are quite stable over time

Front 12

"leaners"

Back 12

are those who claim to be independent, but also favor slightly one party over another

Front 13

party identification refers to

Back 13

an expressed sense of belonging to a political party

Front 14

According to your text, the media's primary roles involve

Back 14

acting as a "watch dog", clarifying electoral choices, and providing policy information

Front 15

_______ is a notion that media influence what people consider important

Back 15

Framing

Front 16

interest groups are

Back 16

private organizations that try to shape public policy

Front 17

The "outside game" in interest groups politics refers to attempts by groups to

Back 17

identify and mobilize support among a wider public

Front 18

Political Action Committee (PACs)

Back 18

are entities created by interest groups to make contributions to political campaigns

Front 19

social movements are generally the political instruments of

Back 19

excluded groups and political outsiders

Front 20

political parties engage in what activity?

Back 20

they gain control over government by electing officials to public office who carry the party label

Front 21

The United States has the most "pure" _______ in the world

Back 21

two-party system

Front 22

during a realignment

Back 22

one party dominates american politics, usually for about 30-40 years

Front 23

What political party disappeared during the First Party System?

Back 23

Federalists

Front 24

The GOP is another name for the

Back 24

Republican party

Front 25

What groups were part of the New Deal coalition

Back 25

southerners, catholics, racial minorities, and small and medium sized farmers

Front 26

According to the authors of your text, the sixth party era is called

Back 26

the era of dealignment and parity

Front 27

according to the authors of your text, the seventh party era is called the

Back 27

parties at war era

Front 28

very small parties tend to benefit in

Back 28

purely proportional representation systems

Front 29

a plurality, winner-take-all electoral system tends to

Back 29

discourage the formation of minor parties

Front 30

republican and democratic parties are organized

Back 30

as a loose collection of campaign committees, officeholders, and local, state and national parties

Front 31

what is the name given to a party that forms when a faction leaves one of the major political parties to run its own candidate for president?

Back 31

splinter parties

Front 32

what is true about american political parties?

Back 32

parties are undisciplined

Front 33

the democrats and republicans each have a _______, whose purpose is to conduct the business of the party during the four years between national conventions

Back 33

national committee

Front 34

_______ are the people who do the most important organizational work of the parties

Back 34

party activists

Front 35

_____ can no longer be donated to the national party organizations

Back 35

soft money

Front 36

what are the true facts about democrats and republicans?

Back 36

Democrats and Republicans differ in the perceptions of the people, tend to write different political platforms, hold separate national conventions, and party activists of one party are quite different in their views than party acitvists and voters in the other party

Front 37

A _____ holds that the federal gov't should play a small role in economic regulation

Back 37

conservation

Front 38

_____ is most likely to hold that the federal gov't should have a substantial role in economic regulation.

Back 38

A liberal

Front 39

the party base is also known as

Back 39

the party's core supporters

Front 40

_____ had been a solid and unified part of the democratic party based until recently

Back 40

white southerners

Front 41

A process by which the superiority of a dominant political party diminishes without another party supplanting it is descried as

Back 41

dealignment

Front 42

What is an example of a third-party presidential candidate affecting the outcome of a presidential election through the electoral college count?

Back 42

Theodore Roosevelt and the Bull Moose Progressive party of 1912

Front 43

Political activity by individual citizens is known as

Back 43

political participation

Front 44

What is the chief means by which citizens control what their gov't does?

Back 44

elections

Front 45

The term "franchise" is defined as

Back 45

the right to vote

Front 46

What are "superdelegates"?

Back 46

members of congress or local officials who supplement the democrats' popularity elected delegates

Front 47

today, the purpose of a national convention is to

Back 47

put on a colorful show of support for the party's preselected candidate

Front 48

When americans vote for a presidential candidate, they are actually voting for

Back 48

a slate of electors

Front 49

What problem has arisen, according to the prospective voting model, as the republican and democratic parties have become more internally coherent in terms of policy preferences and ideologies?

Back 49

political conflict has become more intense because the stakes for each party in the outcome of any election become much more important than in a less partisan environment

Front 50

what is the advantage of the retrospective voting model?

Back 50

simplicity

Front 51

rates of voter turnout are lowest among

Back 51

hispanics

Front 52

what is an important decision that presidential candidates must make early in their campaigns?

Back 52

which state primaries to enter, whether to follow the rules of the public campaign finance system, which pollsters and consultants to hire, and whom to ask for campaign contributions

Front 53

how do both political parties choose a majority of delegates to their national conventions?

Back 53

by primary elections

Front 54

What is considered a disadvantage of the electoral college system?

Back 54

it discourages the development of third parties

Front 55

what is not a characteristic of a serious candidate for the presidency?

Back 55

a person who hold "extreme" positions

Front 56

During a convention , the delegates of the two parties tend to push their nominees and positions away from each other to emphasize their differences as in the

Back 56

responsible party model

Front 57

citizen control of the agenda is facilitated primarily by

Back 57

elections

Front 58

What must occur for the prospective voting model to work

Back 58

each of the 2 parties must be cohesive and unified, each must take clear policy positions that differ significantly from the other party's position, Citizens must accurately understand each of the party's positions, the winning party must do exactly what it said it would do

Front 59

the electoral competition model is also known as the

Back 59

median voter model

Front 60

what is an assumption of the electoral reward and punishment voting model?

Back 60

politicians who want to stay in office have strong incentives to bring about peace and prosperity

Front 61

what problems besets not only the responsible party model and the electoral competition model, but also the electoral reward and punishment model?

Back 61

the campaign strategies of the candidates involved in the election are considered to be less important than their party affiliation

Front 62

what is the system for selecting delegates to the national party conventions characterized by neighborhood and area-wide meetings of party supporters and activists known as?

Back 62

the caucus nominating system