The main problem with voting as a form of political participation is
that citizens cannot communicate very much information by only casting a ballot.
Which of the following statements accurately describes the percentage of Americans voting in presidential elections since 1960?
The percentage of Americans voting in presidential elections dropped significantly after 1960 but has been increasing in recent years.
The rioting during the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle is a reminder of how
politically motivated riots have been common in the United States throughout history.
What is the main difference between voting and lobbying?
Unlike voting, lobbying involves an attempt to directly influence a government official.
Litigation can be a form of participation in which people
file lawsuits in order to change public policies.
Which of the following is the most accessible form of political activity?
voting
The term suffrage refers to
the right to vote.
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the qualifications for determining one's eligibility to vote were established by
state governments.
The Fifteenth Amendment, passed in 1870, mandated that
no state could prevent the right to vote on account of race.
What is a poll tax?
a tax imposed by state governments for those registering to vote
Approximately ______ of eligible voters turn out for midterm congressional elections.
one-third
Compared with Western Europe, the United States has a(n)______ turnout in elections.
lower
The term turnout describes the number of people that
actually vote.
What bloc of voters has recently been called "the sleeping giant"?
Latinos
What is the best explanation for the fact that Latinos have tended to favor Democratic Party candidates in national elections?
They disagree with the Republican Party's stance on immigration and economic issues.
Which of the following statements about Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) is true?
Although a majority of APAs voted Republican in the 1990s, in the 2000s they have been voting increasingly Democratic.
On average, more women vote for ______ candidates, and more men vote for ______ candidates.
Democratic; Republican
According to the text, the central challenge for establishing a democracy in Iraq has been
protecting individual civil rights and liberties.
What was the Supreme Court case that ruled prayer in public schools was unconstitutional?
Engel v. Vitale
Evangelical Protestants are more likely to be associated with
the Republican Party.
The power of the Christian Coalition in the 1990s was due to
its success in mobilizing a large grassroots base.
Which of the following groups have had the highest levels of political participation?
senior citizens
Which of the following statements about youth participation in the 2008 presidential election is true?
Youth turnout rose in 2008 and most young people voted for Barack Obama.
The main goal of the group Rock the Vote is to
draw young voters into participating politically.
Which of the following statements about young people is true?
Although many young people feel that they can solve problems in their community, most express a deep cynicism about politicians.
Which of the following characteristics constitutes one's socioeconomic status?
level of income, level of education, and prestige of occupation
Your level of concern about public issues is best measured by the degree of your
civic engagement.
What tendency of Americans did nineteenth-century writer Alexis de Tocqueville identify as distinctive of our democratic culture?
the tendency to form associations
The level of organizational membership in the United States has ______ over the past several decades.
decreased
An example of social settings influencing political participation is visible through the way ______ help(s) foster political participation in the United States.
churches
What was the original purpose of voter registration?
to reduce corruption by making it more difficult to vote
What was the effect of the National Voter Registration Act (Motor Voter Act)?
Voter registration rose, but voter turnout did not.
How are election days in the United States different from those in Europe?
European elections are usually held on Sundays instead of working days.
Political ______ is the process in which large numbers of people are organized for political action.
mobilization
Studies have discovered ______ to be the key element of successful mobilization efforts.
personal contact
The 2008 presidential election was significant because
African American turnout was nearly equal to white turnout for the first time in modern electoral history.
The Supreme Court
has ruled that campaign contributions are a form of free speech.
Robert Putnam and other political scientists have argued that the decline in civic participation is due to
the increasing utilization of television and other electronic media.
Which famous American, in his farewell address, encouraged his fellow citizens to shun partisan politics?
George Washington
Which of the following is the best description of a political party?
an organization that tries to influence the government by getting its members elected to office
Internal mobilization occurs when
conflicts within the government create divided factions that try to mobilize popular support.
Which of the following parties originated from internal mobilization?
the Jeffersonian Party
Throughout its history, American politics has been dominated by
two major political parties.
The United States began its tradition of the ______ during the early eighteenth century.
two-party system
The first party system was characterized by conflict between ______ the and the ______.
Federalists; Jeffersonian Republicans
The "era of good feelings" was
the period of one-party politics from the collapse of the Federalist Party until the 1830s.
Which event occurred in 1994?
The Republican Party won control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the 1950s.
The Federalist Party disappeared forever as a result of
the War of 1812.
What issue led to the end of the Whig Party?
slavery
From the end of the Civil War to the 1890s, the ______ Party was the party of the North, while the ______ Party was the party of the South.
Republican; Democratic
From 1896 to 1932, the ______ Party was the nation's majority party.
Republican
The program of Reconstruction after the Civil War was led by the ______ Party.
Republican
Which group was not a part of the New Deal coalition?
business leaders
The New Deal coalition was severely strained and ultimately broken apart by
the Vietnam War and the issue of civil rights.
"Me too" Republicanism refers to
the tendency of Republican politicians during the New Deal to support popular programs such as Social Security rather than advocate alternative policies.
In Conscience of a Conservative, ______ espoused a number of ideas, such as less taxation and less government regulation of the economy, that became major themes for the modern Republican Party.
Barry Goldwater
During the 1980s, under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, which two groups did the Republican Party add to their coalition?
religious conservatives and working-class whites
Historically, realignments occur
when new issues combine with economic or political crises to mobilize new voters and persuade large numbers of voters to reexamine their traditional partisan loyalties.
Which of the following transpires when one party controls the presidency while another party controls one or both houses of Congress?
a divided government
As a third-party candidate, Ross Perot captured approximately ______ percent of the popular vote in the 1992 presidential election.
20
Third parties in the United States typically represent
social and economic interests that are disregarded by the two major parties for certain reasons.
One important cause of the United States' two-party system is
single-member electoral districts.
Which system develops when the winner of an electoral race obtains more votes than any other candidate?
the plurality system
Third-party candidates are better off under what system of election?
proportional representation
A party's ______ contains its philosophy, principles, and policy positions.
platform
______ are nonprofit independent groups that receive and distribute funds to influence the nomination, election, and defeat of a candidate.
527 Committees
The power of ______ demonstrates how political party bosses can confer governmental favors on loyal party members.
patronage
What were the most common favors political bosses distributed to loyal party members during the era of political machines?
jobs
Which of the following is the best definition of soft money?
money that is contributed by a candidate to a political party in order to receive the party's support in an upcoming election
An individual's psychological attachment to one party or another is called a party
identification.
A party activist is an individual who
not only votes, but also contributes time, energy, effort, and financial resources to party affairs.
What were the two major parties in the United States during the 1830s and 1840s?
the Democrats and the Whigs
Since the 1930s, African Americans have identified as
Democrats.
Women in the United States are ______ the ______ Party.
somewhat more likely to support; Democratic
Which group is most likely to support the Republican Party?
the wealthy
Between the Civil War and the 1960s, the ______ was a Democratic stronghold.
South
In contemporary American politics, solid support for the Republican Party comes from the
South and Mountain West.
Strong parties may provide an important link between government and
democratic participation.
Dealignment refers to
the decline of partisan attachment within the electorate, the growth in the number of voters identifying themselves as independents, and the rise of "split-ticket" voting.
What is the main difference between elections in a democracy and elections under an authoritarian regime?
Democratic regimes allow for viable opposition, while the leaders do not permit themselves to lose under an authoritarian regime.
Primary elections were introduced by the ______ in order to weaken the power of party leaders.
Progressives
When are national elections held in the United States?
the first Tuesday of November every other year
The primary responsibility for conducting public elections rests with
state and local governments.
During midterm elections, voters are voting for
members of Congress.
In order for a political party to select a candidate to run in the general election, it holds a
primary election.
Which of the following is the best example of direct democracy in practice in the United States?
referendum
Generally speaking, a recall effort begins with
a petition campaign.
Which of the following politicians has been recalled from office?
California Governor Gray Davis (2003)
If the winner of an election is whoever receives the most votes, regardless of the percentage of votes received, the candidates are running under a ______ system.
plurality
Most European nations employ what system of elections?
proportional representation
______ is the most common electoral system used in general elections in the United States.
The plurality system
Plurality and majority systems tend to
decrease the number of political parties.
The boundaries of legislative districts in the United States are to be redrawn every ______ years.
ten
When the Supreme Court announced the principle of "one person, one vote," what did it mean?
Within a state, electoral districts must have roughly equal populations.
The practice of ______ means that district boundaries have been purposefully drawn to unfairly advantage one group or party.
gerrymandering
Before the 1890s, who was responsible for printing election ballots?
political parties
If you voted for a Republican for president and a Democrat for senator, you engaged in
split-ticket voting.
The result produced when voters cast a ballot for the president and then automatically vote for the remainder of that party's candidates is called the
coattail effect.
The ______ is the last example of indirect voting in national elections.
electoral college
Which of the following statements is true?
Voting equipment varies from county to county throughout the United States.
How many times in American history has the presidential candidate who won the most popular votes not been selected by the electoral college?
3
The effort by political candidates and their staff to win backing and support by voters in the quest for political office is known as a(n)
campaign.
Karl Rove was the ______ for George W. Bush.
chief political strategist
Approximately how much money does it take for a candidate to have a reasonable chance of winning a seat in the House of Representatives?
$500,000
"King Caucus" refers to
the use of each party's congressional caucus to nominate presidential candidates during the early nineteenth century.
Before the post-World War II era, dark-horse candidates were most likely to arise at a national convention when
deadlocks between major factions developed.
What year marked the first time a major political party held a convention?
1832
Which party has reserved slots at the national convention for elected superdelegates?
the Democrats
Spot advertisements are useful because they
permit a candidate's message to be delivered to a target audience before people can tune out.
When candidates for office sponsor hearings, undertake inspection tours of disaster areas, or meet with foreign dignitaries, the form of publicity they receive is called
free media.
A ______ is a media format where candidates meet with ordinary citizens, without the input of journalists or commentators.
town meeting
By using donor lists or magazine subscription lists, candidates are able to engage in
direct-mail solicitations.
A major factor in John Kennedy's 1960 presidential victory over Richard Nixon was
that Kennedy had a much stronger performance than Nixon during televised debates.
Which of the following has increased the ability of candidates to raise small contributions from tens of thousands of donors?
the Internet
If a citizen votes for a candidate because he or she approves of the candidate's past record, it is called
retrospective voting.
Private groups that raise and distribute funds for election campaigns are called
political action committees.
The majority of PACs represent
business and professional groups.
The right of candidates to spend their own money on running for office
is protected absolutely by the First Amendment, according to the Supreme Court.
Which of the following were not major contributors to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaigns?
trial lawyers