Midterm 2

Question 1

Campaigns

Answer 1

who are the candidates and what are they doing?

Question 2

Fundamentals

Answer 2

Where is the nation at?

Question 3

Voting choices: Sociological model

Answer 3

Voting choice is based on who you interact and who has the most influence in your life

Question 4

Voting choice: cross-pressure

Answer 4

voter feels pressured to vote for both sides -> ambivalence

Question 5

opinion leader

Answer 5

someone very vocal about his or her political opinions

Question 6

minimal effects hypothesis

Answer 6

campaigns don’t really influence voter choice because people aren’t attentive to them

Question 7

Voter choice: economic model

Answer 7

Voters use personal preference and candidates preformance to choose

Question 8

calculus of voting

Answer 8

U = p * B - C + D

u = utility
p = probability your vote is decisive
b = benefits of you choice winning
c = cost
d = civic duty

Question 9

information shortcut

Answer 9

find shortcuts to gain enough information about candidates to make a decision

Question 10

endorsements

Answer 10

A political endorsement is a public declaration of one’s personal or group’s support of a candidate for elected office

Question 11

partisanship as a running tally

Answer 11

use candidates political party as an information shortcut to help estimate where the candidates are ideologically (knowing nothing else about either candidate)

Question 12

Voter choice: psychological model

Answer 12

Voter choice is influenced by emotional attachment to a party

Question 13

funnel analogy

Answer 13

voters make decisions by the filtering of their party identity then their attitudes on issues

Question 14

partisanship as identity

Answer 14

Deep psychological commitment to a party and doesn’t change

Question 15

Perceptual screening

Answer 15

voters on favor what’s in line with their party

Question 16

Sampling error

Answer 16

Issues with public polling

Convenience polling
Self selection (online surveys, people volunteer)
Non-response (no data from people who don’t take survey)

Question 17

Weights

Answer 17

Stats technique to adjust the influence of data to more accurately represent reality

Question 18

Measurement error

Answer 18

Questions on public polls are not designed well

Question 19

Double barrel questions

Answer 19

Asking two questions at once

• opposing questions
• unrelated questions

Question 20

Social desirability bias

Answer 20

Don’t answer a question truthfully because your true response is embarrassing or shameful

Question 21

Framing

Answer 21

How is a question worded

Question 22

Priming

Answer 22

Setting up a participant to answer in specific way

One question influences response to another

Question 23

Civic knowledge

Answer 23

Knowledge about politics

• current people in office
• current issues and events
• policies

Question 24

By product theory

Answer 24

People are ignorant to politics but because of daily life we interact with government enough to make decisions

Question 25

Participation costs

Answer 25

How much does it cost to vote (How can we make it more convenient?)

Question 26

Issue public

Answer 26

Subset of people who care about a particular issue

Question 27

Mobilization

Answer 27

Getting areas to vote that have low voter turnout

Question 28

Social pressure

Answer 28

When you have pressure from those around you to vote you’re more likely to vote

Question 29

Political party

Answer 29

A group of people organized to seek political office and exercise political power

Question 30

Party in government

Answer 30

Those are in office

Question 31

Party as organization

Answer 31

National, state, and county level organizations that promote party goals Ex: the republicans of Utah who set republican caucus

Question 32

Party in electorate

Answer 32

Voters, donors, activists The people of a party

Question 33

Duverger’s law

Answer 33

Principle that countries using a voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins (like in the U.S.) usually end up with just two main political parties Voters don’t want to waste vote Parties merge

Question 34

Majoritarian electoral system

Answer 34

Must win the majority of votes Absolute: more than 50% Relative: just more than anyone else

Question 35

Single member district plurality

Answer 35

Choose a representative to vote Then candidates voted by representative. Use a relative majority

Question 36

Proportional electoral system

Answer 36

Parties get representation in government based proportions of votes

Question 37

Realignment

Answer 37

Sharp changes in party

Question 38

First party system in USA

Answer 38

Informal alliances

Question 39

2nd party sister in USA

Answer 39

Party organizations nominate candidates

Question 40

3rd party system in USA

Answer 40

First real alignment: division over slavery republicans replace whigs Party machines that trade favors for votes

Question 41

4th party system in the USA

Answer 41

Cross party platform movement enacts reforms to weaken voter machines State printed ballots Vote is secret Primary elections to determine who appears Also democrats court the working class

Question 42

5th party system is USA

Answer 42

Huge realignment because of the Great Depression, decades of democratic dominance follow

Question 43

6th party system in the USA

Answer 43

A major realignment from civil rights movement What we have today: debate ms in social and moral issues

Question 44

Southern strategy

Answer 44

Vote for democrats in the small elections but republicans four things like president

Question 45

Moral issues

Answer 45

Race Vietnam Abortion Gender

Question 46

Open primary

Answer 46

Don’t have to be a member to of party to participate All candidates from both parties are on the ballot

Question 47

Closed primary

Answer 47

Must be a member to participate and all candidates are on ballot

Question 48

Semi closed primary

Answer 48

You can be in the party or unaffiliated all candidates are on ballot

Question 49

Run off or nonpartisan primary

Answer 49

No parties associated with candidates Everyone on ballot then top 2 then final choice

Question 50

Presidential nominating convention

Answer 50

States run elections, so it’s complicated for the national nominee because there’s no caucus to run it

Question 51

Pledged delegate

Answer 51

the delegates are pledged to vote the way they’ve been told to vote

Question 52

Superdelegate

Answer 52

unpledged, (civil rights divided the party), they can swing the votes, are in place because they are the area leaders

Question 53

Partisan election

Answer 53

party of candidate is stated Horse race polling can obscure a coordination problem opposed to the front-runner but divided among alternatives. Voters have trouble differentiating so many candidates from the same party (information costs)