Quiz II

Question 1

What is political socialization?

Answer 1

Political learning that is highly quantifiable, thus making it popular among political scientists.

Question 2

What are important agents of political socialization?

Answer 2

1) The Media
2) Family
3) Formal Education
4) Setting: location, major political events

Question 3

What are two common ideologies?

Answer 3

Liberalism and conservatism.

Question 4

What is liberalism?

Answer 4

1) belief that federal government can improve the quality of life,
2) more inclined to be distrustful of free-market capitalism because of unfair advantages,
and 3) more likely to emphasize equality than conservatives

Question 5

What is conservatism?

Answer 5

1) emphasize liberty over equality,
2) partial to state and local governments (similar to anti-federalists),
and 3) believe economy has self-correcting mechanisms and that government intervention makes things worse

Question 6

What are factions?

Answer 6

Organized groups that share similar ideas and beliefs.

Question 7

What do political parties do?

Answer 7

Recruit and run campaigns, often with a large and general focus.

Question 8

What are interest groups?

Answer 8

They have specific interests.

Question 9

Give an example of a political party and an interest group.

Answer 9

The NRA is an interest group for the Republican Party.

Question 10

What did Madison believe about factions?

Answer 10

Madison, in Federalist Paper #10, said that there could be tyranny in a majority, and that government should be about the common good.

Question 11

What did George Washington have to say about factions?

Answer 11

Parties look out for themselves, rather than for the nation.

Question 12

What were the three major evolutions of the political parties?

Answer 12

1) Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans (1800)
2) Whigs vs. Democrats (1832-1854)
3) Republicans vs. Democrats (1856-today)

Question 13

Describe what happened during the time of the Federalists and Democratic Republicans.

Answer 13

John Adams, the second president, passed the Alien and Sedition Act, making it illegal to protest his beliefs. Jefferson and Madison believed this was unconstitutional and challenged KY and VA to nullify this, forming the democratic-republican party. Jefferson won the 1800 Election, and the Federalists began to disappear.

Question 14

Describe what happened during the time of the Whigs vs. Democrats.

Answer 14

During the Era of Good Feeling there was only one party (the Democratic-Republicans), but the party grew more polarized. Andrew Jackson’s election in 1828 established the democratic party, and the opposing faction became the Whig party, which only existed for approximately 20 years (they possessed the same Federalist ideas of a strong central government). Lincoln was a Whig.

Question 15

Describe what happened during the time of the Republicans vs. Democrats.

Answer 15

Kansas-Nebraska Act and Dred Scott Decision provoked Lincoln, and a new party formed in opposition to slavery, dissolving the Whig party.

Question 16

Name four significant minor parties.

Answer 16

1) Populists (1892) had agricultural interests and opposed the railroad monopolies
2) Bull Moose (1912) was Roosevelt’s response to Taft
3) Progressive (1924)
4) American Independent (1968) was a reaction to Civil Rights and foreign policty

Question 17

What are three important features of political parties?

Answer 17

1) Critical Election
2) Realignment
3) Dealignment

Question 18

What is a Critical Election?

Answer 18

Very rare political earthquake that shakes up all the political parties. (Slavery, the Great Depression) It is usually followed by realignment.

Question 19

What is Realignment?

Answer 19

Follows a Critical Election, and is when the subordinate party becomes the dominate one, and vice versa.

Question 20

What is Dealignment?

Answer 20

The identification of an independent party. This is very recent, so there aren’t any significant examples of this yet.

Question 21

What are the three Theories of Interest Group Behavior?

Answer 21

1) Pluralist
2) Elite
3) Hyperpluralist

Question 22

What is Pluralist Theory?

Answer 22

Positive view on interest groups supporting democracy with the belief that they balance each other out and provide healthy competition (for example, the NRA vs. gun regulation supporters).

Question 23

What is Elite Theory?

Answer 23

One dominant interest group has disproportionate influence. It is usually Big Business and follows principles of Marxist Theory. Government is dependent on tax revenues.

Question 24

What is Hyperpluralist Theory?

Answer 24

Too many interest groups, causing political gridlock. Introduces Iron Triangle: Executive Agency –> Congressional Committees –> Interest Group, etc.

Question 25

What are linkage institutions?

Answer 25

The channels through which people's concerns become political issues on the government's policy agenda. In the US, linkage institutes include elections, political parties, interest groups, and the media.

Question 26

What is ticket splitting?

Answer 26

Voting with one party for one office and with another party for the other offices. It has become the norm of American voting behavior.

Question 27

What are closed primaries?

Answer 27

Elections to select party nominees in which only people who have registered in advance with the party can vote for that party's candidate, thus encouraging greater party loyalty.

Question 28

What are open primaries?

Answer 28

Elections to select party nominees in which voters can decide on Election Day whether they want to participate in the Democrat or Republican contests.

Question 29

What is a coalition?

Answer 29

A group of individuals with a common interest on which every political party depends.

Question 30

What is a talking head?

Answer 30

A shot of a person's face talking directly to the camera. Because such shots are generally visually unstimulating, the major commercial networks rarely show politicians talking for very long.

Question 31

What is a policy agenda?

Answer 31

The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and other people actively involved in politics.

Question 32

Why is it so important to be a moderate?

Answer 32

In the case of Barry Goldwater vs. Lindin Johnson, Goldwater was an extreme conservative and won the party nomination, but he wasn't moderate enough to beat Johnson. He needed a balance.

Question 33

What are various resources that must be considered during a nominating election?

Answer 33

1) Campaign Resources 2) Winning early caucuses and primaries 3) Party conventions

Question 34

What are important campaign resources?

Answer 34

1) Having money 2) Organization 3) Name recognition

Question 35

What is Campaign Finance and how did it come about?

Answer 35

It is when federal and state laws govern how much money goes into a campaign, and was established in the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1974: Made it necessary for candidates to provide full disclosure on campaign donates to prevent candidates from being "bought out."

Question 36

Describe Buckly v. Valeo (1976).

Answer 36

Are there limits to what a candidate can spend out of pocket? Nope, it's a first amendment right.

Question 37

Describe caucuses.

Answer 37

Are used in 1/4 of the states. They're like a meeting throughout the state where the people debate a candidate and then a delegate vote is taken (starts when county, then district, then state).

Question 38

What is a direct primary?

Answer 38

Used by the other 3/4 of the states. It was introduced in 21st century. Most states require voters to be pre-registered with the party in question (a closed primary). Some states are determined proportionally, others winner-take-all.

Question 39

Which two early caucuses are especially important?

Answer 39

Iowa and New Hampshire. If you lose both of them, the odds aren't in your favor because they catch and generate attention.

Question 40

What function do party conventions serve?

Answer 40

They create party unite and support, which is especially important after the fight within the party for the nomination. It heals wounds and unites factions while serving a PR function and writing a party platform.

Question 41

How many states are involved in the Electoral College?

Answer 41

51 (because you include the District of Columbia).

Question 42

Why was popular vote not a consideration for presidential elections?

Answer 42

The founders did not believe that the greater population was intelligent enough to make the decision. Also, they worried a demagog would arise (someone like Hitler who was especially manipulative).

Question 43

How are electors determined?

Answer 43

The number of electors per state is determined by how many representatives and senators a state has (so even the smallest state would have at least three electors).

Question 44

How are the votes in an electoral college determined?

Answer 44

Elected by state parties, but this is a controversy because they were originally supposed to be third party, and so they could go against the popular vote if necessary. Now they're basically in the party pocket.

Question 45

What is a nomination?

Answer 45

A party's official endorsement of a candidate for office.

Question 46

What is a campaign strategy?

Answer 46

The way in which candidates attempt to manipulate each of these elements (money, media attention, and momentum) to achieve the nomination.

Question 47

What is the National Party Convention?

Answer 47

The supreme power within each of the parties, which formally functions to select presidential and vice presidential candidates and to write the party platform. (Though the states make the official selection today.)

Question 48

What is the McGovern-Fraser Commission?

Answer 48

A commission formed at the 1968 Democratic Convention in response to demands for reform by minority groups and others who sought better representation.

Question 49

What are superdelegates?

Answer 49

National party leaders who automatically get a delegate sot at the national party convention.

Question 50

What is a caucus?

Answer 50

A system for selecting convention delegates used in about a dozen states in which voters must attend an open meeting an express their presidential preference.

Question 51

What are presidential primaries?

Answer 51

Elections in which a state's voters go to the polls to express their preference for a party's nominee for president. Most delegates to the national party conventions are chosen this way.

Question 52

What is frontloading?

Answer 52

The recent tendency of states to hold primaries early in the calendar in order to gain media attention.

Question 53

What is a national primary?

Answer 53

A proposed nationwide primary that would replace the current system of caucuses and presidential primaries.

Question 54

What is the Federal Election Campaign Act?

Answer 54

A law passed in 1974 for reforming campaign finances. The act created the Federal Election Commission, provided public financing for presidential primaries and general elections, limited presidential campaign spending, required disclosure, and attempted to limit contributions.

Question 55

What is the Presidential Election Campaign Fund?

Answer 55

Funded by $3 checkoff on IRS tax forms, this fund provides a source of money for matching funds in the primaries and complete financing of Democratic and Republican presidential nominees in the general election.

Question 56

What are matching funds?

Answer 56

Contributions of up to $250 from individuals are matched for qualified presidential candidates in the primaries.Political

Question 57

What is soft money?

Answer 57

Political contributions earmarked for party-building expenses at the grass-roots level or for generic party advertising. For a time, such contributions were unlimited, until they were banned by the McCain-Feingold Act.

Question 58

What is selective perception?

Answer 58

The phenomenon that people's beliefs often guide what they pay the most attention to and how they interpret events.