question

What is demography?

answer

The science of human populations

question

The textbook discusses three important agents that can socialize Americans to participate in the political process. What are they?

answer

the media, the schools, and the family

question

What technique is the key to the accuracy of public opinion polls?

answer

random sampling

question

\"Letter from a Birmingham Jail,\" penned by Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1963, is a classic defense of which form of political protest?

answer

civil disobedience

question

Why is participation in the census so important?

answer

because the information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion of federal funding each year is spent

question

What is the effect of aging on political participation?

answer

Aging increases political participation

question

Which of the following is the best definition of protest?

answer

a form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics

question

Reapportionment occurs once a decade, after every census. Why?

answer

to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives, based on each state's proportion of the population

question

Which of the following statements about the influence of education on political attitudes and behavior is false?

answer

less-educated citizens are more likely to vote than better-educated citizens

question

Of the following statements about the 1936 Literary Digest poll, which predicted Roosevelt's defeat for reelection, which is true?

answer

The poll oversampled the upper middle class and the wealthy.

question

You run the US Census Bureau and are interested in improving the response rate of communities that are usually undercounted. Which of the following actions would best help you achieve your goal?

answer

attempting to reach a non responsive households by telephone and by door-to-door canvassing in English and in Spanish

question

Where do some critics place the blame for Americans' lack on political knowledge?

answer

on Americans themselves, for not remembering much about what they are supposed to through the media

question

If the poor participated at higher levels in the political process, what might happen?

answer

government programs to alleviate economic inequality would likely be higher on the political agenda

question

How does civil disobedience differ from a protest?

answer

Civil disobedience involves intentionally breaking a law; a protest involves intentionally getting attention from the media.

question

Which sector of the economy do conservatives generally favor as the source of solutions to solve America's policy concerns?

answer

the private sector

question

In comparison with citizens of most other established democracies around the world, how are Americans different?

answer

Americans are less likely than citizens of other democracies to report that they have participated in protests.

question

When do blacks participate in politics more than whites?

answer

when their levels of education are equal to those of whites

question

Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other forms of communication are collectively referred to as the

answer

mass media

question

In 1934, Congress created which body to regulate the use of airwaves?

answer

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

question

The primary interest of publicly owned media is _________; the primary interest of privately owned media is _________.

answer

serving the public interest; making a profit

question

An intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction to that news is called a

answer

trial balloon

question

Increasing public attention to specific problems is a core feature of the media's _________ power.

answer

agenda-setting

question

Research suggests that the overriding bias in the news is one toward stories that

answer

will draw the largest audience

question

The issues that attract serious attention from public officials and other people actively involved in politics at the time are collectively referred to as ______ agenda.

answer

policy

question

Which of the following is a consequence of the rise of television broadcasting?

answer

Candidates are more capable of running for office on their own by appealing to people directly through TV.

question

What is an event called that is purposely staged for the media and that is significant just because the media are there?

answer

a media event

question

The cozy relationship between politicians and the press in the twentieth century lasted until when?

answer

the Vietnam War and Watergate

question

Paradoxically, as technology has enabled the media to pass along information with greater speed, news coverage has become ________.

answer

less thorough

question

Which of the following is a consequence of the rise of narrowcasting?

answer

Young adults are less likely than other age groups to use newspapers and broadcast media as news and information sources.

question

The \"minimal effects hypothesis\" suggests that the media have which of the following?

answer

a marginal effect on public opinion

question

With politicians relying on journalists to get out their message, and journalists relying on politicians to keep them in the know, their relationship can best be defined as which of these?

answer

symbiotic

question

According to many network executives, many in the American public are not well informed in this high-tech age because of

answer

their own personal choice

question

The media's emphasis on the country's slow economic growth in 1992, rather than the good news of low inflation and interest rates, helped set the stage for Bill Clinton's win over the incumbent president, George H. W. Bush. This is an example of what?

answer

agenda setting

question

Television has enabled voters to rely less on political parties and social groups to make their decisions about candidates and more on their own assessment. According to the text, this is because television allows

answer

candidates to be seen up close and personal

question

One of the various ways in which parties contribute to the democratic governance is by

answer

nominating candidates

question

Which statement best describes the functioning of party machines in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

answer

Parties provided jobs to urban electorates in exchange for votes and kickbacks.

question

What must precede a major-party realignment?

answer

economic crises

question

The official, though ambiguously written, party ________ is ratified by delegates and leaders at the national party convention every four years but given little serious attention.

answer

platform

question

The voters most likely to engage in ticket splitting are

answer

independents

question

From 1955 to 1976, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daly ruled one of the most powerful political ________ in US history.

answer

machines

question

Andrew Downs' rational choice theory is a popular idea among political scientists. It postulates that

answer

voters and politicians will generally act in their own self-interest

question

The years 1860-1928 saw the ascendancy of which party?

answer

Republicans

question

The US national chairpersons for the Republicans and the Democrats recently agreed that their biggest headache was

answer

raising money

question

The ___________ is the formal governing body of political parties.

answer

national party convention

question

Which president forged the New Deal coalition?

answer

Franklin Roosevelt

question

A __________ often requires voters to declare party affiliation on their voter registration forms, which for political parties is something akin to the government collecting information for them about who likes their product.

answer

closed primary

question

What major concern did the 2000 presidential election between Gore and Bush highlight regarding the role of third parties?

answer

third parties' spoiler role in elections

question

Party dealignment is associated with a rising number of

answer

independents

question

The loyal opposition in the era of Democratic President Andrew Jackson was the Whig Party, made up of two distinct factions, ____________.

answer

southern planters and northern industrialists

question

When can a party change its platform?

answer

during the national party convention

question

European democracies have more parties in positions of political power than does the United States because of their

answer

winner-take-all systems

question

Which demographic group currently most closely identifies with the Democratic Party?

answer

African Americans

question

The Democratic and Republican candidates for president are formally nominated by the

answer

national party conventions

question

What 2012 candidate lost momentum when he could not remember the names of the three federal cabinet departments he would eliminate?

answer

Rick Perry

question

In 2012, the amount an individual is legally allowed to contribute to a candidate's campaign was

answer

$2,500

question

If no candidate receives an Electoral College majority, the election is decided in the

answer

House of Representatives

question

Some people have called the American electoral process

answer

\"the permanent campaign\"

question

Which of the following is a cost of voting?

answer

becoming informed

question

What is the most common reason given for not voting by US citizens who are registered to vote?

answer

It's hard to take time off of work or school

question

The 2008 election was the first time that ______ voted at the same rate as whites.

answer

African Americans

question

In states with caucuses, _________.

answer

supports of candidates attend a series of open meetings to express presidential preferences.

question

The McGovern-Fraser Commission made the delegate section process of the Democratic party more democratic by

answer

requiring delegate selection procedures to be open

question

One impact of the Internet on political campaigns is that

answer

more people are making political donations

question

Which of the following was one of the requirements of the Federal Election Campaign Act?

answer

All candidates for federal office must disclose who contributed money to their campaigns

question

Donations to ________ groups do not have to be reported unless a donor gives money specifically for a political ad.

answer

501(c)

question

How many states employ a winner-take-all system in which all their electors are awarded to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes statewide?

answer

48

question

The Electoral College introduces a bias into the campaign and electoral process because

answer

less populated states are overrepresented

question

Because states are the key battlegrounds of campaigns, candidates often find themselves

answer

tailoring their appeals to the particular interests of a state

question

Which of the following makes it harder to vote by increasing the costs associated with voting?

answer

voter ID laws

question

Which states tend to have higher voter turnout?

answer

states with Election Day voter registration

question

Which of the following helps to explain why voter turnout is lower in the US than in other democracies?

answer

The US hold elections midweek.

question

Which of the following best describes how Mitt Romney presented himself in the 2012 presidential election?

answer

a successful businessman who can apply his skills to fixing the economy

question

If you were running a campaign with a relatively unknown candidate, you would want to allow plenty of time for your candidate to

answer

travel extensively in Iowa before the caucuses

question

An investment candidates today MUST make is in

answer

a staff to set up and run technologies such as Facebook and Twitter accounts

question

Suppose your candidate is in a tight election campaign and has limited time and money. What expenditures would pay off best in gaining electoral votes?

answer

You should spend both time and money in battleground states that may go for either party.

question

Which of the following statements indicates a high level of political efficacy?

answer

\"one vote can make a difference; i want my vote to be the difference maker.\"

question

Which of the following is consistent with the mandate theory of elections?

answer

Barack Obama's claim that his victory in the 2012 election means that the public wants to raise taxes on the wealthy.

question

Which of the following best describes Barack Obama's campaign message in the 2012 election?

answer

\"I did as well as could have been expected under the circumstances\"

question

If the president was selected by popular vote instead of by the Electoral College, which of the following cities would a presidential campaign be least likely to visit?

answer

Green Bay, Wisconsin

question

The appearance and increase in _________ was an unintended result of an amendment in 1979 to the original Campaign Reform Act, which allows parties to raise and spend money on voter registration and other campaign materials without limits on spending or the size of contributions that they can accept.

answer

soft money

question

Why is it sometimes difficult for citizens to engage in policy voting?

answer

candidates can be intentionally vague about their issue stances

question

Why do winning candidates claim a mandate even though political scientists generally discredit the mandate theory of elections?

answer

winning candidates want to justify their policy proposals by claiming that the public supports them.

question

Why do presidential candidates tend to focus their efforts on battleground states?

answer

The winner-take-all system makes battleground states more relevant to a campaign.

AP Government Chapters 6-9

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