question

Those legislative attempts to regulate lobbying prior to the enactment of the 1991 \"Ethics Bill\" were particularly weak because

answer

there was no agency charged with enforcing them.

question

Types of economic interest groups include all except which one of the following?

answer

Environmental protection groups

question

Which of the following is not one of the categories used by the authors of the text to classify interest groups?

answer

Political groups

question

Interest groups representing ____ have had little influence on public policy in Texas.

answer

organized labor

question

____ are formed by an organization, industry, or individual for the purpose of collecting money and contributing to selected political candidates or causes.

answer

Political action committees

question

General elections in Texas are held on Tuesday after the first Monday in ____ in even-numbered years.

answer

November

question

The ethics bill passed by the Texas legislature in 1991

answer

does not place any limits on campaign contributions for state elections.

question

The ____ is the period of time before the voting day in which the candidates attempt to persuade potential voters to support them.

answer

campaign

question

In Texas, primary elections are administered by officials of the

answer

political parties.

question

Poll taxes and literacy tests were all designed to

answer

discourage voting by African Americans, Mexican Americans, and poor Whites.

question

Voter turnout in Texas is

answer

below the national average.

question

Why is the percentage of Texans who vote significantly smaller than the percentage of Americans in general who vote?

answer

Institutions of political socialization in Texas do not promote voting, Voting levels tend to be lower in states lacking competitive party systems, The poverty rate in Texas is high and the poor tend not to vote, and The state's African American and Mexican American citizens are less likely to vote than Whites. (All of the above are factors.)

question

The principal election officer in Texas is the

answer

secretary of state.

question

When minorities in Texas fail to vote, ____ candidates are hurt most.

answer

liberal Democratic

question

The primary reason most people vote is that they

answer

have been taught to believe that voting is their duty.

question

The primary purpose of the precinct convention in Texas is to

answer

select delegates to the county convention.

question

A person who is suspicious of unregulated markets, places more faith in the ability of the government to direct economic activity, and favors less government regulation in issues of personal belief and behavior would probably be categorized as

answer

liberal.

question

In 1961, ____ ended the Democrats' monopoly on offices at the state level by winning a special election for the U.S. Senate.

answer

John Tower

question

Why are state conventions and platforms of little importance to what nominees say and do?

answer

Candidates for public office are nominated in primaries rather than in conventions, Candidates raise their own campaign funds independently of the party, Candidates need to gather support from the large number of voters, not the small number of party activists, and Party organizations in the United States are generally quite weak. (All of the above.)

question

In Texas, which of the following types of voters would most likely support the Republican party?

answer

Anglo, upper class, professional, evangelical Protestant

question

In economic policy, the basic principle underlying conservatism is

answer

laissez-faire.

question

In the 2008 elections, which of the following occurred?

answer

The Republican party continued its dominance of Texas politics.

question

A fervent belief that government should protect the little people of society from wealthy individuals and corporations has historically been known as

answer

populism.

question

As a consequence of the one-party system that existed in Texas until the 1970s,

answer

voter turnout was very low, elections were decided in the Democratic primary, party labels told voters little about the ideology of candidates, and parties were unable to overcome the constitutional fragmentation of power. (all of the conditions above existed.)

question

From the perspective of activists and candidates, the basic purpose of political parties is to

answer

win elections in order to gain control over public policy.

question

The overall tax system in Texas

answer

falls disproportionately on poor and middle income earners.

question

A ____ tax is a tax levied on the removal of natural resources (especially oil and gas) from the earth.

answer

severance

question

The taxes Texas levies on tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, and gasoline are known as ____ taxes.

answer

excise or selective sales

question

Which of the following accounts for 56 percent of state tax revenues?

answer

Sales tax

question

Block grants

answer

are distributed to states for broad programs.

question

Which of the following statements regarding the revenue structure of Texas is incorrect?

answer

Heavy reliance on sales taxes gives Texas a very elastic revenue structure.

question

Which of the five major revenue funds in Texas supports the majority of state programs?

answer

General Revenue Fund

question

Which of the following is exempt from the general sales tax in Texas?

answer

Food sold in grocery stores

question

Since 1977, the percentage of money spent by the state on highway expenditures has

answer

declined dramatically, resulting in the state having many poorly maintained roads.

question

The second-largest functional category of state spending in Texas is

answer

health and human services.

question

No Child Left Behind, passed in 2001, did which of the following?

answer

Allowed students to transfer from unsuccessful schools to successful schools, and required annual testing of students in core subjects.

question

Whenever the government attempts to improve the quality of life for the poor by taking wealth from those who have the most and redirecting it to those who have the least, it is making

answer

redistributive public policy.

question

The number of Texans receiving benefits from TANF has ____________ and the number receiving benefits from food stamps has __________ since 2000.

answer

decreased; increased

question

A(n) ____ is a policy decision through which one level or branch of government requires another level or branch of government to act in a certain way.

answer

mandate

question

Modern education reform in Texas began in the mid 1980s with passage of the act known as

answer

No Pass, No Play.

question

Payments to unemployed workers is administered by the

answer

Texas Workforce Commission.

question

All of the following factors make it likely that welfare will be a perennial issue in Texas politics except

answer

the economy has little impact on the poverty rate.

question

Which of the following is the primary program to provide health care to needy families?

answer

Medicaid

question

The average per capita income in Texas is

answer

below the national average.

question

The three largest welfare programs administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission are

answer

TANF, food stamps, and Medicaid.

question

The peak of Texas oil production

answer

came in the decade of the 1970s.

question

The concept that groundwater is more or less completely controlled by the person who owns the land above the water is called

answer

the rule of capture.

question

The two nuclear energy plants in Texas, Comanche Peak and South Texas Nuclear Project, produce what percentage of Texas electricity?

answer

10%

question

The organization with the mission to \"protect our state's human and natural resources\" consistent with sustainable economic development is called

answer

the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).

question

Pumping water, sand and chemicals into the ground to recover more oil or natural gas from the ground is a technology called

answer

fracking.

question

The best example of Texas's reliance on regressive taxes is

answer

the general retail sales tax.

question

About ____ percent of the $40 billion state budget for health and human services is funded by the national government.

answer

60

question

Passed in 1996, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families

answer

put an end to automatic entitlement to welfare support, established a limit of five years for a person to receive welfare, provided that an individual must be working within two years of receiving support, and emphasized getting people off welfare and onto payrolls. (All of the above are true.)

question

Of renewable energy sources, which is the most realistic short-term alternative to nonrenewables?

answer

Wind

question

An \"acre foot\" is

answer

the amount of water necessary to cover an acre of land a foot deep.

question

Of the 25 poorest counties in the United States, how many are in Texas?

answer

9

question

In Texas, programs to help needy citizens are funded

answer

primarily with federal dollars supplemented by state funds.

question

Which of the following types of tax does Texas not have?

answer

Personal income tax

question

Which of the following types of federal grants could be used only for programs specified in the grant?

answer

Categorical grants-in-aid

question

The poverty threshold for a family of three in the United States for fiscal year 2011 is approximately

answer

$18,500.

question

Texas ranked ____ among the fifty states in per capita expenditures for welfare services.

answer

forty-eighth

question

Which of the following officials serves as the state's tax collector?

answer

Comptroller

question

Benefits to workers who are injured, become ill, or are killed on the job are known as

answer

workers' compensation.

question

Which energy resource is predicted to be the least costly per kilowatt hour in 2016?

answer

Natural gas

question

Social Services are likely to remain a perennial issue in Texas politics because

answer

the economy swings from boom to bust, and in low times the number of people requiring services increases while government revenue decreases, the states immigration rate is high, and many immigrants, especially those who are illegal, lack essential job skills, disparities between rich and poor are growing, and conservatism in Texas dominates politics in the early 2000s. (All of the above are true.)

question

Not until Congress passed the ____ in 1965 did the federal government begin to enforce the right of African Americans to vote.

answer

Voting Rights Act

question

On the issue of private gun ownership, conservatives generally want ____ regulation and liberals want ____.

answer

less; more

question

Interest groups and political parties are similar in that they both

answer

are concerned with public policy.

question

The first Republican governor of Texas in the twentieth century was

answer

Bill Clements.

question

Which of the following is not correct about interest groups?

answer

Interest groups engage in the electoral process by nominating their members for public office.

question

A political interest group is

answer

an organization that tries to influence politicians to make public policy in line with their preferences.

question

A political party that has centralized control over nominations and can impose the party platform on its nominees is known as a(n)

answer

responsible party.

question

Texas citizens may vote absentee

answer

without restriction in any election.

question

The 2003 Ethics Bill was an improvement over the 1991 bill because it

answer

ensures that more information will be available to the public, requires candidates to disclose cash balances in their campaign accounts, forbids legislators who are attorneys to represent a paying client before a state agency, and requires candidate to file campaign finance reports via the Internet, with a few exceptions. (All of the above provisions are improvements over the 1991.)

question

Since 1994, the Texas Republican Party state conventions have been dominated by

answer

the Christian Right.

question

Lobbying is an activity that refers to

answer

efforts to influence policymakers face-to-face.

question

The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution outlawed

answer

the poll tax.

question

The resources all political candidates must have regardless of their strategies are

answer

people and money.

question

This group's success in passing 90 percent of the legislative agenda it has sponsored and winning 86 percent of its cases before the Texas Supreme Court indicates it is now arguably the most effective interest group in Texas.

answer

Texas Medical Association

question

Which of the following statements about the present system of voter registration in Texas is not correct?

answer

The voter must register in person unless ill or disabled.

question

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, Texas went through a political

answer

realignment.

question

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the 1976 case of ____ paved the way for Clayton Williams and Tony Sanchez to spend millions of dollars of their own money to finance their own campaigns for Texas governor.

answer

Buckley v. Valeo

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