AP Gov Practice test for Chapters 10-15 – Flashcards

If proportional representation primaries are fairer to the public, why might some state parties choose not to adopt them?

On Table 11.2, Who Identifies as a Democrat? A Republican?, Hispanics are most likely to identify as __________.

The federal government has worked to regulate campaign finance __________.

Which of the following was a prominent feature of the era called the "Golden Age" of political parties?

What is lobbying?

Two types of errors are common to polls. What are they?

Which is a primary reason that news cameras are not allowed in the Supreme Court?

What is a political action committee (PAC)?

Which amendment removed the election of U.S. senators from the hands of state legislators and placed it in the hands of citizens?

Political action committees (PACs) are an attractive option for campaign contributions because __________.

What typically precedes a major party realignment?

According to the "Explore Your World" feature box, Rwanda currently has the highest percentage of female lawmakers in the world. You can infer from this statistic that __________.

As discussed in the "Take a Closer Look" box, what has a significant impact on a news agency's ability to influence what is discussed at a White House press briefing?

Of the following public opinion poll topics, which is more likely than the others to be subject to a screening procedure?

In 1964, which candidate tried too hard to appeal to his party's activists and lost the election as a result?

What is the difference between simple random sampling and stratified sampling?

What is the term for change in public opinions and voting preferences caused by media coverage?

In 1948, the Chicago Tribune wrongly predicted that Republican Thomas E. Dewey would beat incumbent President Harry S. Truman. Knowing what you know about the accuracy of various polls, what kind of poll would most likely have led the Chicago Tribune to make this erroneous prediction?

One of the most basic methods of canvassing is __________.

Which of the following events during the 2012 general election caused consternation for President Obama's campaign?

Which of the following is an example of a public interest group?

What is said of a successful presidential candidate who helps members of Congress get elected as well?

When is the initiative process the most useful?

"All government rests on public opinion." Where is this sentiment expressed?

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

The first penny press paper was called the __________.

A form of journalism, popular in the late nineteenth century, featuring pictures, comics, color, and sensationalized, oversimplified news coverage was called __________.

In the White House Press Room, which group would you find closest to the podium?

What institutional feature of U.S. politics prevents the success of third parties?

If you are attempting to influence the political process through extreme measures, such as boycotts and picketing, you are engaging in __________.

What key issue led to the dissolution of the Whig party?

The 1996 Telecommunications Act resulted in expanded media services. What helped expand media services in the nineteenth century?

Campaign advertisements can work both for and against a candidate in what ways?

President __________ is as close to a nonpartisan president as modern America has ever had.

Americans' opinion of the news media has become __________.

According to the feature "How Are People Involved in Politics?" which of the following is the political activity in which people most often engage?

What institution is responsible for electing the president of the United States?

The most dominant feature of traditional media coverage of campaigns is __________.

Which of the following is a provision of the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007?

Modern American political liberals generally believe that __________.

In your American government class, you learn that most Americans' level of knowledge about history and politics is quite low and is declining every year. You also learn that political knowledge and political participation have a reciprocal effect on one another. Which of the following statements aligns with the statements presented in this scenario?

In order to overcome the free rider problem, many interest groups offer material benefits. What are material benefits?

Which is true of citizens who are highly interested in politics?

When covering Congress, reporters typically focus on which of the following?

How many electoral votes are needed to be elected president?

You are a policy analyst in the Department of Energy. You were just offered a job with a renewable energy company. How long must you wait before you can lobby the Department of Energy on behalf of your new employer?

The brief, clever quotes that candidates hope will be replayed after media events are known as __________.

Runoff primaries __________.

Which type of survey question is best suited to addressing concerns about errors in public opinion polling resulting from difficulty in measuring intensity?

Which of the following is the clearest example of a push poll question?

What is a public interest group?

You are the leader of an environmental organization working to address the problem of climate change. Given the free rider problem, what would be the most effective way to get others to join your cause?

If a state wanted to increase its influence in the presidential nomination, what could the state do?

Candidates' efforts to meet as many voters as possible are __________.

Which democratic function of political parties was nonexistent until the early twentieth century and has given voters greater input into politics?

Modern tabloids are most similar to __________.

Deep Throat of the Watergate scandal was which kind of journalistic source?

Which news medium has had the hardest time keeping up with modern technological developments?

Which branch of the U.S. government interacts very little with the media?

One reason that candidates visit many localities is to __________.

When can a party change its platform?

What is the purpose of a "name recognition survey"?

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

Which is one problem with online voting discussed in your text?

The media is also known as the __________.

According to your text, what is the general purpose of elections?

Which of the following is an element of a political party's organization at the state level?

In New York Times Co. v. U.S. (1971) the Supreme Court affirmed the principle of __________.

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

Imagine you are a journalist covering a scandal that may destroy a member of Congress. You obtain your information from a source at the Department of Justice. In your story, you make no reference to the source's name or to the Department of Justice. This source is __________.

When they become ten or eleven, what political opinion of Democratic presidents would you expect of children raised in politically active Republican households?

In terms of speaking to the press on behalf of Congress, __________ command center stage when subjects in their domain are newsworthy, occasionally achieving fame.

Since the 1980s, American public opinion of the credibility of news media has __________.

As a pollster for Smart Polling, you are concerned about gauging the public's attitudes about arms-control policy, because you believe that the public not only has little information on this complex topic but also has thought little about it. What procedure might you implement to decrease the inaccuracy of your polling data because of this lack of information?

Why was Madison particularly concerned about factions in Federalist No. 10?

At what age do parents exercise the greatest influence on the political socialization of their children?

Which Amendment to the U.S. Constitution lowered the voting age to eighteen?

Most candidates running in a general election tend to move their campaigns toward the __________.

How might pluralism serve to enhance democracy?

What is a potential downside of narrowcasting?

According to Table 12.5, which of the following reasons do voters most often give for not voting?

What serves as the glue that holds together the disparate elements of the U.S. governmental and political apparatus?

A critical election is typically associated with __________.

Married voters today are most likely to identify as __________.

Referring to the information in Table 14.1, if you were a Democratic strategist, and you wanted your message to mobilize the biggest number of your supporters, on which media outlet would you run your advertisements?

How did many city-dwellers and European immigrants view political parties during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries?

Since the __________, governmental decision makers have relied heavily on public opinion polls.

Leslie is a white, middle-class mother of two, who works as a librarian in the public library system of a large city in the American West. She is 57 years old. Given her demographic profile and the information presented in Table 10.1 on differences in the political opinions of women and men, which of the following statements about her political opinions would pollsters expect to be true?

How does the textbook answer this question: why are traditional telephone polls becoming increasingly difficult to conduct?

One of the primary dangers of the nomination campaign is that __________.

What is an amicus curiae brief?

Which candidate, running in 1796, was portrayed as an atheist and a coward?

Considering the large number of candidates for the Republication nomination in 2012 and the many debates among these candidates, what could you have expected of Mitt Romney's debate performance in the general election?

A public official has the most control over the spin of his or her message __________.

Why do small interest groups have an easier time enrolling potential members than large interest groups?

The __________ is a measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll.

A gradual shift in party coalitions that is based more on demographic shifts than on shocks to the political system is known as a __________ realignment.

According to the information in the "How Has Campaign Financing Changed Over Time?" feature, the Super PAC that spent the most in the 2012 election __________.

How are third parties usually significant?

Why are some people concerned about electronic voting?

Which of the following statements, if true, would confirm the theory of pluralism?

Which is an exception to the equal time rule?

The U.S. media has a great deal of journalistic freedoms guaranteed by law, but its corporate ownership subjects it to pressures from __________.

How can redistricting threaten incumbent members of Congress?

Since 1952, researchers at the University of Michigan have conducted surveys to assess the political attitudes and behavior of the American electorate. By what name is this research known?

How does lobbying Congress differ from lobbying the judicial branch?

The __________ problem occurs when people fail to join a group because they can get the benefits the group offers without contributing to the group's efforts.

Which of the following is an example of grassroots/outside lobbying?

A candidate with limited funds available would most likely want to build a staff consisting of __________.

How does the institutional weakness of political parties affect voter turnout?

A campaign looking for support from various political action committees would find that __________.

What did the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 achieve?

What was one result of nineteenth century muckraking?

Of the following, which is considered a demographic characteristic?

If you wanted to improve voter turnout, which of the following would you suggest?

In a random sample of 1,000 high-school students, 29 percent indicated that they had read the Declaration of Independence at least once. If the margin of error is calculated to be 4 percent, which of the following statements is more likely than the others to be true?

A live engagement with the press, in which the range of questions is limited, is called a __________.

Based on the information in the "Explore Your World" bar chart, what country would you think is LEAST likely to have a female head of government in the foreseeable future?

Why is Walter Lippmann credited with spurring the growth of public opinion polling?

The most visible instrument that parties use to formulate, convey, and promote public policy is __________.

If you were a campaign manager trying to target the largest population of likely voters, at which place would you suggest your candidate campaign?

Suppose you are a candidate and you want to re-craft your campaign message. With which of the following staff members would you MOST likely work closely to create a compelling and effective message?

A command, indicated by an electorate's votes, for the elected officials to carry out a party platform or policy agenda is known as a (an) __________.

Why do interest groups typically offer material benefits to their members?

What are "feeling thermometer" questions?

Which of the following religious groups maintains the most consistent voting patterns?

How does a delegate become a representative to a party convention?

George Gallup undoubtedly had a vested interest in fostering reliance on public opinion polls. Why?

According to the "How Are People Involved in Politics?" feature, a person who believes he or she has no say in government is LEAST likely to engage in which of these activities?

The __________ is an example of way in which the Federal Communications Commission works to ensure that the airwaves "serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity."?

"Are American Political Parties Polarized?" suggests that both major political parties are moving ideologically __________.

AIM and FAIR are __________.

When a news outlet like the Wall Street Journal reports a story from the secretary of commerce, that story is said to be what?

Front-loading benefits __________.

The role of campaign consultants has become so important in today's campaigns because __________.

According to the "Explore Your World" feature, one way that many countries ensure that candidates represent the entire population is by __________.

What was a key contributor to the rare stability in Republican and Democratic political identities during the "Golden Age" (1860-1932)?

A polling firm has been commissioned by the New York Times to assess public opinion about the performance of FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) during the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. What should the firm do first?

How would you go about strengthening political parties in the United States?

According to Table 12.2, how many states require no voter registration?

Media effects is the term used for changes in__________ due to the influence of news sources.

When did the last political realignment occur, according to most political scientists?

What are some of the major barriers to third-party political success?

When a party's base of supporters undergoes a fundamental and enduring alteration, what is this called?

When does party identification matter most in voting?

If you wanted to have the most informed voters during a party nomination, you would use which nomination system?

How do political scientists define political socialization?

Libertarian, Constitution, and Green Party presidential candidates receive very little media coverage, including omission from most debates. This would seemingly be a violation of what?

Prospective judgment is voting based upon __________.

Why have National Election Studies (NES) researchers conducted surveys before and after every mid-term and presidential election since 1952?

The challenges to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act suggest that __________.

When a citizen votes for candidates from different parties in the same election he or she is __________.

Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues are known as what?

Proponents of a government that includes minor parties might suggest that the United States consider Europe's system of __________.

Which of the following conditions, if true, would eliminate the free rider/collective action problem?

Democrats no longer use the winner-take-all primary because __________.

As shown in Figure 13.2, which shows how PACs allocate their campaign contributions, if you are challenging an incumbent and looking for PAC money to support your campaign, you can expect to receive __________.

According to the box, "Who Owns the News Media," over the last thirty years, media ownership __________.

Grassroots lobbying is best defined as __________.

What reason does Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, give to explain why public opinion polls have become critical players in national and international politics over the last three decades?

The traditional media __________.

How do some analysts explain media inattention to stories critical of government?

Which of the following candidates in the 2012 Republican nomination campaign won the Iowa caucuses?

When questioned about their views of politics in Congress, the majority of__________ expressed their desire for compromise over standing firm in their beliefs.

The __________ is the formal governing body of both major parties.

"Soft news" about politics tends to make viewers' political behavior more __________.

Party identification is __________.

The key exception to the rule that state parties are free to act within the limits set by their state legislatures, without interference from the national party, is in the selection of __________.

According to the "How Has Campaign Financing Changed Over Time" feature, the largest increase in 527 political committees occurred in which year?

What does the Pew Global Attitudes Survey assess?

Voting is a form of __________.

Which of the following surveys is more likely than the others to generate self-selection error?

When did the Era of Good Feelings occur?

Bloggers, television news anchors, and radio hosts all have what in common?

A member of the Electoral College is known as a(n) __________.

Today, most news is written by __________.

During his campaign for reelection in 2012, Barack Obama deemphasized his work on health care reform. Which of the following reasons is the most plausible explanation for this decision, given what you know about the interaction between public opinion and policy and politics?

Which of the following is an example of a faction, asconceptualized by Madison in Federalist No. 10?

What is the single greatest influence in establishing a person's first party identification?

While the national congressional campaign committees work to garner more seats for their respective parties, the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee focus on __________.

Which of the following statements best reflects the Framers' attitudes about public opinion?

What 1907 legislation prohibited corporations from making direct contributions to candidates for federal office?

What do Americans often have difficulty forming opinions about?

What strategy was MOST likely behind Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold working together to pass the 2002 campaign finance reform bill?

Who is considered the founder of modern-day polling?

The rise of Spanish language television and news programming is an example of __________.

Even though a candidate may not approve of negative ads, what is one reason he or she might agree to run them?

What is the main objective of most labor unions?

What is the MOST likely reason that candidates use sound bites instead of long explanations of their agendas and positions?

How do lobbyists typically seek to influence members of Congress?

Suppose you are quite wealthy and contributed money to the campaign of one candidate in a primary election, then gave money to another campaign after that first candidate dropped out. You also contributed to the national party committee and your state party committee, as well as to a political action committee. By the time the general elections come in November, what is the most that you could have contributed?

When a case that an interest group is interested in, but not actually sponsoring, comes before a court, the group can __________.

What is one reason why incumbents have the advantage in elections?

Information provided to a journalist, that will not be attributed to any source, is __________.

Until 2002, the primary federal regulation of campaign finance occurred according to the __________.

Based on information in Figure 13.4 showing candidate visits to various states in the 2012 general election campaign, which of the following states did both candidates consider a high priority requiring many visits?

Refer to "How Do Demographic Characteristics Affect Public Opinion?" and indicate which is true about how age impacts views on whether or not the government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep.

According to the "Explore Your World" feature, in which country do women lag behind men in both public and private leadership positions?

Which of the following is an assumption of pluralism?

According to the "Take a Closer Look" box in your text, which of the following is true if you are a young voter?