Introduction to Government Chapter 14

1 CHAPTER 14 MULTIPLE CHOICE AND TRUE OR FALSE: 15 of the following will be randomly chosen. 1. Elections perform all of the following functions EXCEPT this one: a. selecting leaders b. decreasing political efficacy c. informing the public d. containing conflict e. citizen development 2. As a method of selecting leaders, democratic elections ensure that the ______. a. winning candidate will have been chosen by a majority of the voting public b. best potential candidates will be attracted to the process c. voters will be able to judge the candidates well e. selection of leaders will be a smooth and uncontroversial process 3. The founders created the Electoral College and specified that senators would be chosen by the state legislatures because ______. a. they feared that the people would band together with like-minded people to fight f b. they feared that powerful elites would dominate elections through the use of superior wealth c. they thought the only real alternative was to appoint senators and presidents for life d. allowing direct election of one institution of government was so radical an idea at the time that it never occurred to them to go farther and let the people elect other public officials e. none of the above 4. Citizens’ feelings of effectiveness in political affairs is called ______. b. good feelings c. power d. legitimacy e. system stability 5. Research indicates that ______. a. state elections have little influence on state public policy c. politicians running for Congress usually have little interest in the presidential election d. presidents have little influence on foreign policy e. all of the above 2 6. Some of the overall decline in voter turnout at the end of the twentieth century was likely due to ______. a. increasing citizen involvement in community groups b. the weakened relationship between interest group leaders and political leaders c. the willingness of citizens to tax themselves to provide important community services d. societal changes e. the number of interest groups in a community 7. The primary impact of state voter registration laws has been to ______. a. make it more expensive to vote b. decrease turnout c. discourage voters from identifying themselves with a party d. improve voter awareness of elections e. prevent fraud 8. What method has increased voter registration? a. registration on the Internet b. registration at one’s place of employment c. registration by fingerprint d. registration by phone e. motor Voter bills 9. Those who are LESS likely to vote tend to be ______. y b. older rather than younger c. college graduates d. whites e. relatively wealthy 10. A party’s effort to inform potential voters and persuade them to vote for that party is known as ______. a. issue ownership b. issue advocacy c. prompting d. oppo research e. voter mobilization 11. The single biggest factor accounting for how people decide to vote is ______. a. gender b. candidate characteristics d. the issues e. ethnicity 12. Party identification is the single most important predictor of how people decide to vote because ______. a. voters are too unsophisticated to vote in any other fashion b. it leads people toward prospective issue voting 3 c. as a benefit, being a partisan means the voter does not need to register to vote, which counteracts one of the costs of voting issues and candidates e. it leads people toward retrospective issue voting 13. Which of the following statements is NOT true concerning the role of issues in citizens’ voting decisions? a. People know where they stand on the “easy” issues but tend to tune out the “complicated” issues. b. The media do not generally cover issues in depth. c. Calculated policy decisions by voters are common. d. Most voters rely on party labels to tell them what they need to know about candidates. e. People are influenced by policy information. 14. ______ is the idealized voting behavior, but ______ more realistically reflects how policy considerations influence voters’ decisions. a. Swing voting; prospective voting b. Prospective voting; retrospective voting c. Prospective voting; swing voting d. Retrospective voting; prospective voting e. Front-loading; retrospective voting 15. ______ voting occurs when people base their voting decisions on well-informed opinions and consideration of the future consequences of their votes. a. Factional b. Partisan c. Prospective d. Retrospective e. Wedge issue 16. ______ voting occurs when people use their judgment of the current political situation along with the past performance of the incumbents. a. Retrospective b. Passive c. Partisan d. Prospective e. Sentimental 17. Politicians who are thinking about running for the presidency begin their runs by ______. a. testing the waters unofficially b. announcing their candidacy c. acquiring the money to run d. filing with the Federal Election Commission e. positioning themselves as credible prospects with the media 18. According to the text, the images that voters have of candidates usually cause voters to ______. 4 a. struggle to perceive any meaningful differences among presidential candidates b. make the presidential contest out to be something akin to a beauty or personality contest c. form clear opinions about candidate qualities that are relevant to governing d. typically ignore candidate qualities that are relevant to governing e. choose the more articulate and handsome of presidential contestants 19. Major-party presidential nominations are now determined primarily by ______. a. each party’s slate of electors from the Electoral College b. Super Tuesday primaries d. the party leaders at the parties’ national conventions e. the public at large in open primaries 20. A party caucus is a meeting of ______. a. local party members who choose delegates for the national convention b. state politicians who send themselves to the national convention c. voters to decide which parties make it onto the ballot d. the national party committee to assign delegates to the national convention e. none of the above 21. Front-loading is the process of ______. b. c. d. e. encouraging one’s supporters to vote early on the primary-election day biasing the nomination process so that senators go to the front of the line presidents declaring their candidacy early to scare off potential opponents requiring all fundraising to occur in the year prior to parties’ primaries and caucuses 22. ______ determine(s) how delegates are distributed by the primaries. s b. Federal statutes c. The Constitution d. Municipal regulations e. State statutes 23. Delegates to the national conventions are chosen ______. a. in closed meetings of the party leaders b. in primary elections and caucuses c. by national surveys d. by the party’s presidential candidate e. by the party’s cabinet 24. Front-loading affects the selection of a nominee by ______. a. making success in earlier primaries all the more important in gaining and keeping b. hurting incumbent presidents who cannot contest their party’s primaries as easily as challengers c. making the performance of candidates at conventions all the more important 5 d. making money less important in early contests as long as the candidate gets in front of other borrowers for the later primaries e. making the selection of senators as party nominees much more likely than the selection of governors 25. According to the textbook, what is considered “winning” in primary elections? a. having an absolute majority of votes in every primary c. winning only the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary but no other primaries d. winning all primaries except the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary because these contests have such little influence on the race e. taking first place in every primary or caucus on a particular day