Deck 12: Political Parties

Question 1

Which refers to organizations that oversee the nationwide operations of a political party?

A) leadership PAC
B) state committees
C) committee of correspondence
D) national committee
E) congressional committee

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Political parties ________.

A) require constitutional sanction to emerge and operate in democratic systems
B) are fairly simple organizations, especially in American politics
C) tend to emerge in any political system with free and fair elections and a legislature with meaningful policy power
D) are regulated by Article VI, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution
E) are unimportant to most voters in American national elections

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What does it mean to say that political parties are "intermediate institutions" between the public and elected officials?

A) Parties always exist in the same fashion.
B) Parties mean more to members of Congress and the president.
C) Parties communicate and shape preferences based on each group.
D) Parties fulfill their constitutional obligations for citizens.
E) Parties are citizen advocacy groups that form periodically.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is the primary role of a party in government?

A) develop coherent policy platforms to support the party's electoral efforts
B) select candidates to seek public office and to assist candidates in organizing election campaigns
C) design governmental institutions in order to maximize efficiency in the development of public policy
D) organize the efforts of elected officials to achieve policy goals
E) coordinate the actions of ordinary citizens to support the party's candidates for office

Question 5

How can party leaders in Congress limit the occurrence of cycling?

A) limit available options during debate
B) provide for lobbyists to donate to members
C) nominate a new national party chair
D) write new legislation targeted at fringe groups
E) cede control to new members by resigning from office

Question 6

Why is the role of parties in the United States more complicated than it is in other countries?

A) Elections cause a greater degree of discord in government.
B) Having two chambers of the legislature is unique.
C) Parties in the court system function differently.
D) The legislative and executive branches have separate elections and powers.
E) Lack of a monarch frees the legislature from obligations.

Question 7

Which of these is the best example of the three functions of political parties working together?

A) enforcement of a Supreme Court decision by Congress and the president
B) passing into law an organized agenda of partisan policies
C) building a greater number of contacts within government
D) organizing rallies to support prospective policies
E) Party functions do not work together.

Question 8

Which is a reason that party organizations can be poorly coordinated?

A) lack of office space
B) too many candidates in a general election
C) targeted legislation appealing to fringe voters
D) Write-in campaigns deter challengers.
E) Levels of the party exist separately.

Question 9

A party ________ focuses on winning elections, while a party ________ focuses on specific policy goals.

A) amateur; professional
B) professional; interest
C) professional; amateur
D) interest; amateur
E) candidate; writer

Question 10

What is the primary role of a party in the electorate?

A) work to get citizens to identify the party's values with their own beliefs and interests
B) design governmental institutions in order to maximize efficiency in the development of public policy
C) select candidates to seek public office and to assist candidates in organizing election campaigns
D) develop coherent policy platforms to support the party's electoral efforts
E) organize the efforts of elected officials to achieve policy goals

Question 11

What was the change brought about by the introduction of primary elections?

A) Candidates became less focused on elections.
B) Interest groups sought outside help to appeal to voters.
C) Candidates sought to change the form of ballots.
D) Coordination between candidates and election judges became less direct.
E) Voters were able to select general election candidates.

Question 12

Parties first emerged in the U.S. Congress as a rational response to ________.

A) the provisions of Article VII, Section 4, of the U.S. Constitution
B) the Elections Act of 1792
C) coordination problems among like-minded members of Congress that led to unstable coalitions
D) Congress members' psychological attachments to the Federalist and Antifederalist causes
E) collective action problems that prevented Congress from obtaining a quorum

Question 13

Generally speaking, American parties are __________ organized and ____________.

A) tightly; nonhierarchical
B) loosely; nonhierarchical
C) tightly; hierarchical
D) loosely; hierarchical
E) well; nonhierarchical

Question 14

What is the primary role of a party as an organization?

A) organize the efforts of elected officials to achieve policy goals
B) design governmental institutions in order to maximize efficiency in the development of public policy
C) select candidates to seek public office and to assist candidates in organizing election campaigns
D) develop coherent policy platforms to support the party's electoral efforts
E) coordinate the actions of ordinary citizens to support the party's candidates for office

Question 15

Which collective dilemma among members of a political party in the electorate is most clearly resolved by the process of each party nominating a single candidate to run for any given office?

A) coordination problem
B) prisoner's dilemma
C) principal-agent problem
D) unstable coalition
E) collective action problem

Question 16

Why is a party comprised of all elected officials not possible in a society with open, fair elections?

A) Officials will pursue court actions to break the party into small pieces.
B) Neglected groups will organize to elect officials that are not members of that party.
C) Writing legislation for a single party would be impossible.
D) A single party is necessary in order to carry out taxable actions.
E) The principle of Rohde and Krehbiel states that more than one party is necessary.

Question 17

If a member of a legislature does not favor a bill and offers an amendment for the current bill before it goes to a vote, he or she is attempting to take advantage of a/an ________.

A) unstable coalition
B) split congress
C) divided government
D) separation of powers
E) amendment referral

Question 18

By coordinating legislative votes and creating incentives for legislators to support one another's proposals rather than offering competing legislation that would divide members' votes, political parties reduce the risks of facing a/an ________ in a legislature.

A) coordination problem
B) prisoner's dilemma
C) principal-agent problem
D) unstable coalition
E) collective action problem

Question 19

_______ Americans identify with a political party, and _______ Americans believe parties are bad for democratic politics.

A) Few; most
B) Most; most
C) Most; few
D) About half of; few
E) About half of; most

Question 20

Candidates for which public office or offices are formally selected at national party conventions?

A) president and vice president
B) president, vice president, and Speaker of the House
C) Speaker of the House and Senate majority leader
D) Supreme Court justice
E) Senate majority leader and House majority leader

Question 21

To the extent that citizens' party identifications are markers of individuals' judgments about the quality of various parties' performance in office, party identification is best understood as a/an ________.

A) running tally of political judgments
B) rational choice
C) informational shortcut
D) formal declaration of party affiliation
E) psychological attachment

Question 22

Which best explains the rise of the Progressive Party in the 1910s?

A) desire of voters to encourage new levels of manufacturing
B) fracturing within the Democratic Party over southern politics
C) written declarations of intent to secede from the Union
D) preference for greater regulation among some Republicans
E) humankind's innate desire to improve

Question 23

The strategy of appealing to a party's "base" originated during the ________ party system.

A) first
B) second
C) third
D) fourth
E) original

Question 24

Vibha, a Republican, follows politics closely. Since Donald Trump's nomination, Vibha has paid close attention to his actions and policy proposals, and she has found that she disagrees with Mr. Trump more and more as the 2016 election nears. In casting her ballot for the 2016 presidential election, she switches her party identification to Democratic and votes for Hillary Clinton. Which model of party identification best explains Vibha's decision?

A) psychological attachment
B) running tally
C) Michigan
D) informational
E) rational choice

Question 25

Since party labels reduce the costs of obtaining the information about candidates and policy proposals necessary to make reasonable political choices, party identification may be understood as a/an ________ that citizens use to facilitate political participation.

A) rational choice
B) informational shortcut
C) running tally of political judgments
D) psychological attachment
E) formal declaration of party affiliation

Question 26

Derek, Amanda, and Greg are running for the Senate as members of the Democratic Party. Greg and Derek are similar in their policy standpoints, but Amanda holds more extreme preferences. Greg wins the primary, but Amanda chooses to run in the general election regardless. What effect is this likely to have on the results of the general election?

A) There will be no difference in the general election.
B) The Democratic Party is more likely to win the office.
C) The Democratic Party is less likely to win the office.
D) The Democratic Party will definitely lose the office.
E) Primary elections in the state will be declared invalid.

Question 27

The Republican and Democratic parties switched their policy stances on civil rights during the 1950s and 1960s, but it took until almost 1980 before the targeted groups of voters fully changed their voting and partisan identification. What is the best explanation for this?

A) lack of news coverage related to political issues
B) poorly advertised policy stances on the party of candidates
C) apathetic voters refusing to vote in national elections
D) voter attachment to parties due to previous policy stances and voting
E) Voters do not change voting behavior and partisan allegiance.

Question 28

Jason is a registered Democrat who hears President Obama, a Democratic president, give a speech in favor of school voucher programs. Jason, after listening to this speech, decides that he is also in favor of school voucher programs. This new opinion is evidence of a/an ________.

A) uninformed voter
B) psychological block
C) bully pulpit
D) psychological attachment
E) presidential power

Question 29

The Whig Party was replaced by the ________ Party as the major competitor to the Democratic Party during the third party system.

A) Democratic-Republican
B) Independence
C) Free Soil
D) Federalist
E) Republican

Question 30

Political machines relied on ________ to win the loyalty of voters.

A) mechanics
B) wards
C) patronage
D) power
E) reimbursement

Question 31

Which party activity most clearly resolves a coordination problem for members of the party in the mass electorate?

A) nominating candidates for office
B) hiring campaign professionals
C) preventing majority cycles in a legislature
D) raising campaign funds
E) writing a party platform

Question 32

In the Michigan model, party identification is a/an ________ that filters the kinds of political information to which people are responsive and biases the ways in which people respond to political information and events.

A) informational shortcut
B) rational choice
C) psychological attachment
D) running tally of political judgments
E) formal declaration of party affiliation

Question 33

How can interest groups affect primary elections?

A) run advertisements coordinated with individual candidates' campaigns
B) give money and support to certain candidates who are viable
C) push for impeachment proceedings of Supreme Court justices
D) Interest groups exist outside of elections and cannot affect them.
E) write letters to elected officials encouraging them to campaign

Question 34

In which model of party identification are party labels represented as a psychological bias rather than a rational response to complex political information?

A) running tally
B) gut rationality
C) informational shortcut
D) Michigan
E) party professionalism

Question 35

Why did the South remain solidly Democratic during the third party system?

A) collective dilemma of party affiliation from the 1780s
B) path dependence from northern Union involvement in the Civil War
C) resistance to admitting California as a state
D) State constitutions were rewritten to mandate Democratic victories.
E) Southern states were never solidly Democratic.

Question 36

Which is a local organization that controls a city or county government to an extent that enables it to reward large numbers of political supporters with tangible benefits such as government jobs?

A) political party
B) interest group
C) political machine
D) partisan syndicate
E) political collective

Question 37

During the first party system, national parties were primarily organized around policy disagreements about ________ and ________.

A) the strength of the national government; relations with European powers
B) the free coinage of silver; the strength of the national government
C) slavery; the strength of the national government
D) relations with European powers; slavery
E) isolationism; federal income tax rates

Question 38

Which president is most closely associated with the development of the Democratic Party's network of state-level organizations during the second party system?

A) James Monroe
B) Martin Van Buren
C) James K. Polk
D) Millard Fillmore
E) Franklin Pierce

Question 39

Why did political machines put a great deal of effort into obtaining citizenship for new immigrants?

A) to establish loyalty to the party by providing such services
B) to employ a new skilled labor force
C) No such effort was made to gain citizenship.
D) to create a new tax base
E) to overthrow the established party system

Question 40

Which of the following is a psychological attachment or loyalty to a political party?

A) party identification
B) party planning
C) party mood
D) partisan mind-set
E) partisan allegiance

Question 41

A bill passes the House by a vote of 230-205, with all Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. This is an example of ________.

A) partisan order
B) party discipline
C) partisan polarization
D) party gridlock
E) party leadership

Question 42

Which explains the relative success of the New Deal coalition?

A) resolution of the prisoner's dilemma by Teddy Roosevelt
B) inclusion of new blocs of voters into the Democratic Party
C) inclusion of new blocs of voters in the Republican Party
D) creating the federal bureaucracy for the first time
E) the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson

Question 43

What is the New Deal Party System? Why and how did it emerge? What groups were included in it? To what extent has it survived over time? In what ways does the New Deal Party System still structure and influence American national politics?

Question 44

Which group was part of the New Deal coalition?

A) business owners
B) northern Republicans
C) southern Democrats
D) legal aliens
E) Latinos

Question 45

What is a political party? What are the major functions of parties in government, parties in the electorate, and parties as organizations? How do these three party roles relate to one another? What kind of oversight or organization ensures the effective integration of various components of American political parties?

Question 46

What is the greatest threat to contemporary political parties?

A) external pressures
B) developing economies
C) monetary fiscal policies
D) internal splits
E) presidential persuasion

Question 47

Which is a manifesto or explanation of the policies a party plans to pursue once in office?

A) party diary
B) stump speech
C) partisan diatribe
D) party platform
E) party manual

Question 48

Largely due to the parties' positions on civil rights, ____________ switched their support from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

A) southern whites
B) African Americans
C) Catholics
D) disenchanted whites
E) farmers

Question 49

Duverger's law predicts that single-member, plurality electoral systems are associated with the presence of ________ principal political party/parties.

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four
E) five

Question 50

Identify and explain three major theories of partisan identification. How does each theory conceptualize individual identification with a political party? To what extent does each theory represent partisanship as a psychological identity versus the product of rational judgment? In your opinion, which model most clearly represents your own association (or lack thereof) with a political party?

Question 51

The political parties have become more reliant on ________ organization(s) and less reliant on ________ organization(s) in the last 40 years.

A) plutocratic; nationalistic
B) national; state
C) state; national
D) systemic; individual
E) horizontal; vertical

Question 52

In the current party system, Republican votes tend to come from multiple groups, including ____________.

A) wealthy retirees, white rural residents, and conservatives
B) conservatives, business owners and executives, and labor union members
C) gays and lesbians, conservatives, and well-paid professionals
D) labor union members, whites in the South, and white rural residents
E) whites in the South, white suburban residents, and residents of large cities

Question 53

Since the 1960s, the percentage of party identifiers who would be upset if their children married members of the opposite political party has ________ and is higher among _______ than _________.

A) increased; Republicans; Democrats
B) increased; Democrats; Republicans
C) stayed the same; Republicans; Democrats
D) decreased; Democrats; Republicans
E) decreased; Republicans; Democrats

Question 54

How can election laws limit the viability of third parties?

A) Many states made third parties illegal, making parties overthrow a current party in power.
B) Petitions for office must have a minimum number of signatures, greatly increasing the effort required.
C) Ballot reforms were given to courts, removing politicians from changing election laws.
D) Bureaucrats were given the duty to monitor elections, making bribing nearly impossible.
E) Election laws do not affect the viability of third parties.

Question 55

What is Duverger's law? What relationship does it assert between electoral systems and the number of competitive political parties? Why does this relationship exist?

Question 56

Why does the opinion of other potential voters matter to a single voter's opinion of a candidate's chances to win election?

A) Donations are likely to come from different sources.
B) Voters desire to not waste their votes on unsuccessful candidates.
C) More candidates are likely to enter general elections if opinion shifts.
D) Less news coverage is given to stable races.
E) Voters exist as entirely myopic evaluators.