Deck 7: Public Opinion

Question 1

Which groups of people were referred to as "red-diaper babies" by commentators in the 1960s?

A) College radicals who were the children of radicals
B) Republicans whose parents were communists
C) Democrats who opposed the use of force in all circumstances
D) High school students who supported the war in Vietnam
E) Newspaper editors who were critical of Richard Nixon

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Exit polls are conducted

A) just after a voter registers to vote.
B) during the national conventions.
C) on election day at polling places.
D) after each presidential debate.
E) when voters change their party identification.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Most blue-collar workers in Great Britain think of themselves as

A) working-class.
B) lower-class.
C) middle-class.
D) upper-class.
E) elites.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Although early studies of American public opinion and voting found low information levels, they also found that Americans were pretty good at

A) working the system to get the policies that they desired.
B) contacting candidates on a regular basis.
C) discussing complex political issues.
D) employing cues to select policies, parties, and candidates that most nearly reflected their values and interests.
E) explaining the workings of government and major currents in law.

Question 5

The text suggests that our genetic background explains

A) some of our political ideology.
B) some of our party identification.
C) some of our political socialization.
D) some of our group memberships.
E) none of the above.

Question 6

If any given voter has a chance of being in a survey, the sample is best described as a ________ sample.

A) random
B) stratified quota
C) split
D) two-stage
E) bifurcated

Question 7

A public opinion pollster might need to make as many as ________ phone calls just to get around one thousand respondents for a survey.

A) two thousand
B) four thousand
C) six thousand
D) ten thousand
E) fifteen thousand

Question 8

According to the text, one reason that identification with a party has declined in recent years is that

A) young voters have weaker party identification.
B) party identification today is no longer influenced by parents' party identification.
C) today, there are more parties with which voters can identify.
D) voters tend to lose their party identification as they grow older, and today's population is aging.
E) party identification is increasingly seen as a sign of closed-mindedness.

Question 9

The surveys that were conducted in Cincinnati and nationally concerning the Monetary Control Act were significant because

A) public opinion was deeply divided.
B) public opinion unanimously condemned the legislation.
C) many people expressed views about the legislation, which was entirely fictitious.
D) the legislation was still pending.
E) Congress had passed the legislation only two days before the surveys were conducted.

Question 10

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution lists all of the following goals of government except

A) union.
B) justice.
C) liberty.
D) democracy.
E) tranquility.

Question 11

Most high school students share the same party identification as

A) their peers.
B) their teachers.
C) their parents.
D) their religious leaders.
E) regional elites.

Question 12

The general pattern of public opinion cleavages in this country has been

A) horizontal, based on class.
B) vertical, based on many variables.
C) vertical on economic issues and horizontal on social issues.
D) impossible to analyze clearly.
E) crosscutting, based on many variables.

Question 13

One reason that public policy often differs from public opinion is that

A) the U.S. Constitution places many checks on the influence of public opinion.
B) public opinion polling tends to express the opinions of a political elite.
C) public opinion is easy to gauge, whereas the effectiveness of public policy is not.
D) public opinion tends to change much more slowly than public policy.
E) public opinion is rarely informed at the beginning of the policymaking process.

Question 14

Which of the following statements regarding the voting habits of men and women is incorrect?

A) Their voting reflects distinct differences in points of view.
B) The gap that is evident between their points of view is not new.
C) Men have forsaken the Democratic Party.
D) Women have forsaken the Republican Party.
E) None of the above.

Question 15

During the 2008 primary season, pollsters made a series of errors that have since been attributed to a failure to

A) identify the population correctly.
B) obtain representative samples.
C) utilize the correct statistical techniques.
D) remove bias in the wording of questionnaires.
E) shorten questionnaires to a reasonable length.

Question 16

The Framers created a government for the purpose of

A) unifying citizens.
B) achieving certain substantive goals.
C) efficiency in the administration of justice.
D) accomplishing the will of the people.
E) ensuring that the will of the majority would be realized.

Question 17

A typical public opinion poll today features about _____ respondents.

A) three hundred
B) five hundred
C) one thousand
D) fifteen hundred
E) three thousand

Question 18

Cleavages in public opinion are more common in the United States than in many other countries because the United States

A) has a socially heterogeneous population.
B) is a relatively classless society.
C) has a high degree of religious freedom.
D) places a high value on social equality.
E) is more protective of freedom of press.

Question 19

The first major studies of public opinion and voting, published in the 1940s, found that

A) most Americans were well informed about politics even though they did not vote regularly.
B) most Americans voted regularly and were well informed about politics.
C) a small group of Americans voted but were not well informed about politics.
D) a small group of Americans were informed, but most Americans were not.
E) it was difficult to generalize about Americans when it came to politics.

Question 20

Most blue-collar workers in the United States think of themselves as

A) working-class.
B) lower-class.
C) middle-class.
D) upper-class.
E) elites.

Question 21

V. O. Key's classic research in the 1950s found that differences in public opinion were closely associated with

A) ethnicity.
B) race.
C) gender.
D) occupation.
E) religion.

Question 22

Studies of opinion-policy congruence suggest that the rate at which the government adopts policies supported by majorities in polls has

A) remained the same over the last four decades.
B) slightly increased in recent years.
C) increased significantly in recent years.
D) been declining since 1980.
E) been declining since the beginning of the Bush administration.

Question 23

Compared with European countries such as Great Britain, France, and Germany, class voting in the United States has

A) also risen sharply.
B) remained relatively steady.
C) also declined sharply.
D) always been more common.
E) increased slightly.

Question 24

Which of the following statements about the opinions of political elites is correct?

A) They may shape economic policies, but they do not define economic problems.
B) They may shape foreign affairs policies, but they do not define foreign affairs problems.
C) They both define the problems and shape the policies on social issues such as crime and drugs.
D) They tend to reflect the views of a single, unified elite.
E) They tend to reflect the views of middle America.

Question 25

African Americans are more likely than whites to

A) support affirmative action.
B) think the criminal justice system is biased against them.
C) to oppose the use of military force.
D) to doubt that we should all be willing to fight for our country.
E) All of the above.

Question 26

Increasingly, pollsters

A) do not even attempt to measure ideology.
B) measure political ideology by self-identification.
C) measure political ideology by looking for constraint.
D) see political ideology as irrelevant to politics.
E) research ideology in presidential, but not congressional, elections.

Question 27

An individual's choice of political philosophy today is most likely to be based on his or her

A) position on social issues such as abortion or environmentalism.
B) geographic region and socioeconomic class.
C) position on economic issues such as taxation or minimum wage.
D) gender.
E) religious beliefs.

Question 28

A coherent and consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue is referred to as

A) political efficacy.
B) public opinion.
C) pragmatism.
D) realism.
E) political ideology.

Question 29

In America, we often refer to political elites as

A) activists.
B) special interests.
C) politicos.
D) socialites.
E) the ruling class.

Question 30

Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A) Democratic members of Congress tend to be consistently liberal.
B) Republican members of Congress tend to be consistently conservative.
C) Democratic members of Congress tend to be more liberal than Democratic voters.
D) Republican members of Congress tend to be more conservative than Republican voters.
E) The policy preferences of Democratic and Republican voters are generally the same.

Question 31

Political activism is correlated most closely with

A) political conservatism.
B) libertarian politics.
C) gender.
D) class differentiation.
E) ideological consistency.

Question 32

No Democratic candidate for president has won a majority of white southern votes since

A) Bill Clinton
B) Jimmy Carter
C) John Kerry
D) Al Gore
E) Lyndon Johnson

Question 33

Which of the following would political elites be least likely to raise as a new public issue?

A) Acid rain
B) Birth control and planned parenthood
C) Disinvestment in South Africa
D) Unemployment
E) Racial discrimination

Question 34

Economic issues are most likely to be placed on the public agenda by

A) political elites.
B) public opinion.
C) economic analysts.
D) regulatory commissions.
E) economic theorists.

Question 35

Most Americans favor the idea of a balanced federal budget.

Question 36

Elites have probably influenced, if not led, public opinion on all of the following topics except

A) racism.
B) sexism.
C) HIV/AIDS.
D) environmentalism.
E) perceptions of crime.

Question 37

When an individual's views are consistently conservative or liberal, we say that person is ideologically

A) tuned.
B) constrained.
C) aligned.
D) placed.
E) sealed.

Question 38

According to the text, African Americans are

A) somewhat Republican.
B) largely Republican.
C) generally Independent.
D) somewhat Democratic.
E) overwhelming Democratic.

Question 39

One reason that political elites are more consistent in their ideological beliefs than the average citizen is that they are

A) less influenced by peers.
B) less influenced by factors such as religion and family.
C) smarter.
D) better informed.
E) more influenced by religion.

Question 40

Pollsters have to be concerned about ideological self-identification in polls because

A) many Americans do not know what liberalism and conservatism mean.
B) many Americans do not feel the need to be ideologically consistent.
C) some respondents will hide what they think to be socially unacceptable self-identifications.
D) the desire to hide self-identifications might inflate responses of "don't know" or "moderate."
E) All of the above.

Question 41

The ability of the family to inculcate a strong sense of party identification has declined in recent years.

Question 42

The Equal Rights Amendment was not ratified because most Americans opposed it.

Question 43

The proportion of citizens who claim to be independents has declined in recent years.

Question 44

Most Americans favor term limits for members of Congress.

Question 45

Public policy is invariably consistent with public opinion.

Question 46

Younger people are generally less supportive of the idea of gay marriage than older persons.

Question 47

Younger people are more likely to support the idea of allowing citizens to invest some portion of their Social Security contributions in the stock market than older persons.

Question 48

Identical twins are much more likely to share political views than fraternal twins.

Question 49

Younger voters tend to have a stronger sense of partisanship than older voters.

Question 50

The authors suggest that it is getting harder to do good polling.

Question 51

The text suggests that it is increasingly more difficult to conduct reliable polling.

Question 52

Early academic studies of public opinion found that voters were generally informed about issues and governmental processes.

Question 53

Most young people think politics is highly relevant to their lives.

Question 54

The proportion of citizens who say they are either Democratic or Republican has declined in recent years.

Question 55

We have recently learned that our genetic background explains much of our political ideology.

Question 56

The Founders expected public opinion to be uniform.

Question 57

Most citizens are pretty good at using limited information to figure out what policies most nearly reflect their values or favor their interests.

Question 58

Since 1952, polls have had a somewhat mixed record when it comes to predicting the winner of presidential elections.

Question 59

A properly conducted poll can capture the opinion of the American public with about fifteen hundred respondents.

Question 60

Public opinion polls were especially accurate during the 2008 primary contests.

Question 61

In recent years, economic issues have become much more important than noneconomic issues in shaping political attitudes.

Question 62

Unskilled workers are more likely to be Republican.

Question 63

Women obtained the right to vote with the Eighteenth Amendment.

Question 64

Latinos are the largest minority group in America.

Question 65

Blacks are more likely to be opposed to the use of military force than whites.

Question 66

V. O. Key's classic research found that people holding managerial or professional jobs had more liberal views than did manual workers.

Question 67

In recent presidential elections, women have generally supported the Democratic candidate.

Question 68

Both blacks and whites oppose the idea of making abortion legal in all cases.

Question 69

Men are more likely than women to favor legalization of same-sex marriage.

Question 70

Japanese Americans are among the more conservative Asian Americans.

Question 71

African Americans are overwhelmingly Democratic.

Question 72

Women generally voted less often than men until the 1980s.

Question 73

Surveys suggest women are more likely than men to support the idea of universal health care.

Question 74

The gender gap in U.S. public opinion has existed for a long time.

Question 75

The Democratic advantage among female voters is most obvious among younger women.

Question 76

Most blue-collar workers in America think of themselves as "working class."

Question 77

Social class is probably a better indicator of political attitudes in Great Britain or France than in the United States.

Question 78

Class voting has declined sharply in the United States, France, and Great Britain since the 1940s.

Question 79

Surveys in the late 1960s found that business and professional people had views similar to those of manual workers on a wide variety of issues.

Question 80

Studies suggest that Asian Americans lean toward the Republican Party.