Deck 11: Political Parties

Question 1

Liberals have sorted themselves into the _____ Party.

A) Republican
B) Socialist
C) Democratic
D) Green

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Conservatives have sorted themselves into the _______ Party.

A) Democratic
B) Green
C) Republican
D) Socialist

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The national party conventions have become displays of

A) discord.
B) corruption.
C) partisanship.
D) drama.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

_______ have evolved through the years, but their essential purpose remains the same: they are organizations, with a public following, established to win elections, generally by promoting a set of principles.

A) Democrats and Republicans
B) Liberals and conservatives
C) Political parties
D) Political factions

Question 5

In a 2020 poll cited in the textbook, more people identified themselves as _______ than as Democrats or Republicans.

A) environmentalists
B) liberals
C) conservatives
D) independents.

Question 6

What did George Washington warn against, in his Farewell Address, because of their "destructive," "frightful," and "fatal" consequences?

A) Federalists
B) Anti-Federalists
C) radicals
D) political parties

Question 7

What percentage of people identified themselves as Democrats in a 2018 poll?

A) 10 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 80 percent
D) 30 percent

Question 8

How many political parties, other than Republican and Democratic, have received at least one Electoral College vote in the last forty years?

A) zero
B) one
C) two
D) three

Question 9

Which political party is known as the "Grand Old Party"?

A) Democrats
B) Republicans
C) independents
D) Whigs

Question 10

Which political party is known for its strong environmental policy positions?

A) Republicans
B) independents
C) Democrats
D) Libertarians

Question 11

Which Green Party candidate in the 2000 presidential election upset the results in the state of Florida?

A) Al Gore
B) Jeb Bush
C) Ralph Nader
D) Jerry Brown

Question 12

Who or what determines ballot access in American elections?

A) Supreme Court
B) Federal Elections Commission
C) federal laws
D) state laws

Question 13

Approximately how many formal single-party systems exist in the world today?

A) seven
B) two
C) zero
D) fourteen

Question 14

Approximately what percentage of voting-age Americans identify with one of the two major political parties today?

A) 60 percent
B) 74 percent
C) 47 percent
D) 98 percent

Question 15

What type of party system does the United States have today?

A) a two-and-a-half party system
B) a single-party system
C) a two-party system
D) a multiparty system

Question 16

How many members are in the United States House of Representatives?

A) 435
B) 471
C) 443
D) 376

Question 17

_______ is the largest two-party state in the world.

A) The United Kingdom
B) The United States
C) South Africa
D) South Korea

Question 18

The vast majority of the world's democracies are governed by which type of party system?

A) a multiparty system
B) a single-party system
C) a two-party system
D) none of the above

Question 19

In U.S. history, who is the only third-party candidate to ever finish second in a presidential election?

A) Woodrow Wilson
B) William Howard Taft
C) Theodore Roosevelt
D) Ross Perot

Question 20

The _______ provide(s) support for a party's candidates and elected officials.

A) standing committees in Congress
B) party planks
C) party organizations
D) Electoral College

Question 21

During the 2016 election cycle, who was the chair of the Democratic National Committee?

A) Al Gore
B) Debbie Wasserman Schultz
C) Hillary Rodham Clinton
D) Olympia Snow

Question 22

An easy way to find a candidate with views similar to yours is to look at the _______ they belong too.

A) branch of government
B) state organizations
C) business
D) political party

Question 23

What do the initials RNC stand for as they relate to political party organizations?

A) Republican National Conference
B) Republican Native Committee
C) Republicans Never Commit
D) Republican National Committee

Question 24

Active Republicans believe that Democrats will

A) eventually become Republicans.
B) lose the next election.
C) ruin the country.
D) give up on health care.

Question 25

What is the document that contains a political party's core convictions and issue priorities?

A) the party statement
B) the party constitution
C) the party platform
D) the party compact

Question 26

Which is the least organized part of the tripartite party structure?

A) party organizations
B) party in government
C) party in the electorate
D) all three parts are equally disorganized

Question 27

What are the electoral incentive for political parties?

A) Cooperation
B) Block the opposing party
C) Eliminate the opposing party
D) Pass as much legislation as possible before next election

Question 28

Besides the donkey, what other animal has the Democratic Party used as a mascot?

A) rooster
B) eagle
C) vulture
D) All of the above

Question 29

In what time period did the donkey and elephant become the primary mascots of the Democratic and Republican political parties?

A) in the post-Civil War era: 1870s
B) at the end of World War II
C) only in the past thirty years
D) in the first days of the Republic

Question 30

How long has it been since the colors red and blue have been used to identify the Republican and Democratic Parties, respectively?

A) only since 2000
B) since the early 1900s
C) since about 1960
D) since the post-Civil War era

Question 31

In the first party system, who was more inclined to advocate for a strong national government?

A) Thomas Jefferson
B) James Madison
C) Thomas Payne
D) Alexander Hamilton

Question 32

In the first party system, who was more inclined to advocate for a weaker national government and more states' rights?

A) George Washington
B) Thomas Jefferson
C) Alexander Hamilton
D) John Adams

Question 33

Which party system witnessed the birth of modern party politics?

A) the second
B) the third
C) the fourth
D) the fifth

Question 34

The Whig Party in the United States got its name from Britain, where the term stood for opposition to

A) monarchy.
B) authoritarian rule.
C) tyranny or mob rule.
D) the House of Lords.

Question 35

During the second party system (alignment), which political party favored genocidal Indian (Native American) removal?

A) Federalists
B) Whigs
C) independents
D) Democrats

Question 36

What political party did Abraham Lincoln help to form?

A) Republican
B) Democratic
C) Federalist
D) Anti-Federalist

Question 37

Which of the following was an issue position of the "Radical Republicans" in the aftermath of the Civil War?

A) higher tariffs to promote southern agriculture
B) political rights for former slaves
C) an end to western expansion
D) giving back a certain amount of land to Native Americans

Question 38

"A hierarchical arrangement of party workers, often organized in an urban area to help integrate immigrants and minority groups into the political system" is the textbook's definition of what?

A) party boss
B) national party organization
C) party machine
D) state party organization

Question 39

The party boss was the leader of the

A) party machine.
B) political party.
C) state government.
D) local government.

Question 40

Who won the election of 1896, which marks the beginning of the fourth party system in the United States?

A) William Jennings Bryan
B) William McKinley
C) William Howard Taft
D) Woodrow Wilson

Question 41

A primary tension during the fourth party system was between which of the following?

A) Big business and progressive reform favoring fair pay and better working conditions
B) Pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions
C) Those advocating the admission of new states and those who felt the country had grown too large
D) All of the above

Question 42

In what year did the United States ban the sale of alcohol?

A) 1869
B) 1920
C) 1932
D) 1956

Question 43

Who was president during the New Deal?

A) Franklin D. Roosevelt
B) Theodore Roosevelt
C) William McKinley
D) Woodrow Wilson

Question 44

Prior to the New Deal, which political party was considered the most progressive in the promotion of civil rights and social justice?

A) Republicans
B) Democrats
C) Populists
D) Know-Nothings

Question 45

Which political party dominated in the fifth party system?

A) Republicans
B) Democrats
C) Populists
D) Know-Nothings

Question 46

What was Franklin Roosevelt's economic system known as?

A) New Deal
B) Old Deal
C) Depression Recovery Deal
D) Economic Recovery Deal

Question 47

What statement best characterizes party electoral competition in the sixth party system?

A) too close to call
B) Democratic Party dominance
C) Republican Party dominance
D) no competition exists

Question 48

Which two Republican presidential candidates developed a "southern strategy" that, in the end, converted the South to a Republican region of the country?

A) Nixon and Reagan
B) Goldwater and Nixon
C) Reagan and George H. W. Bush
D) Dole and George W. Bush II

Question 49

How long have Republicans and Democrats dominated U.S. party politics?

A) since 1856
B) since 1902
C) since 1933
D) since 1984

Question 50

What term best describes the transition from the fifth to the sixth party system in the United States?

A) abrupt
B) gradual
C) unexpected
D) planned

Question 51

Around what year did the sixth, and current, party system begin?

A) 1969
B) 1964
C) 1984
D) 2002

Question 52

What percentage of Hispanic voters identify as Republicans in 2020?

A) 17 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 53 percent
D) 29 percent

Question 53

What percentage of White voters identify as Democrats in 2020?

A) 72 percent
B) 63 percent
C) 83 percent
D) 42 percent

Question 54

"Party members who tend to vote loyally for their party's candidates in most elections" is the textbook's definition of

A) split-ticket voters.
B) straight-ticket voters.
C) base voters.
D) loyalists.

Question 55

Which type of voting is most likely to lead to divided government?

A) split-ticket voting
B) straight-ticket voting
C) base voting
D) loyalist voting

Question 56

When people choose what signals in the media environment to accept or reject according to political party, they are practicing

A) censorship.
B) agenda-setting.
C) split-ticket voting.
D) filtering.

Question 57

People with a strong sense of duty and discipline tend to be

A) Democrats.
B) Republicans.
C) independents.
D) split between the two major parties.

Question 58

In the early 1990s, approximately what percentage of Democrats tended to support stronger environmental regulations?

A) 51 percent
B) 67 percent
C) 93 percent
D) 100 percent

Question 59

What has happened to Republican Party support for tougher environmental regulations?

A) It has been roughly cut in half.
B) It has more than doubled.
C) It has stayed the same at a very high level.
D) It has stayed the same at a very low level.

Question 60

Which Republican Party faction generally supports a return to what it believes to be America's strong Christian culture?

A) Libertarians
B) traditionalists
C) neoconservatives
D) moderates

Question 61

Which Republican Party faction generally supports U.S. intervention in world affairs to spread democracy?

A) Libertarians
B) traditionalists
C) neoconservatives
D) moderates

Question 62

Which Republican Party faction generally supports some tax increases along with spending cuts?

A) Libertarians
B) traditionalists
C) neoconservatives
D) moderates

Question 63

Which Democratic Party faction is skeptical of U.S. military action and corporate power?

A) organized labor
B) progressives
C) deficit hawks
D) "Third Way" proponents

Question 64

Which Democratic Party faction helps build rainbow coalitions?

A) organized labor
B) progressives
C) Civil Rights Caucus
D) centrists

Question 65

Which Democratic Party faction generally seeks to reduce the number of abortions while preserving a woman's right to choose?

A) organized labor
B) progressives
C) deficit hawks
D) "Third Way" proponents

Question 66

Which of the following has not been identified as a probable cause of individual party identification?

A) personality
B) parental influence
C) careful study of political issues
D) political context

Question 67

How many factions within each party do most party members identify with?

A) usually all five
B) one or two
C) one and only one
D) four

Question 68

In which decade were political scientists guessing that political parties might be going away?

A) 1940s
B) 1950s
C) 1960s
D) 1990s

Question 69

After the 2000 election, how many Democrats and how many Republicans were there in the Senate?

A) sixty Democrats and forty Republicans
B) fifty-five Democrats and forty-five Republicans
C) fifty-five Republicans and forty-five Democrats
D) fifty Republicans and fifty Democrats

Question 70

Ordinary people make up the

A) party in the electorate.
B) party in government.
C) party organization.
D) big tent.

Question 71

A meeting of all Democrats or all Republicans in either the House of Representatives or the Senate is commonly known as a

A) party manifesto.
B) party caucus.
C) party platform.
D) party meeting.

Question 72

Differences within each of the two major parties in Congress

A) have all but disappeared.
B) have intensified dramatically in recent years.
C) intensified dramatically in the 1990s but have waned a little since then.
D) have stayed about the same over time.

Question 73

Which media outlet is noted for holding conservative views?

A) Fox News
B) NBC
C) MSNBC
D) CBS

Question 74

People who are worried about bitter partisanship suggest that

A) it was the Founders' intention.
B) it is based on constitutional principles.
C) it leads to bad policy.
D) it leads to entertaining drama.

Question 75

People who are worried about bitter partisanship suggest that

A) it was the Founders' intention.
B) it discourages good people from running for office.
C) it has always been this way.
D) it leads to entertaining drama.

Question 76

What term signifies that at least one house of Congress is controlled by a party different from the party in control of the White House?

A) checks and balances
B) divided government
C) separation of powers
D) party division

Question 77

Which statement is true as it relates to major party competition in the United States today?

A) The parties work together more today than in the 1960s.
B) The parties work together less today than any time in the recent past.
C) The parties work together more today than in the 1930s.
D) The parties work together less today than in the 1960s but more than in the 1950s.

Question 78

How many single-member districts are used to elect members of the House of Representatives?

A) 500
B) 270
C) 50
D) 435

Question 79

In the United States, how many people are elected to the House of Representatives from each district?

A) one
B) two
C) four
D) fifteen

Question 80

What do the initials "PR" normally stand for as they relate to electoral systems?

A) plurality rule
B) proportional return
C) poorly represented
D) proportional representation