Deck 4: Public Opinion and Political Socialization: Shaping the Peoples Voice

Question 1

A member of Congress who wants to act on what the majority of his or her constituency thinks on a particular issue would be advised to respond to which of the following indicators?

A)letters from constituents
B)the editorial positions of newspapers in the constituency
C)public demonstrations by constituents
D)a poll based on a random sample of constituents
E)the number of yard signs on major streets

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The only presidential election in which the Gallup poll erred badly was

A)1928 Hoover-Smith.
B)1936 Roosevelt-Landon.
C)1948 Truman-Dewey.
D)1964 Johnson-Goldwater.
E)2000 Bush-Gore.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Sources of polling error can include

A)question order.
B)unrepresentative samples.
C)respondents' lack of knowledge or interest in the issue.
D)poorly worded questions.
E)All these answers are correct.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

What are the two distinguishing characteristics of political socialization?

A)Schools are the most influential agent of political socialization,and political socialization is strongest during childhood.
B)Family is the strongest agent of political socialization,and political socialization is strongest during high school and college.
C)Political socialization is cumulative,and is most heavily developed during childhood.
D)Political socialization is transitory,and is most heavily developed during young adulthood.
E)Political socialization occurs primarily among educated populations,and is most heavily developed during adulthood.

Question 5

Scholars have done the LEAST study into the political influence of which primary socializing agent on American citizens?

A)religion
B)families
C)schools
D)media
E)peers

Question 6

In his definition of public opinion,the author claims that the opinions of private individuals become public opinion when they

A)first enter people's heads.
B)are openly expressed.
C)become part of the conflict between the Republican and Democratic parties.
D)are measured in opinion polls.
E)become part of the conflict between populists and libertarians.

Question 7

Of the 2009-2010 health care reform legislation,a Gallup poll found that nearly a third of the public mistakenly believed that the legislation package included

A)vastly increased funding for Medicaid,the federal health care program for low-income individuals.
B)government committees that would decide which elderly patients would receive life-saving treatment and which would not.
C)an elimination of the Medicare program.
D)government-sponsored health care for illegal immigrants.
E)a legalization of partial-birth abortions.

Question 8

The key factors in determining the accuracy of an opinion poll are

A)the population size and the sample size.
B)the sample size and the timeline over which the sample was taken.
C)the size of the sample and whether the sample was selected from the population by a random method.
D)the sample size and whether the sample has the same percentage of men and women as the population.
E)the anonymous nature of the sampling process and sample size.

Question 9

Which of the following statements about Americans and ideology and political thinking is true?

A)Liberalism and conservatism have such imprecise meanings that it is not useful to think about politics in these terms.
B)Americans overwhelmingly identify themselves as liberals.
C)Americans are highly sophisticated in their political thinking.
D)Only a minority of Americans can be classified as true ideologues.
E)Americans are highly consistent in their political thinking.

Question 10

Which of the following is true of the relationship between public opinion and shifts in major government policies?

A)On high-profile issues particularly,public opinion tends to affect policy to a greater degree than policymakers' agendas affect public opinion.
B)Analysts Page and Shapiro concluded that leaders' opinions ultimately affect most policy issues more than the larger public opinion.
C)The linguist Noam Chomsky claimed that democracy consistently preserved the will of the people over the will of elite interests.
D)Analysts Robert Erikson,Michael MacKuen,and James Stimson found a pattern consistent with their claim that "public opinion has little influence over policy."
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 11

Each of the following statements could be considered true of either economic or social liberals,EXCEPT that

A)they favor government activism in the area of distribution of economic benefits.
B)they prefer a smaller role for government in upholding social and cultural traditions.
C)they favor more government spending for the poor.
D)they believe lifestyle choices should be left to the individual.
E)they believe that government should be used to promote traditional values.

Question 12

In her book Young v.Old,political scientist Susan MacManus notes that

A)senior citizens tend to oppose increases in public school funding.
B)senior citizens tend to oppose increases in defense spending.
C)younger adults tend to oppose public school funding.
D)younger adults tend to oppose increases in defense spending.
E)younger adults tend to oppose increases in government welfare spending.

Question 13

Which of the following would NOT be considered a secondary socializing agent?

A)leaders
B)the media
C)peers
D)church
E)None of these answers is correct,as all represent secondary socializing agents.

Question 14

The process by which individuals acquire their political opinions is called

A)popular culture.
B)social communication.
C)socio-economic change.
D)political socialization.
E)political assimilation.

Question 15

Dramatic change in party identification is uncommon and is almost always a consequence of

A)a change in the policy position of the president.
B)major upheaval.
C)popular satisfaction with a government initiative.
D)a change in the law.
E)a Supreme Court ruling.

Question 16

The process of political socialization in the United States is

A)normally cumulative; political beliefs attained earlier in life tend to be retained to a substantial degree.
B)highly structured; children are subjected to an intense system of government-mandated political indoctrination.
C)highly effective; Americans are the best informed citizens in the world.
D)extremely narrow; most Americans get nearly all their opinions from a single source.
E)uniform; there are almost no differences in the opinions of various groups,such as northerners and southerners.

Question 17

The term "public opinion" is frequently used in reference to all of American society.This perspective is

A)accurate,since Americans are one people and indivisible.
B)less accurate than a view of public opinion based on the majority,since the political system operates on the principle of majority rule.
C)less accurate than the idea that Americans form many publics,which differ greatly in such things as the level of attention they pay to politics.
D)less accurate than a view of public opinion based on what the news media are saying about the public.
E)accurate,because there is little diversity in American public opinion.

Question 18

The accuracy of a poll is usually expressed in terms of

A)population density.
B)census parameter.
C)population error.
D)sampling error.
E)interview error.

Question 19

A consistent pattern of opinion on particular issues that stems from a coherent set of political beliefs is called

A)conservatism.
B)an ideology.
C)socialization.
D)politicization.
E)None of these answers is correct.

Question 20

Which of the following statements is true?

A)Franklin Roosevelt had little faith that public opinion would preserve the Social Security program,and expected it to be dismantled within a few decades.
B)Public opinion on the usefulness of the Social Security system tends to swing back and forth dramatically with the health of the national economy.
C)George W.Bush attempted to privatize aspects of social security,only to back down in the face of determined resistance.
D)Franklin Roosevelt attempted to increase the size of the Social Security system,but backed down in the face of strong public opinion against any expansion.
E)Ronald Reagan refused,against the wishes of his party,to propose reform of the Social Security system,because he knew public opinion would oppose it.

Question 21

Which of the following groups in the U.S.shows a higher level of support for collective bargaining?

A)workers in the service sector
B)factory workers
C)small farmers
D)white-collar workers
E)workers in the skilled crafts

Question 22

In a test of "civic literacy" conducted in 2007,the average college senior scored a grade of _______.

A)A
B)B
C)C
D)D
E)F

Question 23

Women are less likely than men to favor

A)affirmative action.
B)abortion rights.
C)higher levels of education spending.
D)the use of force to settle international disputes.
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 24

"The Bradley Effect" describes

A)the tendency of black candidates to receive fewer votes than the polls predicted.
B)the poor training of pollsters,which leads to biased polling results.
C)the effect that question wording can have on the results of a poll.
D)the tendency to include more minority respondents in a polling result than is representative of the population.
E)the phenomenon in which polled individuals give opinionated responses about issues about which they know very little.

Question 25

The Great Depression brought about a transfer of loyalties by many to the Democratic Party as led by Roosevelt,especially among

A)older voters.
B)African American voters.
C)female voters.
D)younger voters.
E)swing voters.

Question 26

Friedrich Engels believed that communism would not take root in the United States because

A)the poorer American classes still had enough material wealth to be happy with their station.
B)American workers lacked sufficient class consciousness.
C)the government was already providing substantial financial assistance to the working class.
D)the Social Security system provided workers with a safety net not available to workers in Europe.
E)the government of the U.S.was too militantly anti-communist and would not allow propaganda to spread.

Question 27

Society in Northern Island is held up by the authors as a demonstration of what difference with U.S.society?

A)the lack of importance in measured public opinion for the political process
B)the status of the family as a secondary agent of socialization instead of a primary agent
C)the relatively small influence that government propaganda has on the individual
D)the lack of religion as a defining frame of reference
E)the lack of crosscutting between groups

Question 28

All of the following ideological types are prevalent in the United States EXCEPT

A)liberals.
B)conservatives.
C)populists.
D)libertarians.
E)communists.

Question 29

What term do pollsters use to define a purported opinion offered by a respondent who,in truth,has no view on a specific issue?

A)uninformed response
B)faulty opinion
C)invalid answer
D)confused response
E)non-opinion

Question 30

Which of the following is true about public opinion polling?

A)Polls are the most relied-upon method of measuring public opinion.
B)Polls can be erroneous at times.
C)Most large news organizations have their own in-house polls.
D)The Gallup pollsters have correctly predicted the winner of presidential elections most of the time since 1936.
E)All these answers are correct.

Question 31

Journalist Walter Lippmann suggested that

A)polling,even when done scientifically,cannot be trusted because it is in people's nature to be dishonest in response to political questions.
B)the dominance of polling has brought about an ideological shift toward the more radical ends of the political spectrum among elected representatives.
C)polling had provided political parties with even more entrenched power,reducing the influence of third party candidates.
D)effective government cannot be run by politicians that base their public opinions on poll results.
E)pollsters have had more effect on the outcome of presidential elections in recent decades than have the people who do the voting.

Question 32

In general,public opinion

A)determines specific government actions.
B)is unrelated to government action.
C)sets limits on government action.
D)generally affects government action only on election issues.
E)is strongest during a presidential election.

Question 33

Three-fourths of Ivy League students surveyed could not identify ________ as the author of the phrase,"a government of the people,by the people,and for the people."

A)George Washington
B)James Madison
C)George Gallup
D)Abraham Lincoln
E)Thomas Jefferson

Question 34

Which of the following ideological types favor government activism in the economic realm?

A)liberals and populists
B)populists and libertarians
C)conservatives and liberals
D)populists and conservatives
E)liberals and libertarians

Question 35

Which of the following is true of letter writers and demonstrators?

A)They tend to be individuals who have participated in violent or physical expressions of political opinion.
B)They tend to espouse a more conservative ideological leaning.
C)They tend to have a greater effect on policymakers than the public opinion polls of the general population.
D)Roughly 10 percent of Americans participate in a mass demonstration or write a letter to the editor each year.
E)Their opinions tend to be atypical of the population as whole.

Question 36

________ once said that he spent nearly all his adult life in government and yet had never seen a government.

A)Theodore Roosevelt
B)Woodrow Wilson
C)Abraham Lincoln
D)George W.Bush
E)Harry Truman

Question 37

To accurately poll the citizens of the United States as opposed to the citizens of a single state,

A)a much larger sample size will be required.
B)the sample requirements will be nearly the same.
C)a smaller sample size will be required.
D)less randomization will be needed because the sample size will be larger.
E)a larger sampling error can be accepted.

Question 38

What was the primary cause for an increase in the public's support for a military invasion of Iraq during the six-month period leading to the start of the war?

A)the inability of the United Nations to discover strong evidence of weapons of mass destruction
B)mainstream media coverage of the actions of the Iraqi government
C)grass-roots efforts by conservative groups that argued it was necessary for greater national security
D)Bush administration efforts to press the case for war
E)election-year posturing on national security issues by congressional candidates for office

Question 39

The most powerful religious force in contemporary American society is the

A)Protestants.
B)religious right.
C)Catholics.
D)Jews.
E)Muslims.

Question 40

In terms of party identification,about two-thirds of adults call themselves

A)liberals.
B)Republicans or Democrats.
C)Republicans.
D)Independents.
E)Democrats.

Question 41

A conservative is opposed to government intervention

A)in both the economic and social spheres.
B)in the economic but not the social sphere.
C)in the social sphere,but not the economic sphere.
D)in neither the social nor the economic spheres.
E)only with regard to affirmative action.

Question 42

How informed is American public opinion? Explain.

Question 43

Which of the following defines "political culture"?

A)the dominant representations of society promulgated by major media and governmental outlets
B)the learning process that leads individuals to give loyalty to a particular political party
C)the characteristic and deep-seated beliefs of a particular people about government and politics
D)the dominant ideological leanings of the majority of a public
E)the level of public political discourse that occurs as a part of everyday life in a society

Question 44

Party identification refers to

A)the percentage of polled individuals that claim membership in a particular party.
B)formal membership in a political party.
C)an emotional attachment to a political party.
D)a political party's platform-the stances on issues that define its beliefs.
E)the ability of individual citizens to identify the major issue positions of the major political parties.

Question 45

A person who favors government intervention in both social and economic affairs is a(n)

A)libertarian.
B)liberal.
C)populist.
D)social conservative.
E)economic conservative.

Question 46

Discuss the major characteristics of the political socialization process through which Americans acquire their political opinions.

Question 47

Selective perception is primarily a result of

A)economic class.
B)religion.
C)partisanship.
D)race and ethnicity.
E)age and generational beliefs.

Question 48

Define what is meant by a political ideology.Why is ideology important to consider when discussing the political thinking of the American people?

Question 49

Which of the following is NOT a primary socializing agent?

A)peers
B)school
C)church
D)family
E)None of these are primary socializing agents.

Question 50

Identify and discuss the frames of reference that Americans rely upon when forming their political opinions.

Question 51

Discuss the general relationship between public opinion and the policy actions of government.

Question 52

A properly drawn sample of one thousand individuals has a sampling error of roughly plus or minus ________ percent.

A)5
B)3
C)2
D)8
E)10

Question 53

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's "spiral of silence" theory contends that

A)most individuals are reluctant to speak out against dominant opinion.
B)people tend not to express their views until asked.
C)people holding deviant opinions tend to be more vocal,and hence silence the majority.
D)most individuals like to challenge dominant opinions.
E)None of these answers is correct.

Question 54

Libertarians are opposed to governmental intervention

A)in both the economic and social spheres.
B)in the economic but not the social sphere.
C)in the social sphere,but not the economic sphere.
D)in neither the social nor the economic spheres.
E)only with regard to affirmative action.