Deck 6: Public Opinion and Political Action

Question 1

When it comes to questions about the scope of government,

A)more Americans today believe that government is getting too powerful compared to Americans in the mid-1960s.
B)most Americans report never having thought about the scope of government power.
C)a plurality of Americans support more government spending on programs such as education,health care,protecting the environment,and fighting crime.
D)many Americans oppose big government in principle but favor it in practice.
E)All of the above are true.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Ideology is determined more by _______ within religious groups than by religious denomination itself.

A)religiosity
B)religious sect
C)gender
D)age
E)race

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Public opinion is

A)the study of population changes.
B)the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.
C)an actual enumeration of the population conducted every ten years.
D)an overall set of values widely shared within society.
E)the process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes,views,and knowledge.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Because it would be prohibitively expensive to ask every citizen his or her opinion on a whole range of issues,polls rely on what is called a(n)________ of the population.

A)extraction
B)sample
C)census
D)slice
E)demography

Question 5

Whereas liberals tend to favor ____________,conservatives tend to favor ___________.

A)less military spending; more military spending
B)free markets; less government regulation of the economy
C)prayer in schools; affirmative action
D)lower government spending; more government spending for the poor and other social services
E)tighter penalties for criminals; stronger defendants' rights

Question 6

The fastest growing age group in the United States is defined by the ages

A)18-25.
B)25-39.
C)40-65.
D)65+.
E)80+.

Question 7

The U.S.Census is conducted every 20 years.

Question 8

Public opinion polls are only estimates because

A)samples of fewer then one million people are too small.
B)all surveys have a sampling error.
C)pollsters sometimes have to make educated guesses about the results.
D)random-digit dialing has replaced person-to-person interviewing.
E)samples are not representative.

Question 9

As people become more socialized with age,their political orientations grow weaker and more subject to change.

Question 10

The largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States is

A)African Americans.
B)Asian Americans.
C)Native Americans.
D)Hispanics.
E)African Americans and Hispanics are tied in size.

Question 11

Which of the following differences is an example of the patterns referred to as the gender gap?

A)Men are more likely than women to support democratic candidates.
B)Women are more likely than men to support democratic candidates.
C)Women are more likely than men to support abortion and to be pro-choice.
D)Men are more likely than women to support abortion and to be pro-choice.
E)None of these is correct.

Question 12

Which of the following statements about Americans' political participation is FALSE?

A)Rates of political participation are unequal among Americans.
B)Citizens of higher socioeconomic status participate more in politics than citizens of lower socioeconomic status.
C)Among blacks and whites of equal levels of education,blacks participate in politics more than do whites.
D)Among people without a high school diploma,blacks are more likely to vote than are whites.
E)Across all levels of income and education,whites are more likely to participate than are blacks.

Question 13

Random sampling is considered

A)desirable,but not necessary,for an accurate poll of public opinion.
B)an unsophisticated way of measuring public opinion,but one that sometimes yields accurate results.
C)highly unreliable,but the cheapest way to measure public opinion.
D)the key to the accuracy of opinion polls.
E)a dangerous way to measure public opinion.

Question 14

The authors of The American Voter would agree with each of the following statements EXCEPT the following:

A)It is a misnomer to speak of election results as indicating a movement of the public either left or right.
B)For most people,the terms liberal and conservative are not as important as they are for the political elite.
C)People who think in ideological terms are most likely to switch parties from one election to the next.
D)People who think in ideological terms are least likely to switch parties from one election to the next.
E)Eisenhower's two election victories represented a shift in the conservative direction during the 1950s.

Question 15

A sample refers to a small proportion of people chosen to represent a whole population.

Question 16

Citizens over 65 comprise the fastest growing age group in the United States.

Question 17

Which of the following seems to confirm Morris Fiorina's argument about the extent to which Americans are or are not involved in a cultural war?

A)There is a growing acceptance of homosexuals among liberals,moderates,and conservatives.
B)There is a growing disapproval of homosexuals among liberals,moderates,and conservatives.
C)Almost one-quarter of Americans say they have no ideological preference at all.
D)The ideological gap between Protestants and Catholics is smaller than the gender gap.
E)The new Christian Right consists of Catholics and Protestants who consider themselves fundamentalists.

Question 18

Which of the following statements about political socialization and age is TRUE?

A)Aging increases political participation as well as the strength of party attachment.
B)Aging decreases political participation as well as the strength of party attachment.
C)Aging increases political participation and decreases the strength of party attachment.
D)Aging decreases political participation and increases the strength of party attachment.
E)Aging neither increases nor decreases political participation or the strength of party attachment.

Question 19

A "minority majority" refers to a situation,likely to begin in the mid-twenty-first century,in which non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the U.S.population,and minority groups,together,will represent a majority.

Question 20

Martin Luther King,Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is a classic defense of

A)protest.
B)violence.
C)civil disobedience.
D)law and order.
E)antiwar philosophy.

Question 21

Hispanics comprise approximately what percentage of the American population?

A)3 percent
B)15 percent
C)23 percent
D)33 percent
E)43 percent

Question 22

Reapportionment occurs after every census to reallocate seats in

A)the Senate.
B)the president's cabinet.
C)the Supreme Court.
D)the House of Representatives.
E)both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Question 23

African Americans comprise what percentage of the American population,approximately?

A)5 percent
B)7 percent
C)13 percent
D)17 percent
E)27 percent

Question 24

The _________ refers to the emergence of a non-Caucasian majority,as compared with a white,generally Anglo-Saxon,majority.

A)melting pot
B)minority majority
C)immigrant population
D)population explosion
E)majority minority

Question 25

Which of the following statements about immigration in the U.S.is TRUE?

A)Federal law permits up to 1 million new immigrants to be legally admitted to the U.S. every year.
B)Federal law permits up to 5 million new immigrants to be legally admitted to the U.S. every year.
C)In recent years,illegal immigrants have outnumbered legal immigrants.
D)Few immigrants,only about 5 percent,in the U.S. have become American citizens.
E)The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 30 percent of the nation's population is comprised of immigrants.

Question 26

The most valuable method for understanding demographic changes in America is the

A)Statistical Abstract of the United States.
B)public opinion poll.
C)U.S. census.
D)turnout in presidential elections.
E)Internal Revenue Service statistical tax abstracts.

Question 27

________ is the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.

A)Random sampling
B)Direct mail
C)Political socialization
D)Public opinion
E)Political ideology

Question 28

The ________ Act required that as of 1987,employers document the citizenship or legal immigrant status of their employees or face substantial criminal penalties for failing to do so.

A)National Origins
B)Simpson-Mazzoli
C)National Labor Relations
D)Hatch
E)Immigrant Employment

Question 29

Public opinion is defined in the text as

A)opinions that are expressible in public,as opposed to the more truthful private opinions that most individuals are reluctant to state publicly.
B)beliefs about government held by a majority of people.
C)opinions solicited from a random sample of the public.
D)the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy.
E)widely held beliefs about the public's role in politics and policy.

Question 30

According to the U.S.Census Bureau,approximately what percentage of the nation's population is constituted by immigrants?

A)5 percent
B)8 percent
C)12 percent
D)20 percent
E)25 percent

Question 31

Decades of survey data show that more Americans choose the ideological label of conservative over liberal.

Question 32

Approximately what percentage of non-Hispanic whites lives below the poverty line?

A)2 percent
B)9 percent
C)15 percent
D)20 percent
E)30 percent

Question 33

Although voter turnout has declined recently,other forms of participation such as contributing money and contacting officials have actually increased.

Question 34

Demography refers to

A)the science of population changes.
B)the science of public opinion.
C)the science of democracy.
D)the U.S. census planning process.
E)constitutional rules governing reapportionment of Congress.

Question 35

Hispanics account for approximately ____ percent of the U.S.population,African Americans ____ percent,and Asian Americans _____ percent.

A)15,13,5
B)13,15,5
C)5,15,13
D)2,3,1
E)20,30,10

Question 36

Almost half of most Americans have no opinion on the scope of government,according to survey data from 2000.

Question 37

The most recent wave of immigration since World War II has consisted primarily of

A)Africans.
B)Hispanics and Asians.
C)northwestern Europeans.
D)southern and eastern Europeans.
E)refugees from communist countries.

Question 38

Groups with political clout tend to be more liberal than groups that lack access to political power.

Question 39

Americans tend to oppose the idea of big government but favor it in practice.

Question 40

Who said America "is not merely a nation but a nation of nations"?

A)Franklin D. Roosevelt
B)John F. Kennedy
C)Ronald Reagan
D)Bill Clinton
E)George W. Bush

Question 41

The 1936 Literary Digest poll underestimated the vote for President Franklin Roosevelt by 19 percent because

A)the sample was drawn from telephone books and motor vehicle records.
B)the literary intelligentsia as a group never did like Roosevelt.
C)the sample was too small.
D)not enough women were interviewed.
E)people did not tell the truth.

Question 42

In their research on politicians' use of public opinion polling,Jacobs and Shapiro found that

A)politicians track public opinion to make public policy.
B)politicians do not really track public opinion.
C)politicians track public opinion to help them craft public presentations and win public support for their parties.
D)politicians track public opinion to identify centrist positions that will have their broadest popular appeal when it comes to public policy.
E)politicians spend so much time tracking public opinion that they have little time to spend on actually leading the country.

Question 43

Which of the following statements about political socialization is FALSE?

A)As people become more socialized with age,their political orientations grow weaker.
B)As people become more socialized with age,their political orientations grow stronger.
C)Governments aim their socialization efforts primarily at the young.
D)Americans obtain most of their political socialization from their families and their teachers.
E)All of the above are false.

Question 44

Which of the following is TRUE about most liberals in American politics?

A)They favor keeping taxes and government spending low.
B)They believe we should guard carefully the rights of defendants in criminal cases.
C)They are supportive of prayer in public schools.
D)They oppose abortion.
E)They oppose gun control legislation.

Question 45

Which of the following statements about public opinion polling is FALSE?

A)Public opinion polling started in 1932 with George Gallup.
B)Sample sizes are getting smaller,not larger.
C)The amount of public opinion polling has increased in recent years.
D)Public opinion polling is a uniquely American phenomenon.
E)A sample of 1,500 people is enough to relatively accurately reflect the universe of American people.

Question 46

A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen as representative of the whole is called a(n)

A)quota.
B)population.
C)census.
D)sample.
E)cohort.

Question 47

The "paradox of mass politics" refers to the fact that

A)the American political system works fairly well despite Americans' lack of political knowledge.
B)more Americans can name the three stooges than can name the three branches of government.
C)young Americans score poorly on measures of knowledge of world geography.
D)Americans distrust public opinion polls but expect their elected leaders to be responsive to them.
E)politicians distrust public opinion polls but nonetheless rely on them to develop campaign and policy strategies.

Question 48

The procedure for conducting ____________ includes randomly selected voting places around the country and asking every tenth person how they voted.

A)absentee balloting
B)a referendum
C)the U.S. Census
D)reapportionment
E)an exit poll

Question 49

Random sampling in public opinion polling operates on the principle that

A)the answers to include in aggregate poll results must be selected by chance in order to maximize accuracy.
B)everyone should have an equal probability of being selected.
C)the questions to be asked of a given respondent must be selected randomly so that all respondents are asked the same question the same number of times.
D)the larger the number of people who are polled,the greater the accuracy of the poll.
E)Both b and c are true.

Question 50

The key to the accuracy of public opinion polls is

A)political ideology.
B)polygraphs.
C)random sampling.
D)the larger the size of the sample,the better.
E)political socialization.

Question 51

In 1960,there were ________ workers per retiree; today there are ____ workers per retiree.

A)2; 3
B)3; 2
C)5.7; 3
D)3; 5.7
E)1; 5.7

Question 52

The process through which an individual acquires his or her particular political orientations,including his or her knowledge,feelings,and evaluations regarding his or her political world,is known as

A)political orientation.
B)demography.
C)political socialization.
D)political ideology.
E)political indoctrination.

Question 53

A political ideology is

A)the process through which an individual acquires his or her political skills.
B)a relatively small proportion of people who are chosen as representative of the whole.
C)the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.
D)the set of courses that a political science student must complete to attain a degree.
E)a coherent set of values and beliefs about public policy.

Question 54

Scientific public opinion polling first began in 1932 by

A)George Gallup.
B)the Democratic Party.
C)Louis Harris.
D)the Associated Press.
E)Henry Luce.

Question 55

The technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers is called

A)censusing.
B)sampling.
C)random-digit-dialing.
D)cold calling.
E)push polling.

Question 56

Which of the following statements about processes of political socialization is TRUE?

A)Average school age children spend more time each week at school than they spend watching TV.
B)The older children get,the more television displaces parents as the chief source of information.
C)Today's young Americans are more likely than older Americans to read newspapers.
D)Today's young Americans are more likely than older Americans to pay attention to the news.
E)Today's young Americans are more likely than older Americans to participate in politics.

Question 57

Concerns about reliance of pollsters on telephone surveys have recently been caused by

A)decreased chances of finding people at home.
B)increased use of random-digit dialing.
C)increased nonlisting of phone numbers.
D)increased use of cell phones.
E)a decrease in no-call lists.

Question 58

Voters who support a political candidate merely because they see others doing so is called the _____ effect.

A)bandwagon
B)pollster
C)horse race
D)nuts-and-bolts
E)random sampling

Question 59

In public opinion polling,a sample as small as about ________ people can faithfully represent the "universe" of Americans.

A)500
B)1,500
C)5,000
D)10,000
E)50,000

Question 60

Sampling error describes

A)how many samples a survey estimate is based on.
B)what percentage of the sample provided answers to the questions.
C)how close a sample estimate is to the real population value.
D)how often a sample statistic is correct.
E)how many samples are incorrect.

Question 61

Which of the following is TRUE in regard to the voting habits of African Americans and Hispanic Americans?

A)They have always voted about as much as whites despite legal barriers.
B)The gap between their voter turnout and that of whites has widened considerably over the past thirty years.
C)Members of these groups are less likely to vote the higher their income.
D)Members of these groups are more likely to vote than whites of the same income level.
E)Among people without high school diplomas,whites are more likely than blacks to vote.

Question 62

Which of these groups tends to be the most conservative?

A)Groups with political clout
B)Women
C)Younger voters
D)African Americans
E)Hispanics

Question 63

Which of the following demographic groups in the most liberal group in America?

A)Women
B)Jews
C)Catholics
D)Protestants
E)Muslims

Question 64

If the exact same methods are used to update the analysis of The American Voter study,one finds

A)there are more no-issue-content voters than group benefit voters in 1988.
B)a dramatic increase in the number of authoritarian personalities since 1956.
C)only some increase in the percentage of ideologues in 2000 compared to 1956.
D)half as many nature-of-the-times voters in 1988 than in 1956.
E)ideologues became a plurality in 1988.

Question 65

According to Morris Fiorina,

A)the views of most Americans are extreme,polarized,unconditional,and dogmatic.
B)the U.S. is not in the midst of a major political culture war but,rather,is surrounded by a culture war between a small group of liberal and conservative elites.
C)differences between conservatives and liberals among the citizenry have never been greater.
D)Americans really are ideological,contrary to what The American Voter argued several decades ago.
E)America is in the midst of a major cultural war,defined primarily by the debate over same-sex marriage and gay rights.

Question 66

Which of the following statements about the differences between liberals and conservatives is FALSE?

A)Liberals generally think we should spend less on military spending; conservatives are more likely to support maintaining higher levels of military strength.
B)Liberals seek to tax the rich more; conservatives seek to maintain the free market and tax the rich less.
C)Liberals are more likely to favor military intervention around the globe; conservatives are less willing to commit troops to action.
D)Liberals generally believe that we can solve the problems that cause crime; conservatives believe that we should stop "coddling" criminals.
E)Liberals tend to support affirmative action; conservatives tend to oppose it.

Question 67

The study of public opinion is the science of population changes.

Question 68

Which of the following statements regarding religion and ideology is FALSE?

A)Most Jews tend to be more conservative than liberal.
B)The ideological gap between Catholics and Protestants is smaller than the gender gap.
C)Born-again Christians are the most conservative demographic group.
D)People who have no religious affiliation are more liberal then conservative.
E)None of the above; all statements are true.

Question 69

According to the categories used in the classic study The American Voter,those who voted for a party out of routine or judged candidates strictly by their personalities were classified as

A)group benefits voters.
B)nature-of-the-times voters.
C)ideologues.
D)personalistic voters.
E)no-issue-content voters.

Question 70

Which of the following is true of income and political participation?

A)People with higher incomes are more likely to donate money to campaigns,to contact politicians,to attend public meetings,and to sign petitions than individuals at lower income levels.
B)People at higher income levels are more likely to sign petitions and attend meetings than to contact politicians or donate money to campaigns.
C)Donating money is the most frequent form of political participation regardless of income.
D)All of these are true.
E)None of these is true.

Question 71

The regular pattern by which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates than men is known as

A)the feminine mystique.
B)the gender gap.
C)reverse discrimination.
D)affirmative action.
E)liberal bias.

Question 72

Which of the following statements is FALSE when it comes to ideology and the scope of government?

A)Central to the ideology of the Republican Party is the belief that the scope of American government has become too wide.
B)For much of the America population,questions about the scope of the government have elicited no opinion at all.
C)Although most Americans think the government is too big,a plurality has consistently called for more spending on programs such as education.
D)Central to the ideology of the Democratic Party is the belief that the scope of American government has become too wide.
E)The average American is not well informed about crucial issues,including the scope of government.

Question 73

Demography is the study of public opinion.

Question 74

The distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues is called public opinion.

Question 75

According to the classic study,The American Voter,done in the 1950s,most Americans fell into the category of

A)group benefits voters.
B)ideologues.
C)no-issue-content voters.
D)anti-ideologues.
E)nature-of-the-times voters.

Question 76

Which of the following statements about Americans' political ideology is FALSE?

A)More Americans choose the ideological label of conservative over liberal.
B)Among people under the age of 30,there are just as many liberals as conservatives.
C)The younger the individual,the more likely that person is to be conservative.
D)More Americans identify as moderates than identify as liberals.
E)Groups with political clout tend to be more conservative than those who lack access to political power.

Question 77

As of the 2000 census,a majority of Americans were either African American,Hispanic,Asian,or Native American,meaning that the United States has become a "minority majority" nation.

Question 78

Conservatives would tend to support each of the following EXCEPT

A)affirmative action.
B)low taxes.
C)increased military spending.
D)free-market solutions.
E)the right to life.

Question 79

Which of the following is NOT supported by empirical data on attitudes toward gays and lesbians?

A)Public support for gays and lesbians has increased since the 1980s.
B)Public support for gays and lesbians has declined since the 1980s.
C)Liberals have consistently been more supportive of gays and lesbians since the 1980s.
D)Support for gays and lesbians is reflective of a political culture war in which liberals and conservatives are completely opposed to one another.
E)Young people within each ideological group express more favorable views of gays and lesbians.

Question 80

In the United States,a census is taken every five years.