Deck 6: Interest Groups: The Politics of Influence

Question 1

The number of _______associations has declined significantly since 1959.

A) Legal
B) Trade
C) Social Welfare
D) Ethnic

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Peak Associations represent which of the following?

A) Lawyers
B) School Teachers
C) The Business Community
D) Laborers

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Lobbyists pursuing an inside strategy often focus their attention on ___.

A) The Press
B) Their association members
C) Calling donors
D) Congressional committees

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Outside strategies often focus on ___.

A) Media advertising
B) Private meetings with Congresspersons
C) Congressional committees
D) Forming relationships with Congressional staff

Question 5

What are interest groups?

A) Organizations based on conflicting interests that attempt to influence society and government
B) Organizations based on shared interests that attempt to influence society and government
C) The same thing as social movements
D) Organizations based on shared interests that attempt to control society and government

Question 6

Which view of interest groups has a relatively positive interpretation of interest groups' role within society?

A) Pluralism
B) Elitism
C) Neither

Question 7

James Madison assumed that human being are naturally motivated by ___.

A) Altruism
B) A desire to be guided by the "general will"
C) A desire to be guided by the "special will"
D) Self-interest

Question 8

What were two reasons for the expansion of interest groups just prior to and in the decades following the Civil War?

A) Ruralization and agriculturalization
B) Societalization and culturalization
C) Urbanization and industrialization
D) All of the above

Question 9

What was the first phase associated with the rise of the modern group system?

A) The Great Society
B) The Civil War
C) Industrialization
D) The Progressive and New Deal eras

Question 10

Which of these statements most accurately reports the composition of the interest group system?

A) 25 percent of the group system reflects occupational interests, while 75 percent is comprised of citizen or membership groups
B) 75 percent of the group system reflects occupational interests, while 25 percent is comprised of citizen or membership groups
C) 50 percent of the group system reflects occupational interests and 50 percent is comprised of citizen or membership groups
D) None of the above is remotely accurate

Question 11

Which interests do peak associations principally represent?

A) Labor
B) Agricultural
C) Cultural
D) Business

Question 12

From the Let's Compare section, is the labor movement on the march globally?

A) Yes. With a few exceptions (e.g. the United States), labor unions have been expanding across industrialized countries in the last few decades
B) No. Labor unions have been shrinking across all industrialized countries in the last few decades
C) No. Labor unions have been shrinking across most industrialized countries in the last few decades
D) None of the above

Question 13

Which of these is a set of resources upon which interest groups draw?

A) Size, intensity, and expertise of membership
B) Financial, organization, and leadership qualities
C) Strategic alliances, expertise of members, and quality of organization
D) All of the above

Question 14

Which of the following is a strategy interest groups pursue when inside lobbying does not work?

A) Outside lobbying
B) Litigation
C) Both of the above
D) None of the above

Question 15

Which perspective on the role of interest groups in American democracy holds that the wealthiest Americans play a dominant role in the political system?

A) Pluralism
B) Elitism
C) Both of the above
D) None of the above

Question 16

Common Cause is an example of what kind of interest group?

A) Business and Occupational
B) Public Interest
C) Social Equity
D) None of the above

Question 17

How does Ronald Hrebenar define a public interest group?

A) A group that represents the interests of government, including employees who work in the public sector
B) An interest group that operates openly and transparently
C) A group that pursues goods that cannot be made available to some without generally being made available to all
D) None of the above

Question 18

What does it mean to say an interest group pursues an "inside strategy"?

A) It seeks to influence public officials by bribing them
B) It seeks to capture a political party and transform it from the inside
C) It seeks to directly contact public officials (or their staff) in order to shape their view of issues
D) All of the above

Question 19

What does it mean to say an interest group pursues an "outside strategy"?

A) It seeks to influence public officials through open, transparent, and ethical methods
B) It seeks to change the behavior of one or more political parties from the outside, mostly by helping to finance campaigns
C) It seeks to inform and shape public opinion as an indirect way of influencing policymakers
D) All of the above

Question 20

What type of campaign fundraising did McCain-Feingold limit?

A) Hard money
B) Soft money
C) In-between money
D) Nothing: it extended new categories of unregulated campaign money

Question 21

What type of interest group is the AFL-CIO?

A) Labor Union
B) Trade Association
C) Peak Association
D) None of the above

Question 22

Define pluralism.

A) The same as elitism
B) The belief that the interest group structure of American politics produces a reasonable policy balance
C) The belief that the interest group structure of American politics is skewed toward the interest of the wealthy
D) The belief that the social movement structure of American politics is skewed toward the interest of the wealthy

Question 23

What is the name for the interest group strategy that involves bringing a case to court for the purpose of demanding a beneficial policy change or avoiding an adverse change?

A) Litigating
B) Lobbying
C) Lawyering
D) Libeling

Question 24

Among interest groups, who dominates most of the time: insiders or outsiders?

A) Insiders
B) Outsiders
C) Neither

Question 25

Do all interest groups form and operate on an equal basis in the American system?

A) Yes. If any group in society finds their interests adversely effected by social change and/or economic development, then they can easily organize to protect and advance their interests.
B) No. Some groups (e.g. businesses, corporations, and professionals) are better able to organize and fight for their interests than others (e.g. the poor, the disabled, children, and the mentally challenged).

Question 26

There are five major periods of interest group formation in American political history. With what was the first one associated?

A) Urbanization in the 1880s and early 1890s
B) Industrialization just prior to the Civil War
C) Labor unrest in the Progressive and New Deal Eras
D) The expansion of public interest groups in the 1960s and 1970s

Question 27

What did Charles Lindblom mean by the phrase "the privileged position of business"?

A) Businesspersons often serve in prominent positions in government
B) Government policy is carefully designed to stimulate business and employment
C) Throughout American history, government and business have worked closely together to foster economic growth and increase profits
D) All of the above

Question 28

Which labor groups organized first during the Progressive Era to agitate on behalf of their interests?

A) The trade association professionals like teachers
B) Unskilled workers like laborers
C) Skilled workers like craftsmen
D) No labor groups organized during the Progressive Era

Question 29

Technological developments aside, what other major factor contributed to the expansion of the interest group system during the twentieth century?

A) The ever increasing size and scope of government
B) The ever decreasing size and scope of government
C) The ebb and flow as to the relative size and scope of government
D) None of the above

Question 30

From the Pro and Con section, what is soft money?

A) Regulated campaign funds
B) Laundered money in politics
C) Unregulated campaign funds
D) There is no such thing as soft money

Question 31

Which of the following is NOT a previous occupation of many lobbyists?

A) Military
B) Congress member
C) Bureaucrat
D) All of the above are common previous occupations of lobbyists

Question 32

As a peak association, the national Chamber of Commerce lobbies members of Congress because of its belief that ___.

A) government programs and regulations threaten many business interests
B) government programs and regulations threaten many environmental interests
C) government programs and regulations threaten many ethnic interests
D) government programs and regulations threaten many gender interests

Question 33

In the 'Pro & Con' section, we learn that ___."

A) most Democrats support the Affordable Care Act, while Republicans remain ambivalent and most independents continue to oppose it
B) most independents support the Affordable Care Act, while Democrats remain ambivalent and most Republicans continue to oppose it
C) most Democrats support the Affordable Care Act, while independents remain ambivalent and most Republicans continue to oppose it
D) most Republicans support the Affordable Care Act, while Democrats remain ambivalent and most independents continue to oppose it

Question 34

Which one of the following statements is true regarding the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act in 2012?

A) The Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, thereby preventing the states from expanding their Medicaid programs.
B) The Supreme Court declared the act constitutional and thus required the states to expand their Medicaid programs.
C) The Supreme Court declared the act unconstitutional, thereby freeing the states to expand their Medicaid programs.
D) The Supreme Court declared the act constitutional, but also allowed the states to be free from participating in expansion of their Medicaid programs.

Question 35

To have full effect to influence the direction of public policymaking, an interest group must meet at least which of the following conditions?

A) broad coverage of the population of those affected by its interests
B) cohesion among the group's members regarding policy recommendations
C) significant financial resources forthcoming from the group membership
D) all of the above

Question 36

Some see Donald Trump's win in 2016 as a populist wave in which _______voters in the Midwest, many left behind by technological change and globalization, demanded attention.

A) white working class
B) black working class
C) white female
D) black female

Question 37

Donald Trump effectively used the rallying cry of populism, which has always been ___.

A) the "ignorant" against the "educated"
B) the "whites" against the "blacks"
C) the "people" against the "elites"
D) the "men" against the "women"

Question 38

In 2019, interest groups spent a record _______on lobbying.

A) $3.5 hundred thousand
B) $3.5 million
C) $3.5 billion
D) $3.5 trillion

Question 39

When President Trump and the Republicans in Congress began to organize efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), public approval of Obamacare began to ___.

A) rise
B) decrease
C) remain the same
D) None of the above, sense President Trump and the Republicans did not organize nor attempt to repeal Obamacare.

Question 40

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly _______times in four years to revise, delay, or defund Obamacare.

A) 24
B) 34
C) 44
D) 54

Question 41

During his administration, many observers worried that President Trump's assignment of members of his family to formal advisory positions in the White House would result in _______lobbying.

A) inside
B) outside
C) above
D) beneath

Question 42

In late 2017, the tax reform bill that passed in Congress and was signed by the president provided the opportunity _______Obamacare.

A) to dramatically decrease public approval for
B) to strike a big, though not decisive, blow to
C) to strike a big and decisive blow to
D) None of the above, sense the tax reform bill had no effect on Obamacare.

Question 43

Donald Trump's win in 2016 may be seen as a populist wave in which _______voters in the Midwest were worried about the effects of ___.

A) white female
B) technological change and globalization
C) climate change
D) white working class

Question 44

Calls to "drain the swamp" refer to demands that the corrupt _______and _______ be removed from positions of political power.

A) special interest lobbyists
B) the people
C) congressional elites
D) populist candidates

Question 45

Today, the senators and House members who leave Congress are more likely to _______and ___.

A) stay in Washington to lobby
B) engage in politics back home
C) find places in colleges and universities
D) establish a political consulting business

Question 46

When Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016, _______percent of Americans opposed Obamacare while _______percent supported it.

A) 42
B) 53

Question 47

In their efforts to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, the congressional Republican alternatives focused on _______and ___.

A) removing the "individual mandate" to buy health insurance
B) including the "contraceptive mandate" for all business health plans
C) funding supplemental assistance Medicare programs
D) limiting and repackaging Medicaid grants to the states

Question 48

Although the Republicans' tax reform bill in late 2017 struck down the ___, _______signed up for coverage.

A) contraceptive mandate
B) millions of Americans
C) individual mandate
D) thousands of businesses

Question 49

In 2017 _______protested the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in ___.

A) Neo-Nazis
B) Skokie
C) Antifa
D) Charlottesville

Question 50

Offering information about bills and issues that Congresspersons have little time to research is one of the main tools of influence for interest groups.

Question 51

Interest groups are unable to influence candidate selection within political parties.

Question 52

An organization based on common interests and with the intent to influence government is an interest group.

Question 53

Litigation is often a primary strategy employed by interest groups; they use other strategies only if litigation fails.

Question 54

The Business Roundtable is an interest group that represents the interests of small business in America.

Question 55

The AFL-CIO was originally founded in 1955 as a merger between two groups: the American Future Legion (AFL) and the Coalition for Improving Opportunities (CIO).

Question 56

Occasioned by the political battle over President Obama's healthcare reform initiative, drug companies spent more on lobbying in 2009 than any industry had ever spent on lobbying in a single year.

Question 57

In the early years of the nation's capital at Washington, D.C., resident lobbyists were a common feature in politics.

Question 58

American labor is far less organized than is labor in most other advanced industrial countries in the world.

Question 59

In the 2016 presidential election, white working class voters in the Midwest felt many left behind by technological change and globalization.

Question 60

Today, nearly half of the senators and House members who leave Congress stay in Washington to lobby.

Question 61

Even after most major elements of Obamacare had been implemented, with 20 million Americans signing up on the healthcare exchanges or through Medicaid expansion, supporters and opponents refined, but did not change, their arguments.

Question 62

The Republicans succeeded in "repealing and replacing" Obamacare as a result of Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election and the Republicans retaining majorities in both houses of the Congress.

Question 63

Contrast peak and trade associations.

Question 64

What role did labor play in the second stage of interest group development here in the United States?

Question 65

Is our interest group system structured in such a way that we can suggest that it is elitist or pluralist in orientation?

Question 66

Does business really dominate our interest group system?

Question 67

What assumptions did James Madison make when he hoped that American national politics would be freed from narrow interest group struggles, thus allowing government officials to debate, bargain, and compromise with each other in a search for the common good? What changes to American circumstance have undermined these assumptions? Discuss this in reference to the five major periods of interest group formation in American history.

Question 68

Discuss some of the reasons why American labor is not as well organized as labor in other advanced industrial countries.

Question 69

In 2017, the pharmaceutical and health products lobby had more than 1,300 registered lobbyists in Washington, D.C., and spent $209 million on lobbying Congress. Is an interest group lobby of this magnitude likely to have a beneficial or a detrimental impact on public policymaking? Why or why not?

Question 70

Was President Trump's claim that the tax reform bill's striking down of the "individual mandate" had "effectively" repealed Obamacare, in fact, true? Why or why not?

Question 71

During his administration, President Trump assigned members of his family to formal advisory positions in the White House while they ran the family businesses. Do you believe this was a conflict of interest? Why or why not?

Question 72

Have the Founders' concerns about factions been borne out in current American national politics?

Question 73

What types of interest groups are most influential in American politics?

Question 74

How do interest groups try to influence public policy?

Question 75

What role do lobbyists play in the political process?

Question 76

What role did interest groups play in the debate over healthcare reform?