Deck 6: Public Opinion and Political Action

Question 1

Of the following,which form of participation are Americans most likely to engage in?

A)volunteering with a campaign
B)protesting-
C)writing letters to the editor
D)contacting government officials

Answer 1

D

Question 2

How do Internet polling companies like Knowledge Networks ensure participation in its Web-based surveys?

A)Respondents are paid a small sum every time they participate.
B)Respondents are selected from the cell-phone-only segment of the population.-
C)Respondents are randomly sampled.
D)Respondents are provided a free computer.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which group makes up the smallest percentage of the minority population in the United States?

A)white,non-Hispanic
B)Hispanic-
C)Native American
D)African American

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is a principal provision of the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act?

A)Employers must document the citizenship of their employees.
B)State and local police must perform roadside immigration checks.
C)The president must apprehend and deport legal and illegal immigrants if their home country is at war with the United States.-
D)A diversity admissions category was created for legal permanent residents.

Question 5

What was Henry David Thoreau protesting in the 1840s when he refused to pay his taxes?

A)high tariffs
B)compulsory education
C)economic inequality-
D)the Mexican War

Question 6

Why were the first immigration restrictions adopted by the United States?

A)no poor immigrants
B)no uneducated immigrants
C)no Chinese immigrants-
D)no criminals or prostitutes

Question 7

What technique is the key to the accuracy of public opinion polls?

A)indexing
B)font selection
C)random sampling
D)in-person interviews-

Question 8

Why is participation in the census so important?

A)participation indicates the legitimacy of government and of laws passed by Congress
B)changes in the U.S.population affect membership in political parties-
C)information the census collects helps to determine how more than $400 billion in federal funding is spent each year
D)information from the census determines tax rates

Question 9

The role of religion in influencing political ideology is most closely related to __________.

A)religiosity
B)baptism
C)denomination
D)-Christianity

Question 10

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail," penned by Martin Luther King,Jr.,in 1963,is a classic defense of __________.

A)civil disobedience
B)conscientious objection
C)political violence-
D)tax resistance

Question 11

Approximately what percentage of adult citizens voted in the 2014 midterm elections?

A)less than 50 percent
B)60 percent-
C)70 percent
D)more than 80 percent

Question 12

What three socializing agents are discussed in the textbook?

A)the family,the media,and religious institutions
B)the family,the schools,and political parties-
C)the media,the schools,and the family
D)the schools,the family,and politicians

Question 13

How does lower voter turnout among young citizens affect the composition of those who show up at the polls?

A)Conservatives are overrepresented at the polls.
B)Young citizens are overrepresented at the polls.
C)Democrats are overrepresented at the polls.-
D)Liberals are overrepresented at the polls.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about political news consumption is accurate?

A)Working-class people consume more political news than do wealthier people.
B)Older people consume more political news than do younger people.
C)Men consume considerably more political news than do women.-
D)West Coast residents consume more political news than do East Coast residents.

Question 15

Conservatives generally favor the __________ sector.

A)service
B)government-
C)private
D)public

Question 16

What is demography?

A)the science of population changes
B)an "actual enumeration" of the population-
C)the distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues
D)an accounting of what the American people believe

Question 17

How is political participation defined?

A)all the activities used by citizens to socialize their children to the political process
B)all the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue
C)a measure of the minimum requirements needed to vote
D)the capacity of individuals (or groups) to exert their own political will-

Question 18

According to Ronald Reagan,what was the main cause of society's problems?

A)urban decay-
B)tax evasion
C)government overreach
D)scofflaws and miscreants

Question 19

What are the two broad classifications on political participation?

A)elitist and pluralist-
B)productive and unproductive
C)conventional and unconventional
D)casual and formal

Question 20

Why does the United States have a relatively restrained scope of government compared to most European nations?

A)the predominance of conservatives in the United States
B)the predominance of liberals in the United States-
C)the absence of moderates in the United States
D)the absence of pluralist thinking in the United States

Question 21

Assume that Howard and Javier used proper sampling techniques to draw two samples of Hispanic Floridians.Each sample will be surveyed about proposed immigration policy reform and its impact on Hispanics living in the state.The samples were selected identically,but one includes 1,000 respondents and the other consists of 2,000 respondents.Given the information presented in this scenario,which of the following statements is true?

A)Howard and Javier will likely underestimate the impact of immigration reform on Florida's Hispanic population,given the size of their samples.-
B)Howard and Javier will likely overestimate the impact of immigration reform on Florida's Hispanic population,given the size of their samples.
C)Howard and Javier can correctly assume that the sampling error for both surveyed samples will be the same.
D)Howard and Javier can be more confident of the results of the 2,000-person sample.

Question 22

What is the typical aim of protests in the United States?

A)affecting public policy change
B)overthrowing the government
C)influencing voting behavior-
D)informing the public about the candidates

Question 23

According to research by Jacobs and Shapiro,politicians use public opinion polls to __________.

A)tell them how to vote on legislation
B)determine what policies to pursue-
C)identify centrist approaches to public policy
D)shape their messages to the public

Question 24

You agree with Darrell M.West,who argues that the United States needs to reorient its immigration policy toward enhancing economic development.Which of the following potential immigrants do you think is most deserving of an immigrant visa?

A)a Turkish national with a promising new manufacturing process
B)the parents of neurobiologist L.S.Chung,a permanent legal resident from South Korea
C)a former Syrian army officer,now a refugee
D)a student-athlete from New Zealand who plays basketball and hopes to coach professionally in the future-

Question 25

Which of the following viewpoints is more likely to be held by a political liberal than by a political conservative?

A)The United States should stop letting criminals hide behind the law.
B)Prayer belongs in school.
C)Taxes and spending should be kept low.-
D)Government should regulate the economy in the public interest.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about American attitudes toward the scope of government is true?

A)A majority of Americans favor having unlimited government.
B)A majority of Americans think that the government should do more rather than do less.-
C)A majority of Americans think the federal government should be streamlined.
D)A majority of Americans never think about the scope of government.

Question 27

Which of the following is unconventional political participation?

A)running for public office as a third party candidate
B)signing a petition in a school parking lot-
C)gathering signatures for a proposed ballot measure
D)staging a sit-in

Question 28

Women are more likely than men to cast their ballots for which type of candidate?

A)Democratic candidates who support higher levels of spending on the military as opposed to spending on social services
B)Republican candidates who support higher levels of spending on the military as opposed to spending on social services
C)Democratic candidates who support higher levels of spending on social services as opposed to spending on the military
D)Republican candidates who support higher levels of spending on social services as opposed to spending on the military-

Question 29

What was the effect of the 1924 immigration law that established official quotas for immigrants based on national origin?

A)The flow of immigrant families with children decreased.
B)The flow of low-income immigrant families from Mexico increased.-
C)Most new immigrants were being reunited with family in the United States.
D)Most new immigrants were from northwestern Europe.

Question 30

To determine if families with children would use school vouchers to send their children to charter schools,from which of the following populations should you select a sample?

A)women with children
B)citizens in the school district-
C)parents
D)parents of children under age 18

Question 31

Political protests are often described as __________.

A)conventional and illegal-
B)dramatic and unconventional
C)subtle and effective
D)casual and violent

Question 32

Politicians tend to ignore __________.

A)those who participate-
B)the wealthy
C)nonvoters
D)business interests

Question 33

Which of the following is considered conventional political participation?

A)running for public office
B)burning the American flag
C)blocking the entrance to a military installation
D)staging a sit-in on campus-

Question 34

Which of the following is a disadvantage of conducting a public opinion survey over the phone?

A)Unlisted numbers cannot be reached by pollsters using telephones.
B)Federal law prohibits the use of automated random-digit-dialing programs to unlisted numbers.
C)People are substantially less willing to participate in polls over the telephone than in person.
D)Independents are less willing to participate in polls over the telephone than are partisans.-

Question 35

Why do seats in the House of Representatives need to be reapportioned?

A)The number of seats each state has in the House is based on a state's population,which changes over time.
B)The majority party in the House of Representatives is determined by each state's proportion of party-affiliated voters.
C)The Constitution requires that each state's taxes be proportional to the size of its population.
D)Each congressional district must be redrawn to reflect changes in the state's population.-

Question 36

How do liberals differ from conservatives?

A)Liberals are more likely than conservatives to envision a wide scope for the central government,often involving policies that aim to promote military intervention.
B)Liberals are more likely than conservatives to envision a wide scope for the central government,often involving policies that aim to promote equality.
C)Among people over the age of 30,slightly more are liberal than conservative.
D)Conservatives are more likely than liberals to want to tax our way out of debt and deficit problems.-

Question 37

In a random sample of 1,000 high school students,29 percent indicated that they had read the Declaration of Independence at least once,with a sampling error of 4 percent.Which of the following statements is true?

A)It is likely that more than 33 percent of the population have read the Declaration of Independence.-
B)It is likely that fewer than 25 percent of the population have read the Declaration of Independence.
C)It is likely that between 25 and 33 percent of the population have read the Declaration of Independence.
D)It is likely that 29 percent of the population have read the Declaration of Independence between zero and five times.

Question 38

According to Russell Neuman,the "paradox of mass politics" is that the American political system works as well as it does despite __________.

A)the public's lack of knowledge about politics
B)the public's lack of consensus on matters of public policy
C)the growing polarization of public opinion-
D)politicians' overreliance on public opinion polls

Question 39

Which of the following generally increase with age?

A)liberalism and political tolerance-
B)candidate loyalty and authoritarianism
C)political participation and suspicion of out-groups
D)political participation and strength of party attachment

Question 40

Which of the following statements about the 1936 Literary Digest poll that predicted Roosevelt's reelection defeat is true?

A)The poll oversampled those with higher income.
B)The poll oversampled groups heavily Democratic in orientation.
C)The poll excluded owners of automobiles.-
D)The poll undersampled middle-class voters who owned telephones.

Question 41

Which of the following statements about immigration in the United States is true?

A)At current rates non-Hispanic whites will represent less than half of the population by the middle of the 21^st century.
B)In recent years,illegal immigrants have outnumbered legal immigrants.
C)The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 5 percent of the nation's illegal immigrants are from Mexico.-
D)The U.S.Census Bureau estimates that immigrants represent 30 percent of the nation's population.

Question 42

Politicians who believe that America's competitiveness in the globalized economy would be best served by allocating a substantial percentage of immigrant visas to people with special talents would be more likely than other politicians to substantially revise the __________.

A)Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act
B)Civil Rights Act
C)Affordable Care Act-
D)Simpson-Mazzoli Act

Question 43

Many of the commercials that air during the nightly news broadcasts of ABC,CBS,and NBC seem to be for various prescription drugs.What is the most plausible explanation for this fact?

A)Today's generation of young adults is significantly more likely to read newspapers than their elders.-
B)Political socialization is more important to governments than to individuals.
C)The age of the demographic that consumes television news is much higher on average than those that consume alternative sources of news.
D)Children who develop positive feelings toward political authorities grow into adults who are not easily disenchanted with politics.

Question 44

Of the following,which is a form of political participation?

A)donating money to a charity for homeless veterans-
B)working as a caseworker in a social services agency
C)compiling a statistical analysis on the demographic factors of students enrolled at a local community college
D)calling your representative to express your opinion about upcoming legislation

Question 45

If the poor participated at higher levels in the political process,what might happen?

A)government workers would likely unionize
B)government-run services would likely be privatized-
C)government programs to help individuals invest their Social Security income would likely be higher on the political agenda
D)government programs to alleviate economic inequality would likely be higher on the political agenda

Question 46

How does civil disobedience differ from a protest?

A)Civil disobedience involves violence;a protest is peaceful.
B)Civil disobedience is involuntary;a protest is voluntary.
C)Civil disobedience involves intentionally breaking a law;a protest involves getting attention from the media.
D)Civil disobedience involves unintentionally breaking a law;a protest involves intentionally breaking a law.-