13. Multiple Choice Flashcards
How do interest groups help improve the principal-agent relationship between politicians and voters?
They share information about the preferences of constituents, the effects of policies, and the actions of politicians.
Which term describes an organized group of individuals or organizations that makes policy-related appeals to government?
interest group
Interest groups tend to concern themselves with the …
policies of government.
When a set of environmentalists banded together to form the Sierra Club to influence government policy, they created a(n) …
interest group
James Madison argued that organized interests would have less opportunity to dominate the political process if the nation …
was large with diverse interests.
According to Madison, how are the problems of factions best controlled?
The government encourages the formation of many groups so that no single interest can tyrannize the others.
According to the Madisonian theory, what does a good constitution promote?
many interest groups
According to the pluralist doctrine, competing interests will lead to …
compromise
The theory that all interests are and should be free to compete for influence in the government is called …
pluralism
The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Petrochemical Refiners Association are examples of interest groups driven primarily by …
economic interests
The Natural Resources Defense Council, Common Cause, and the Christian Coalition of America are groups driven primarily by …
the public interest
Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute help make up what is known as the __________ lobby.
research
In order to attract members, most interest groups appeal to potential members not only by advertising their political goals but also by …
providing direct economic and social benefits to group members.
To build a financial structure capable of sustaining an organization and funding the group’s activities, what do most interest groups primarily rely on?
membership dues and voluntary contributions
Interest group politics tend to reflect the bias of …
well-educated, upper-income professionals
When many organized interests mobilized to support tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, it illustrated the …
upper-class bias of interest groups
Which one of the following political organizations is most likely to represent the interests of the unemployed in Washington, D.C.?
Democratic Party
To obtain adequate political representation, forces from the bottom rungs of the socioeconomic ladder must be organized together on a massive scale through …
political parties
What is the relationship between government activity and interest group activity?
As government activity increases, interest group activity increases.
Which of the following explains the growth and presence of interest groups in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s?
the dramatic expansion of the national government
Which of the following was a major technological factor contributing to the rise and success of new political forces in the 1970s and 1980s?
computerized direct-mail campaigns
Which industry lobbies exist to maintain the mortgage interest tax deduction?
real estate
The emergence of AARP after the creation and expansion of Social Security and Medicare exemplifies which of the following?
clientele organization
College students are said to share an interest in the cost and quality of education, but they have not organized to demand lower tuition, better facilities, or more effective faculty. Based on this observation, college students are otherwise referred to as which of the following?
latent group
When theorizing about social situations involving collective action, researchers often rely on the metaphor of the …
prisoner’s dilemma
Which of the following explains why cooperation in groups can be difficult to achieve?
prisoner’s dilemma
In the prisoner’s dilemma, each player has a dominant strategy that leads to an outcome in which …
all players lose.
In the prisoner’s dilemma, adherence to self-interest in accordance with the rationality principle …
makes both individuals worse off.
The fact that a group of individuals would all benefit from draining a swamp but that any individual can shirk his or her part of the duties illustrates the concept of …
free riding
In The Logic of Collective Action, Mancur Olson challenged the pluralist assumption that …
common interests among individuals automatically transform into group action.
