AP Gov Feb Test

Question 1

What’s the franking privilege, and to what phenomenon does it contribute?

Answer 1

Franking: The right of members to post mail to constituents without having to pay postage. A copy of the member’s signature replaces the stamp on the envelope and contributes to incumbency advantage.

Question 2

Compare and contrast “dealignment” and “realignment”

Answer 2

Dealignment: a general decline in party identification and loyalty in the electorate
Realignment: a shifting of party coalition groupings in the electorate that remains in place for several elections.
Whereas realignment involves people changing from one party to another, dealignment means that people are gradually moving away from both parties

Question 3

Name 4 linkage institutions in our electoral system. How does each link us to government?

Answer 3

1. Media (conveys the views of the people to the gov and convey info about the gov to the people)
2. Interest groups (PAC) (express group members’ preferences to policy makers; convey policy info to group members; raise and spend money to advocate for the interests of the group with policymakers)
3. Political parties (gather info about voter for use by candidates and policy makers; provide info to voters about candidates running for office; connect voters to elected officials/candidates trhough campaign activities)
4. Elections (provide voters with information about policy; nominating candidates for office)

Question 4

Linkage Institutions

Answer 4

structure within a society that connects the people to the government or centralized authority.

Question 5

What’s the thesis of the writers of “Politicians Don’t Pander”?

Answer 5

Politicians use the results of opinion polls to craft their talking points to appeal to voters.

Question 6

What are 2 consequences of incumbency advantage?

Answer 6

1. Redistricting Efforts (some incumbents can be put in the same districts as other incumbents, or the base of other reps can be weakened by adding territory favorable to the opposition party)
2. Midterm Elections(an election that takes place in the middle of a pres. term)
   They may lose seats in the off years due to many things like an economic downturn or pres. Scandal

Question 7

Identify 2 factors that contribute to incumbency advantage and explain how they work to the incumbent’s advantage.

Answer 7

1. Staff Support: Both house of reps and senate benefit from having unpaid interns who assist w/ office duties, Franking, constituency services: wide array of assistance provided by a member of congress to voters in need (tracking a lost social security check, helping a veteran get disputed benefits, finding a summer internship for a college student)
2. Media and Travel: Have easy access to local media, cut ribbons, attend imp. local funerals and speak frequently at meetings and community events
   Convenient schedules and generous travel allowances increase the local availability of incumbents
3. The “Scare-Off” Effect(the ability of the office holder to fend off challenges from strong opposition candidates) due to high name recognition, large war chests

Question 8

What’s the fundamental goal of political parties?

Answer 8

Elect people to office and gain control of the government

Question 9

Describe 2 important functions of political parties in the U.S.

Answer 9

provide platform of issues, raise funds for their candidates campaigns, unite people that share similar political views

Question 10

What’s the fundamental goal of 3rd parties?

Answer 10

Call attention to otherwise ignored, misrepresented, or even suppressed principles or issues (an alternative political platform to those held by the 2 major parties).

Question 11

What problem did Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 seek to solve?

Answer 11

1. Remove barriers to minority voting: eliminate voter registration requirements (literacy tests, residency requirements) that prevented minorities from voting. This led to increased access for minority voters.
2. Creating federal oversight of elections has helped eliminate discriminatory mechanisms (voter intimidation, ballot fraud) which has led to increased access for minority voting
3. Eliminating the use of English-only ballots that prevented non-English speaking minorities form voting led to increased access for minority voters

Question 12

Identify 2 measures taken by some states prior to the 1960s that affected voter turnout among African Americans.

Answer 12

Grandfather clauses  (people who don't meet registration requirements to vote can still vote if they or their ancestors voted before 1867 - blacks were slaves then)
Poll taxes(requirement that citizens pay tax to vote, most blacks poor)
Literacy tests (requirement that citizens pass a literacy test in order to vote, many former slaves illiterate)

Question 13

What’s the difference between a delegate and a super delegate?

Answer 13

Delegates: role played by elected representatives who vote the way their constituents would want them to, regardless of their own opinions. Delegates are there for both parties.
Super delegates: delegate slot to the Democratic national party convention that’s reserved for an elected party official.

Question 14

Felon voting: reasons for and reasons against.

Answer 14

Against: There needs to be consequences for commiting a crime; convicted felons don’t enjoy the same rights as the rest of us do to provacy, employment, and movement; if racial minorities or people with lower incomes or lower education are disproportionately represented among felons, that’s a social and economic issue that might demonstrate the need for certain policies. But itd oesn’t affect the justification for disenfranchising convicted criminals.
For: voting is a right of citizenship not a reward for good behavior so we shouldn’t revoke their basic constitutional rights to humane treatment or freedom expression; disproportionately affects ethnic minorities and indvs. with low levels of income or education which would double the disadvantages that minorities already face; felons need to be reintegrated into society, not treated like noncitizens. It’s a mixed message to tell felons that they need to get a legitimate job and to act like a law-abiding citizen and then to tell them that they may not vote. Felons who have finished their sentence are treated as if they are still criminals rather than functioning members of society.

Question 15

2 characteristics of a valid, scientific, public opinion poll.

Answer 15

Public Opinion Poll: Interviews/surverys with samples of citizens that are used to estimate the feelings and beliefs of the entire population. Characteristics include a randomized sample, representaive sample, question wording (unbiased, unambiguous), large sample size/low margin of error

Question 16

What are 2 factors that have contributed to the overall decline in voter turnout, and explain how each factor has contributed to the overall decline?

Answer 16

Loss of political efficacy (sense that vote doesn’t matter); Voter apathy (too busy); De-alignment (less political party affirmation); Demographic changes (as minority groups and young people increase proportionally in the population, vote turnout decreases)

Question 17

How have direct primaries and candidate-centered campaigns weakened the influence of political parties?

Answer 17

Direct primaries: Gives parties less control over the nomination process of candidates; candidates
appeal directly to voters and bypass parties; candidates may win who are not favored by the party
elite.
Candidate-centered campaigns: Candidates appeal directly to voters; candidates can raise money
by appealing to voters or PACs directly; candidates choose their own issues to campaign on.

Question 18

Why does voter turnout differ between presidential vs. midterm elections and primary vs. general elections?

Answer 18

Presidential vs. midterm elections
Media coverage is greater in presidential elections, Increased interest in and importance of national and presidential campaigns.
Primary vs. general elections
Partisans and activists are more likely to vote in primaries, Only party members may vote in closed primaries, Many primary elections are noncompetitive, Independents are less likely to participate in primary elections, General elections simplify choices, Media coverage is greater in general elections, Increased interest in and importance of general elections

Question 19

Describe the 15, 19th and 26th Amendments, and explain their effect on the electorate (voting citizens).

Answer 19

15th: gave African Americans the right to vote
19th: gave women the right to vote
26th: gave citizens age 18 and over the right to vote

Question 20

Why hasn’t the Electoral College been abolished? 2 reasons

Answer 20

The electoral college has been part of the US’s history and tradition and to abolish it would require a constitutional amendment
2. It favors small states because each elector actually represents fewer people than the electors in larger states

Question 21

How does the winner-take-all feature of the Electoral College hinder 3rd party candidates?

Answer 21

third party candidates may get a large percentage of the popular votes, but no electoral votes if they don’t carry a state. Because it’s difficult to win electoral votes, it makes it harder for third party candidates to raise funds and gain resources

Question 22

Describe the winner-take-all feature of the Electoral College, and explain how it affects how candidates from the two major parties run their campaigns?

Answer 22

Winner-take-all: the candidate who gets the most votes wins all of a state’s electoral votes.
Presidential candidates tend to focus their campaign (media and money) on “swing states” where voters are not known to always vote Democrat or Republican. Presidential candidates also tend to pick Vice Presidents who “balance the ticket” regionally.

Question 23

According to the video, how do presidential candidates view states with the largest populations?

Answer 23

If a candidate wins in, for instance California, they get all 55 electoral votes. If they lose, they get 0.
Win pop vote but lose electoral vote bc. Winner collected electoral votes by small margins while losing candidate captured large voter margins in remaining states which add up to over 50% of ballots cast nationally. Unfair advantage is given to states with large numbers of electoral votes (a person can get 0 votes in 39 states, or the district of columbia, yet become pres by winning the popular vote in just 11 of theses 12 states: california, new york, texas, florida, pennsylvania, illinois, ohio, michigan, new jersey, north carolina, georgia, or virginia
Safe states: have a long history of voting for a particular party
Swing states: states teetering between parties

Question 24

What is one campaign tactic a presidential candidate would use to win swing/battleground states?

Answer 24

concentration of money in those states, more tv ads and use of media, more campaign appearances in the key states

Question 25

What’s 1 reason why the Framers of the Constitution chose to use the Electoral College as a method of electing the president?

Answer 25

It reinforces the concept of federalism by giving states a role in presidential elections the trust should not be solely placed on congress or state legislatures to solely select president.

Question 26

Aside from voting, what are 2 ways citizens can participate in the political process? Explain two advantages of each.

Answer 26

Protest (bring public attention and it’s low-cost; it brings immediate results)
Running for political office(ability to have a direct influence on political decision-making and set your own policy agenda which allows you to bring others’ attention to specific issues)

Question 27

Difference between open and closed primaries? This requires that you know how voters are affected by each.

Answer 27

Open: anyone can vote for any candidate in either party regardless of whether they are registered democrat or republican
Closed: you can only vote for someone in your registered party

Question 28

What happens when there’s a tie in the Electoral College?

Answer 28

The race for president gets sent to the House of Representatives, where the top three candidates are decided by each state’s delegation as a statewide block. As a state, the representatives decide on a candidate to vote for and, one candidate eventually gets a majority of states and becomes president. For vice presidents it’s a little simpler: it’s only the top two candidates, each senator gets a vote, and whoever gets the majority of Senate votes wins.

Question 29

States were given power under the Constitution to determine voter eligibility. What are 2 contemporary limits states have put on the suffrage/franchise and the effects of these?

Answer 29

2 states allow incarcerated felons to vote from prison(ameliorates the disproportionate affects ethnic minorities and indvs. with low levels of income or education already face)
12 states allow 17 year olds to vote in primaries if they wil be 18 on election day (increases the number of eligible voters by giving the right to vote the the group that’s least likely to vote aka it motivates young voters)

Question 30

Why do we have a 2 party system?

Answer 30

Congressional seats are awarded on a winner-take-all basis. This means that a party isn’t rewarded unless that party wins the election, because only the winner has a say in Congress. Since small parties will almost never have a voice in Congress, they have an incentive to join with other groups in the hoped of forming a majority coalition that will result in their victory. This helps encourage a 2 party system. In contrast, if seats are allocated according to propositional representation, parties can have votes in the legislature according to their electoral strength. Under this system, small parties don’t have the same incentive to merge with other parties, encourage a multiparty system. Neither the constitution nor statutes mandate political parties.

Question 31

Describe who is most likely to vote. Describe who is least likely to vote.

Answer 31

Most likely: highly educated, high income level, age 30+, whites, those in the south, men
Least likely: lowly educated, low income level, 70+, young people, minority groups, women

Question 32

What effect besides voting does higher education have on voters?

Answer 32

They tend to learn more about politics, less hindered by registration requirements, more confident about their ability to affect public life

Question 33

What percentage of eligible voters vote in presidential elections?

Answer 33

40% of the eligible adult population in the US vote