Chapter 5: Opinion and Participation: Thinking and Acting in Politics

Question 1

Edmund Burke

Answer 1

Democratic representatives should serve the interests of the people, but not necessarily conform to their will, in deciding questions of public policy

Question 2

While the president and Congress generally respond to

Answer 2

General public preferences, public opinion is often weak, unstable, ill-formed, or non-existent on specific policy issues

Question 3

Dangers of an ill-formed public

Answer 3

1) Allows public officials considerable flexibility when formulating public policy
2) Allows lobbyists, interest groups, commentators, and reporters to have increased influence
3) Allows interests groups and the media the opportunity to influence policy indirectly by shaping popular opinion

Question 4

A poll is

Answer 4

An instrument for measuring public opinion

Question 5

The following can influence the poll’s accuracy

Answer 5

1. The random sample may not be representative of the universe of people
2. The question may be leading
3. The question may not be clear, concise, and neutral

Question 6

Political socialization is the learning of

Answer 6

Political values, beliefs, and opinions

Question 7

Agent of political socialization

Answer 7

Those things that teach us about politics

Question 8

Family

Answer 8

The first agent of political socialization

Question 9

Today political battles rage over

Answer 9

Textbook, teaching methods, and other manifestations of politics in the classroom

Question 10

In high school, students become more distrustful and cynical about

Answer 10

Government

Question 11

College appears to produce a “Liberalizing” effect

Answer 11

College seniors tend to be more liberal than entering freshmen. In the years following graduation, liberal views tend to moderate

Question 12

The church: Religion shapes political attitudes on

Answer 12

A variety of issues, including abortion, drugs, the death penalty, homosexuality, and religious expression in public

Question 13

How important religion is

Answer 13

In one’s own life as well as the religion one identifies with affects one’s political ideology

Question 14

Media influence

Answer 14

Television is the major source of political information for most Americans

Question 15

Political participation appears to be

Answer 15

The essential link between opinion and policy

Question 16

Suffrage

Answer 16

The legal right to vote

Question 17

Elimination of Property Qualifications (1800-40)

Answer 17

The U.S Constitution left it to the states to determine voter qualifications

Question 18

By 1840, most states had

Answer 18

Abolished their property qualification, allowing virtually all white males over twenty-one the right to vote

Question 19

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) gave

Answer 19

Black men had the right to vote

Question 20

It is the first significant limitation on

Answer 20

State powers over voting

Question 21

Denial of Voting Rights

Answer 21

1870-1964

Question 22

Literacy test

Answer 22

Examination of a person’s ability to read and write as a prerequisite to voter registration. Outlawed by the Voting Rights Act (1965) as discriminatory

Question 23

Poll tax

Answer 23

A tax imposed on all voters as a prerequisite to voting

Question 24

The 24th Amendment (1964) made poll taxes

Answer 24

Unconstitutional in national elections

Question 25

In 1966, the U.S Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in

Answer 25

State and local elections

Question 26

The Voting Right Act (1965) made it illegal to

Answer 26

Interfere with anyone’s right to vote based on race, outlawed the use of literacy tests, and allowed the attorney general to send federal voter registrars into counties where less than 50% of the voting age population was registered to vote

Question 27

The Nineteenth Amendment (1920)

Answer 27

Provides women the right to vote in all elections

Question 28

The Twenty-sixth Amendment (1971)

Answer 28

Provides eighteen-years-olds the right to vote in all elections

Question 29

Voter participation increases with

Answer 29

Education, age, and income

Question 30

Education appears to be the

Answer 30

Most important determinant of voter turnout

Question 31

Political alienation

Answer 31

The belief that politics is irrelevant to one’s life and that one cannot personally affect public affairs

Question 32

Political efficacy

Answer 32

The feeling that one can have an impact on public affairs. The more educated one is, the higher their sense of political efficacy is likely to be