Chapter 7: Political Participation: Activating The Popular Will

Question 1

What is political participation?

Answer 1

The involvement in activities intended to influence public policy and leadership; voting, joining political groups, writing to elected officials, demonstrating for political causes, goving money to political candidates

Question 2

Who did the original form of the constitution give control over suffrage to?

Answer 2

The States - granted power to decide, time, place, and manner of election holding for federal office

Question 3

What is suffrage?

Answer 3

The right to vote

Question 4

How long did it take before all the states eliminated the property restriction that only property-owning white male could vote, which Benjamin Franklin ridiculed?

Answer 4

At least 50 years before all states eliminated it.

Question 5

What trick was used to stop African Americans from voting after they gained suffrage after the Civil war with the 15th amendment, which stated that the states couldn’t abridge the right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude”?

How were the literacy tests dangerous if taken?

Answer 5

Literacy tests - precondition for eligibility to vote, selective to exclude black voters

They would publish the names of those who took the test so that employees, local police, and the KKK would know who they were

Question 6

The state of ______________ was the extreme case in its disenfranchisement of Black Americans.

Answer 6

Mississippi

Question 7

Not until the _____ did ________ and the ______ sweep away the last legal barriers to equal ________ for African Americans.

Answer 7

1960s; Congress; courts; suffrage

Question 8

What year did Women secure the right to vote? With the ratification of what amendment?

Answer 8

1920 - the ratification of the 19th amendment

Question 9

When was the 26th amendment ratified, and what did it lower?

Answer 9

During the Vietnam War - when military draft was in full swing and mininum voting age in nearly every state was 21 years - and lowered the voting age to 18 years

Question 10

True or False?

Millions choose not to vote in national elections, a tendency that sets Americans apart from citizens of most other Western democracies, with the US ranked near the bottom among the world’s democracies for voter turnout

Answer 10

True

Question 11

What is registration?

Answer 11

The act of placing citizens’ names on an official list of voters before they are eligible to exercise their right to vote, meant to prevent voters from casting more than one ballot on Election day, beginning around 1900.

Question 12

True or False?

Voter Turnout in U.S. elections rose after registration began.

Answer 12

False - it declined

Question 13

Registration is largely controlled by the _____ ________________.

Answer 13

State governments

Question 14

What did the 1993 Motor Voter Act require state agencies to allow people?

Answer 14

Allow people to register when they apply for a driver’s license or public assistance

Question 15

What were two laws that have been obstacles to higher voter turnout?

Answer 15

Registration laws and Voter ID laws

Question 16

What do some voter’s need for ID in order to vote?

Answer 16

Driver’s license and or passport

Question 17

When was the first Voter ID law passed?

Answer 17

2005 - Indiana’s republican-controlled legislature, claiming it needed to prevent voter fraud

Question 18

What demographics is least likely to have driver’s licenses or passports?

Answer 18

Young adults

Minorities

Low-income individuals

Question 19

Was Indiana’s voter law passed in 2005 upheld?

Answer 19

Yes : with a 6 - 3 supreme court vote, validating Indiana’s interest in preventing fraud, but also acknowledged that the Republican legislators were seeking a partisan advantage in enacting the law.

Question 20

About __ states, including _____, _____, and _________, allow people to register at their _______ ______ on Election day.

What is their voter turnout?

Answer 20

10; Idaho, Maine, Minnesota; polling places

10% points above national average

Question 21

What states have voter turnout rates below the national average by requiring a government-issued ID to register and making it difficult to cast an absentee ballot?

Answer 21

Indiana, Mississippi, and Alabama

Question 22

America’s registration system and election schedule places the burden on ________.

Answer 22

Voters

Question 23

The frequency of elections : Read

Answer 23

Chapter 7

Question 24

What demographics have above-average voting rates in the US?

Answer 24

College-educated and upper-income americans

Question 25

Why do income and education make a greater difference in the US than in Europe?

Answer 25

Europeans are prompted to participate by class-based organizatios - labor unions are stronger in Europe, and most european democracies have major socialist or labor party that seeks to represent lower-income voters, unlike the US

Europeans don’t have imposing voter registration requirements that some US states place on their residents.

Question 26

Why are young adults less likely to vote than middle age or older adults?

Answer 26

They change residencies more often - requires registration again to vote

Question 27

What is apathy?

Answer 27

A lack of concern/interest, feeling of personal disinterest

Question 28

What is alienation?

Answer 28

Feeling of powerlessness rooted in the belief that government ignores their interests.

Question 29

What is civic duty?

Answer 29

A belief that they ought to participate in public affairs, responsibility of citizenship.

Question 30

______ ____ and ______ are attitudes that are usually acquired from one’s parents.

Answer 30

Civic duty and apathy

Question 31

What is political interest?

Answer 31

Level of interest that a citizen has in politics; political interest is a prime determinant of whether a citizen will pay attention to politics and participate through voting; largely stems from partisanship

Question 32

What is the most widespread form of political participation?

Is it limited in any way?

Answer 32

Voting

Yes - only at specific times and only for the choices listed on the ballot

Question 33

Why are americans more likely than europeans to take part in election activity even though they are less likely to vote?

Answer 33

Europe - shorter election periods: weeks
America - longer election peiods: months

Europe - unitary system: don’t elect state officials
America - federal system: each state elects legislative and executive officials

Europe - less likely to be involved in groups that seek to influence public policy
America - more likely, takes monetary contribution forms most of the time, or active forms like contacting lawmakers and attending public rallies.

Question 34

How does the internet affect voter participation?

Answer 34

Increases it, peaks during presidential campaigns and easily outstrips conventional participation, can raise money for candidates through online donations, lobbying groups rely on it as well

Question 35

What is social capital?

Answer 35

Face-to-face interactions between people; sum of face-to-face interactions among citizens in a society

Question 36

What is the main obstacle in civic participation?

Answer 36

motivation

Question 37

Why is participation in local organizations twice as high in US than Europe?

Answer 37

Religious practices

US has greater control over local policies, and schools

Question 38

During the pre-democratic era, people resorted to ________ as a way of expressing displeasure with government.

Answer 38

protests - typically tax and food riots

Question 39

Who does elections by the people grant legitimacy to?

Answer 39

To those in power - they can use it to justify policies of their choosing

Question 40

What are political movements (social movements)?

Answer 40

Ways for citizens not unsatisfied with government to openly express their opposition; active and sustained efforts to achieve social and political change by groups of people who feel that government hasn’t been properly responsive to their concerns.

Question 41

How do political movements normally take place?

Answer 41

Largely outside established institutions in the form of protest rallies, marches, and the like; differes from participation through a political party - takes place through scheduled elections

Question 42

What modern protest has had the largest or more lasting impactful movement?

When decade did it begin, and did it spur constitutional acts?

Answer 42

The black civil rights movement - 1950s - 1964 civil rights act and 195 voting rights act were direct result of the black civil rights movement

Question 43

What was the tea party movement on April 15, 2009 aimed at?

Answer 43

It was the day federal income taxes were due - opposition to taxes, called for reductions in federal spending

Question 44

What was the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in 2011 about and what was the anger towards?

Answer 44

Anger towards the government’s bailout of the financial industry and its failure to hold bankers accountable for their role in the financial crisis of 2008

Their target was the widening income gap between the wealthiest 1 percent of americans and the rest of society.

“We are the 99%”

Question 45

What has the black lives matter movement sought to change?

Answer 45

Local law enforcement, local governments generally and the inferior services provided by them to black neighborhoods.

George Floyd

Question 46

What did the #Metoo movement show and try to raise awareness of?

Answer 46

The extent to which women are subjected to sexual assault and harassment, raise awareness of the level of sexual misconduct, the effect on the victims, and pressure firms and organizations to take steps to stop it.

Question 47

When did the movement against gun violence gain more traction?

What did it seek to do?

Answer 47

2018 - mass killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Sought to pressure lawmakers at the national, state, and local levels to place tougher gun control measures, like rigorous background checks on gun buyers and ban on military-style assault rifles used in several shooting including Parkland.

Question 48

True or False?

Most political movements fail to achieve their goals. Typically, a lengthy period of intense and sustained action is required for a movement to succeed.

Answer 48

True

Question 49

What recent political movement had the most success?

Answer 49

The tea party movement in 2009: became permanent force in the Republican party, providing it with an institutional base to pursue cuts in taxes and voernment spending.

Question 50

Is protest activity less common today in the US than in other western democracies?

Answer 50

yes

Question 51

Why are most americans not highly active in politics?

Answer 51

American cultural Emphasis on individualism