Exam 2 review Flashcards
What are the factors that influence political opinion formation?
Family, School,Peers, Media
what things are important to consider when making a reliable opinion poll?
- Question-Wording
- Question Sequencing
- An Accurate Sample - which requires that every group of people is represented
- Lower Margin of Error (3% or lower)
- Tell you how they contact people, what questions,s and the sequence of the questions.
what are the 3 types of polling?
-Tracking Polls
- Exit polls
- Deliberative polls
what is tracking polls?
charts rise and fall based on the candidate’s popularity
it gives candidates and campaigns information
what type of election is tracking polls typically used in?
presidential elections
what is an exit poll?
done on election day at random voting locations
what happens with an exit poll?
someone pulls you aside and asks your demographics and which candidate you voted for
Why are exit polls used?
exit polls help the media project the winner
exit polls give us the most accurate demographic information(how people vote)
what is the intent of a deliberative poll?
Find out how people would vote if they were probably informed
what are deliberative polls?
-relatively new
-Expose a large sample of people to issue clusters(different information)
What is the common practice today among survey firms when it comes to asking a presidential approval question?
The common practice today among survey firms is to ask a presidential approval question at the beginning of the poll/survey so that answers to other questions do not impact the presidential approval question.
what did James Madison in Federalist 10 argue for?
argued for the proliferation of interest groups so that no one group could get hegemony over the other groups
what are the direct techniques of interest groups?
Lobbying
*private meetings
*Testifying before U.S congress/state legislatures
*Drafting legislation
*Social Occasions
*providing political information
*supplying nomination suggestions for president and governors
what are the indirect techniques of interest groups?
*using constitutes as lobbyists
*building alliances with other groups
what is the largest interest group in the united states?
AARP
what is a closed primary mean?
only parties voters can vote (closed for outsiders)
what is an open primary election?
open to all parties, can vote for any party without declaring a certain party
is texas an open or closed primary election?
open
what is a run-off election?
when two people tie off in the majority vote of the primary and closed election candidates have a run-off between the two
what is a blanket primary election
*no longer exist because it was ruled unconstitutional
Put different parties on the same ballot and people vote on which one they want office by office and can switch parties between different offices.
what is a jungle/cajun primary election?
Lousiana Uses it
for a particular office in the ballot they list every single candidate; if one candidate gets a majority of the votes…they become the office holder (no general election later)
- if no majority, leads to a runoff (like Mayor Turner did)
- usually take place in the fall; Nov or Dec
what is the runoff primary in Texas?
closed primaries
what is an initiative?
allow citizens to propose Legislation and submit it to popular vote
what is referenda?
allows the legislators to submit proposed Legislation for popular approval
