Final Review Flashcards
What is the difference between political ideology and political culture?
The former deals with what government should do, the latter with how the government should operate.
According to Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 book, one of the reasons a democratic republic took root in the US was because of what?
Absence of a feudal aristocracy.
Why is speaking of a single political culture within a nation dangerous?
Because most nations do not have a homogenous population.
Can people share a common political culture but disagree on ideology?
Yes.
What is the best statement of economic equality in application to the US?
Most Americans believe that everyone has the right to get ahead (equality of opportunity)
What is the most important source of political values in the US?
The family
What is the average American more likely to do than the average European?
Pray daily
What is the culture war about?
What kind of country we ought to live in.
What is the progressive view in the culture war?
Personal freedom is more important than tradition, and the rules for morality vary with circumstances.
One of the ways in which the culture war differs from other political disputes is that
Compromise is almost impossible.
In recent decades, what has been the relationship between public confidence in political institutions and that in other institutions?
The former has definitely gone down while the latter has remained unchanged or declined.
What is the sense that one has a say in what government does and that politics is understandable?
Political efficacy
What is NOT a reason certain groups survive in the face of political intolerance?
Groups are able to go underground.
What best describes the trend in American’s trust of government?
Americans’ trust in government officials has declined at a fairly steady rate since the ’50s.
What is not true of political tolerance in America?
Americans will support liberties for all groups both in theory and practice?
What is one reason why public policy often differs from public opinion?
Public opinion polling is not always accurate.
What can the validity of public opinion polls be affected by?
The wording of questions on a poll.
According to political scientists Wilson and DiIulio, “the Framers of the Constitution did not try to create a government that would do from day to day ‘what the people want’.” What serves as checks on public opinion?
Federalism, an independent judiciary, and separation of powers.
In a poll conducted in 2007, 60 percent of voters believed that America would suffer another terrorist attack in the year ahead, while 89 percent believed the new year would be good for their families. What best describes the results of this poll?
The poll was not well-designed or well-conducted.
A woman who differs with her mother on party identification is most likely to
Describe herself as an independent.
Liberal preferences on various policy issues are displayed least often by
White protestants
What is one reason that support for liberal candidates and democrats has fallen amongst catholics and jews?
These groups enjoy greater prosperity and less discrimination than in the past.
True or False: When people talk with pollsters they tend to underestimate the amount of their political participation.
False
What is an accurate statement about the gender gap?
Men have deserted Democratic candidates in favor of Republican ones.
When a political opinion exists as a potential, but has not been crystallized and converted into an identifiable belief, it is said to be
Latent
In polling, a random sample is one that
Gives each person an equal chance of being in the sample.
Compared with the 1950s, the number of Southerners identifying themselves as democrats in the 1980s was
Much smaller
Do most Americans describe themselves as either liberal or conservative?
No
During the administrations of F. D. Roosevelt, liberalism became closely associated with
Active government intervention in economic affairs.
The fact that numerous elites exist in the United States means that
Their influence on mass opinion will not be uniform
The level of voting increases with increases in
Education, age, religious conviction, and income.
In US presidential elections, voter turnout is typically
Less than 60%
When one votes based on what a candidate pledges to do about an issue if elected, it is called
Prospective issue voting
The text suggests that one reason religious involvement increases political participation is because
It leads to social connectedness and increases awareness of larger issues.
Mid-term elections elect
About 1/3 of the senate and all of the house
A study of the causes of diversity in America includes an analysis of the implications of
geography, social backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, and economic/class divisions.
Are paying one’s taxes considered “political participation”?
No
One way that blacks were prevented from voting prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was by requiring them to
Pass a literacy test
Suffrage was extended by the 26th amendment to
Those aged 18-20
What is the most powerful determinant of political participation, other than education and information?``
Age
What is a valid criticism of the caucus system?
The first caucus is in Iowa, which is not representative of the population as a whole.
The framers sought to prevent legislative tyranny by
Dividing power among the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary.
One advantage that incumbent members of Congress have over challengers in election campaigns is the use of
The franking privilege
When an agency such as the EPA makes an important decision (for example, that it can regulate carbon-dioxide emissions just as it would industrial emissions of sulfur dioxide), it is quite likely to be sued in federal court. This is an example of what is meant by the term
Adversary culture
A mark-up session is one in which
A committee or subcommittee makes changes in the original version of the bill.
Who has chief responsibility for assembling and analyzing the figures in the presidential budget submitted to Congress each year?
Office of Management and Budget
If by December 30th the President has not signed a bill that was sent to him by Congress on Christmas Eve, he has probably
Used a pocket veto
Senator Pettifogger gets an item inserted into the federal budget which allocates $6,000,000 for building a ski lift at a resort in his home state. This is known as
Pork-barrel legislation
Largely because of two major events of the twentieth century - the Great Depression and World War II - the features of the federal bureaucracy changed. What characterized this change?
People came to expect government to solve social and economic problems.
What did the rulings in Marbury v. Madison and McCulloch v. Maryland NOT establish?
The federal government has the power to regulate commerce among the states - i.e. interstate commerce
Senator Pettifogger has refused to return his blue slip. In doing so, he is relying on senatorial courtesy and is
Rejecting the president’s nominee for a district judgeship.
On the issue of a president’s right to impound funds, the US Constitution says
Nothing
What best defines the term “judicial restraint”?
The tendency of judges to interpret the Constitution in light of the original intent of its framers.
How can a Presidential veto be overridden?
By a 2/3rds vote of both houses of congress.
What is true about Independent Regulatory Commissions?
They exercise quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial, quasi-executive functions.
The highest state court in South Caroline has ruled that the federal Endangered Species Act is illegal because it runs counter to the constitution of South Carolina. The case will likely be brought to the US Supreme Court by means of
A writ of certiorari
The framers assumed that, under the electoral-college system, most presidential elections would be decided by the House of Representatives. Why did this not turn out to be the case?
Because political parties ended up playing a major role in producing nationwide support for a slate of national candidates.
True or false: each state receives electoral votes can be split between candidates.
False
The rule of propinquity states that
Power tends to be wielded by the people who are in the room where the decisions are being made.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, late Supreme Court Justice, once wrote, “I do not think the United States would come to an end if we lost our power to declare an act of Congress void. I do think the union would be imperiled if we could not make that declaration as to the laws of the several states.” Based on that statement, Holmes most likely would have opposed
A decision allowing states to decide whether federal courts could review state actions.
In recent years, the political beliefs of members of Congress have become
More polarized than voters
When the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, where is the language of the bill resolved?
In a conference committee.
Presidential primaries are
An alternative to the use of accuses to select delegates to national party conventions.
A concurring opinion by a judge means that
The judge agrees with the majority opinion but rejects their reasoning.
When a person is selected by the President to head an agency and to shift its policies in the direction of the president’s, the appointee generally finds that
Subordinates wield considerable power
One way that Congress exercises authority over agencies is through the
Authorization of agency budgets
Veto power and executive privilege give a president both a way of blocking action and a
Means of forcing Congress to bargain
What is generally regarded as a key feature of the “Reagan Revolution”?
Sharp increases in defense spending
What is NOT true about modern congressional staffs?
Only a few members of congress have full time staffers working in their home states and districts.
The “rule of four” refers to
Four justices need to agree to hear a case before a writ of certiorari is granted.
Some conservatives, for example, might make their approval of a Supreme Court nominee contingent in that individual’s personal views about the death penalty. Such concern for a nominee’s ideology is known as
A political litmus test
Did the Pendleton Act enhance the power of patronage in federal appointments?
No
The job of the whip is to
Serve as a liaison between the house leadership and rank-and-file
What does not explain why the Speaker of the House is the most powerful legislator in Washington?
The speaker selects chairpersons of standing committees?
What happens when a bill is not passed during the life of one congress?
It dies
What does Article I in the Constitution not confer on Congress to?
The power to interpret laws
What powers belong to the Vice President?
To succeed a president who dies, resigns, or is impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate; to help decide whether or not the president is disabled; to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate.
One explanation for why congressional seats have become less marginal is that
Incumbents can use their power to get programs passed that benefit their districts and thereby themselves.
What happens if a vote by the Supreme Court ends in a tie?
The lower court’s decision is left standing
A bill to raise taxes would most likely first be referred to the
House Ways and Means Committee
Presidents Carter and Reagan used different organizational structures within their White House Offices. Mr. Carter did not have a chief of staff for over half of his presidency; Mr. Reagan had a few very powerful Chiefs of staff. The more recent of the two presidents favored which model of organization?
Pyramidal
Since 1789 - when George Washington was inaugurated as president - about what percent of the 2500+ presidential vetoes have been overridden?
4%
What is the determining factor of the cloture rule?
It requires 3/5ths of the entire Senate membership to pass.
The main reason the cabinet is a weak entity is that
The secretaries defend, explain, and enlarge their own agencies.
James Madison believed the latent causes of faction were rooted in
The nature of man
What is NOT a reason for the proliferation of interest groups in the US?
Limited government
