Political Parties and Interest Groups Quiz Flashcards
What group is best adapted to organizing the lower classes?
A political party
T/F
Spending in U.S. elections is much higher than in any other country on earth.
True
T/F
Officials representing super PACs will likely spend more in 2016 than in 2012.
True
Most initiative campaigns today are sponsored by
Interest groups seeking to circumvent legislative opposition to their goals.
Members of the New Politics movement…
1) used technology to help them pursue their goals.
2) secured enactment of environmental, consumer rights, and occupational health legislation
What is the increased number and importance of interest groups a response to?
an increase in the size and activity of government.
________ occurs when interest groups take out advertisements and hold marches.
Mobilizing public opinion
An iron triangle is made up of an alliance between
a legislative committee, an interest group, and an executive agency.
By 2012, there were approximately ________ PACs in the United States.
5,500
What is the primary function of a political action committee (PAC)?
to raise and distribute money to election campaigns
Interest groups most effectively serve ________.
The upper classes
Which of the following is a main theoretical assumption of pluralism?
Competition among interests will produce balance with all interests regulating each other.
What group has had the greatest success with a strategy of litigation?
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
If citizens were motivated to join an environmental organization because they strongly believed in protecting the environment and supported the goals of the group, then we can conclude that they were motivated by ________.
purposive benefits
________ once wrote that “America was a nation of joiners.”
Alexis de Tocqueville
When a group is called a membership association, it means that
members play an important role in the daily activities of the group.
What happens to interests that do not engage in extensive lobbying?
They often find themselves “Microsofted.”
What is Lobbying?
An attempt by an individual or group to influence the passage of legislation by exerting direct
pressure on members of Congress or a state legislature.
Organized interest groups enhance American democracy by
representing the interests of large numbers of people and encouraging political participation.
The Christian Coalition is a(n) ________ group.
ideological
What distinguishes lobbying from other strategies of influence?
Lobbyists try to exert pressure directly on government officials themselves.
A ________ is the best example of an informational benefit provided by many interest groups.
Newsletter
If one enjoys the benefits of a group’s collective efforts but did NOT contribute to those efforts, one is called a ________.
free rider
________ occurs when interest groups generate phony letters and phone calls in order to resemble a grassroots movement.
Astroturf lobbying
Since the 1930s, the number and scale of interest groups at the national level has ________.
Dramatically increased
What is the primary variable for predicting the likelihood of joining an interest group?
having a higher income and education
A benefit that is sought by an interest group and that once achieved cannot be denied to nonmembers is called a ________.
Collective good
A full-page, fully paid spread in the New York Times publicizing a major oil company is best described as ________.
institutional advertising
Why is the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 important to lobbyists?
It requires agencies to create opportunities for public comments before implementing new rules
and regulations.
Which of the following has Congress NOT done in recent years in order to limit the influence of interest groups?
outlawed all contact between lobbyists and members of Congress during legislative sessions
The New Politics movement gave rise to ________ groups.
public interest
What groups are most likely to belong to the New Politics movement?
upper-middle-class professionals, for whom the civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s were key experiences
In the lobbying world, to be “Microsofted” means that a company has
become vulnerable to adverse legislation and investigation as a result of failing to lobby the
federal government.
________ was an important Washington lobbyist who was indicted in 2005 on charges of violating federal lobbying laws.
Jack Abramoff
The practice of lobbying is protected by ________.
the First Amendment
Parties with a direct interest in a regulatory rule or decision are often called ________.
stakeholders
What has been eliminated as a result of 2002 campaign finance reforms?
soft money
What is NOT a key organizational component of interest groups?
newsletter and website
The best description of the ideal of pluralism is that
interests should be free to compete with each other for governmental influence.
Interest groups are concerned with the ________ of government, while political parties are concerned with the ________ of government.
policies; personnel
What is the most important attempt to limit the influence of lobbyists in recent years?
the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure Act
