Questions- Ch 7, 8, 9 Flashcards
The oldest political parties in the world are where?
United States
Why are parties in the US relatively weak today?
Laws and rules under which they operate have taken away their power and voters have lost the commitment to parties they used to have
Who generally nominates candidates for elective office in Europe?
Party Leaders
Why has the two party system persisted in the US?
It is very difficult to create parties and to win because of the plurality system, where winners take all, and some people still have loyalties to their party, it is also not a thing to have a third party in some states.
George Washington was critical of political parties most notably during what?
Farewell Address
The first political party was organized by whom?
Followers of Thomas Jefferson
At the time the Constitution was ratified, voting was limited to whom?
White Landowning/taxpaying men.
What are the most important changes in elections?
Voting Age(26th Amendment) Black Suffrage (15th Amendment) Womans Suffrage (19th Amendment) Direct Election of Senators (17 Amendment)
What things were employed to discriminate against african americans who wanted to vote?
Grandfather clause, literacy tests, white primaries, poll taxes
What happened with the Voting Rights of 1970, which gave eighteen year olds the right to vote in state and federal elections?
It was challenged by the supreme court for being unconstitutional before it was literally added to the constitution as the 26th amendment.
Individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty one could vote in a presidential election for the first time in what year?
1972
With the adoption of the australian ballot, this enabled United States citizens to vote ____
in secret
What is intended to serve as a check in political opinion?
Representative gov, federalism, separation of powers, and independent judiciary.
What is the chief source of opinions on matters?
interest groups and factions
The “gender gap” refers to the tendency of female voters to do what in recent elections?
vote for democrats
The authors suggest the most plausible explanation for the gender gap is what?
Men desert democrats
There is much research which indicates attending college tends to make people lean more toward what side that the general population?
Liberal
The political liberalizing effects of college among older americans were probably attributable to the fact that yesteryears college graduates _____________________
read more newspapers
The transfer of political beliefs from generation to generation does not appear in large national studies of political attitudes. Why?
Few Americans are far left or far right
