unit 2: political participation

Question 1

public opinion

Answer 1

how people think or feel about particular things

Question 2

how did founding fathers view public opinion

Answer 2

-believed thataverage citizens lacked the inofrmation engery and inrestest to decide on public policy
-used representatives and senators as a buffer for the rash ad undecuated desicions of the people

Question 3

framers didn’t create government that would do what the people want but rather..

Answer 3

created a government that could reach a set of goals as highlighted in the preamble to the constitution

Question 4

poll

Answer 4

a survey of public opinion

Question 5

random sampling

Answer 5

method of selecting from a population in which each person has an equal probability of being selected

Question 6

sampling error

Answer 6

the difference between results of random samples taken at the same time

Question 7

exit polls

Answer 7

polls based on interviews conducted on election day with randomly selected voters

Question 8

question wording

Answer 8

the way in which survey questions are phrased, which influences how respondents answer them

Question 9

in order to make a valid conclusion from a poll…

Answer 9

you need a properly drawn sample and carefully worded questions

Question 10

3 main factors that drive public opinion

Answer 10

political socialization, demographic factors, individual’s partisanship

Question 11

political socialization

Answer 11

the process by which one’s family influences their political views

Question 12

impressionable years hypothesis

Answer 12

this is the idea that political experiences during the teens and early 20s powerfully shape attitudes for the rest of the life cycle

Question 13

it’s not that younger people are more liberal and older are more conservative…

Answer 13

it’s the time period and the party who held power during the generation’s impressionable years

Question 14

gender gap

Answer 14

difference in political views between men and women

Question 15

partisanship

Answer 15

an individuals identification with a party

Question 16

party sorting

Answer 16

the alignment of partisanship and issue positions so that democrats tend to take more liberal positions and republicans tend to take more conservative ones

Question 17

political ideology

Answer 17

a more or less consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue

Question 18

democrat or republican is to partisanship as liberal and conservative are too…

Answer 18

political ideology

Question 19

political elites

Answer 19

persons with a disproportionate share of political power

Question 20

heuristics

Answer 20

informational shortcuts used by voters to make a decision

Question 21

political participation

Answer 21

the many different ways that people take part in politics and government

Question 22

voting-age population

Answer 22

citizens who are eligible to vote after reaching the minimum age requirement

Question 23

voting-eligible population

Answer 23

citizens who have reached the minimum age to be able to vote, excluding those who are not legally permitted to cast a ballot

Question 24

literacy test

Answer 24

a requirement that citizens show that they can read before registering to vote

Question 25

poll tax

Answer 25

a requirement that citizens pay a tax in order to register to vote

Question 26

grandfather clause

Answer 26

a clause in registration allowing people who do not meet requirements to vote if they or their ancestors had voted before 1867

Question 27

white primary

Answer 27

the practice of keeping blacks from voting in the southern states primaries through arbitrary use of registration requirements and intimidations

Question 28

despite the passing of the 15th amendment..

Answer 28

blacks were still prevented from voting with:
-literacy tests
-poll taxes
-white primaries

Question 29

Australian ballot

Answer 29

-a government-printed ballot of uniform dimensions to be cast in secret that many states
-adopted around 1890 to reduce voting fraud associated with party printed ballots cast in public

Question 30

voter identification laws

Answer 30

laws requiring citizens to show a government issued photo ID in order to vote

Question 31

activists

Answer 31

people who tend to participate in all forms of politics

Question 32

opinion polls

Answer 32

polls that measure public opinion on various issues

Question 33

benchmark polls

Answer 33

polls that create baseline views of candidates

Question 34

tracking polls

Answer 34

polls that follow how views of candidates change during campaigning

Question 35

exit polls

Answer 35

polls that ask people why they voted the way they did

Question 36

political efficacy

Answer 36

the belief that ordinary citizens can influence what the government does

Question 37

the 5 important elements of the american political system

Answer 37

liberty, equality, democracy, individual responsibility, civic duty (let’s, eat, dry, ice, cream)

Question 38

liberty

Answer 38

preoccupied with rights

Question 39

equality

Answer 39

equal chance to succeed/participate in politics

Question 40

democracy

Answer 40

americans think officials should be accountable

Question 41

civic duty

Answer 41

people ought to take community affairs seriously

Question 42

individual responsibiblity

Answer 42

barring a disability, individuals are responsible for their own actions

Question 43

orthodox cultural class

Answer 43

believes that morality and religion should be of decisive importance

Question 44

progressive cultural class

Answer 44

believes that personal freedom and solving social problems are more important than religion

Question 45

the orthodox-progressive cultural war differs from political disputes because…

Answer 45

money is not at stake and compromises are almost impossible since it is lead by deep differences by peoples beliefs about private and public morality

Question 46

there has been mistrust of government since the late 1950s because…

Answer 46

-unhappy war in Vietnam during 1960s
-President Nixon’s watergate scandal during 1970s
-Bill Clinton and his impeachment process during the 1990s

Question 47

distrust of the government makes what more important?

Answer 47

civil society gets a greater role which is a collection of private/voluntary groups that are independent of the government and make human cooperation easier and hold the government accountable

Question 48

examples of civil society

Answer 48

-boys and girls club
-boy/girl scouts
-chamber of commerce
-elks club

Question 49

how do political elites influence public opinion

Answer 49

-elites control the media and raise/frame political issues
-elites determine the range of acceptable and unacceptable policy options

Question 50

motor voter law 1993

Answer 50

-congress passed this law to increase voter registration
-allows people to register to vote when applying for drivers license and provide registration through the mail