PSC 101 University of Alabama Exam 2

Who holds hearings on Supreme Court justices?

the Senate Judiciary Committee

What is the purpose of taking testimony in congressional hearings?

to collect information and send messages to the bureaucracy

What is the process for removing from office a president who has committed "high crimes and misdemeanors"?

impeachment

Congressional authority to monitor actions of the executive branch is known as __________.

oversight

Which is true regarding regional differences in voting?

The south was traditionally Democratic at the congressional level and is currently more Republican.

Which is an accurate description of procedural and substantive votes?

Procedural votes conduct business of the chamber; substantive votes are on bills or amendments.

Since 1970, party voting in Congress has __________.

increased

Who has the authority to introduce a bill into the legislative process?

members of Congress

What is the minimum number of members of Congress needed to support a discharge petition?

218

The __________ clause of the Constitution gives Congress the power to pass laws necessary and proper to carry out its enumerated duties and responsibilities.

elastic

Which of the following roles do minority parties play in two-party systems?

Minority parties can bring to the forefront problems and ideas that are not being addressed by the other parties.

Which of the following is an obstacle that minority parties face in the American system?

the vote threshold that a party must achieve in the previous election to be eligible for public funding

In addition to (1) a set of grievances among a group of people, (2) resources, (3) a supportive environment, and (4) a sense that its members can make a difference in politics, what else do social movements require?

a catalyst or spark

When does the inside game seem to work best?

when the issues are narrow and technical

Which of the following arguments about interest groups is a disturbance theorist likely to make?

D. That interest groups generally form when a particular set of interests comes under threat

Which of the following statements concerning the relationship between the Constitution and interest groups is true?

D. Constitutional rules, like the First Amendment, encourage the formation of interest groups

Which of the following statements about the outside game is false?

The outside game is mainly used to defend the status quo rather than to try to change existing policies.

Which of the following is a tactic of players of the inside game?

cultivating personal relationships with members of the House and Senate to gain access to lawmaking

Of the following groups, whose views are not very well represented in American politics by interest groups?

the poor

The inside game is generally dominated by which type of interest group?

business corporations

A __________ is an entity created by an interest group whose purpose is to collect money and make donations to political candidates.

political action committee

Compared with the iron triangle arrangement, the issue network is said to be __________.

more open and inclusive

Of the following sectors, which typically spends the least on lobbying efforts?

ideological and single-issue groups

The term __________ describes the situation in which former government officials become lobbyists for interests with whom they formerly ----dealt in their official capacity.

revolving door

Campaign finance laws are one way that legislators have attempted to limit and regulate the role interest groups play in American politics. What is the primary hurdle these efforts have faced?

The Supreme Court has ruled that these organized interests are entitled to First Amendment rights.

Interest groups hope to sway the views of the courts by filing __________, which are briefs in support of one side or the other engaged in a legal action.

A. amicus curiae

Which of the following accounts for the number of different interest groups in the United States?

A. Social, economic, and political life is highly and increasingly complex.

In the context of interest group politics, what is the essential characteristic of the inside game?

C. direct, personal contact between group representatives and government officials

Approximately how many paid lobbyists work in Washington, D.C.?

A. tens of thousands

The success of interest groups is based in large part on the assumption that government takes what kind of role?

C. an active and involved role

According to the principles of civil disobedience, how must unjust laws be resisted?

with nonviolence

Which of the following statements about the public's response to social movements is accurate?

The public is most receptive when other conditions in society appear in favor of the movement.

Times of social distress often lead to __________.

the rise of social movements

Social movements often trigger __________, responses by other groups in society who feel a resulting sense of challenge or vulnerability.

countermovements

The use of civil disobedience tactics by the civil rights movement was borrowed from which iconic figure?

Mahatma Gandhi

Historical evidence suggests that social movements discredit themselves in the eyes of the people by trying to persuade people to do what?

to be violent

Which of the following helped the civil rights movement achieve broad support for civil rights legislation in the 1960s?

observation of the contrast between peaceful protesters and the violence used against them

Which term refers to the number of groups involved in a political conflict?

scope of conflict

How do social movements make U.S. politics more democratic?

by helping those without substantial resources enter political life

How do social movements encourage popular involvement to support their respective causes?

by encouraging people to expand the spheres of their participation

Which of the following accurately reflects the goals and methods of social movements?

to evolve a minority position to a majority position

According to some political scientists, which of the following is a major obstacle to the success of social movements?

a constitutional system that by its nature discourages the advancement of minority interests

What is the consequence of having narrow, special, and privileged interest groups dominating the American political system?

Democratic ideals are threatened.

Minor parties that arise as part of a social movement are known as __________ parties.

protest

__________ is the sense of belonging to one political party or another.

Party identification

When compared to other Americans, party activists are __________.

more ideological

Republicans, in general, are more __________ than Democrats.

conservative

Which is the most powerful predictor of voting in Congress currently?

partisanship

The contemporary Tea Party is best described by which of the following?

a group within the Republican Party with a particularly strong conviction that government should play a very small role in the economy

Which of the following is true about the national party conventions?

Conventions attempt to mobilize loyal supporters and unite members of the party toward a common platform and presidential candidate.

Which best describes the differences between the Republican and Democratic party platforms?

The Republican party platform tends to stick to rhetoric about opportunity and freedom, whereas the Democratic party platform is concerned with social welfare.

Which of the following helps to explain why the government shut down for 17 days in 2013?

increasing polarization of party identification

The United Auto Workers sit-down strike of 1937 was a success for which of the following reasons?

It forced the company to recognize the union as a valuable asset in negotiation.

Which of the following is a mark of successful social movements?

the ability to affect the political fortunes of elected leaders

Why did the poor people's movement of the 1960s fail?

Its solution to poverty—income redistribution—was too radical for the American public.

Social movements committed to radical change in society and the economy tend to threaten widely held values and beliefs. As a result, __________.

they usually face repression of some sort

Successful social movements exhibit __________, the ability to make their members believe that they can truly affect politics.

political efficacy

Which of the following models of elections requires that parties stake out different positions on the issues of the day?

the prospective voting model

Which of the following is a distinguishing feature of elections in the United States?

Election and vote-counting procedures are inconsistent across the country.

First-past-the-post elections are defined as which of the following?

A candidate need only win a plurality of votes to win the election.

A voter with a registration issue on election day can still vote using __________.

a provisional ballot

Which is the best description of so-called ballot fatigue?

lack of citizen participation due to the numerous federal, state, and local elections and ballot initiatives that have added to the length and complexity of elections

In the electoral competition voting model of democratic elections, how do unified parties compete for votes?

by taking the most popular position

Voting a party back into office based on the belief that they have governed well previously is an example of the __________ voting model.

retrospective

In a plurality election, what portion of the vote is required for a candidate to win?

more votes than the other candidates

Which of the following consequences does Duverger's Law stipulate will happen when a country uses a single-member plurality system?

The country will have a two-party system.

When a candidate has won more votes than any other candidate but has attained less than a majority of all votes cast, what is the candidate said to have won?

a plurality of the votes

The representatives who are elected in the states to formally choose the U.S. president are known as __________.

electors

One effect of the Electoral College is to __________.

discourage third-party formation

Most delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions are selected __________.

in state primary elections or caucuses

Women were guaranteed the right to vote by the Nineteenth Amendment in __________.

1920

The legal right to vote is called the __________.

franchise

What is most accurate regarding recent voter registration issues?

Democrats are seeking an expanded electorate and Republicans are pushing for tighter regulations on the voting process.

Which factor generally influences the likelihood of a person voting?

race

When compared to whites, current turnout rates among African Americans are generally __________.

equal

In the 2012 election, turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds was just over __________ percent.

40

Which type of campaign contribution falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Election Commission?

hard money

Elected officials from all levels of government who are appointed by the party committees to be delegates to the Democratic National Convention are known as __________.

super delegates

Which of the following groups does not have to reveal the source of its financial donations?

501s

A member of Congress who tries to mirror perfectly the views of his or her constituency is called __________.

a delegate

When compared to the House of Representatives, leadership in the Senate is __________.

less visible

Standing committees in Congress are __________.

permanent

At the start of each new Congress, members meet in a __________ to select leaders, approve committee assignments, and decide on legislative electives.

party conference

Which is true regarding campaign financing?

Incumbents tend to have an easier time fundraising.

Senate seats are __________ than House seats.

more visible

By giving members of the House of Representatives two-year terms, the framers of the Constitution were intending __________.

that elected representatives to the House would follow the wishes of their constituents more closely than members of the Senate would

Redistricting for political gain is often called __________.

gerrymandering

What do we call a citizen who lives in the district of an elected official?

a constituent

__________ representation reflects the degree to which Congress as a body reflects the demographic composition of the population as a whole.

Descriptive

What is required to override a presidential veto?

a two-thirds vote by both houses of Congress

The Constitution originally called for the election of senators by whom?

state legislatures

Changes in the economy have contributed to congressional gridlock in which of the following ways?

Labor-saving technologies and a decline in the number of manufacturing jobs have threatened the middle class.

Bicameralism conformed to the framers' belief that the legislative branch—the center of policy making for government—ought to be a place where the public's business is deliberated __________.

carefully and slowly