AP Gov Chapter 7 + 9 Test

What is Split Ticket Voting

where someone votes for different parties in their ballot

How has Split Ticket changed recently?

has increased over recent years

What is the opposite of Split-Ticket Voting?

Straight-Ticket Voting

What is Straight-Ticket Voting?

Where someone only vote for 1 party in a ballot

What is an interest group?

a private organization that tries to get public officials to act in ways that benefit its causes

How is an interest group different than a political party?

Interest groups try to influence the government from the outside, not directly run it

What are the 3 reasons people join interest groups?

Solidary Incentive, Material Incentive, Purposive Incentive

What is the Solidary Incentive of joining an interest group?

Desire to share/associate with others (like joining a club)

What is the Material Incentive of joining an interest group?

Desire to earn money/profit from joining (Ex. Discounts on Medicine)

What is the Purposive Incentive of joining an interest group?

Desire to support causes of the group (ex. joining enviro group to actually help the enviro)

What are the types of Interest Groups?

Economic
Business
Labor
Agricultural
Professional

What are the two types of techniques that interest groups use

Direct and Indirect

What are direct techniques

methods used by interest groups that involve interaction with government officials to help the organization’s goal

What are some examples of direct techniques

Lobbying

Rating Systems

Building Alliances with other organizations

Campaign Assistance

Litigation

What are indirect techniques

strategy that uses a 3rd party to influence the government

What are some examples of indirect techniques

Generating Public Pressure

Using Public Polls and Publishing

Using constituents as Lobbyists

Use of Demonstrations/Protests/Boycott

Potential Issues with Interest Groups

Interest Groups with more money often have more influence in government

Elitism over Pluralism

What are “Self-Starters"?” in political recruitment

people who run for office without recruitment from the parties

How does party recruitment begin

often starts with recruitment in the local or state levels that move up to national positions

What are the two categories of Campaign Spending

Hard Money and Soft Money

What is Hard Money

Money given directly to a candidate

• FEC regulated

• limited

What is Soft Money

Money given to state and local party organizations for voting related activities

• Not FEC regulated

What are PACs

Stands for Political Action Committees
organized for the purpose of raising and spending money to elect and defeat candidates

What are Super PACs

a type of PAC that may raise and spend unlimited sums of money for ads to support or oppose

How are Super PACs different from traditional PACs

they cannot donate money directly to candidates

use soft money

What were the key provisions of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002/ McCain and Feingold Act about

Banned Large Contributors of “Soft Money”
Limited campaign ads from special interest groups
Raised money an individual can contribute
Limited soft money contributions to $10,000

What was the Citizens United vs FEC Decision

5-4 for Citizens United who went against the FEC to prevent them from applying the BCRA on their film “Hillary: The Movie”

The BCRA was deemed unconstitutional

What was the Citizens United vs FEC Impact on Politics

Allowed citizens and corporations to spend money on helping candidates with their money

Spending money is protected by free speech

Why is voter turnout in the U.S. lower than other Democracies

• Low interest in election
  
  

• People don’t know what the candidates actually believe and only know negative things about them
  
  

• People are uninformed about ongoing elections
  
  

• People are not registered to vote
  '

• “Rational Ignorance Effect”

What is the Rational Ignorance Effect

Idea that a voter will not become informed on an issue because they know their vote will have little to no impact on the issue

Why do people vote?

People get satisfaction from voting: Reeling of Patriotism and Civic Duty

What does the idea of Political Efficacy mean?

feeling that one can have an impact on political policy

How can Political Efficacy impact voter turnout

The more efficacy one has, the more likely they are to vote and more likely they are to be politically active

How can age, Education, Minority Status, Income Level, and

Competitiveness of election impact voter turnout?

What are all the different kinds of primaries

Closed

Semi-Open

Open

Blanket

Runoff

What is a caucus in primaries

In person meetings run by political parties to select a candidate for an election

Closed Primaries

only party members are allowed to vote

Open Primaries

any registered voter can vote in any primary but can only choose 1 to vote in

Blanket Primaries

Any registered voter can vote in any primary

Runoff Primaries

If election is close between 2 candidates, certain states will have a 2nd primary with just those 2 candidates

What did the 15th amendment do

citizens have the right to vote regardless of race or ethnicity (barely effective)

What did the 19th amendment do

all women citizens have the right to vote

What did the 26th amendment do

Gave all citizens 18 years or older the right to vote

What did the Voting Rights Act of 1965 do?

Outlawed voter-registration tests/ poll taxes

Required federal voter registration and set federally followed voting process