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  1. What is political socialization?

    1. The process in which people learn about their government and acquire beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors associated with good citizenship.

  2. What is the biggest influence on a person's party identity or political ideology?

    1. Family, school, peers, media, social environments, geographic location

  3. What affects voter’s behavior or political ideology?

    1. Affected by demographic factors; younger voters and minority groups tend to vote at lower rates compared to older voters

    2. Belief that one's vote matters, political efficacy, in what motivates individuals to participate in elections

    3. Major national events can shift voting behavior dramatically by changing public opinion and priorities

    4. Party identification, voting for candidates of identified party

    5. Early voting and mail-in ballots have increased voter turnout

  4. Explain what the different types of polls are.

    1. Opinion poll - represents opinions of population through series of question and using generalities from answers

    2. Benchmark poll - first poll taken in a campaign

    3. Bushfire poll - taken between period of benchmark and tracking polls

    4. Tracking poll - poll repeated in intervals, uses data from past week and discards older data

    5. Entrance poll - taken before voters cast their votes, ask who the voter plans to vote for and other similar questions

    6. Exit poll - taken immediately after leaving polling station

    7. Deliberative opinion poll - incorporates of deliberative democracy

    8. Push poll - a poll that attempts to influence opinions secretly using a poll

    9. Straw poll - unscientific survey used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues and policies

  5. What makes a poll more accurate?

    1. A representative and randomly selected sample.

    2. Large sample size with a low margin of error.

    3. Neutral and unbiased wording of questions.

    4. Proper weighting to reflect demographic diversity.

  6. Know what conservatives believe and liberals.

  1. Conservatives tend to lean more to traditional and foundational  values of America, no gun laws, free markets, pro life, low taxes, etc.

  2. Liberals tend to  endorse policies or ideologies that are different from traditional and foundational values, all of their policies are progressive. Trans rights, taxing the rich, universal healthcare and social security policies, programs to give equity to marginalized races of society. 

  1. What is Keynesian economics?

    1. An economic theory by John Maynard Kenesy suggested that government intervention, through fiscal policy (spending and taxes), can stabilize the economy during recession and control inflation during booms. 

  2. What is monetary policy and who is in charge of it?

    1. The regulation of money supply and interest rates to control inflation, unemployment, and economic growth. The Federal Reserve (the Fed) is in charge of it in the U.S.

  3. What tools are used in monetary policy?

    1. Open Market Operations (buying/selling government securities).

    2. Discount Rate (interest rate for banks borrowing from the Fed).

    3. Reserve Requirements (amount banks must hold in reserve).

  4.  What is straight ticket voting and split ticket voting?

    1. Straight ticket voting is when you only vote for a specific political party across the whole ballot, Republican straight ticket voting means they only voted for republicans, etc.

    2. Split ticket voting is having members of differing political parties in a ballot, Example: Voted republican for president, but voted democrat for state governor.

  5. What is the biggest obstacle for third parties/minor political parties in general elections?

    1. The biggest obstacle is winning the electoral college in the general election. A third party candidate is forced to win a majority of the votes in each state in order to get votes in the electoral college. This is nearly impossible to achieve, making the chances of a third party candidate becoming president almost impossible.

  6. Know what a closed primary is vs. an open primary.

    1. A closed primary is an election that only takes in voters that have registered their political party, and they receive a ballot with only members of the party they selected on it, and then they choose candidates.

    2. An open primary is open to everyone regardless of their political party affiliation, gives voters freedom when casting vote

  7. How does the electoral college work?

    1. The electoral system functions as a winner-take-all system, aside from two states. The votes casted within each state, Democrat, Republican, or Independent, are counted and the party with the majority of the popular vote will get all of the electoral votes for that given state. The states then cast their electoral votes after the election and the president is selected from the electoral votes cast, not the popular votes cast. In Maine and Nebraska, the winner of each district within the state will receive one electoral vote for each district that receives the popular vote.

  8. What is the BCRA (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act )?

    1. A 2002 law aimed at regulating campaign financing, restricting soft money contributions, and placing limits on political advertising.

  9. What was the Citizens United vs. FEC case and what were the consequences?

    1. The Supreme Court ruled that corporations and unions can spend unlimited amounts on political campaigns as long as it is independent of candidates. This led to the rise of Super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited money.