Question 1 5 / 5 points
What positive effect can third parties have on the American political system?
Question options:
a) They tend to win many elections.
b) They can bring up new ideas that the major parties may hesitate to address.
c) They’re only allowed to run in low population states.
d) They spoil elections for the major parties.
Question 2 5 / 5 points
What term is given to a situation in which a federal agency sides with the industry they’re supposed to regulate rather than the public good?
Question options:
a) Agency capture
b) Agency direction
c) Agency discretion
d) Governmental corruption
Question 3 5 / 5 points
What’s the oldest continuing political party in the United States?
Question options:
a) Democratic Party
b) Green Party
c) Constitution Party
d) Republican Party
Question 4 5 / 5 points
Which of the following stances is likely to be held by the Republican Party?
Question options:
a) Higher taxes
b) Less regulation on businesses
c) More regulation on businesses
d) Pro-choice on the abortion issue
Question 5 5 / 5 points
What makes it natural for Americans to join together for political purposes?
Question options:
a) The American tradition of voting in elections
b) Americans are naturally drawn to political parties.
c) The American tradition of free association
d) The American tradition of stare decisis
Question 6 5 / 5 points
Which of the following most accurately describes turnout in recent presidential elections?
Question options:
a) Most recent presidential elections have a turnout of around 30%.
b) We don’t keep records of election turnout.
c) Most recent presidential elections have a turnout of around 60%.
d) Most recent presidential elections have a turnout of around 80%.
Question 7 5 / 5 points
Which of the following is likely to be part of the Democratic Party’s platform?
Question options:
a) A stance that favors fewer restrictions on gun ownership
b) A pro-life stance on abortion
c) Decreasing business regulations
d) Raising the minimum wage
Question 8 5 / 5 points
Which of the following is not a form of political participation?
Question options:
a) Watching TV news
b) Donating money to candidates
c) Voting
d) Demonstrating for a political cause
Question 9 5 / 5 points
How are elected officials likely to react to a high-salience issue?
Question options:
a) They’ll give that issue attention.
b) Officials pay no attention to the salience of issues.
c) They’ll ignore that issue.
d) There are no good ways of measuring salience.
Question 10 5 / 5 points
What’s a drawback of using elections to measure public opinion?
Question options:
a) The government doesn’t collect demographic information.
b) It can be difficult to know exactly why a person voted for a candidate.
c) We can’t know who voted in elections.
d) We can’t know the party registration of who voted.
Question 11 5 / 5 points
What impact would opinion intensity have on voter behavior?
Question options:
a) Voters who have strong opinions on an issue are less likely to take that issue into account when voting.
b) Intensity has no impact on voting behavior.
c) Voters who have strong opinions on an issue are more likely to take that issue into account when voting.
d) Voters who have weak opinions on an issue are more likely to take that issue into account when voting.
Question 12 5 / 5 points
What’s a factor that challenges the accuracy of telephone polls?
Question options:
a) Neutral questions can’t be asked over the phone.
b) Internet polls are more accurate.
c) Not all Americans are willing to participate.
d) It’s difficult to train phone pollsters.
Question 13 5 / 5 points
What term refers to the tendency of people to choose to pay attention to information that supports what they already believe?
Question options:
a) Cognitive dissonance
b) Party politics
c) Party perception
d) Selective perception
Question 14 5 / 5 points
Why do Americans not hold lawmakers accountable for disregarding public opinion in policy?
Question options:
a) Public opinion typically aligns with the desires of interest groups.
b) American voters like it when their elected officials go against popular opinion.
c) All measurements of popular opinion are typically wrong.
d) Few Americans pay attention to government enough to know if public opinion is being followed.
Question 15 0 / 5 points
What was George Washington’s view of political parties?
Question options:
a) He didn’t want them in the United States.
b) He thought they were bad but necessary. (Incorrect)
c) He passed a law banning political parties.
d) He wanted parties to form.
Question 16 5 / 5 points
What’s happened to the number of Americans voting a straight ticket in recent years?
Question options:
a) States have banned straight-ticket voting.
b) It has decreased.
c) It has stayed steady.
d) It has increased.
Question 17 5 / 5 points
What was the original goal of requiring voter registration?
Question options:
a) To stop people from voting
b) To stop people from voting more than once
c) To keep records on all Americans
d) To expand the number of people voting
Question 18 0 / 5 points
Who of the following is most likely to vote Republican?
Question options:
a) Person who lives in an urban area (Incorrect)
b) African American
c) Person in a lower income bracket
d) Protestant
Question 19 5 / 5 points
Who of the following is most likely to be a voter?
Question options:
a) Person younger than 35
b) A person living in the South
c) Long-time resident of a community
d) An unmarried person
Question 20 5 / 5 points
Why is creating a platform important for political parties?
Question options:
a) It locks the elected officials of that party into supporting the ideas in the platform.
b) It presents the policy stances of the party to the American people.
c) The platform must change every four years according to party rules.
d) The platform is used to determine how many seats in Congress each party has.
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