Ch4 Political Parties Complete Test Bank

CHAPTER 4 Political Parties

Textbook Section (REF)

The Roles and Structure of Political Parties in Texas

Texas’s History as a One-Party State

Texas Party Politics Today

Chapter Goal (OBJ)

Describe the main functions and structure of state party organizations.

Trace the evolution of the party system in Texas.

Analyze how ideological divisions and demographic change affect Texas political parties.

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The fundamental principles and positions supported by a political party are explained in the

2. Which of the following is a way in which parties help voters during elections?

3. In Texas, political parties help candidates by providing

4. When Tip O’Neill said, “all politics is local,” he was talking about how

5. Why might parties at the state level have less power than those at the national level?

6. Members of the Texas Republican Party have become more conservative and members of the Texas Democratic Party have become more liberal. This evolution best defines

7. The process of ________ occurs throughout our early years, when parents, religious leaders, teachers, and others influence our partisan identifications.

8. Texans are increasingly identifying themselves as

9. Since 1994, the state government of Texas

10. Why are Texas Republicans considered to be in a divided moment?

11. Which movement has had the largest impact on state legislative races in recent years?

12. Texas Democrats have been relegated to a minority status at the state level since

13. Most Texas Democrats today would be classified as

14. In order to win statewide elections, Democrats in Texas want to mobilize which of the following to vote?

15. The fastest-growing demographic group in Texas is ________, the majority of whom vote ________.

16. No Democrat has won Texas in a presidential race since ________.

17. In recent presidential elections, Texas has

18. What is the most basic level of the permanent party organization in Texas?

19. Which statement correctly describes the requirements for membership in a major political party in Texas?

20. The main role of the precinct conventions is to select delegates to the ________ and possibly to submit resolutions that may eventually become part of the party platform.

21. The ________ convention is a meeting held by a political party following its precinct convention for the purpose of electing delegates to its state convention.

22. The Latino movement known as La Raza Unida occurred during the

23. In a “nonpartisan” election,

24. The States’ Rights Party, also known as the Dixiecrats, split with the national Democratic Party over which issue?

25. Why don’t Texans vote for third parties?

26. The Libertarian Party can be considered

27. Duverger’s Law states that

28. ________ is a system of representation that encourages third-party voting because it allows each political party representation in proportion to its percentage of the total vote.

29. Political parties are now using social media in order to

30. The ________ movement was a movement during the 1950s in which conservative Democrats in Texas supported Republican candidate Dwight Eisenhower for the presidency because many of those conservative Democrats believed that the national Democratic Party had become too liberal.

31. Presidential Republicanism describes a pattern when Texan voters would vote for a Republican president and

32. In the post–Civil War era, the only parts of Texas that showed significant Republican leanings were

33. Although the Democratic Party dominated state politics for much of the twentieth century, by the 1950s it faced internal divisions between ________ and ________ Democrats.

34. By about the 1940s, a split between liberals and conservatives developed in the Democratic Party that focused on

35. What event marked a significant change in how Texans began to vote not only in presidential elections but also in state elections?

36. Conservative Democrats in Texas are also known as

37. Between 1927 and 1949, how many Republicans were in the Texas legislature?

38. When intraparty disputes split members into different groups, these groups are referred to as

39. The mass exodus of more affluent whites from urban areas to suburban areas is sometimes referred to as

40. Between 2008 and 2018, countywide elections in Dallas County

41. In Texas today, rural areas have become more ______________, while urban areas have become more ___________.

42. Most of the African American population of Texas is concentrated in

43. By focusing on influencing the Republican primary elections, the Tea Party in Texas is trying to

44. Similar to other southern states, Texas is

1. Texas voters often use the party affiliation of the candidates as a way to make voting decisions.

2. Local issues are always ideological in nature.

3. Texas Republicans have held all major statewide elected offices since 1980.

4. Texas requires people to designate party affiliation when registering to vote.

5. The Libertarian Party is both socially and economically liberal.

6. Texas Democrats have been relegated to minority status in the state since 1994.

7. Partisan polarization makes it difficult to get legislation passed in the legislature.

8. In Texas, the most local level of a party organization is the county.

9. The primary function of the precinct convention is to write the party platform.

10. Social media is an important fundraising tool because it is less costly to solicit campaign contributions using social media than through other methods.

11. Most third-party candidates in Texas are unsuccessful in their electoral bids.

12. The Dixiecrat movement led by Strom Thurmond in 1948 opposed the segregationist ideas of President Harry S. Truman.

13. Duverger’s Law states that single-member districts result in two-party systems.

14. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Texas was a competitive, two-party state.

15. Blue Dog Democrats are becoming more and more popular in Texas.

16. Latinos have the largest percentage share of voters in Texas.

17. The Tea Party movement is strong in Texas.

1. How would you explain what political parties are and why Texas has a two-party system?

2. Describe the history of Texas as a one-party state. Which party dominates Texas politics, and what are the historical origins behind this dominance? What were some of the ramifications of one-party rule? What caused the rise of a two-party system in Texas?

3. How would you describe the structure of political parties and elections in Texas? What are the different levels of party organization?

4. Discuss urban, rural, and suburban influences on partisanship. Explain which party tends to dominate in each of these areas, and why.

5. Has Texas always been a predominantly conservative state? How does this question tie in to the state’s shift from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party since the 1960s?

6. How does strong partisan ideology serve to weaken Texas’s political parties?