Ch8 Full Test Bank Public Opinion, Campaigns, And Elections - AmGov Long Story Short 1e Complete Test Bank by Christine Barbour. DOCX document preview.
Chapter 8: Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. The primary impact of state voter registration laws has been to ______.
a. make it more expensive to vote
b. decrease turnout
c. discourage voters from identifying themselves with a party
d. improve voter awareness of elections
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
2. All of the following statements concerning the legal obstacles to voting in the United States are true EXCEPT ______.
a. election rules define who can vote and how easy it is for those legally eligible to vote to actually do so
b. politicians have been eager to pass major electoral reforms in order to build a stronger base for their parties
c. in many other democracies it is the government, not the individual voter, that bears the responsibility for registering citizens
d. in other countries voting is required by law
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
3. Those who are LESS likely to vote tend to be ______.
a. poor rather than wealthy
b. older rather than younger
c. college graduates
d. whites
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
4. The transfer of political attitudes, narratives, and beliefs from generation to generation is called ______.
a. ideology inheritance
b. party ideology
c. generational influence
d. party socialization
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
5. A party’s effort to inform potential voters and persuade them to vote for that party is known as ______.
a. issue ownership
b. issue advocacy
c. prompting
d. voter mobilization
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
6. The single biggest factor accounting for how people decide to vote is ______.
a. gender
b. candidate characteristics
c. party identification
d. the issues
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
7. Party identification is the single most important predictor of how people decide to vote because ______.
a. voters are too unsophisticated to vote in any other fashion
b. it leads people toward prospective issue voting
c. as a benefit, being a partisan means the voter does not need to register to vote, which counteracts one of the costs of voting
d. it indirectly colors the partisan’s perceptions of issues and candidates
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
8. Which of the following statements is NOT true concerning the role of issues in citizens’ voting decisions?
a. People know where they stand on the “easy” issues but tend to tune out the “complicated” issues.
b. The media do not generally cover issues in depth.
c. Calculated policy decisions by voters are common.
d. People are busy and, in many cases, rely on party labels.
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
9. Politicians who are thinking about running for the presidency begin their run by ______.
a. testing the waters unofficially
b. announcing their candidacy
c. acquiring the money to run
d. filing with the Federal Election Commission
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
10. Major-party presidential nominations are now determined primarily by ______.
a. each party’s slate of electors from the Electoral College
b. Super Tuesday primaries
c. convention delegates selected in party primaries, caucuses, and state conventions
d. the party leaders at the parties’ national conventions
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
11. A party caucus is a meeting of ______.
a. local party members who choose delegates for the national convention
b. state politicians who send themselves to the national convention
c. voters to decide which parties make it onto the ballot
d. the national party committee to assign delegates to the national convention
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
12. Front-loading is the process of ______.
a. scheduling presidential primaries earlier in the primary season
b. encouraging one’s supporters to vote early on the primary election day
c. biasing the nomination process so that senators go to the front of the line
d. presidents declaring their candidacy early to scare off potential opponents
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
13. Momentum and electability are important factors in voters’ decision making during primaries because voters ______.
a. must determine these characteristics through other ways than the media
b. must rely on partisanship to determine these characteristics
c. cannot rely on partisanship, which is typically the strongest cue they have in voting behavior
d. have viewed momentum as an important characteristic in presidents since the Cold War
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
14. Delegates to the national conventions are chosen ______.
a. in closed meetings of the party leaders
b. in primary elections and caucuses
c. by national surveys
d. by the party’s presidential candidate
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
15. Why does the incumbent president’s party usually go last in a national convention?
a. That is when there is the most media attention.
b. Incumbents are not as important and don’t need to go first.
c. There is usually a bounce in poll results so the incumbent goes into the campaign with favorable views.
d. So the new candidates do not see the tactics used by the incumbent.
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
16. Swing voters are ______.
a. the 50 percent of the electorate who are in play during each election
b. those who have changed their political party in the past 10 years
c. people who have not made up their minds at the start of the campaign
d. so unpredictable that candidates are better off ignoring them
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
17. The founders created the Electoral College and specified that senators would be chosen by the state legislatures because ______.
a. they feared that the people would band together with like-minded people to fight for their own interests rather than make choices based on the public good
b. they feared that powerful elites would dominate elections through the use of superior wealth
c. they thought the only real alternative was to appoint senators and presidents for life
d. allowing direct election of one institution of government was so radical an idea at the time that it never occurred to them to go farther and let the people elect other public officials
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
18. The Constitution dictates that each state has ______.
a. a minimum of two electors
b. fewer electors if the presidential or vice presidential candidates are not from their state
c. a choice over how many electors it will have
d. one elector for each senator and one elector for each representative
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
19. Because of the Electoral College, presidential candidates generally spend most of their time and resources in ______.
a. competitive states, especially large ones
b. states where there are competitive local races so that they can raise money for their own general election campaigns
c. coastal and border states because they are the so-called blue states
d. California, Texas, and New York because they are the biggest states
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
20. Wedge issues are controversial matters ______.
a. that differentiate the two major candidates
b. that are generally ignored in campaigns because they are too explosive
c. that undecided voters use to choose their preferred candidate
d. that one party uses to split voters in the other party
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
21. Negative advertising ______.
a. is strictly an act of desperation and typically signifies that the candidate using these ads is far behind in the polls
b. lacks any informational content, so it attracts only the least well-informed voter
c. is used only by challengers because presidents do not want to be seen as lowering themselves to such tactics
d. registers more quickly and is remembered longer than information from positive advertisements
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
22. Following the Citizens United case, corporations can ______.
a. contribute no money to interest groups
b. contribute no money to advertising for or against presidential candidates
c. spend money straight from their treasuries on advertisements for or against political candidates right before an election
d. spend no money on scientific research involving animal experimentation
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
23. Public opinion matters because ______.
a. it should matter
b. the public has far more power to influence events than politicians realize
c. the public is too knowledgeable for politicians to ignore
d. politicians and the media actually treat public opinion as if it matters
Answer Location: 8.1: Introduction to Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
24. Regarding the impact of the public in American national decision-making, the founders wanted ______.
a. a system in which the public elected most officeholders
b. a system legitimated by the public but also protected from the possible dangers of the public’s power
c. a system responsive to the fluctuations in public opinion
d. only the social and economic elite to have a role in the new government
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
25. If you are conducting a poll to determine how voters view a candidate, you want your sample to comprise ______.
a. an overrepresentation of those with more education
b. likely voters
c. all those over the age of 18
d. only those who identify with a political party
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
26. According to studies, Americans tend to be ______.
a. very knowledgeable about politics
b. not very knowledgeable about politics
c. knowledgeable about issues, but not knowledgeable about office holders
d. knowledgeable about office holders, but not knowledgeable about issues
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
27. Regarding tolerance, Americans are generally ______.
a. supportive of general issues such as free speech but less supportive when asked to extend rights to unpopular groups
b. very intolerant
c. less tolerant the more educated they are
d. unwilling to share their views on tolerance
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
28. Voter turnout for U.S. national elections is ______.
a. the highest among industrialized nations
b. about average among industrialized nations
c. the lowest, or among the lowest, among industrialized nations
d. consistently in third place among industrialized nations
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
29. Women are generally more likely to be ______.
a. Republicans
b. Libertarians
c. Conservatives
d. Democrats
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinion?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
30. Which relationship between sample size and sampling error is correct?
a. The smaller the sample, the smaller the sampling error will be.
b. The larger the sample, the smaller the sampling error will be.
c. Sampling error and poll size are unrelated.
d. The wording of poll questions will determine sampling error.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
31. Which characteristic would make for a poor polling question?
a. a question that is unambiguous
b. a question that leads respondents to a conclusion
c. a question that is relatively short
d. a question that does not give away any implicit bias
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
32. What are fake polls?
a. Polls that do not help candidates.
b. Polls that do not measure anything useful.
c. Polls that are not conducted by political scientists.
d. Polls that do not track data.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
33. Tracking polls are significant because they ______.
a. can catch daily changes in public opinion that other polls cannot
b. help candidates devise their campaign strategy
c. have caused the public to question the accuracy of polls
d. are inexpensive to conduct
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
34. Which of the following statements concerning exit polls is NOT true?
a. They are used by the networks to declare winners in national elections.
b. They are a form of pseudo-poll.
c. They have proven to be faulty in the past few elections.
d. They are taken from people who have just voted.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
35. Rational ignorance refers to ______.
a. the belief that a lack of tolerance can be acceptable under certain circumstances
b. the state of being uninformed about politics because the cost in time and energy does not produce tangible or measurable results
c. voters realizing that they do not understand most political issues
d. the realization that politics is unimportant and has little impact on our lives and, thus, there is no need to participate
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
36. The process by which citizens take their political cues from more well-informed opinion leaders is known as ______.
a. the two-step flow of information
b. elite democracy
c. political socialization
d. online processing
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
37. A single-issue voter is likely to ______.
a. take a candidate’s entire platform into consideration
b. vote only for the candidate who supports his or her views on abortion
c. vote only in a presidential election
d. consider voting for a different party than normal
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
38. ______ are more likely to support voter ID laws.
a. Democrats
b. Libertarians
c. Republicans
d. Federalists
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
39. What is the main purpose of the invisible primary?
a. to gain as much money and media attention as possible
b. to gain more delegates than the opponent in a primary
c. to announce a run for presidency
d. to test the waters, conduct polls, and gain support
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
40. Campaign money that goes to nonprofits to be spent to influence elections and whose donors do not need to be revealed is known as ______.
a. soft money
b. hard money
c. dark money
d. light money
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
True/False
1. Public opinion generally does not matter.
Answer Location: 8.1: Introduction to Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
2. A random sample of at least 5,000 is required to be representative of the United States.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
3. Race is the single most important predictor of how people decide to vote.
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
4. A party’s effort to inform potential voters and persuade them to vote for that party is known as voter mobilization.
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
5. The shared loyalty to our country and its institutions is known as patriotism.
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
6. The invisible primary is the first step for a candidate in his or her run for the presidency.
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
7. Compared with other industrialized nations, the United States ranks near the top in voter participation.
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
8. Women are generally more conservative than men.
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
9. The portion of the population selected to participate in a poll is known as the weighting bias.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
10. The relationship between sample size and sampling error is the larger the sample, the smaller the sampling error will be.
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Easy
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
Short Answer
1. Why should public opinion matter? Why does public opinion matter?
Answer Location: 8.1: Introduction to Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
2. Briefly explain the two shortcuts to political knowledge discussed in the textbook.
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
3. Suppose a poll indicates that the president has an approval rating of 47% +/- 4 points. What is the highest the approval rating might be? What is the lowest the approval rating might be?
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
4. What are exit polls? What is the general use of an exit poll?
Answer Location: 8.3: How Do We Know What Americans Think?
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.2: Understand ways we measure public opinion through polling
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
5. What are the two main ways of finding out what the public thinks?
Answer Location: 8.1: Introduction to Public Opinion, Campaigns, and Elections
Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
Essay
1. From the time we are born, many things shape our political attitudes and beliefs. Discuss how our opinions are formed. What aspect of political socialization do you believe has the biggest impact on opinions? Why?
Answer Location: 8.4: How Do We Form Our Opinions?
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.3: Understand how opinions are formed and how we pass them from generation to generation to keep regimes stable
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
2. What are the four characteristics that make up an ideal citizen in a democracy? How do Americans measure up to that ideal? How do Americans offset their shortcomings?
Answer Location: 8.2: The Quality of Public Opinion
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.1: Understand the quality of public opinion
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
3. Why do some people not vote? What impact might the decision not to vote have? Which party is more affected by people not voting?
Answer Location: 8.5: The Ultimate Poll—Voting in U.S. Elections
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.4: Understand the act of voting
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
4. Explain how the Electoral College works and why it is unlikely that this system will be changed.
Answer Location: 8.7: The General Election and the Electoral College
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.6: Understand how the Electoral College works
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life
5. Discuss the different strategies used during presidential elections. What are the dynamics at the pre-primary, primary, and general election stages? How does the primary election strategy differ from the strategy of the general election campaign?
Answer Location: 8.6: Presidential Elections
Cognitive Domain: Application
Learning Objective: 8.5: Understand presidential elections in the United States
Difficulty Level: Hard
SAGE Course Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life