UNIT II and III Reading Guide Name ________________________________Public Opinion and Political Action - Chapter 6

1. How did Sept. 11th have an unusual impact on public opinion?

2. public opinion –

3. demography (demographics)–

4. minority majority-5. Describe the American experience of African Americans-

6. What groups of people are the Hispanic populations?

7. Describe the Hispanic experience.

8. Describe the Asian experience.

9. Describe the Native American experience –

10. How has population shifted?

11. reapportionment-

12. political culture -

13. What is the fastest growing group of Americans?14. What is our most costly public policy?

15. political socialization-

16. What is the role of the family?

17. What is the role of the media?

18. Define selective perception

19. What is the role of the school?

20. What does aging do to levels of political participation?How polls are conducted21. sample –

22. random sampling –

23. sampling error

24. random digit dialing –

25. Polls help political candidates detect what?26. What do critics of polling allege?

27. bandwagon effect –

28. exit poll-

29. What do critics of the exit poll allege?

30. By altering the wording of a question, pollsters can get what? Explain.

31. What do polls reveal about American’s Political Information?

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32. What has happened to trust in government and why?

33. Liberal –

34. conservative –

35. What ideology are African Americans most likely to have and why?

36. What ideology are Hispanics most likely to have and why?

37. What ideology are women most likely to have and why?

38. gender gap –

39. What ideology are Catholics likely to have and why?

40. What ideology are Jews likely to have and why?

41. ideologues-

42. group benefits –

43. nature of the times –

44. Describe the American voter today –

45. political participation-

46. What is conventional participation?

47. protest –

48. civil disobedience –

49. Describe the relationship between class, inequality and participation.

50. Describe public attitudes towards the scope of government.

Chapter 10 Elections and Voting Behavior1. legitimacy –2. Identify and describe three kinds of elections:

3. referendum –4. initiative –5. Describe one specific initiative:

6. Describe the 2004 Presidential election –

7. Describe election night (2000).

8. Bush v. Gore (2000)

9. suffrage –Fifteenth Amendment –Nineteenth Amendment –Twenty Sixth Amendment –

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10. See figure 10.2. Describe voter turnout trends.

11. political efficacy –12. civic duty –13. Why is voter turnout so low in the United States compared to other countries?

14. voter registration –15. motor voter act –16. See table 10.1. What demographic groups vote at low rates (less than 50%)?

17. Describe voter turnout by the following categories:a) educationb) agec) raced) gendere) marital statusf) union membership

18. mandate theory of elections –

19. Explain how/why young voters have been more consistently supportive of third party candidates.

20. Paraphrase “voter registration and voting”.

21. Describe the role of party identification when it comes to voting?

22. What is the role of candidate evaluations when it comes to voting?

23. What is policy voting?

24. electoral college –

25. Paraphrase the four bullets in the text describing the rules of the Electoral College.

26. retrospective voting –Media Chapter 7

1. What is a media event and provide an example of a media event.

2. What is meant by the “30 second President”?

3. What are press conferences? What is the trend in these and why?

4. investigative journalism-

5. What is “yellow journalism” and what is the incentive to produce these types of stories?

6. Compare broadcast media to print media.

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7. How did voters evaluate the Kennedy/Nixon debate?

8. What was the impact of broadcast media on the war in Vietnam?

9. Identify three ways the FCC regulates the media.

10. narrowcasting –

11. The media is dependent on what to keep their business going?

12. Identify some of the major media conglomerates (or “chains).

13. What do the conglomerates control? How does this massive control impact what we read?

14. What is a beat and identify where most of the beats come from.

15. What are trial balloons and why can they be important?

16. Describe news presentations.

17. Describe sound bites.

18. Describe bias in the news.

19. talking head

20. How does the news impact public opinion?

Additional Key Terms about Media

21. Selective perception –

22. Horse race journalism –

23. Watchdog –

24. Gatekeeper-

25. Homogenization -Chapter 8 Political Parties

1. political party

2. linkage institutions –

3. Identify and briefly describe five tasks of parties:

4. party identification –

5. What is the trend in party identification?

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6. ticket splitting –

7. party machine –

8. When/where were “party machines” dominant?

9. patronage –

10. What were the progressive reforms?

11. closed primary –

12. open primary –

13. blanket primary –

14. national convention –

15. national committee –

16. How are parties organized?

17. party era –

18. critical election –

19. party realignment –

20. Describe each of the following realignments:

a) 1824 The First Party System –

b) 1856 Jackson/Whig –

c) 1860 Republican –

d) 1932 New Deal Coalition –

e) 1968 – Era of Divided Government

21. New Deal Coalition –

22. party dealignment –

23. third parties –

24. What do third parties contribute to democracy?

25. Why do third parties have a difficult time getting elected (we will discuss in more detail in class)?

26. winner take all system –

27. When are winter take all systems used?

28. proportional representation –

29. When are proportional representation systems used?

Chapter 9 Nominations and Campaigns

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1. Describe campaigns for the Presidency today.

2. nomination –3. campaign strategy-

4. How did Walter Mondale describe running for President?

5. How long do campaigns last in most industrialized countries and how long in the United States?

6. What is the goal of the nomination game?

7. national party convention-

8. How do parties choose their delegates to the national convention?

9. caucus-10. Describe caucuses of the past.

11. Describe caucuses today.

12. Who holds the first caucus and why is the first caucus significant?

13. presidential primaries-

14. Why were primaries introduced?

15. When did primaries increase and why did they increase?

16. Why did the McGovern commission form?

17. McGovern-Fraser commission-

18. What was the result of the McGovern Fraser Commission?

19. superdelegates

20. Why did Democrats institute superdelegates?

21. Why is the New Hampshire primary important?

22. frontloading –

23. Democrats require all states to use what in delegate selection?

24. Republicans have what requirements in delegate selection?

25. Identify and describe five criticisms of the primary/caucus system.

26. national primary –

27. regional primary –

28. Describe the conventions.

29. party platform-

30. When is the vice presidential nominee selected?

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31. Identify and describe three steps in organizing a campaign.

Money and Campaigning (pages 282-293)32. What were two goals of the Federal Election Campaign Act-

33. Federal Election Campaign Act-

34. Outline major provisions of Federal Election Campaign Act:1) Federal Election Commission (FEC)-

2) Presidential Election Campaign Fund-

3) Matching funds-

4) Soft money-

5) “Hard money” contributions are limited to how much per person?

35. McCain Feingold Act–

36. Identify three things that the McCain Feingold Act did -

37. Buckley v. Valeo-

38. Political Action Committee (PAC)

39. How and why have PACs proliferated?

40. PAC hard money contributions are limited to what?

41. Most PAC contributions go to who?

42. Critics of the PAC system worry that what? What is the evidence of this concern?

43. What is the evidence that campaigns are too expensive?

44. “Why it matters” How much money was “required” to be raised in 2004 to be competitive?

PRIMARY SOURCES FOR INTEREST GROUPSFEDERALIST #10

Directions: Read Federalist #10 in the back of your textbook. (note “paragraph#” indicates the paragraph of the document in which the answer can be found). Use direct quotes to support your response.

Paragraph 1: Summarize how Madison feels about "factions."

Paragraph 2: Define faction. If Madison were alive today, what "factions" would he see?

Paragraph 3: What are two methods of curing the mischief's of factions? Would this be possible today?

Paragraph 4: What are two methods of removing the causes? Would this be possible today?

Paragraph 5: How does Madison feel about the first remedy? Why?

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Paragraph 6: How does Madison feel about the second remedy? Why?

Paragraph 7: What does Madison say about the causes of faction? Is this true today? What does Madison say are the sources of faction? Is this true today? How should these interests be regulated?

Paragraph 8: What will factions do to the good of the whole society?

Paragraph 9: How does Madison say that factions can be controlled?

Paragraph 10: What will happen when the faction is a minority? What will happen if the faction is a majority?

Paragraph 11: What are the two possibilities of solutions?

Paragraph 12: Is there a cure in a pure democracy for the mischief’s of faction?

Paragraph 13: What promises the cure?

Paragraph 14: How does Republic compare to a democracy? Which is best? Why?

Paragraph 16-17: Why do extensive republics provide the best safeguard against factions?

Paragraph 18: What is the "happy combination" that will cure the problem?

Paragraph 19-20: Why will extend republics able to do better? Why will large republics have an advantage over small ones?

Paragraph 21: How will Federalism stop the growth of tyranny?

FEDERALIST # 51

Directions: Read Federalist # 50 in the back of your textbook. Answer the following questions. Use direct quotes to support your response.

Paragraph 1:What question does Madison ask?

Paragraph 2: What does separation of power require? What does Madison say about the judiciary in the end of this paragraph?

Paragraph 3:What does Madison say about members of each department?

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Paragraph 4:What is the great security against one department growing too powerful? Why is it necessary for ambition to contradict ambition? (Can you find a famous quote from Madison in this paragraph?)

Skip paragraph 5

Paragraph 6: Who will dominate in a republican government? What is the remedy for this? Would an absolute veto remedy this?

Skip 7-8

Paragraph 9: What are the two considerations for the Federal system of America?

Paragraph 10: How does Madison repeat and complete the argument in Federalist #10? Summarize the main points of this concluding paragraph (use the back).

Interest Groups – Chapter 11

1) Interest group –

2) Pluralist theory –

3) Elitist theory –

4) Hyperpluralist theory –

5) Subgovernments (iron triangles) -

6) Olson’s Law of Large Groups –

7) Free rider problem –

8) Selective benefits -

9) What makes interest groups successful? Read sections on: intensity, financial resources, lobbying, electioneering, litigation and summarize each, and write a paragraph here.

10) Single issue group –

11) Lobbying –

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12) Electioneering –

13) Political action committees (PACs)

14) Litigation-

15) Amicus curaie briefs –

16) Class action lawsuits –

17) Going public –

18) Describe the following types of interest groups:

(a) economic –

(b) business –

(c) labor –

(d) environment –

(e) equality –

(f) consumer and public interest –

19) How are interest groups a problem for democracy? How are interest groups healthy for democracy?

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