UNIT II and III Reading Guide

Name ________________________________

1.
2.

Public Opinion and Political Action - Chapter 6 How did Sept. 11th have an unusual impact on public opinion? public opinion

3. demography (demographics)
4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. minority majorityDescribe the American experience of African AmericansWhat groups of people are the Hispanic populations? Describe the Hispanic experience. Describe the Asian experience. Describe the Native American experience

10. How has population shifted? 11. reapportionment12. political culture 13. What is the fastest growing group of Americans? 14. What is our most costly public policy? 15. political socialization16. 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 conducted 21. 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 poll29. What do critics of the exit poll allege? 30. By altering the wording of a question, pollsters can get what? Explain. Page 1

31. What do polls reveal about Americans Political Information? 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. ideologues42. group benefits 43. nature of the times 44. Describe the American voter today 45. political participation46. 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. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Chapter 10 Elections and Voting Behavior legitimacy Identify and describe three kinds of elections: referendum initiative Describe one specific initiative: Describe the 2004 Presidential election Describe election night (2000). Bush v. Gore (2000) suffrage Fifteenth Amendment Nineteenth Amendment Twenty Sixth Amendment

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) education b) age c) race d) gender e) marital status f) 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 journalism5. 6. What is yellow journalism and what is the incentive to produce these types of stories? Compare broadcast media to print media.

7. 8. 9.

How did voters evaluate the Kennedy/Nixon debate? What was the impact of broadcast media on the war in Vietnam? 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. Gatekeeper25. Homogenization Chapter 8 Political Parties 1. 2. 3. political party linkage institutions Identify and briefly describe five tasks of parties:

4. 5.

party identification What is the trend in party identification?

6. 7. 8. 9.

ticket splitting party machine When/where were party machines dominant? 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? 1. Chapter 9 Nominations and Campaigns Describe campaigns for the Presidency today.

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

nomination campaign strategyHow did Walter Mondale describe running for President? How long do campaigns last in most industrialized countries and how long in the United States? What is the goal of the nomination game? national party conventionHow do parties choose their delegates to the national convention?

9. caucus10. Describe caucuses of the past. 11. Describe caucuses today. 12. Who holds the first caucus and why is the first caucus significant? 13. presidential primaries14. Why were primaries introduced? 15. When did primaries increase and why did they increase? 16. Why did the McGovern commission form? 17. McGovern-Fraser commission18. 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 platform30. When is the vice presidential nominee selected? 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 Act33. Federal Election Campaign Act34. Outline major provisions of Federal Election Campaign Act: 1) Federal Election Commission (FEC)2) Presidential Election Campaign Fund3) Matching funds-

4) Soft money5) 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. Valeo38. 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 GROUPS FEDERALIST #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: Paragraph 2: Paragraph 3: Summarize how Madison feels about "factions." Define faction. If Madison were alive today, what "factions" would he see? 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? 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 mischiefs 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?

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) Olsons 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 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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