Chapter 9 Political Parties

A political party is an organization

that tries to influence the government by getting its members elected to office.

________ warned Americans against the dangers of political parties in his farewell address.

George Washington

________ develops when the winner of an electoral race obtains more votes than any other candidate.

The plurality system

Internal mobilization occurs when

conflicts within the government create divided factions that try to mobilize popular support.

Which of the following parties originated from internal mobilization?

the Jeffersonian Party

American politics has been dominated by ________ major political party/parties.

2

One reason that America has such low levels of political involvement and voter turnout is that

political parties are not strong enough to function effectively.

One important cause of the United States’ two-party system is

single-member electoral districts.

Third-party candidates are better off under ________.

proportional representation

The establishment of the Republican Party is a good example of ________.

External mobilzation

What is the ultimate goal of a political party?

WIN

Incumbents raise

3x as much as challengers

Which of the following is NOT accomplished at a party’s national convention?

nomination of Senate and House candidates

________ is a closed meeting of a political group’s members who gather to determine strategy and select candidates.

Caucus

A party’s ________ contains its philosophy, principles, and policy positions.

Platform

________ are nonprofit independent groups that receive and distribute funds to influence the nomination, election, and defeat of a candidate.

527 committees

Who elects the chairperson for the Republican and Democratic national committees?

the president if the party controls the White House; otherwise it is the party committee

Which of the following tasks does a party’s national committee NOT perform?

selecting presidential and vice-presidential candidates

Strong and often corrupt urban political party organizations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were called ________.

Machines

Soft money

money contributed directly to political parties and other organizations at the state and local levels for political activities that are not regulated by federal campaign spending laws

A party’s platform is best understood as a

negotiated agreement between the various factions in the party.

Which of the following statements about party building is true?

Republicans have paid much more attention to party building than Democrats since the Eisenhower presidency.

Which of the following statements about parties in Congress is FALSE?

Only members of the majority party are allowed to take part in the election of the Speaker of the House.

Which of the following statements about partisan identification in the United States is most accurate?

Party identification varies significantly by income, race, and gender.

An individual’s psychological attachment to one party or another is called a party ________.

identification

A party activist is an individual who

not only votes but also contributes time, energy, effort, and financial resources to party affairs.

Since the 1930s, African Americans have identified as ________.

Democrats

Women in the United States are ________ the ________ Party.

somewhat more likely to support; Democratic

Men in the United States are ________ the ________ Party.

somewhat more likely to support; Republican

Which of the following groups is most likely to support the Republican Party?

The wealthy

Dealignment refers to

the decline of partisan attachment within the electorate, the growth in the number of voters identifying themselves as independents, and the rise of split-ticket voting.

In contemporary American politics, solid support for the Republican Party comes from the ________.

South and Mountain West

Party activists are ________ to contribute time, energy, and effort to party affairs and ________ to hold more extreme views than the party’s rank-and-file voters.

more likely; more likely

Historically, realignments occur

when new issues combine with economic or political crises to mobilize new voters and persuade large numbers of voters to reexamine their traditional partisan loyalties.

The United States has had ________ party systems since 1789

6

What issue led to the demise of the Whig Party?

Slavery

Reconstruction after the Civil War was led by the ________ Party.

Republican party

In 1964, the Republican Party presidential nominee, ________, espoused a number of ideas, such as less taxation and less government regulation of the economy, that became major themes for the modern Republican Party.

Barry Goldwater

Which of the following occurs when one party becomes dominant after replacing another party that has dominated national politics for a lengthy period of time?

an electoral realignment

________ occurs when one party controls the presidency while another party controls one or both houses of Congress.

Divided party government

The Tea Party movement is

an organized challenge to incumbents in the Republican Party by the most conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Issues such as the environment, health care, retirement benefits, and taxation are on the political agenda in the United States because

contemporary political parties mainly compete for the support of middle-class Americans and these issues are important to the middle class.

State ballot access laws, such as registration fees and petition requirements, have the effect of

reducing the number of third-party and independent candidates who can run for office.

The Alien and Sedition Acts

were virtually impossible to enforce. were enacted by the Federalists in the late 1790s. made it illegal to criticize the government. allowed the Jeffersonians to expand their political power. Choose "all of the above"

Third parties in the United States typically represent

social and economic interests that are disregarded by the two major parties for certain reasons.