Question: What is the ability to evaluate the reliability of information called?
Answer Options:
search sophistication
information literacy
e-ability
i-capacity
Answer: information literacy
Question: What is one function of interest groups in Washington?
Answer Options:
Stay out of congressional affairs
Provide campaign contributions and lobby
Organize protests
File lawsuits only
Answer: provides campaign contributions to members of Congress and lobbies for larger administrative agency budgets
Question: What is the trend in political party identification in recent decades?
Answer Options:
Republicans outnumber Democrats
Independents have increased
Independents have decreased
Democrats always outnumber Republicans
Answer: The number of people identifying as independent has increased, though many still tend to vote for the Democratic or Republican Party.
Question: What is a benefit everyone receives regardless of participation?
Answer Options:
free rider
collective good
solidary benefit
purposive benefit
Answer: collective good
Question: What is it called when people support a party and dislike the other strongly?
Answer Options:
affective polarization
partisanship
bipartisanship
negative partisanship
Answer: negative partisanship
Question: Which news source is most trusted for accurate reporting?
Answer Options:
a newspaper
a subscription magazine
a public radio station
the Facebook page of a private individual
Answer: a public radio station
More questions continue in the next message due to length…
(Continued — Questions 19 to 47)
Question: What kind of benefit is knowledge provided by an interest group?
Answer Options:
informational benefits
international benefits
material benefits
purposive benefits
Answer: informational benefits
Question: What does a party system refer to?
Answer Options:
Electoral rules
Party leadership
Key parties and the issues dividing them
Convention rules
Answer: the set of parties that is important at any given time and the issues that divide them and groups from which they draw their support
Question: What term describes seeking information that confirms preexisting beliefs?
Answer Options:
filter bubble
confirmation bias
priming
agenda-setting
Answer: confirmation bias
Question: Why do media focus on dramatic, conflict-driven stories?
Answer Options:
To increase viewer understanding
To support local government
To drive profits and increase viewership
Because they are unbiased
Answer: Media focus on dramatic, highly conflictual events and issues that drive viewers and increase profits.
Question: How is the U.S. president elected?
Answer Options:
Direct vote
Electoral college
By Congress
All of the above
Answer: indirectly by the electoral college
Question: What policy goals do Republicans typically support?
Answer Options:
Increase education funding
Maintain military spending, cut corporate taxes
Ban abortion, increase taxes
Open immigration
Answer: maintaining high levels of military spending, instituting tax relief for upper-income voters, and reducing corporate taxes
Question: What was the Tea Party’s strategy in Republican primaries?
Answer Options:
Fund moderates
Fund conservatives to challenge moderates
Fund Democrats
Fund third-party candidates
Answer: The Tea Party funded more conservative Republicans in the primaries to try to defeat more moderate Republicans to try and move the party to a more conservative position.
Question: A voter who doesn’t align with a party is called a(n):
Answer Options:
independent
apathetic voter
retrospective voter
sophisticated voter
Answer: independent
Question: What is proportional representation?
Answer Options:
All parties get equal seats
Share of votes = share of seats
20% threshold for seats
Only majority wins
Answer: seats in the legislature are allocated to political parties based on their share of the total vote cast in the election.