Unit One: Political Culture, Public Opinion, Political
Participation
All of the following are values basic to the
American political system EXCEPT
A. rule of law
B. individualism
C. equality of results
D. Liberty
Answer: C
Women are more likely than men to
A. join interest groups
B. affiliate with the Dem. Party
C. support defense spending
D. consider politics irrelevant
Answer: B
Women are more likely than men to
A. vote in general elections
B. affiliate with the Dem. Party
C. support defense spending
D. consider politics irrelevant
Answer: B
What is the major cause for nonvoting?
A. Poll taxes
B. Red tape involved in registering to vote
C. Religious reasons
D. Lack of interest
Answer: D
Which of the following is NOT an institutional
obstacle to voting?
A. Tuesday voting
B. Voter apathy
C. Complexity of ballots
D. More elections
Answer: B
Which of the following factors are the best predictors
of a high rate of political participation?
A. more education, older than 35 years old.
B. more education, younger than 35 years old
C. immigrant background, higher income
D. nonimmigrant background, more education
Answer: A
All of the following are true of voter behavior EXCEPT
A. the higher the level of education the more likely one
is to vote.
B. women tend to be more liberal than men.
C. parental affiliation is the greatest predictor of a
person’s own party identification.
D. the younger the voter the more likely he or she is to
be conservative.
Answer: D
Which of the following statements most accurately
depicts the political leanings of Hispanics as a group?
A. Most Hispanics are young, and younger voters tend
not to vote.
B. Groups with little political influence tend to be more
liberal because they see government as helping
them to better themselves.
C. Most Hispanics are Catholic, and Roman Catholics
tend to be conservative.
D. Fewer Hispanic women vote, so there is less of a
gender gap apparent with this group.
 Answer: B
Of the following voters, which is the least likely to
vote?
A. A Northerner
B. A college graduate
C. A regular attendee at religious services
D. A person who lives in a rural area
Answer: D
To say that the American people tend to be “ideologically
conservative but operationally liberal” means that
A. Americans favor conservative moral values but also
favor the latest in management techniques to
supervise government bureaucracy.
B. Americans are both conservative and liberal.
C. Americans are likely to support limited government
in theory but support social programs in practice.
D. Americans are likely to talk about the need for
social welfare programs but to vote for legislators
who will restrain government spending.
Answer: c
All of the following are examples of conventional political
participation EXCEPT
A. making a campaign contribution to a candidate for
public office
B. voting
C. volunteering as a campaign worker to stuff
envelopes for a mailing
D. participating in a march to protest pending
legislation.
 Answer: D
All of the following help to explain the decline in voter turnout
EXCEPT
A. the difficult process involved in registering to vote.
B. a decline in Americans’ sense of political efficacy.
C. lack of interest
D. a decline in the belief that government is responsive
to citizens’ concerns
Answer: A
The bandwagon effect refers to
A. how public opinion polls are conducted
B. the sampling error in a public opinion poll.
C. the way polls may influence people to support a
particular candidate because they see others
supporting the candidate.
D. the way polls may affect people’s views of
candidates.
Answer: C
Which of the following directly affects the political socialization
of the fewest Americans?
A. family political history
B. level of education achieved
C. opinions of peers
D. newspapers
 Answer: D
The views of male and female voters tend to differ on
I. abortion
II. spending for social services
III. spending on national defense
A. I and II only
B. II only
C. I only
D. II and III only
Answer: D
Watergate, the Vietnam War, Iran-contra, and the
economic downturn of the late 1970s have all resulted
in
A. an increased reliance on the media.
B. distrust of the military.
C. a decline of trust in the government.
D. a higher percentage of registered voters going to
the polls.
Answer: C
Which of the following elections has the lowest turnout
of voters?
A. Presidential elections.
B. Midterm Congressional elections.
C. Presidential primary elections.
D. Local and municipal elections.
Answer: D
Which of the following groups is least likely to vote for
a Democratic presidential candidate?
A. Women
B. Catholics
C. Protestants
D. Labor
Answer: C
Which of the following statements is NOT true about
voting behavior?
A. The more education a person has, the more likely
the person is to vote.
B. The lower the status of a person’s job, the more
likely the person is to vote.
C. With the exception of the very old and ill, the older a
person is, the more likely that person is to vote.
D. More women vote than men.
Answer: B
Which of the following statements explains the change
in voting patterns in the South since the 1960s?
A. Since the civil rights movement more African Americans
are registered to vote in the South and they typically vote
Democratic.
B. Southern whites have found that the Republican Party
more clearly defines issues of importance to them.
C. The Southern economy relies less on agriculture than it
once did.
D. The South has experienced a large influx of Northerners
in the last few decades.
Answer: B
Between 1964 and 1996, which of the following would
have been most likely to vote for the Republican
presidential candidate?
A. A male fundamentalist Christian from Indiana
B. A male high school dropout from Texas.
C. A female welfare recipient from Chicago.
D. A male Jewish college professor from Seattle.
Answer: A
What most significantly influences a voter when
selecting a candidate in an election campaign?
A. The candidate’s image
B. The stand the candidate takes on issues.
C. The state of the economy
D. Party identification.
Answer: D
Which is the definition of political ideology ?
A. The belief that government is best that governs least.
B. Beliefs about which candidates to support in the general
election.
C. Beliefs and attitudes about the functioning of the
legislative and the executive branches of government.
D. Beliefs about the ideal political system, economic order,
social goals, and moral values.
Answer: D
Which of the following are characteristic of U.S.
political culture since World War II?
I. People have become less trusting of government.
II. People have become more supportive of school
integration.
III. More people are more likely to believe their actions
affect government.
IV. People have become more trusting of government
institutions.
A. I and II
B. II and III
C. II and IV
D. I and III
Answer: A
As compared with college students of the 1970s,
today’s underclassmen and women are
A. Slightly more liberal
B. About the same
C. Noticeably more liberal
D. Slightly more conservative
Answer: D
In the first presidential election in which 18-year-olds
were allowed to vote, they
 A. turned out in far heavier numbers than the
population as a whole.
 B. voted heavily Democratic.
 C. voted heavily Republican.
 D. made little difference to the outcome of the
election.
Answer: D
One of the reasons why the participation gap between
minority groups and the national average is no longer
as enormous as it once was is because
A. the education and income levels of minorities are no
longer significantly lower than those of whites.
B. minorities have a group consciousness that gives
them an extra incentive to vote.
C. large numbers of minorities are now running for
important political offices.
D. education and income are no longer considered
good predictors of voting behavior.
Answer: B
One of the effects of growing older on political learning
and political behavior is that
A. political participation increases with age.
B. the strength of one’s party attachment declines with
age.
C. people become more liberal with age.
D. interest in politics decreases with age.
Answer: A
Push polling
A. is done on the day of an election to get out the vote.
B. is another name for random sampling.
C. is a technique in which respondents are chosen whose
characteristics most closely match the general population
in certain demographics such as age and sex.
D. asks a person a loaded question about a candidate to
shape the respondent’s view of the opposing candidate.
Answer: D
One of the ways in which the culture war differs from
other political disputes is that
A. money is not at stake.
B. compromise is easily achieved.
C. the conflict is basically a simple one.
D. people feel less deeply about cultural issues.
Answer: A