AP Government
Date: _______________
Name: _________________
Mr. Messinger
REVIEW CLASS TWO
Political Parties, Campaigns, Elections, Interest Groups, the Media
LESSON TITLE
Welcome to the Machine
A Match Made in Washington
Elephants on Parade
Pin the Tail on the Donkey
So Many Parties, So Little Time
Run Away!
Show Me the Money!
I’m a Winner, and You Can Be
One Too!
That’s Debatable
Sealing the Deal
Very Interesting, But Stupid!
The Squeaky Wheel
Let’s Loiter in the Lobby
Relax…We’re Professionals
All the news that’s fit to print?
KEY TERMS & CONCEPTS
Political Machine, Tammany Hall, Boss Tweed
Two-party system, plurality system, Primary, Caucus, Delegates,
Superdelegates, unpledged delegates, Democrats, Republicans,
critical/realigning periods, split ticket, national convention, national
committee, congressional campaign committee, national chairman, big
tent
Republican Party and its beliefs
Democratic Party and its beliefs
Minor/third parties, Political Parties, mugwump, progressive,
ideological party, solidary incentives, personal following
Incumbent, Coattails, PAC (Political Action Committee), Electoral
Strategy (Tone, Theme, Timing, Target), Malapportionment,
Gerrymandering, sophomore surge, position issue, valence issues,
clothespin vote, general election, primary election, caucus, closed
primary, open primary, blanket primary, runoff primary
Sources of Campaign Money, Campaign finance reform, independent
expenditures, hard money, soft money, dark money, federal matching
funds, 527 groups, Issue-Advocacy Groups, McCain-Feingold, PACs,
Citizens United, Super PACs
Party influence, election issues, prospective voting, retrospective voting,
Coalitions, ideological interest groups, public-interest lobby,
endorsements
Political Debates: A winning formula
Electoral College and why it exists
Lobbyist, Interest Group, Institutional Interests, Membership interests,
Incentives, solidary incentives, material incentives, purposive incentive,
foundation grants, federal grants, direct mail, political cue, ratings,
regulation
Social Movements, environmental movement, feminist movement,
union movement, etc.
Case-studies of various interest groups and lobbyists
Media regulation, lack of licensing, Is the media a profession?
Presidential vs. Congressional coverage, routine stories, feature stories,
insider stories, adversarial press, sensationalism, yellow journalism,
Muckraker, sound bites, national media, gatekeeper, scorekeeper,
watchdog, confidentiality, regulation of broadcast media, equal time
rule, right-of-reply rule, political editorializing rule, fairness doctrine,
media market, trial balloon, loaded language
Corporate media ownership and its effect on society
Media Bias, Liberal vs. Conservative Media, New York Times, MSNBC,
Countdown, Keith Olberman, Rachel Maddow
Tomorrow Never Dies
That Miserable Bleeding Heart
Liberal Media that your textbook
speaks so fondly off…
Fox News, Wall Street Journal, Bill O’Reilly,
Cold Conservative Media
Two Can Play at That Game
No Laughing Matter
Good News
Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck
The Daily Show, Colbert Report
The Daily Show, Colbert Report
60 Minutes
SAMPLE FREE-RESPONSE ESSAYS
1. Different interest groups will choose different techniques to achieve their objectives based on
their resources, characteristics, and goals.
(a) Describe each of the following techniques and explain why an interest group would
choose each technique.
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Litigation
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American Medical Association (AMA)
Campaign contributions
Grassroots lobbying/mass mobilization
(b) Select one of the following groups and identify the primary techniques it uses from
the list in part (a). Explain why the group you selected would employed that
technique over the other two techniques.
Sierra Club
National Rifle Association (NRA)
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
2. While interest groups and political parties each play a significant role in the United States
political system, they differ in their fundamental goals.
(a) Identify the fundamental goal of interest groups in the political process.
(b) Identify the fundamental goal of major political parties in the political process.
(c) Describe two different ways by which interest groups support the fundamental goal
of political parties in the political process.
(d) For one of the forms of support you describe in (c), explain two different ways in
which that form of support helps interest groups to achieve their fundamental goal in
the political process.
3. The United States Congress has debated a variety of campaign finance reforms over the last
decade. The proposals debated have included the following:
Eliminating soft money
Limiting independent expenditures
Raising limits on individual contributions
(a) Select one of the listed proposals and do all of the following:
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Define the proposal.
Describe an argument that proponents make in favor of the proposal.
Describe an argument that opponents make against the proposal.
(b) Select a different proposal and do all of the following:
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Define the proposal.
Describe an argument that proponents make in favor of the proposal.
Describe an argument that opponents make against the proposal.