Chapter 7: Public Opinion Study Guide
Advanced Government
Mr. Faulhaber
MATCHING: Match the definition with the term it best describes.
____1. Voters that are not affiliated with a party and are considered weak party voters
____2. Ideas, information, or rumors that are used to influence public opinion
a. ideology
b. public opinion
____3. Voters that are left of center who believe it takes a village to raise a child
c. independents
d. political socialization
____4. Voters in the middle of the political spectrum
e. conservatives
f. liberals
____5. Voters that are right of center who believe in government encouraging moral behavior g. moderates
h. propaganda
____6.The area in which conservatives and liberals disagree fundamentally
____7. Learned political beliefs and views on government
____8. The shared values and beliefs about the nation the majority of people hold
9. One reason why public policy often differs from public opinion is that____.
a. public opinion polling tends to express the opinions of a political elite
b. public opinion tends to change much more slowly than public policy
c. while public opinion is easy to gauge, public policy is not
d. public opinion is rarely informed at the beginning of the policy making process
e. the U.S. Constitution places many checks on the influence of public opinion
10. The validity of public opinion polls may be affected by several factors, including____.
a. the public’s general ignorance of political issues
b. poll overrepresentation of the views of a political elite
c. excessive polling in certain parts of the country
d. the fact that public opinion tends to be relatively stable over time
e. poll overrepresentation of political culture factors such as liberty and civic duty
11. The validity of a public opinion poll is best determined by____.
a. a sample that represents more than half of the people in a population polled
b. a large gap between the time the poll is taken and the time the results are released
v. partisan groups taking and reporting the results of a poll
d. complex questions to be answered by the people being polled
e. a sampling error of those polled under 5 percent
12.Interviews with randomly selected voters conducted at polling places on election day are called____?
a. random samples
b. election surveys
c. focus groups
d. exit polls
e. sampling
13. What is political socialization?
a. a person’s identification as a liberal or conservative
b. the distribution of the public’s belief about an issue over time
c. the process by which people acquire 6their political values
d. the informal meeting of people who share the same political ideology
e. the official position taken by the government on any important issue
14. Which of the following statements best describes the gender gap?
a. women are more likely than men to vote for the female candidate
b. women are more likely than men to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate
c. men are more likely than women to vote for a Democratic presidential candidate
d. women change their ideologies more than men do when they marry
e. unmarried men are more likely to vote for a female candidate than married men
15. The text suggests that our genetic background explains____.
a. some of our political ideology
b. some of our party identification
c. some of our political socialization
d. some of our group memberships
e. none of the above
16. The general pattern of public opinion cleavages in this country has been____.
a. horizontal, based on class
b. vertical, based on many variables
c. vertical on economic issues and horizontal on social issues
d. impossible to analyze clearly
e. crosscutting, based on many variables
17. Which statement about racial differences in politics is TRUE?
a. blacks are overwhelmingly Republican
b. blacks are more likely than whites to support affirmative action
c. whites are more likely than blacks to oppose the use of military force
d. neither blacks nor whites believe our courts should be tougher in handling criminals
e. whites are more likely than blacks to think that believing in God is essential for a person to be moral
18. According to your text, African American are more likely than whites to____.
a. support affirmative action
b. think of the criminal justice system is biased against them
c. opposed to the use of military force
d. to doubt that we should all be willing to fight for our country
e. all of the above
19. Which of the following voters will most likely prefer a Republican candidate?
a. a black woman with a college degree and high income
b. a middle-class Asian man who belongs to a labor union
c. a southern white male business owner
d. an Hispanic employee of the federal government
e. a white “soccer mom” who lives in the suburbs
20. A man who differs with his father on party identification is most likely to____.
a. strongly identify with the opposite party, Democrat of Republican
b. describe himself as an independent
c. have no political interests of any kind
d. loosely identify with the opposite party, Democrat or Republican
e. describe himself as a Democrat
21. According to the text, one reason why strong identification with a party has declined in recent years is that____.
a. voters tend to lose their party identification as they grow older, and today’s population as aging
b. party identification is increasingly seen as a sign of closed-mindedness
c. today there are more parties to which voters can identify
d. young voters have weaker party identification, and more voters today are young
e. party identification today is no longer influenced by parents’ party identifications
22. The gender gap can be explained by major differences in policy views on all of the following issues EXCEPT____.
a. homelessness
b. gun control
c. abortion
d. the size of government
e. gay rights
23. White Protestants are the group least likely to display which of the following?
a. favoritism toward state’s rights
b. conservative attitudes
c. desire for smaller government
d. liberal attitudes
e. mistrust of government
24. Different immigrant experiences seem to have led religious groups in the United States to have different____.
a. degrees of religious assimilation
b. political ideologies
c. perspectives on theology
d. theological doctrines
e. degrees of political trust
25. Over the past several decades, the gender gap, or men’s’ distinctive policy preferences, has benefited which party?
a. the Republicans consistently
b. First the Republicans, then the Democrats
c. Neither party has consistently benefited
d. First the Democrats, then the Republicans
e. the Democrats consistently
26. Which of the following students is most likely to be politically conservative?
a. a junior college student
b. a high school student
c. a student at a large state university
d. a graduate student in a state university
e. a student at a small, liberal arts college
27. What is the effect of a college education on political attitudes?
a. people with college degrees tend to be more conservative, because they have higher than average income levels
b. people who have attended college tend to vote more as independents because they think more ideologically
c. people with college degrees are not as liberal as their parents
d. people with college degrees describe themselves as liberal
e. there is no correlation between a college education and political attitudes
28 Most workers in Great Britain and France describe themselves as ____, while most workers in the United States
describe themselves as ____.
a. working class, middle class
b. proletarian, bourgeoisie
c. middle class, working class
d. middle class, proletarian
e. bourgeoisie, proletarian
29. What is the effect of a social class on political attitudes?
a. in the United States, there is little correlation between social class and voting patterns
b. people who run their own businesses tend to vote more as independents because they think more ideologically
c. there is a growing gap between the voting pattern of the upper and lower class
d. working class people tend to describe themselves as liberal
e. professionals tend to be socially conservatives and support Republicans
30. One great equalizer of socioeconomic class differences in the United States is____.
a. region
b. religion
c. college
d. party identification
e. gender
31. An individual’s choice of political philosophy today is most likely to be based on one’s____.
a. gender
b. position on social issues such as abortion or environmentalism
c. geographic region and socioeconomic class
d. position on economic issues such as taxation or minimum wage
e. religious beliefs
32. Majorities both whites and blacks are opposed to all of the following except____.
a. the courts getting tougher on criminals
b. ratio quotas
c. affirmative action
d. making abortion legal in all cases
e. collection of data on race and ethnicity by the Census Bureau.
33. Pollsters have been concerned about ideological self-identification in polls because____.
a. many Americans do not know what liberalism and conservatism mean
b. many Americans do not feel the need to be ideological consistent
c. some respondents will hide what they think to be socially unacceptable self-identifications
d. the desire to hide self-identifications might inflate responses of “don’t know” or “moderate”
e. all of the above
34. A congressman is opposed to additional spending on medical care, opposed to legalizing marijuana, and in favor of
the death penalty. The congressman is most likely a____.
a. conservative
b. populist
c. idealist
d. liberal
e. independent.
35. A person who holds a consistent conservative political ideology would support which of the following?
I. support for a market economy with few government regulations
II. keeping taxes low
III. cutting back on the welfare state
IV. Locking up criminals to prevent crime
a. I and II
b. I, II, and III
c. I, III, and IV
d. III and IV
e. I, II, III, and IV
36. You want government to keep Japanese cars out of the country and also to close down massage parlors in your
town. On the basis of these two issues, you would be best classified as a____.
a. pure conservative
b. libertarian
c. neo-libertarian.
d. populist
e. pure liberal
37. A voter who wants less government control over the economy as well as the personal lives of its citizen’s is____.
a. Republican
b. Democrat
c. independent
d. libertarian
e. populist
38. Political activism is correlated most closely with____.
a. ideological consistency
b. gender
c. political conservatism
d. class differentiation
e. libertarian politics
39. Which of the following statements about the opinions of political elites is correct?
a. they tend to reflect the views of middle America
b. they may shape foreign affairs policies, but they do not define foreign affairs problems
c. they tend to reflect the views of a single, unified elite
d. they may shape economic policies, but they do not define economic problems
e. they both define the problems and shape the policies on social issues such as crime and drugs
40. Which of the following would political elites be LEAST likely to raise as a new public issue?
a. acid rain
b. birth control and planned parenthood
c. disinvestment in South Africa
d. unemployment
e. racial discrimination
41. Most people believe there should be a limit on the number of terms to which members of Congress can be elected,
but Congress has not approved term limits. Which of the following principles does this best illustrate?
a. public opinion polling should be used to make important government decisions
b. most Americans do not pay much attention to Supreme Court opinions
c. members of the Supreme Court are generally unaware of public opinion polls
d. public opinion polls are not important in government policy-making
e. sometimes government policies go against what the public wants
42. An individual with an inconsistent political ideology, in the view of the text, would be someone who believed in
both legalizing marijuana and____.
a. supports prayer in school
b. providing compensatory programs for minorities
c. raising taxes, especially on the very rich market
d. supports a woman’s right to choose
e. opposes capital punishment
43. Which of the following students is most likely to be politically liberal?
a. a sophomore physics major at a small state college
b. a freshman music major at a small southern college
c. a senior at a suburban, Midwestern high school
d. a freshman engineering major at a large state university
e. a senior psychology major at an elite, liberal arts college
44. What do critics claim is the net result of socialist states that offer cradle-to-grave benefits?
a. a loss of esteem among nations
b. a welfare or nanny state
c. lower taxes
d. a move to communism
e. governments that bend to the will of the masses
ESSAYS: Answer any 1 of the following 3
1. Alexis de Tocqueville once penned that; “Popular Rule does not readily lend itself to the making of effective
foreign policy.” Describe why the founder’s tended to agree and how they protected themselves from popular
opinion when creating the Constitution.
2. Liberals, conservatives, libertarians, and populists differ in their view on the scope of government. Describe
the differences in these views on both economic and social issues. Support you analysis with a discussion of one
specific economic issue and one social issue.
3. The text examines both the formation of and cleavages in political attitudes. Define what is meant by
a cleavage and;
a) Identify one cleavage that impacts political beliefs and behaviors and explain how the cleavage you identified
impacts political ideology
b) Identify a second cleavage that impacts political beliefs and behaviors and explain how the cleavage you
identified impacts political ideology