Public Opinion
This measures public opinion by asking a sample of the population the same questions.
What is a survey?
The results of these elections decide which candidate will represent its political party in the general election.
What are primary (or caucus) elections?
This is the government agency responsible for the regulation of American broadcast media.
What is the Federal Communications Commission?
An example of this is when southern Democrats switched their support to the Republican Party.
What is realignment?
This is a person who believes many groups healthily compete for access to decision-makers.
What is a pluralist?
This polling technique requires that each individual in a population has an equal probability of being selected for a public opinion poll.
What is random sampling?
In these primaries, voters do not need to be registered with the party in order to participate.
What are open primaries?
This occurs when regular people publish photos and write stories about news events.
What is citizen journalism?
This is the redrawing of electoral maps.
What is redistricting?
Mobilizing public opinion on a policy issue is an example of this type of interest group strategy.
What is outside game?
This is a question worded in a survey/poll that leads a respondent to give a desired answer.
What is a Leading Question?
This is set by the total of each state's number of congressional representatives and two senate seats.
What is the state Electoral College vote?
This FCC rule requires that broadcast media provides the same amount of time for political candidates to appear on non-news programming.
What is the Equal Time Provision?
This is the manipulation of legislative districts in an attempt to favor a particular candidate.
What is gerrymandering?
Most interest organizations engage in this activity to achieve their objectives of influencing policy.
What is lobbying?
This occurs when survey respondents tell pollsters what they think is the appropriate response rather than their true answer.
What is social desirability bias?
This is a government agency that enforces and regulates election law’s made up of six presidential appointees, of whom no more than three can be members of the same party.
What is the Federal Election Commission (FEC)?
Sensationalized coverage of scandals and human-interest stories
What is yellow journalism?
According to this, electoral systems with single-member districts and plurality voting will result in two competitive parties.
What is Duverger's Law?
This is the three-way relationship among congressional committees, interests groups, and the bureaucracy.
What is an iron triangle?
A number that states how far the poll results may be from the actual preferences of the total population of citizens, like an approval rating of 42% +/- 3%.
What is a margin of error?
This act requires states to provide opportunities for people to register to vote when applying/renewing a driver’s license or applying for public assistance.
What is the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (aka the Motor Voter Act)?
This is a 1949 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy, now defunct, that required holders of broadcast licenses to cover controversial issues in a balanced manner.
What is the Fairness Doctrine?
An example of this phenomenon is that members of congress increasingly vote along party lines.
What is polarization?
What is the collective action problem?