Module 7: Week 7
Quiz: Political Parties
27 out of 30
1. For the most part, a majority of Americans believe that Republicans are better than
Democrats at handling which issue?
a. Foreign trade
2. What is the process of attracting key party and interest group figures to a candidate
called?
a. Invisible Primary
3. Given the U.S. federal system, how do parties in the United States compare to their
European counterparts?
a. More decentralized
4. What term is used to describe voters adjusting their long-term allegiance from one party
to another in response to ideological changes?
a. Realignment
5. If party elites and voters disagree on the best choice of presidential candidate, who
usually wins?
a. The voters will likely get their way.
6. The Republican Party was established to deal with which of the following issues?
a. Slavery
7. What kind of party is the Populist Party?
a. Economic protest
8. The American electoral system can be described as both a single-member plurality
system and which of the following?
a. Tri-party system
9. Which of the following is an accurate comparison of today’s voters to their late
nineteenth-century counterparts?
a. Voters are less attached to political parties today than they were in the late
nineteenth century.
10. Which of the following best describes political parties during the period leading up to the
Civil War?
a. The Whig Party split over the issue of slavery, and the antislavery factions of
many parties coalesced to form the Republican Party.
11. Which of the following describes the formation of the modern Republican Party?
a. It was formed from a coalition of antislavery factions.
12. What are super-delegates?
a. Elected officials and party leaders who are not required to pledge themselves in
advance to a presidential candidate
13. Progressives called for electoral reforms, such as the initiative and the referendum, for
what purpose?
a. To give citizens a direct say in making laws
14. During the founding period of U.S. history, how could political parties be characterized?
a. Loose, regional caucuses of political notables
15. Who manages the day-to-day work of a political party?
a. National chairman or chairwoman
16. Research on party identification has found that about how many self-identified
Independents are truly independent?
a. Less than a quarter
17. The Hatch Act allows federal civil service employees to do what?
a. Serve as party officers
18. A centralized organization that dominates local politics by controlling elections,
sometimes by illegal means, is known as which of the following?
a. Party machine
19. What is a major reason that minor parties or third parties have difficulty competing and
winning in the United States?
a. The electoral rules make it difficult for third parties to gain access to the ballot in
states.
20. A political party is a group of individuals who do which of the following?
a. Organize to win elections and operate the government
21. The main purpose of a political party is to do which of the following in order to control
the government and implement its policies?
a. Win elections
22. What characterizes an open primary?
a. Any voter may vote for any party, but they may only vote for one party.
23. The system by which legislative seats are awarded to a party in proportion to the number
of votes that party wins in an election is called what type of representation?
a. Proportional
24. Which of the following statements about the formula by which delegates to the
nominating conventions are apportioned is correct?
a. The Democrats and Republicans use different formulas.
25. Compared to states with open primaries, which is true for states with closed primaries?
a. They tend to have stronger parties.
26. Which of the following is true of a winner-take-all electoral system?
a. The candidate who gets the most votes wins.
27. Which of these is an accurate characterization of partisanship?
a. It is fairly stable but sometimes does change.
28. Which of the following statements about voter behavior is incorrect?
a. Typically, most Independents vote for only the Republican candidate.
29. What was the distinctive feature of the Jacksonian era of political parties?
a. Mass political participation
30. The adoption of which of the following would permit multiple parties to acquire seats in
Congress because representation would be based on the percentage of votes they receive
in national elections?
a. Proportional representation
