CHAPTER 6: PUBLIC OPINION AND POLITICAL ACTION
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Multiple Choice Questions
1. Public opinion is
a. the study of population changes.
b. the distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy issues.
c. an actual enumeration of the population conducted every ten years.
d. an overall set of values widely shared within society.
e. the process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge.
2. The largest racial/ethnic minority group in the United States is
a. African Americans.
b. Asian Americans.
c. Native Americans.
d. Hispanics.
e. African Americans and Hispanics are tied in size.
3. The fastest growing age group in the United States is defined by the ages
a. 18–25.
b. 25–39.
c. 40–65.
d. 65+.
e. 80+.
4. Which of the following statements about political socialization and age is TRUE?
a. Aging increases political participation as well as the strength of party attachment.
b. Aging decreases political participation as well as the strength of party attachment.
c. Aging increases political participation and decreases the strength of party attachment.
d. Aging decreases political participation and increases the strength of party attachment.
e. Aging neither increases nor decreases political participation or the strength of party attachment.
5. Because it would be prohibitively expensive to ask every citizen his or her opinion on a whole range of issues, polls rely on what is called a(n) ________ of the population.
a. extraction
b. sample
c. census
d. slice
e. demography
6. Random sampling is considered
a. desirable, but not necessary, for an accurate poll of public opinion.
b. an unsophisticated way of measuring public opinion, but one that sometimes yields accurate results.
c. highly unreliable, but the cheapest way to measure public opinion.
d. the key to the accuracy of opinion polls.
e. a dangerous way to measure public opinion.
7. Public opinion polls are only estimates because
a. samples of fewer then one million people are too small.
b. all surveys have a sampling error.
c. pollsters sometimes have to make educated guesses about the results.
d. random-digit dialing has replaced person-to-person interviewing.
e. samples are not representative.
8. Whereas liberals tend to favor ____________, conservatives tend to favor ___________.
a. less military spending; more military spending
b. free markets; less government regulation of the economy
c. prayer in schools; affirmative action
d. lower government spending; more government spending for the poor and other social services
e. tighter penalties for criminals; stronger defendants’ rights
9. Ideology is determined more by _______ within religious groups than by religious denomination itself.
a. religiosity
b. religious sect
c. gender
d. age
e. race
10. Which of the following differences is an example of the patterns referred to as the gender gap?
a. Men are more likely than women to support democratic candidates.
b. Women are more likely than men to support democratic candidates.
c. Women are more likely than men to support abortion and to be pro-choice.
d. Men are more likely than women to support abortion and to be pro-choice.
e. None of these is correct.
11. The authors of The American Voter would agree with each of the following statements EXCEPT the following:
a. It is a misnomer to speak of election results as indicating a movement of the public either left or right.
b. For most people, the terms liberal and conservative are not as important as they are for the political elite.
c. People who think in ideological terms are most likely to switch parties from one election to the next.
d. People who think in ideological terms are least likely to switch parties from one election to the next.
e. Eisenhower’s two election victories represented a shift in the conservative direction during the 1950s.
12. Which of the following seems to confirm Morris Fiorina’s argument about the extent to which Americans are or are not involved in a cultural war?
a. There is a growing acceptance of homosexuals among liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
b. There is a growing disapproval of homosexuals among liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
c. Almost one-quarter of Americans say they have no ideological preference at all.
d. The ideological gap between Protestants and Catholics is smaller than the gender gap.
e. The new Christian Right consists of Catholics and Protestants who consider themselves fundamentalists.
13. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” is a classic defense of
a. protest.
b. violence.
c. civil disobedience.
d. law and order.
e. antiwar philosophy.
14. Which of the following statements about Americans’ political participation is FALSE?
a. Rates of political participation are unequal among Americans.
b. Citizens of higher socioeconomic status participate more in politics than citizens of lower socioeconomic status.
c. Among blacks and whites of equal levels of education, blacks participate in politics more than do whites.
d. Among people without a high school diploma, blacks are more likely to vote than are whites.
e. Across all levels of income and education, whites are more likely to participate than are blacks.
15. When it comes to questions about the scope of government,
a. more Americans today believe that government is getting too powerful compared to Americans in the mid-1960s.
b. most Americans report never having thought about the scope of government power.
c. a plurality of Americans support more government spending on programs such as education, health care, protecting the environment, and fighting crime.
d. many Americans oppose big government in principle but favor it in practice.
e. All of the above are true.
True/False Questions
1. The U.S. Census is conducted every 20 years.
2. A “minority majority” refers to a situation, likely to begin in the mid-twenty-first century, in which non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the U.S. population, and minority groups, together, will represent a majority.
3. Citizens over 65 comprise the fastest growing age group in the United States.
4. As people become more socialized with age, their political orientations grow weaker and more subject to change.
5. A sample refers to a small proportion of people chosen to represent a whole population.
6. Decades of survey data show that more Americans choose the ideological label of conservative over liberal.
7. Groups with political clout tend to be more liberal than groups that lack access to political power.
8. Although voter turnout has declined recently, other forms of participation such as contributing money and contacting officials have actually increased.
9. Almost half of most Americans have no opinion on the scope of government, according to survey data from 2000.
10. Americans tend to oppose the idea of big government but favor it in practice.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Demography refers to
a. the science of population changes.
b. the science of public opinion.
c. the science of democracy.
d. the U.S. census planning process.
e. constitutional rules governing reapportionment of Congress.
2. The most valuable method for understanding demographic changes in America is the
a. Statistical Abstract of the United States.
b. public opinion poll.
c. U.S. census.
d. turnout in presidential elections.
e. Internal Revenue Service statistical tax abstracts.
3. ________ is the distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy issues.
a. Random sampling
b. Direct mail
c. Political socialization
d. Public opinion
e. Political ideology
4. Public opinion is defined in the text as
a. opinions that are expressible in public, as opposed to the more truthful private opinions that most individuals are reluctant to state publicly.
b. beliefs about government held by a majority of people.
c. opinions solicited from a random sample of the public.
d. the distribution of the population’s beliefs about politics and policy.
e. widely held beliefs about the public’s role in politics and policy.
5. Who said America “is not merely a nation but a nation of nations”?
a. Franklin D. Roosevelt
b. John F. Kennedy
c. Ronald Reagan
d. Bill Clinton
e. George W. Bush
6. Which of the following statements about immigration in the U.S. is TRUE?
a. Federal law permits up to 1 million new immigrants to be legally admitted to the U.S. every year.
b. Federal law permits up to 5 million new immigrants to be legally admitted to the U.S. every year.
c. In recent years, illegal immigrants have outnumbered legal immigrants.
d. Few immigrants, only about 5 percent, in the U.S. have become American citizens.
e. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 30 percent of the nation’s population is comprised of immigrants.
7. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately what percentage of the nation’s population is constituted by immigrants?
a. 5 percent
b. 8 percent
c. 12 percent
d. 20 percent
e. 25 percent
8. The _________ refers to the emergence of a non-Caucasian majority, as compared with a white, generally Anglo-Saxon, majority.
a. melting pot
b. minority majority
c. immigrant population
d. population explosion
e. majority minority
9. Hispanics account for approximately ____ percent of the U.S. population, African Americans ____ percent, and Asian Americans _____ percent.
a. 15, 13, 5
b. 13, 15, 5
c. 5, 15, 13
d. 2, 3, 1
e. 20, 30, 10
10. Approximately what percentage of non-Hispanic whites lives below the poverty line?
a. 2 percent
b. 9 percent
c. 15 percent
d. 20 percent
e. 30 percent
11. The most recent wave of immigration since World War II has consisted primarily of
a. Africans.
b. Hispanics and Asians.
c. northwestern Europeans.
d. southern and eastern Europeans.
e. refugees from communist countries.
12. African Americans comprise what percentage of the American population, approximately?
a. 5 percent
b. 7 percent
c. 13 percent
d. 17 percent
e. 27 percent
13. Hispanics comprise approximately what percentage of the American population?
a. 3 percent
b. 15 percent
c. 23 percent
d. 33 percent
e. 43 percent
14. The ________ Act required that as of 1987, employers document the citizenship or legal immigrant status of their employees or face substantial criminal penalties for failing to do so.
a. National Origins
b. Simpson-Mazzoli
c. National Labor Relations
d. Hatch
e. Immigrant Employment
15. Reapportionment occurs after every census to reallocate seats in
a. the Senate.
b. the president’s cabinet.
c. the Supreme Court.
d. the House of Representatives.
e. both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
16. In 1960, there were ________ workers per retiree; today there are ____ workers per retiree.
a. 2; 3
b. 3; 2
c. 5.7; 3
d. 3; 5.7
e. 1; 5.7
17. The process through which an individual acquires his or her particular political orientations, including his or her knowledge, feelings, and evaluations regarding his or her political world, is known as
a. political orientation.
b. demography.
c. political socialization.
d. political ideology.
e. political indoctrination.
18. Which of the following statements about political socialization is FALSE?
a. As people become more socialized with age, their political orientations grow weaker.
b. As people become more socialized with age, their political orientations grow stronger.
c. Governments aim their socialization efforts primarily at the young.
d. Americans obtain most of their political socialization from their families and their teachers.
e. All of the above are false.
19. Which of the following statements about processes of political socialization is TRUE?
a. Average school age children spend more time each week at school than they spend watching TV.
b. The older children get, the more television displaces parents as the chief source of information.
c. Today’s young Americans are more likely than older Americans to read newspapers.
d. Today’s young Americans are more likely than older Americans to pay attention to the news.
e. Today’s young Americans are more likely than older Americans to participate in politics.
20. Scientific public opinion polling first began in 1932 by
a. George Gallup.
b. the Democratic Party.
c. Louis Harris.
d. the Associated Press.
e. Henry Luce.
21. In public opinion polling, a sample as small as about ________ people can faithfully represent the “universe” of Americans.
a. 500
b. 1,500
c. 5,000
d. 10,000
e. 50,000
22. The key to the accuracy of public opinion polls is
a. political ideology.
b. polygraphs.
c. random sampling.
d. the larger the size of the sample, the better.
e. political socialization.
23. Sampling error describes
a. how many samples a survey estimate is based on.
b. what percentage of the sample provided answers to the questions.
c. how close a sample estimate is to the real population value.
d. how often a sample statistic is correct.
e. how many samples are incorrect.
24. The technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers is called
a. censusing.
b. sampling.
c. random-digit-dialing.
d. cold calling.
e. push polling.
25. Random sampling in public opinion polling operates on the principle that
a. the answers to include in aggregate poll results must be selected by chance in order to maximize accuracy.
b. everyone should have an equal probability of being selected.
c. the questions to be asked of a given respondent must be selected randomly so that all respondents are asked the same question the same number of times.
d. the larger the number of people who are polled, the greater the accuracy of the poll.
e. Both b and c are true.
26. The 1936 Literary Digest poll underestimated the vote for President Franklin Roosevelt by 19 percent because
a. the sample was drawn from telephone books and motor vehicle records.
b. the literary intelligentsia as a group never did like Roosevelt.
c. the sample was too small.
d. not enough women were interviewed.
e. people did not tell the truth.
27. A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen as representative of the whole is called a(n)
a. quota.
b. population.
c. census.
d. sample.
e. cohort.
28. Concerns about reliance of pollsters on telephone surveys have recently been caused by
a. decreased chances of finding people at home.
b. increased use of random-digit dialing.
c. increased nonlisting of phone numbers.
d. increased use of cell phones.
e. a decrease in no-call lists.
29. Which of the following statements about public opinion polling is FALSE?
a. Public opinion polling started in 1932 with George Gallup.
b. Sample sizes are getting smaller, not larger.
c. The amount of public opinion polling has increased in recent years.
d. Public opinion polling is a uniquely American phenomenon.
e. A sample of 1,500 people is enough to relatively accurately reflect the universe of American people.
30. In their research on politicians’ use of public opinion polling, Jacobs and Shapiro found that
a. politicians track public opinion to make public policy.
b. politicians do not really track public opinion.
c. politicians track public opinion to help them craft public presentations and win public support for their parties.
d. politicians track public opinion to identify centrist positions that will have their broadest popular appeal when it comes to public policy.
e. politicians spend so much time tracking public opinion that they have little time to spend on actually leading the country.
31. Voters who support a political candidate merely because they see others doing so is called the _____ effect.