How does the political environment influence voter turnout?
What will be an ideal response?
An ideal response will:
1, Explain that political environment, meaning the nature of the candidates, campaigns, and issues in an election year, influences who will vote.
2, Discuss how people who have strong attachments to political parties are more likely to vote. For example, many African Americans' strong attachments to the Democratic Party affected their turnout in the 2008 election of Barack Obama.
3, Explain how the presence on the ballot of more interesting candidates and ballot initiatives can boost turnout. Note that elections for governor, senator, and president are more likely to have a higher turnout than a local election.
4, Explain how the perception of whether or not an election will be close can stimulate intense campaign activity and media coverage, thereby increasing the amount of information available. The student may specifically refer to the 2012 election and its intense focus on battleground states.
5, Explain how the perception of a close election may convince voters that their votes will count more, and thus increase the perception of benefits from voting.
6, Provide a clear and effective conclusion.
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How has the ruling reached in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission changed the way that candidates are funded?
A. Interest groups are no longer able to provide in-kind support such as phone banks or office space for candidates. B. Individuals can now contribute an unlimited amount to a single candidate. C. Corporations and labor unions are now prohibited from contributing money to campaigns either directly or indirectly. D. Independent super-PACs can now make unlimited contributions to federal races.
To investigate the impact of population density on crime, a researcher compared average crime rates in low and high density neighborhoods. To control for poverty, which is related to both density and crime, he further stratified the data into low and high poverty neighborhoods. Instead of using this method of stratification, multiple regression analysis is often preferable because
a. It can accommodate more than one or two control variables b. It is not limited to categorical variables c. A fuller range of values of both the independent and control variables can be taken into account d. All of the above
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A. 5 percent B. 1 percent C. 3 percent D. 2 percent
Today, four of the top five talk-radio shows, as measured by Arbitron ratings, are politically _____
A) confederalist B) liberal C) communist D) conservative E) extremist