Ch9 #1-30

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Quiz on Ch9 #1-30, created by c2c0b5e2 on 06/07/2014.
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Question 1

Question
Economist Mancur Olson concluded that groups
Answer
  • exercise too much power in the American system.
  • increase the flexibility of government.
  • can have their benefits reduced by concerted political opposition.
  • are shown to have too much power when examined individually.
  • help the government break away from long-term or previous commitments and apply funding to new problems or issues.

Question 2

Question
The theory that society's interests are most effectively represented through group action is
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  • republicanism.
  • constitutionalism.
  • elitist theory.
  • pluralist theory.
  • interest-group liberalism.

Question 3

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A basic reason for the existence of so many interest groups in the United States is
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  • the American tradition of free association.
  • the extent of diverse interests in American society.
  • America's federal system of government.
  • the separation of powers in American government.
  • All these answers are correct.

Question 4

Question
The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) ultimately led to the creation of
Answer
  • Super PACs.
  • PACs.
  • election reform.
  • independent-expenditure-committees (IECs).
  • the AARP.

Question 5

Question
The most fully organized interests are those that have which of the following as their primary purpose?
Answer
  • agriculture
  • economic activity
  • civil liberties
  • labor reform
  • reform of government

Question 6

Question
The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Answer
  • allows corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited funds on campaigns.
  • limits PACs by reducing the amount of money they can raise through contributions by small donors.
  • has forced candidates for office and elected officials to make public the amounts of campaign contributions they have received from PACs and which PACs make those donations.
  • has strengthened the argument that PACs constitute a better system of campaign finance than one based on wealthy donors.
  • has forced corporations and labor unions to legally divorce themselves from the PACs they sponsor.

Question 7

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A purposive incentive is defined as
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  • a goal of direct economic gain.
  • the opportunity to contribute to a worthy goal or purpose.
  • a goal benefiting a specific group.
  • any common purpose that brings groups together.
  • corporate profit.

Question 8

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Citizens' interest groups are distinguished from economic interest groups by the fact that
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  • their leaders are elected by secret ballot of the group's members.
  • their members receive no direct economic benefit from attainment of the group's goals.
  • they do not lobby government officials directly, but rely instead on public service announcements to get their views across to society.
  • they always pursue goals in which there is a high level of agreement among society members.
  • All these answers are correct.

Question 9

Question
An interest group that focuses on policy benefits for senior citizens would be an example of
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  • a philosophical interest group.
  • an ideological group.
  • a professional group.
  • a business group.
  • a single-issue group.

Question 10

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Which of the following groups primarily uses litigation as its lobbying method?
Answer
  • NRA
  • ACLU
  • NAACP
  • AARP
  • NEA

Question 11

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Why have issue networks become more prevalent?
Answer
  • the increasing power of corporate lobbying
  • the increasing diversity of interest groups
  • the increasing influence of PACs
  • the instability of candidates' positions
  • the increasing complexity of policy problems

Question 12

Question
Some groups pursue collective goods. A collective good is one that
Answer
  • cannot be selectively granted or denied to individuals; it must be shared.
  • is provided by a public service organization.
  • is secured by the president.
  • is secured by Congress.
  • None of these answers is correct.

Question 13

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The situation in which individuals are tempted not to contribute to a cause because they will get the benefits even if they do not participate is called the
Answer
  • size factor.
  • free-rider problem.
  • special-interest paradox.
  • disincentive factor.
  • zero-sum game.

Question 14

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In an effort to overcome the free-rider problem, noneconomic groups have
Answer
  • deliberately restricted the size of their membership.
  • joined up with economic groups.
  • convinced government to limit the distribution of public goods to those who have contributed to the group's efforts.
  • used Internet resources and computer-assisted mailing lists to target potential donors.
  • adopted taxes for nonmembers.

Question 15

Question
Roughly how many American workers currently belong to unions?
Answer
  • one in two
  • one in four
  • one in eight
  • one in six
  • one in ten

Question 16

Question
Economic groups have an advantage over noneconomic groups because
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  • they nearly always have larger memberships.
  • they are organized primarily for political purposes.
  • they have better leadership.
  • they have greater access to financial resources.
  • their members are committed to their causes.

Question 17

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"Agency capture" occurs when
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  • a regulatory agency funnels money back into the lobbying organizations that are seeking policy changes.
  • regulatory agencies side with the industries they are supposed to regulate rather than with the public.
  • the executive branch takes back control of a regulatory agency by passing regulation to prevent undue influence by lobbying organizations.
  • a regulatory agency must be dismantled because it has become corrupted.
  • an election results in the replacement of an agency's leadership through appointive positions under a new president.

Question 18

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A flaw in pluralism theory is the fact that
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  • the interest group system is unrepresentative because some interests are far better organized and more powerful than others.
  • the public interest is never served by policies that promote special interests.
  • larger groups always prevail politically over smaller groups.
  • political parties better represent different interests than do interest groups.
  • All these answers are correct.

Question 19

Question
Which citizens' group did a Fortune magazine survey rank as the nation's most powerful lobbying group?
Answer
  • the NAACP
  • the AFL-CIO
  • the AARP
  • MADD
  • Common Cause

Question 20

Question
An amicus brief
Answer
  • is a written document in which a group explains to a court its position on a legal dispute the court is handling.
  • is a written document in which an interest group lays out its policy preference for targeted lawmakers.
  • prevents a lobbyist group from making campaign donations to policy makers over a specific issue.
  • provides evidence for prosecutors of an illegal monetary relationship between a lawmaker and an interest group or PAC.
  • prevents PACs from donating more than $5,000 to a single candidate during a primary election.

Question 21

Question
In acknowledging the dilemma inherent in group activity, James Madison
Answer
  • argued that the free-rider problem would hurt some groups more than others.
  • claimed that government could listen to all groups, but should only enact policies that promote the interests of majority groups.
  • worried that government would be overly dominated by groups, but recognized that a free society is obliged to permit the advocacy of self-interest.
  • argued that government must restrict the activities of groups, so that political parties could act as the major instrument of democracy.
  • All these answers are correct.

Question 22

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Effective inside lobbying is based upon
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  • countering the aims of other groups.
  • providing useful and persuasive information to key officials.
  • mobilizing the group's members.
  • bribing or threatening officials.
  • using the media to exert pressure.

Question 23

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PACs tend to contribute the most money to
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  • incumbents.
  • challengers.
  • Independents.
  • liberal Democrats.
  • liberal Republicans.

Question 24

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A main difference between iron triangles and issue networks is that
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  • an iron triangle includes members of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, while issue networks bypass the judicial branch.
  • issue networks involve a stable group of bureaucrats, legislators, and lobbyists, while iron triangles exclude lobbyists in an attempt to reach impartial decisions.
  • issue networks are generally less stable than iron triangles, in that the members of an issue network may change as the issue develops.
  • issue networks, being less formal, rely on outside lobbying only, while iron triangles use inside lobbying only.
  • All these answers are correct.

Question 25

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Political scientist Theodore Lowi has questioned pluralist theory by suggesting that
Answer
  • special interests should never receive benefits from government.
  • there is no concept of the public interest in a system that gives special interests the ability to determine the policies affecting them.
  • policies that favor a series of minorities are inherently fairer than policies that ignore small groups in favor of a majority.
  • the sum of people's special interests is a rough approximation of society's collective interest.
  • Madisonian theory has created a perfect balance of special interest and common good.

Question 26

Question
In recent decades, lobbyists in Washington, D.C. have increasingly
Answer
  • targeted the executive branch in their efforts to influence policy decisions.
  • relied on coercive tactics, such as threats of withdrawing election support.
  • worked to defeat incumbent members of Congress in order to replace them with members who would be more supportive.
  • relied exclusively on inside lobbying as the means of gaining their policy goals.
  • ignored the judicial branch as a means of influencing policy decisions.

Question 27

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The influence of interest groups through the courts occurs through
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  • initiating lawsuits.
  • lobbying for certain judges to be appointed to the bench.
  • outside lobbying only.
  • PACs.
  • both initiating lawsuits and lobbying for certain judges to be appointed to the bench.

Question 28

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The term iron triangle refers to
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  • a tightly-knit set of lobbying groups.
  • the relationship among the Congress, the military, and defense contractors.
  • a small and informal but relatively stable set of bureaucrats, legislators, and lobbyists who are concerned with promoting a particular interest.
  • the strategy of lobbying all three branches of government simultaneously.
  • a corrupt relationship among the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

Question 29

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An informal grouping of officials, lobbyists, and policy specialists who come together temporarily around a policy problem is
Answer
  • an iron triangle.
  • an issue network.
  • a caucus.
  • a policy system.
  • an ideological network.

Question 30

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Outside lobbying does NOT include
Answer
  • developing and maintaining close contacts with policymakers.
  • the use of campaign contributions to legislators who favor the interest group.
  • cultivating favorable coverage from the news media.
  • targeting group resources on key election races.
  • rousing citizens to contact their elected officials and express their support.
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