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degree and is 43 with three children. Deine the concept of
attentive public and explain which of these two voters would be
considered such and why?
Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Deine attentive public as citizens who follow public
afairs carefully.
2. Explain that the older and more educated one is, the
higher the chance of political activity. In such a case, the
older, more educated individual is more likely to follow
public afairs and be more politically active. Younger, less
educated citizens are less likely to vote, and are therefore
seen as less politically active.
Topic: Forming Political Opinions and Values
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Identify the forces that create and
shape individuals’ political attitudes.
Page Reference: 198
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
100. In the 2008 and 2010 elections, voter turnout was up. What is
the primary reason for not voting, and what accounts for the
change in election turnout when it comes to voter mobilization?
1. Identify the primary reason for not voting, stating that
voters had problems registering, were not interested in
voting, or were too busy to vote.
2. Discuss the shift to Internet use for campaigns, which
lowers the cost for candidates and voters to participate in
elections. The high levels of Internet use are associated
with higher voter mobilization.
Topic: Participation: Translating Opinions into Action
Learning Objective: LO 7.4: Identify forms of political
participation, and assess the efect on voter turnout of
demographic, legal, and electioneering factors.
Page Reference: 214 – 217
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
101. On what issues is public opinion likely to be more stable? On
what issues is public opinion likely to vary over time? Why?
239
1. Provide examples of issues where public opinion is
stable and unstable. For example, public opinion on issues
related to core values such as abortion and the death
penalty are often more stable, whereas public opinion on
issues less related to core values such as how the
president is performing are less stable.
2. Explain why this diference in stability exists and why
core values matter.
Topic: Forming Political Opinions and Values
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Identify the forces that create and
shape individuals’ political attitudes.
Page Reference: 196 – 197
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
102. Deine salience. Using several examples from history, explain
why it varies over time.
1. Deine salience as issues that people believe are
important to them.
2. Provide one or more examples of a particular salient
issue in politics. Then, highlight change in saliency. This
may be done by focusing on how one issue changes in
saliency over time or how, during key historical periods,
speciic issues were more salient than others.
Topic: Public Opinion: Taking the Pulse of the People
Learning Objective: LO 7.2: Describe the key dimensions of
public opinion, how public opinion is measured, and the
relationship between public opinion and public policy.
Page Reference: 200, 202
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
Essay Questions
240
103. The state of Oregon uses mail-in ballots exclusively. What are
the beneits and drawbacks of such a system?
1. Describe the beneits of vote-by-mail as lower cost and
easier to administer than an in-person voting process held
on only one day. Vote-by-mail has been found to increase
turnout, at least in the initial period after adoption, and in
Oregon it continues to foster greater turnout in
presidential general elections.
2. Identify the drawbacks as potential abuses of the
process, fraudulently cast ballots, or bribing a person to
vote a certain way and then mailing in that person’s
ballot. Some see value in casting a ballot in public with
other voters on a designated day. More fundamentally,
some question the value of making it easier for people to
vote, which voting by mail does. This viewpoint is based
on the perceived importance of citizens being willing to
invest time and efort, which in-person voting requires.
Topic: Participation: Translating Opinions into Action
Learning Objective: LO 7.4: Identify forms of political
participation, and assess the efect on voter turnout of
demographic, legal, and electioneering factors.
Page Reference: 212
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
104. Identify and describe three diferent states of political
awareness and interest exhibited by citizens in democratic
societies.
1. List the three diferent states of political awareness
(attentive public, political know-nothings, and part-time
citizens).
2. Explain how each of these three is diferent in terms of
political awareness and why these diferences exist.
Topic: Forming Political Opinions and Values
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Identify the forces that create and
shape individuals’ political attitudes.
Page Reference: 198
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
241
Diiculty Level: Moderate
105. Voters’ political ideology remains comparatively consistent with
little change over time relative to election results. Why? How do
political socialization and selective exposure impact this?
1. Deine political socialization and relate factors that
contribute to a voter’s political preferences.
2. Explain selective exposure. This dynamic, coupled with
political socialization, limits the amount of new
information that voters are exposed to, which decreases
the chance of ideological shifts.
Topic: Forming Political Opinions and Values
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Identify the forces that create and
shape individuals’ political attitudes.
Page Reference: 194 – 196
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
106. Deine libertarianism. How does libertarianism difer from the
main political ideologies discussed in the book? How is it
similar?
1. Deine libertarianism as limiting government to such
vital activities as national defense while fostering
individual liberty.
2. Explain that unlike conservatives and liberals,
libertarians oppose all government regulation, even of
personal morality. Libertarians believe that private
enterprise and the market are more eicient than the
state could ever be, unlike socialism. Libertarians see
property rights and repealing economic regulations as key
to freedom, unlike communism.
Topic: Political Ideology and Attitudes Toward Government
Learning Objective: LO 7.3: Compare and contrast political
ideologies and evaluate the critiques of each ideology.
Page Reference: 207
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
242
107. If you were an elementary school principal, which types of
activities would you ban if you were interested in producing
future political know-nothings?
1. Deine political what political scientists mean by know-
nothings.
2. Discuss reasons that people become political know-
nothings, including the role of agents of political
socialization (especially schools as agents).
3. Provide one or more examples of school activities that
should be banned to socialize students into political know-
nothings.
Topic: Forming Political Opinions and Values
Learning Objective: LO 7.1: Identify the forces that create and
shape individuals’ political attitudes.
Page Reference: 198
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
108. Design a question and an accompanying scale to assess how the
public feels about legislation that requires voters to present
photo identiication before they can cast their votes.
1. Describe the intent of photo identiication
requirements.
2. Provide a sample question about requiring photo
identiication for voting with a scale measuring public
feeling. The scale should be able to capture either public
intensity, issue saliency, or other areas of variation about
requiring photo identiication.
Topic: Introduction; Public Opinion: Taking the Pulse of the
People
Learning Objective: Introduction; LO 7.2: Describe the key
dimensions of public opinion, how public opinion is measured,
and the relationship between public opinion and public policy.
Page Reference: 192 – 194, 199 – 200
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
243
109. There has been a downward trend in voter turnout in
presidential elections starting at the 1896 election. Voter
turnout has yet to reach its 1876 high point. Discuss changes in
voting eligibility standards and how these afected voter
turnout.
1. Discuss the Fifteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-Fourth, and
Twenty-Sixth Amendments, and the Voting Rights Act of
1965, and deine who was allowed to vote.
2. Discuss voter turnout and populations that are most
likely to vote in elections, that is, older voters participate
more than younger voters; more educated voters
participate more than less educated voters. The more
citizens become eligible to vote, the more likely are lower
turnout rates. If the same amount of older, educated
voters go to the polls and younger and less educated
voters are included in elections, the ratio of voter turnout
goes down..
Topic: Voting Choices
Learning Objective: LO 7.5: Analyze why people vote the way
they do in elections.
Page Reference: 209 – 217
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
110. What are the implications for public policy when public opinion
pollsters ind that the public is polarized on an issue?
1. Deine polarization.
2. Discuss the signiicance and implications of polarization
for American politics and interpreting public opinion in
America. Answers may include speciic examples of
polarization in America, such as the Vietnam War or gay
marriage.
Topic: Public Opinion: Taking the Pulse of the People
Learning Objective: LO 7.2: Describe the key dimensions of
public opinion, how public opinion is measured, and the
relationship between public opinion and public policy.
Page Reference: 200
Skill Level: Analyze It
244
Diiculty Level: Diicult
245
