Dr. Courtney Brown
Political Science 348
Elections and Voting

PAST TEST QUESTIONS
(NOTE: This is not a complete list, but it's close. There are no purposeful omissions.)

1. Explain what is meant by the sociotropic and pocketbook theories of voting. Describe the evolution of the two theories in terms aggregate and micro evidences relating to each. Which was the first theory to be tested and why?

2. What are Kondratiev waves and Kuznets cycles? How do they relate to politics in general, and realignments in particular. Explain what this has to say about the interconnectedness of all human experiences and phenomena.

3. Describe the historical development of political television image projection. Give lots of examples. Discuss news coverage as well as paid advertising.

4. Compare and contrast the "hard sell" and "voter as workforce" models of political advertising. Who developed each, and for which party? Describe how they are operationalized today. What is the role of imagery? How are they done? Be specific and give examples.

5. What is Down's economic theory of democracy? Explain the concepts of ideological competition between parties from the perspective of Anthony Downs's theory of democracy. Feel free to make some small sketches in your answer book to help explain the ideas. Relate all of this to a two party system in which most voters are moderates, and compare this with a multi-party system in which there are substantial blocks of voters with varying ideological perspectives.

6. Describe different ways a president or a presidential candidate can manipulate the media in order to win an election. Be specific. Give examples.

7. How are political television ads used in general?

8. Describe realignment. Explain the two separate definitions of realignment. With regard to the electoral coalition definition of realignment, explain the two types of realignments which are possible, vis a vis new entrants and existing participants. Give two historical examples of realignment movements in which both types of realignments occurred. How were these two examples different in terms of the sequencing of the two types of realignment movements? What statistical measure is commonly used to differentiate between the two types of realignments? What is another commonly used statistical measure that gives incorrect results with regard to this same question? Why is it so?

9. What does it mean to say that humans are influenced by long waves or cycles in our social and political evolution? What does this say about how much we understand human society at the current time? Give examples of such waves and cycles as well as theoretical reasons as to why they might exist.

10. Jimmy Carter has asked you to design and implement a public opinion survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the Carter Center's child-immunization project. Being as specific as possible, and touching on all phases of the public opinion poll (i.e., from start to finish), write up a proposal for President Carter detailing how you would carry out this task.

11. In 1936, the Literary Digest conducted a poll of its subscribers and announced that Landon was to win a landslide victory over Roosevelt. Knowing that, in fact, Roosevelt won the election, what do you think might have been some of the causes of this monumental error? Furthermore, what changes have occurred in modern times to ensure that the measurement of public opinion is both more timely and accurate.

12. What are the advantages of congressional incumbency? How does Jacobson view these advantages in terms of how they affect voters? In this sense, what does incumbency really stand for in Jacobson's view? What does this have in connection with the decline of partisanship in congressional elections? How can a challenger hope to defeat an incumbent, and what is the single most important ingredient that is needed? Why is this ingredient needed so much? (Be sure to connect this to Jacobson's view of incumbency.)

13. What is the difference between independent voters and floating voters? What do we now know about their respective competencies? What did we think before? Be complete in your answer.

14. Explain the funnel of causality. Draw a nice picture of the thing. What is it used for? Who developed it? What school of thought came up with a competing viewpoint at around the same time? What is the controversy about the funnel of causality with regard to the two schools of thought? (Hint: Think in terms of time.)

15. What is meant by the term "partisan identification?" What do the Michigan school folks think it summarizes. How is partisan identification most commonly measured? What is a major problem with this measure? What is another concept for measuring partisan identification? (Explain this in terms of dimensions.) Is partisan identification stable or unstable, and why?

16. Explain the generational and life cycle theories of partisan identification. What is the sort of evidence that has been used in the past to show support for each theory? Which theory is generally thought to be correct today?

17. What is the "traditional image" of the typical American voter? Compare this view with the "revisionist image" of the typical American voter. In your description of these views, be sure to include the role of issues and ideology. Why do the revisionists come to a different conclusion than the traditionalists?

18. What are "hard" and "easy" issues? Describe how they work as well as the importance of understanding the distinctions between the two.

19. "To what extent are the outcomes of congressional elections the result of national forces, such as the state of the economy, as opposed to local forces, such as candidate and voter characteristics?"

20. "To what extent is voting in congressional elections a function of the same forces affecting presidential voting, specifically, party identification, issues of public policy, and the candidates' personal characteristics?"

21. Describe how the media was used by early political manipulators such as Father Couglin, Huey Long, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. How did there styles differ? Explain why they acted as they did.

22. Explain why the physical structure of the media in Washington, D.C. encourages the manipulation of the media by the president of the United States. Be specific about details.

23. The Emory Polling Agency conducted a survey of students to see what the students thought of the ARA food in the DUC. They found that 50% of the students never ate there and that 75% of the students hated the food. Comment on the interpretation of these results. For example, how can 75% of the student hate the food when only 50% eat there? What other information would you need in order to fully understand student attitudes toward the food supply?

24. Discuss at least three different types of sampling techniques. What are the similarities and differences between the techniques? If you were to design a survey to determine the effectiveness of Jimmy Carter's "Atlanta Project," what sampling technique would you use and why?

25. What is the "traditionalist image" of the typical American voter? Compare this view with the "revisionist image" of the same typical American voter. In your description of these views, be sure to include the role of issues and ideology. Why do the revisionists come to a different conclusion than the traditionalists?

26. What are the factors which help congressional incumbents stay in office? How do they use these factors to discourage the opposition, and what does this mean exactly?

27. Where do candidates for congress get their campaign money? What do they do to get it?

28. How is it that the president of the United States can manipulate the television news coverage of himself? Be sure to separate out two distinct aspect of this question. First, explain the physical structure of the media in Washington, D.C. (who is where, etc.). Second, explain what the president needs to do to enhance his marketability as a news product.

29. Describe the "private enterprise" structure of the major broadcast media. In particular, what regulations are relevant here, and who are the folks that make the important decisions? What biases result from a dependence on a distribution of news by private businesses? What advantages also exist? Is the news very successful in getting the public to understand and remember contemporary issues? (In this last part, separate out the public's ability to remember news stories from their perception of the media's influence on them.

30. Describe the five major party systems of the United States.

31. Describe the evolution of mass manipulation through the media by some early geniuses of the craft. Give names, descriptions of what they did, and explanations of how technological innovations were exploited. How can national social conditions enhance the potentials of a nation to be manipulated?

32. List and describe a minimum of eight characteristics of realignments that are identified by James Sundquist. Give some examples of a few of these characteristics.

33. With regard to partisan change in America since the early 1950s, list some of the changes that have happened to the voters. Then list some of the changes that have happened to the parties themselves. Explain.

34. Define the following terms: (1) normal vote, (2) deviations, and a deviating election, (3) roll-off, (4) spit-ticketing, (5) drop-off, (6) party strips, (7) nonvoting. List and describe a minimum of five examples of institutional constraints affecting voter mobilization. List some social constraints that affect voter mobilization. Finally, what is the on-year/off-year congressional mobilization cycle.

35. Describe the relationship between voter institutionalization and long-term electoral bias as it is identified by John Sprague. Why can this relationship result in having one party dominate a nation's legislative politics for a very long time? Give an example of such a situation. List three principles of laws that relate to this relationship. Explain everything, including why this could affect the United States more than other countries.

36. Describe the following types of political television advertisements: (1) background spots, (2) testimonials, (3) atmosphere/ambience ads, (4) negative ads, (5) accomplishment spots, (6) response ads. How are each used? When are they used, and under what circumstances? Describe two types of negative advertisements, one more risky than the other. What is the risk of a negative ad, and why is one type less risky than the other? Describe examples of these ads that you have seen in class.

37. Describe five different types of political television advertisements. Be sure to use the correct labels for each type. How are these ads used in the campaign?

38. How are political television ads used in general? Name and describe at least five types of advertisements. Describe how political television ads are operationalized today. What is the role of imagery? How are they done, and when are which types of ads normally used in the campaign? Be specific and give examples.

39. Describe the congressional mobilization cycle from the perspective of a base-level of mobilization punctuated by spikes. Be complete in your explanation. Explain the things that affect the base-level as well as the spikes. Examples are useful and needed.

40. Describe what happened in 1920 when the electoral franchise was extended to women in the United States. What happened to each party? Why? Include a time dimension for each party. Explain the entire phenomenon and explain the mobilization process using the 1920 event as a model for other similar events. Examples are necessary.

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