Chapter Eight and Nine Questions

U.S. Government

Name _______________________
Use Chapter 8 to help answer the following:

Section 1: describes what political parties are, what they do, and what it means to be a party member. This section also discusses the development of the American two-party system and the role of third parties.

Define “political party” –



Describe each system below and give an example of each:
“one-party” – ________________________________________________________
example-_________________________

“two-party” – ________________________________________________________
example-_________________________

“three-party” – ________________________________________________________
example-_________________________


Why is the U.S. considered to have a two-party system?




What have been the two main parties of the 20th century, and what major event marked the shift of power between them?



What are the three types of “third” parties? Give an example of each.
1.
2.
3.

What impact have third parties had on national politics?




Name at least two obstacles to the national success of third parties.




Define the following:

Ideology-


Proportional representation-


Coalition government-





Chapter 9

Section 2:
What are the four major influences on how a voter votes?
1. 3.
2. 4.

Cite at least four elements making up a voter’s personal background
1. 3.
2. 4.

Cite at least one example of how issues and image has swayed a presidential election
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Section 3:
What movement and amendment resulted in the vote for women?


To whom did the 15th Amendment (1870) give the right to vote?


List three discriminatory practices ended by the Voting Rights Acts.
1.
2.
3.

What were the two main results of the Voting Rights Acts for African Americans?
1.
2.

Section 4:
What are the two voting requirements other than citizenship?
1.
2.

Why are the two requirements listed above necessary?



Cite at least two reasons people fail to vote?
1.
2.

What are three important factors that affect whether or not someone votes regularly?
1.
2.
3.

Why has the voting rate in the United States decreased? Cite at least two reasons.
1.
2.

List three proposals for increasing voter turnout.
1.
2.
3.

What two procedures increase voter turnout significantly because they give citizens the chance to participate directly in the legislative process?
1.
2.

Vocabulary-Political Participation

Political Participation Unit 2: Vocabulary

Chapters 8-12

1. Public Opinion 15. Biased sample 28. Random sample
2. Mass media 16. Peer group 29. Interest group
3. Grandfather clause 17. Lobbying/lobbyist 30. Political action committees
4. Electorate 18. Minor parties 31. Disenfranchise
5. Consensus 19. Run-off 32. Nomination
6. Primary 20. Party platform 33. Precinct
7. National convention 21. Ballot 34. Voter turnout
8. Petition 22. Caucuses 35. Direct primary
9. Closed primary 23. Open primary 36. General election
10. Special election 24. Electoral college 37. Popular vote
11. Attack ads 25. Issue ads 38. Socio-economic factors
12. Political Socialization 26. Campaign 39. Straight ticket vote
13. Gender Gap 27. Referendum 40. Ideology
14. Endorsement

Syllabus Week 2 (11 of Semester)

Lesson: Political Participation
Time: 3:45 min
Unit 2
Week: 11 Dates: 4/2-4/6

Objectives:
1. To analyze the main political parties beliefs and platforms
2. to apply the ideas of the various political parties in a practical manner
Standards:
3.2.2 – Identify and analyze issues concerning the national interests of the United States
4.3 – know how citizens can exercise their rights

Materials:
Textbook: U.S. Government, Democracy in Action-Bring Friday
Mon/Tues 4/2 or 4/3

1. Reflection Question: Do you believe, it is more important to loyally support a political party and their platform or only vote for candidates based on a few, important issues (10 minutes).

2. Analyze survey results (45 minutes). Group questions:

a. Qualitative Analysis-Do you think your applicants matched their political identity very well, fairly well, somewhat confused, very confused.

b. Quantitative Analysis-Give a point for each question that they answered that parallels their political affiliation. Subtract a point for each answer that does not match or parallel their political affiliation.

c. Which question(s) had the highest rate of dissonance (lack of parallel)?

d. Which question(s) had the highest rate of resonance (parallel)?

e. What was the question that had the most drastic answers (one way or another) overall?

f. Find someone else in your group or the class that has a similar or the same question. Compare your results (based on two of the demographic factors [race, gender, etc].

g. Which answer showed the highest level of disagreement (variance) within a political party?

h. Based on what you know of the “left” and “right” description of politics, place each political party’s results on a left to right scale. Be sure to include a center on your scale.

i. Were any questions difficult for participants to answer that perhaps could have been reworded or discarded altogether?

3. Political Socialization and Public Opinion chart (20 minutes)

4. Measuring Public Opinion –Lecture (20 minutes)

5. Homework-Vocab: 16-30 –due Friday.


Wed/Thurs 4/4 or 4/5

1. Supreme Court Case (15 minutes)
2. Political Party Functions, Purposes.ppt (20 minutes)
3. Guests-Naturalized Citizens (20 minutes)
4. Denver Post video (10 minutes)
5. React to BR. quest. on p. 156 [What do you think the requirements for becoming a citizen of the United States should be?] of TE; students will create 5 quests of their own, take the cit. test. )
6. Citizenship Test (20 minutes)
7. Basis for U.S. Citizenship.ppt,

Friday 4/6
1. Turn in Homework.
2. Reflection-discuss in pairs (groups of two). Should a person’s personal religious beliefs affect their political beliefs? Why or why not?
3. Chapter 8 and 9-Questions. What is not done is due next class (Monday/Tuesday)