Political Systems Quiz

"1st Past the Post" elections reference what features of election systems?

• winner-take all, plurality voting

• Majority elections that allow voters to pick multiple candidates at a time

• Elections having more than 2 parties, and are winner take all districts

• single-member, proportional representation systems

Which term refers to the people that representatives are responsible for representing?

• partisans

• members

• constituents

• districts

Each political party has a hierarchical system of people who run it and are able to influence the party's beliefs and ideas from the TOP-DOWN using...

• grassroots movements

• Political Action Committees or PAC's

• Interest groups and lobbyists

• National Committees

Although each party has a set of beliefs, they also have policy prescriptions. What are "policy prescriptions"?

• ideas for how to improve the popularity of the party

• a set of beliefs that they support, but are willing to sacrifice in order to gain more voters and win elections

• ways to translate those beliefs into real-world political solutions, such as laws

• suggestions to politicians for what kinds of beliefs they should have

Another way to influence party beliefs is from the bottom up, where individual voters come together locally to force change from their party leaders. This is known as...

• grassroots movements

• collective representation

• voting

• the party base

What is the difference between a candidate and a representative?

• representatives have already been adopted into one of the major political parties

• a candidate is a member of a third party

• candidates represent states, while representatives represent districts

• a candidate is running for office and hasn't been elected yet

Each political party has a set of beliefs and policy prescriptions known as (a)  

Which of the following sets of data regarding countries and their party systems is NOT ACCURATE?

• 1-party system = most European countries & China

• 2=party system = United States

• No-party system = Saudi Arabia, Qatar

• Multi-party system = England

Major parties that have allowed a lot of smaller factions to gather under their "roof" so that they can gain support are referred to as (a)   parties.

Duverger's law states which of the following?

• majority elections favor a multi-party system because the smaller parties team up to win

• plurality style elections in winner take all districts tend to favor a 2-party system

• 1st past the post voting systems are the most efficient when it comes to choosing candidates people really support

• winner take all, plurality elections will always lead to a system dominated by one party