POLITICAL SCIENCE 473, Fall 2009

REVIEW Questions for MIDTERM EXAMINATION

See also, Terms from Brooker & Schaefer & Class, linked on syllabus website

dr. Mark Peffley

Ground Rules: The exam is worth 35% of your final grade and will consist of about 30 multiple choice questions and 1 to 4 short essay questions. The review questions below are designed to focus your preparation on theories and concepts from which the exam questions will be selected and formulated. If you are prepared to answer these questions, you should do well on the exam. During the exam, you may not rely on notes. Bring both a # pencil for the multiple choice questions and a ball-point pen and a blue book for the essay questions. Better essays will be organized and efficiently written.

The exam will cover class discussions (see topics I – III on the web syllabus), chs. 1, 2, 3 4, 8 & 11 in Brooker and Schaefer, and Hetherington & Weiler’s, Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics.

1. Compare the two democratic theories (classic representative and elitist) in terms of their historical background, the values on which they are based, their view on human nature, the sophistication of public opinion, and the role of masses and elites in the political process.

1. What do the studies by Stouffer and Gibson say about political tolerance during the McCarthy era in the U.S. and what are the implications of these studies for the democratic theories we discussed in class?

2. Based on studies reviewed in class, what can we say about how characteristics of countries influence levels of mass political tolerance?

3. What are the basic findings and explanations of Sullivan, et al.’s 1993 study, “Why Politicians are More Tolerant,” and what implications do they have for the democratic theories we discussed in class?

4. Based on survey findings reviewed in class, what makes some people more tolerant than others, and what implications do these findings have for the democratic theories we discussed in class?

5. Summarize the arguments and survey evidence that democratic elitists use to evaluate the political sophistication of the ordinary citizen, especially with respect to political information, attitude stability and the rationality of citizens’ political decision-making.

6. Evaluate the arguments and evidence made by representative democratic theorists that defend the sophistication of the ordinary citizen, especially with respect to political information and heuristics, the extent of issue voting, and collective rationality.

7. What are some of the major consequences of a lack of political knowledge for individual citizens and the political system, according to Delli Carpini and Keeter?

8. Take the position of a classic representative theorist and do your best to refute the charges of an elite democratic theorist who, using an avalanche of early survey findings, makes the argument that the mass public falls far short of the standards of democratic citizenship laid out in classic representative theory. Drawing on class discussions and the readings, make the strongest possible defense for the sophistication of public opinion, but note potential problems with this defense that we discussed in class.

9. Based on your understanding of survey evidence on the levels of political tolerance among masses and elites, which democratic theory provides a better explanation of political tolerance in the US and abroad? Explain.

10. Evaluate the theory of the survey response. What are the major axioms of the theory (especially the last 3) and what implications does it have for the way people respond to survey questions and to political messages in general?

11. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of experiments with those of survey research in attempting to understand public opinion. What are the conditions under which one can infer causation using cross-sectional survey evidence? Is there a single best method for studying public opinion or should one use a plurality of methods? Explain.

12. You are hired as a political consultant to conduct a poll for a political candidate and you want to alert the candidate to some of the liabilities of polls without dismissing them altogether. What do you tell the candidate about the various stages of the polling process and whether the candidate is wasting his/her money in hiring you to do a poll in the first place? Draw from class and Brooker and Schaefer in formulating your answer.

13. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of “other methods” of studying public opinion, according to Brooker and Schaefer.

14. Drawing from Brooker and Schaefer, describe some of the ways that partisanship and ideological self-placement help to organizing public opinion in the U.S.

15. Based on our discussion of Hibbing & Theiss-Morse’s (HTM) Stealth Democracy, which is more important for explaining various facets of public opinion: a policy gap or a process gap? Explain.

16. What is stealth government, according to HTM and how is it related to the public’s false consensus, their views of masses and elites, and their views on the utility of debate, compromise, and conflict?

17. What were some of the problems with the conceptualization and measurement of authoritarianism (AU) in past research by Adorno et al and Altemeyer, and how do Hetherington & Weiler (H&W) seek to overcome these problems?

18. What is Morris Fiorina’s view on mass polarization, and in what ways do Abramowitz’s research and H&W’s definition of polarization differ from Fiorina’s conclusions?

19. In what ways is the American electorate ideologically innocent and what does this mean for the organization of mass belief systems?

20. How do H&W measure AU and establish the construct validity of their measure?

21. What is an interaction and how do AU and perceived threat interact in influencing various political attitudes (e.g., gay rights, the use of military strength and Bush approval), according to H&W? How are their findings different from previous studies?

22. Use the concepts of issue evolution, worldview evolution, and party sorting to explain the growing polarization in American politics, according to H&W.

23. How does AU help us to understand the struggles within the two political parties during the nomination phase of the 2008 presidential election, according to H&W?