Political Science 1100
American National Government
Second Exam Review



Public Opinion

• The process of political socialization
  
• cognitive dissonance
  • political awareness
  • political predispositions
• Measurement of public opinion
  • sampling
  • size and representativeness

Mass Media

• Evolution of the American media and media usage
• Government regulation of the media
• Role of the media in shaping opinion
  • "newsworthiness"
  • agenda setting
  • limits on media manipulation of public opinion
• Politician-press relations

Political Parties

• Functions of political parties
  
• Characteristics of the American party system
  
• Explanations of the persistence of a two-party system
• nominations
• Components of party
  • party in the electorate
  • party in government
  • party organization

Interest Groups

• Interest group tactics
• Determinants of interest group strength
• Free rider problem
• PACs and campaign finance

Political Participation

• historical patterns of voter turnout
• explanations of voting/non-voting
  
  • individual factors
    • demographic
    • psychological
    • social capital
    • political attachments
  • mobilization efforts
  • institutional (structural) factors

Campaigns and Elections

• Incumbents, challengers, open seats
• determinants of voting
  
  • Michigian Model & party identification
    • realignment and dealignment
  • Retrospective voting
• Campaign Finance
  • Federal Election Campaign Act
  • Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
  • soft money
• Electoral College

Terms you should know:
[i.e. know what they mean, and why they are important]

Buckley v. Valeo (1976) caucus closed primary conservativism (Chapter 1) electoral college equal-time rule free riders front-loading grassroots pressure incumbent interest group liberalism (Chapter 1) libertarianism (Chapter 1) lobbying

open primary open race opinion intensity opinion saliency opinion stability party-as-organization party-in-the-electorate party-in-government party dealignment party realignment patronage platforms political action committees (PACs) political efficacy

political ideology political party political socialization populism (Chapter 1) priming primary proportional representation pseudo-events random probability sampling retrospective voting single-member district, winner-take-all system soft money "yellow journalism"