Review Questions
1. What goods are available to all without direct payment?
- private goods
- public goods
- common goods
- toll goods
2. In which form of government does a small group of elite people hold political power?
- direct democracy
- monarchy
- oligarchy
- totalitarian
5. The elite theory of government maintains that ________.
- special interest groups make government policy
- politicians who have held office for a long time are favored by voters
- poor people and people of color should not be allowed to vote
- wealthy, politically powerful people control government, and government has no interest in meeting the needs of ordinary people
6. According to the pluralist theory of government, ________.
- government does what the majority of voters want it to do
- government policy is formed as a result of the competition between groups with different goals and interests
- ordinary people acting on their own have a significant influence on government
- wealthy people decide what government policy will be, and politicians have no interest in pleasing anyone else
7. Which of the following is a good example of a tradeoff?
- The government pleases environmental activists by preserving public lands but also pleases ranchers by allowing them to rent public lands for grazing purposes.
- The government pleases environmental activists by reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park but angers ranchers by placing their cattle in danger.
- The government pleases oil companies by allowing them to drill on lands set aside for conservation but allows environmental activist groups to protest the drilling operations.
- Groups that represent a variety of conflicting interests are all allowed to protest outside Congress and the White House.
8. Supporting the actions of the Democratic Party simply because one identifies oneself as a member of that party is an example of ________.
- partisanship
- ideology
- latent preference
- social capital
9. When a person is asked a question about a political issue that he or she has little interest in and has not thought much about, that person’s answer will likely reflect ________.
- ideology
- partisanship
- intense preferences
- latent preferences