APGoPo - INTEREST GROUP QUESTIONS
1.
Which of the following is the main reason interest
groups are often successful in getting legislation
passed to benefit their members?
(A) It is easy to garner support from most
members of Congress on any issue.
(B) A narrow constituency derives the benefits
from such legislation but the costs are spread
broadly across the population.
(C) All members of society desire the legislation
that special interests pursue.
(D) It is very easy to get legislation passed in
Congress.
(E) Interest group activity represents the
democratic process at work because individual
interest groups often represent more than half
the population.
2.
Interest groups engage in all of the following
activities EXCEPT
(A) testifying before congressional committees
(B) sponsoring issue advocacy ads
(C) lobbying federal agencies
(D) filing federal lawsuits
(E) using the franking privilege
3.
The free rider problem occurs when
(A) interest groups seek public funding to advance
their special interests
(B) elected officials provide government services
for those who have helped their campaigns
(C) political campaigns manipulate the news media
in order to obtain free advertising
(D) people benefit from an interest group's efforts
without making any contribution
(E) congressional candidates win elections because
they belong to the party of a popular president
4.
Interest groups and political parties both promote
United States democracy by
(A) expressing detailed, ideologically distinct
programs
(B) centralizing public authority
(C) linking citizens to the political process
(D) increasing domination of the political process
by elites
(E) lobbying members of Congress
5.
A major difference between political parties and
interest groups is that
(A) interest groups typically shift their positions on
issues over time, while political parties tend to
keep the same position on issues overtime
(B) interest groups usually recruit candidates for
office, while political parties usually limit
themselves to making campaign contributions
to candidates
(C) political parties seek to gain control of
government, while interest groups seek to
influence public policy
(D) political parties tend to have narrow coalitions
of support, and interest groups tend to have
broad coalitions of support
(E) political parties usually focus on one issue,
while interest groups focus mainly on many
issues
6.
Which of the following describes a fundamental
difference between political parties and interest
groups?
(A) Political parties are prohibited from sponsoring
campaign advertisements, and interest groups
are not.
(B) Political parties represent broad arrays of
issues, whereas interest groups are more likely
to focus on narrow sets of issues.
(C) Political parties are more likely to focus on
national politics, whereas interest groups focus
on local politics.
(D) Political parties tend to have strength in
particular regions, whereas the power of
interest groups is more consistent across
states.
(E) Political parties are required to disclose their
campaign finance activities, whereas interest
groups are not.
7.
Which of the following factors best accounts for the
rise of interest groups and the decline of political
parties in recent years?
(A) National parties have become too closely
identified with controversial issues.
(B) Court decisions have restricted the political
parties' abilities to recruit new members.
(C) It is less expensive to join an interest group
than to join a political party.
(D) Interest groups have been more successful in
avoiding negative press coverage than have
political parties.
(E) Interest groups are better able to articulate
specific policy positions than are political
parties.
8.
Interest groups use political action committees
(PACs) to
(A) provide expertise to members of Congress
when they are writing legislation
(B) lobby the executive bureaucracy when they are
considering new rules and regulations
(C) generate research that can be used to influence
public opinion
(D) raise and spend money on election campaigns
(E) hire policy experts who will promote their views
in the media
9.
When contributing to congressional campaigns,
political action committees (PACs) are most likely to
contribute to
(A) incumbents of both major parties
(B) third-party challengers
(C) Republican challengers
(D) state party organizations
(E) national party organizations
10. Which of the following is true of political action
committees (PACs)?
(A) They are a part of political party organizations.
(B) They are allowed to contribute to only one
candidate in any election.
(C) They nominate candidates for president at
national party conventions.
(D) They operate at the state level but not at the
national level.
(E) They make campaign contributions in hopes of
gaining access to legislators.
11. Which of the following is a correct statement about
political action committees (PAC's)?
(A) The number of PAC's has remained stable over
the past decade.
(B) Most PAC money is distributed to challengers in
an effort to unseat hostile incumbents.
(C) The amount of money that PAC's can
contribute directly to an individual candidate is
limited by law.
(D) PAC's are illegal in most states.
(E) PAC's rarely attempt to influence legislation
through lobbying activities.
12. Political action committees (PAC's) representing
which of the following groups have increased in
number most substantially since the mid-1970's?
(A) Labor
(B) Health-care professionals
(C) Veterans' groups
(D) Business
(E) Civil rights advocates
13. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
(McCain-Feingold) did which of the following?
(A) It created interest groups known as 527s.
(B) It made it illegal for unions to donate to
presidential campaigns.
(C) It banned soft money donations to national
parties.
(D) It banned candidates from running negative
advertisements.
(E) It banned third-parties from federal funding.
14. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002
(McCain-Feingold) was designed to curtail which of
the following?
(A) Individual contributions to candidates
(B) Soft money
(C) Hard money
(D) Public disclosure rules
(E) Lobbying
15. In response to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
(McCain-Feingold Act), the United States Supreme
Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election
Commission (2010), ruled that
(A) limits cannot be placed upon candidates’
contributions to their own campaigns
(B) limits on issue advertisements 90 days before
an election are unconstitutional
(C) limits on campaign contributions by minors are
constitutional under the First Amendment
(D) independent campaign expenditures by
corporations and unions are protected by the
First Amendment
(E) requiring endorsement statements in campaign
advertisements is unconstitutional
16. Interest groups are protected under the
Constitution by the
(A) First Amendment
(B) Ninth Amendment
(C) Tenth Amendment
(D) Fourteenth Amendment
(E) provisions of Article I, Section 8
17. One of the best strategies that interest groups can
use to achieve their goals is
(A) pressing for changes in high-profile public
policies
(B) using the judiciary to invalidate federal
legislation
(C) lobbying members of Congress to make small
changes in existing policy
(D) encouraging states to use their Tenth
Amendment rights and ignore federal law
(E) running candidates for office
18. An interest group would likely have the greatest
influence on policy matters involving
(A) narrow issues, only a few interest groups, and
technical information
(B) broad, highly visible national issues
(C) broad foreign policy issues
(D) major constitutional questions about civil rights
and liberties
(E) areas in which members of Congress have
considerable expertise and commitment
19. Lobbyists try to influence legislators mainly through
(A) "wining and dining" legislators
(B) orchestrating petition drives and letter-writing
campaigns
(C) placing persuasive advertisements in the media
(D) threatening to help the legislator's opponent in
the next election
(E) providing legislators with information on
technical issues
20. A corporate lobbyist would be LEAST likely to have
an informal discussion about a pending policy
matter with which of the following?
(A) A member of the House in whose district the
corporation has a plant
(B) A member of the White House staff concerned
about the issue
(C) A member of the staff of the Senate committee
handling a matter of concern to the corporation
(D) A federal judge in whose court a case
important to the corporation is being heard
(E) A journalist for a major newspaper concerned
about the issue
21. Which of the following is NOT a way in which the
federal government regulates campaigns?
(A) By requirements for disclosure of campaign
donations
(B) By establishment of federal agencies to
regulate campaign finance activities
(C) By limits on the distribution of soft money
(D) By limits on individual donations to campaigns
(E) By prohibitions on negative advertising
22. The three points of an iron triangle include
(A) an independent agency, a state, and a member
of Congress
(B) an administrative agency, an interest group,
and a congressional committee
(C) a cabinet department, an interest group, and
the House majority leader
(D) a regulatory commission, a corporation, and the
White House Office
(E) the Executive Office of the President, an
interest group, and a Senate committee
23. In the process and structure of public policymaking,
"iron triangles" refer to the
(A) bargaining and negotiating process between
the President and Congress about the direction
of domestic policy
(B) dominance of corporate power in setting the
national policy agenda for economic expansion
(C) networks of congressional committees,
bureaucratic agencies, and interest groups that
strongly influence the policy process
(D) interrelationship among federal, state, and local
levels of government in the policy process
(E) group of presidential advisers who formulate
the President's foreign policy agenda
24. Which of the following form an “iron triangle”?
(A) President, Congress, Supreme Court
(B) President, House Majority Leader, Senate
Majority Leader
(C) Interest group, Senate majority leader, House
majority leader
(D) Executive department, House majority leader,
President
(E) Executive department, Congressional
committee, interest group
25. A nonlitigant group or individual that wants to
attempt to influence the court in a particular case
can file
(A) a writ of error Coram Nobis
(B) a habeas corpus petition
(C) a writ of certiorari
(D) an amicus curiae brief
(E) a writ of mandamus
26. Which of the following is true of amicus curiae
briefs?
(A) They are used by interest groups to lobby
courts.
(B) They are used exclusively by liberal interest
groups.
(C) They are used exclusively by conservative
interest groups.
(D) They are now unconstitutional.
(E) They are the means by which a litigant seeks
Supreme Court review of a lower court
decision.
27. In The Federalist No. 10, James Madison argued
that factions in a republic are
(A) a more serious threat if the republic is large
(B) natural but controllable by institutions
(C) not likely to occur if people are honest
(D) prevented by majority rule
(E) prevented by free elections
28. In The Federalist papers, James Madison expressed
the view that political factions:
(A) should be nurtured by a free nation
(B) should play a minor role in any free nation
(C) are central to the creation of a free nation
(D) are undesirable but inevitable in a free nation
(E) are necessary to control the masses in a free
nation
29. Which of the following accurately characterizes the
main difference between elite theories and
pluralist theories of politics in the United States?
(A) Elite theories concentrate on the role of
interest groups; pluralist theories emphasize
the role of individuals.
(B) Elite theories argue that social status is the
major source of political power; pluralist
theories argue that wealth is the major source.
(C) Elite theories argue that a single minority
dominates politics in all policy areas; pluralist
theories argue that many minorities compete
for power in different policy areas.
(D) Elite theories emphasize the multiple access
points that interest groups have to public
officials; pluralist theories stress the limits in
the number and effectiveness of such access
points.
(E) Elite theories view government as efficient;
pluralist theories view it as slow and wasteful.
30. The concept that the American political process is
dominated by the struggle of multiple interest
groups each trying to advance its own political
goals can best be described as
(A) democracy
(B) free enterprise
(C) socialism
(D) elitism
(E) pluralism