Government 317, Fall 1996 Midterm Exam (October 29)

PART 1 (80 points): write essays in response to TWO of the following.

  1. Duverger's Law says that a plurality (``first-past-the-post'') voting rule tends to produce a two-party system. What needs to be true about voters and candidates (or parties) to support that claim, and how does the argument go? How well does the theory explain parties, candidates and voting in American presidential elections?
  2. ``If we had campaign finance reform that gave each House incumbent and her major party challenger each $100,000 in public money to spend in the general election and limited them both to spending only that money, not much would change about House elections. Incumbents would offer detailed reviews and defenses of their legislative voting records, as they do now, and do just about as well.'' Discuss.
  3. ``It is difficult to reconcile the sophisticated calculations assumed of voters in balancing explanations of divided government in the U.S. with the way American voters actually behave.'' Discuss.

PART 2 (15 points): briefly explain TWO of the following.

  1. incumbent advantage
  2. spatial model
  3. nationally prestigious candidates

PART 3 (5 points): do ONE of the following

  1. Popular Votes: match the set of presidential popular vote percentages (Dem, Rep, Third) on the left with the election year on the right. Where the third party candidate is shown with a nonzero vote percentage, identify the candidate.

    (a) 41.0%, 51.0%, 7.0% 1960
    (b) 43.0%, 43.4%, 13.6% 1964
    (c) 43.0%, 37.4%, 18.9% 1968
    (d) 61.3%, 38.7%, 0.0% 1972
    (e) 38.0%, 62.0%, 0.0% 1980
    (f) 46.0%, 54.0%, 0.0% 1988
    (g) 50.1%, 49.9%, 0.0% 1992

  2. Primary Colors: match up the quote on the left, the fictional character in the middle and the real person on the right.

    (see next page)

    (a) ``Basic rule of politics. There are some issues that are so complicated, you never talk about 'em--'cause your opponents can distort your position too easy. I suspect Lawrence Harris has raised nearly every last one of those issues. His head is on a platter.'' Orlando Ozio Hillary
    (b) ``My father used to say that golf was the most capitalist sport--it used more land for less reason than any other. Papa...But he came from the old country. He had resentments, along with his dreams. You want some fruit, a sandwich? A Diet Coke?'' Jack Stanton Harold Ickes
    (c) ``Mr. McCollister, the governor is very concerned about this situation with your daughter and the possible damage it might cause to his reputation.'' Susan Stanton Bill
    (d) ``Do I use the servants' entrance? Carter gave me a plane and a budget. Mondale gave me a plane and a budget. You sayin' Jack Stanton isn't interested in support from the community?'' Richard Jemmons James Carville
    (e) ``Well now, Dick, I just don't remember that coming up....It's premature to even think about that. First, he has to get into this thing and see if he can beat a few of us. And let me tell you, it'd be a good thing for the party if he did come in. I'd welcome it. Look, it was a very good meeting, but this is just a misunderstanding.'' Luther Charles Mario Cuomo
    (f) ``Libby, you said it yourself. We were young. We didn't know how the world worked. Now we know. We know that if we don't move on this Picker situation, two things will happen. The first is, we're dead. Everything we've worked for since Miami twenty years ago dies. And fast. It will die tomorrow.'' Howard Ferguson Jesse Jackson



Walter Mebane
Wed Oct 30 13:18:15 EST 1996