Why have minor parties been so unsuccessful in U.S. politics?
What will be an ideal response?
An ideal response will:
1, Describe the institutional and attitudinal barriers that have thwarted the ascension of minor parties into government, such as electoral institutions favoring the two-party system (single-member districts, winner-take-all Electoral College), barriers (ballot access, campaign finance), and voter attitudes (voters afraid of "wasting" votes on candidates who have no chance at getting representation).
2, Offer a sense of which barriers have been the most effective and why. Answer should differentiate between the institutional and attitudinal barriers. Institutional barriers like first-past-the-post plurality voting and single-member districts are the primary barriers that create negative attitudes toward minor-party voting.
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The Sixteenth Amendment, ratified in 1913,
A) explicitly permitted Congress to levy an income tax. B) limited the total income tax Congress could levy on an individual. C) set up the Social Security system. D) forbade Congress from levying an income tax, but was later repealed. E) required the federal government to balance its budget each year but it was repealed during the Great Depression.
Earmarks are popular for all of the following reasons EXCEPT ______.
a. constituents benefit from them b. representatives can use them to claim credit for bringing money home c. representatives can increase their chances of reelection because of them d. they put the needs of a few beneficiaries ahead of the needs of the nation as a whole