What political parties do, and how the two-party system grew

Grade 12 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Card A, What parties do (our words). 1. Nominate: a party picks the candidates who run under its label, in primaries, caucuses or conventions. 2. Mobilize: a party raises money, recruits volunteers and gets its supporters registered and to the polls. 3. Organize the legislature: members of one party choose the chamber's leaders and committee chairs, and often vote together. 4. Give a label: a party name beside a candidate tells voters something when they know little else. 5. Oppose: the party out of power questions and criticizes the party in power, so voters can hold it to account. The Constitution does not mention political parties. Card B, Arden State Senate (made-up). The Senate has 30 seats: the Cedar Party holds 18 and the Harbor Party holds 12. On the first day all 18 Cedar senators vote for a Cedar senator as Senate leader, and Cedar senators take 6 of the 8 committee chairs. Harbor senators spend the first week asking, in public hearings, that the leader explain the spending plan. Card C, Brook County survey (made-up). The elections office asked 200 voters about the race for county surveyor, which printed party labels beside the names. 120 said they knew nothing about the candidates beyond their names, and 90 of those 120 said they chose by party label. 80 said they knew the candidates, and 20 of those 80 said they chose by party label. Case E (made-up): Cedar leads the Brook County board. The three Harbor members publish a letter listing the questions the board has not answered about the new road budget.

2. 1.

   Milo reads card A and case E. Which job are the three Harbor members doing?

   • Mobilize: the letter gets Harbor supporters registered and sends them to the polls
   • Give a label: the letter tells voters what the Harbor name stands for in the county
   • Organize the legislature: the Harbor members act together as a party inside the board
   • Oppose: they question the party in power about the road budget

3. Use this

   Card A, What parties do (our words). 1. Nominate: a party picks the candidates who run under its label, in primaries, caucuses or conventions. 2. Mobilize: a party raises money, recruits volunteers and gets its supporters registered and to the polls. 3. Organize the legislature: members of one party choose the chamber's leaders and committee chairs, and often vote together. 4. Give a label: a party name beside a candidate tells voters something when they know little else. 5. Oppose: the party out of power questions and criticizes the party in power, so voters can hold it to account. The Constitution does not mention political parties. Card B, Arden State Senate (made-up). The Senate has 30 seats: the Cedar Party holds 18 and the Harbor Party holds 12. On the first day all 18 Cedar senators vote for a Cedar senator as Senate leader, and Cedar senators take 6 of the 8 committee chairs. Harbor senators spend the first week asking, in public hearings, that the leader explain the spending plan. Card C, Brook County survey (made-up). The elections office asked 200 voters about the race for county surveyor, which printed party labels beside the names. 120 said they knew nothing about the candidates beyond their names, and 90 of those 120 said they chose by party label. 80 said they knew the candidates, and 20 of those 80 said they chose by party label. Case F (made-up): The Brook County Council has 9 seats, and Cedar holds 5. Before the first meeting, the five Cedar members agree who will chair the council and who will lead each committee.

4. 2.

   Pia reads card A and case F. Which job are the five Cedar council members doing?

   • Mobilize: they raise money and recruit volunteers for the next campaign
   • Nominate: they pick who will run for the council under the Cedar label
   • Organize the legislature: they agree on who will lead the council and its committees
   • Oppose: they question the party in power about how the council and its committees are led

5. Use this

   Card A, What parties do (our words). 1. Nominate: a party picks the candidates who run under its label, in primaries, caucuses or conventions. 2. Mobilize: a party raises money, recruits volunteers and gets its supporters registered and to the polls. 3. Organize the legislature: members of one party choose the chamber's leaders and committee chairs, and often vote together. 4. Give a label: a party name beside a candidate tells voters something when they know little else. 5. Oppose: the party out of power questions and criticizes the party in power, so voters can hold it to account. The Constitution does not mention political parties. Card B, Arden State Senate (made-up). The Senate has 30 seats: the Cedar Party holds 18 and the Harbor Party holds 12. On the first day all 18 Cedar senators vote for a Cedar senator as Senate leader, and Cedar senators take 6 of the 8 committee chairs. Harbor senators spend the first week asking, in public hearings, that the leader explain the spending plan. Card C, Brook County survey (made-up). The elections office asked 200 voters about the race for county surveyor, which printed party labels beside the names. 120 said they knew nothing about the candidates beyond their names, and 90 of those 120 said they chose by party label. 80 said they knew the candidates, and 20 of those 80 said they chose by party label.

6. 3.

   Zee reads card B. What do its counts of seats and chairs show?

   • Cedar holds a larger share of the chairs (6 of 8) than of the seats (18 of 30)
   • A majority party takes a larger share of chairs than of seats, as the Arden Senate shows
   • Cedar broke a Senate rule that says chairs must be shared in proportion to seats
   • Cedar holds the same share of chairs as of seats, since both fractions are near two-thirds
7. 4.

   Ren says labels are no help to a voter who knows the candidates. Which number on card C weakens that claim?

   • 90 of the 120 voters who knew nothing about the candidates chose by party label
   • 120 of the 200 voters said they knew nothing about the candidates
   • 20 of the 80 voters who knew the candidates still chose by party label
   • 60 of the 80 voters who knew the candidates chose without using the label
8. 5.

   Ari reads cards A and B. Which claim about the Arden Senate do both cards support?

   • Both parties acted as nominators, because each party chose people for posts inside the Senate
   • Harbor senators voted against the Cedar leader, so Cedar must have needed votes beyond its own 18 of 30
   • Cedar organized the Senate by choosing its leader, and Harbor acted as the opposition by asking questions
   • Harbor had no way to affect the Senate, because Cedar chose both the leader and most of the committee chairs
9. 6.

   Tala wants to test whether labels really help voters who know little. Which added fact would help most?

   • Which party won the race for surveyor, since the winner shows the label worked
   • The total number of voters in Brook County, so the sample can be compared with the whole county
   • How many of the 200 volunteered for a party, since volunteers rely on labels most
   • Whether uninformed label voters ended up with candidates whose general ideas matched their own
10. 7.

    Jun reads card C. Which limit of the survey is the most important to keep in mind?

    • Voters reported their own reasons, so it shows what they said, not what they did in the booth
    • The elections office belongs to a party, so its survey must favor that party's voters
    • The 80 informed voters chose without labels, because they said they knew the candidates
    • Just 200 voters answered, so no conclusion about Brook County voters can be drawn from this survey
11. 8.

    Luz's note says: "Cedar, the party out of power in the Senate, asked the leader to explain the spending plan." Which fix fits card B?

    • No senator asked questions in the Senate, since public hearings are held just for leaders
    • Cedar holds 18 of 30 seats and chose the leader; Harbor, out of power, asked the questions
    • Harbor holds 18 seats, so Harbor chose the leader and Cedar asked the questions
    • Both parties asked questions, because opposing is a job of each senator in the Senate, not of a party
12. 9.

    Bo's note says: "The survey proves party labels decide most elections." Which fix fits card C?

    • The survey shows labels matter less than candidate knowledge, since 120 of the 200 voters knew nothing
    • The survey shows label use is high in each county, since 110 of 200 voters used one
    • The survey reports label use among 200 voters in one race; it cannot show how most elections are decided
    • The survey shows labels decide the race, since 110 of the 200 voters chose by label
13. 10.

    Noah's note says: "The Constitution tells parties to choose candidates, so card A's first job comes from the Constitution." Which fix fits?

    • The Constitution does not mention parties; card A lists jobs parties perform, not duties it assigns
    • Parties do just the first job, because choosing candidates is the center of the list
    • Card A cannot be used, since parties are not part of the Constitution and so have no jobs
    • Card A's jobs come from state laws, which assign nominating to each party