1. Discuss separately why race, gender, age, and education are such significant components in politics. Provide examples from the book to justify your discussion.

2. Discuss the following interest groups: economic, ideological, public (not to be confused with public sector interest groups), and foreign policy. Be sure to provide examples of each type in your discussion along with your elaboration as to why interest groups can be both good and bad.

3. How do lobbyists wield their influence in politics? Broadly speaking, who are lobbyists and what do they do?

4. According to the textbook, how have political action committees invested their money?

5. For this very broad question, which is based on the entirety of chapter 7, you need to explain what parties do for democracy; provide a brief history of American political parties; describe the ways that the political parties are financed; and defend your answer of yes or no to whether the political parties are dying today.

6. A) The textbook says that all governments in all nations must be concerned with public opinion. Why? In your answer, be sure to define public opinion ; describe the tools, techniques, or methods typically used to assess public opinion.

7. How do American get their political opinions and values? Note that political socialization is only part of this answer, as the question is derived from 4 pages of your textbook.

8. The textbook gives you 3 stages each stage with its own components that a candidate goes through when running for president. Discuss each one thoroughly. Note that any answer fewer than 375 words or 2,200 characters will unlikely receive credit.

9. How is it suggested in the textbook that we improve elections ?

10. Discuss how the media influence politics and what the textbook authors mean by mediated politics ? Note that this is a very broad chapter question.