Answer to Question 1
Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Explain that the national party conventions are where the party platforms are determined and the presidential candidates are nominated by party delegates.
2. Note that the current system uses the conventions as a way to mobilize party supporters more than as a forum to deliberate on the nominees, who likely have already been determined.
3. Indicate that each party's platform is a set of durable guidelines to steer the party until the next convention and that platforms give voters a sense of what the candidates believe in and the issues they think are important for the country to address.
4. Make an argument for or against reforming the convention process.
Answer to Question 2
Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Define political polarization as the presence of increasingly conflicting and divided viewpoints between the Democratic and Republican Parties.
2. Note that Congress is clearly polarized, with the Republicans being further to the right than Democrats are to the left. Party polarization in the electorate is not as clear but does seem to be increasing in recent years.
3. Identify some of the causes of political polarization, such as the natural sorting of Democrats and Republicans along ideological lines, the perpetuation of media coverage about polarization, and the presence of wedge issues (e.g., abortion and same-sex marriage).
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