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Test Bank Item Title: TB_Q2.4.26
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 62
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
27. James Madison stated that the accumulation of all powers—
legislative, executive, and judiciary—in the same hands is the
deinition of which of the following?
a. democracy
b. tyranny
c. centralization
d. majority
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 53
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
28. Which of the following carries the full force of law and does not
require congressional approval, although it is subject to legal
challenge?
a. constitutional elaboration
b. executive order
c. impoundment
d. executive privilege
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 62
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
30
29. Governance in which one political party holds the presidency
and the other controls one or both houses of Congress is known
as __________.
a. divided government
b. checks and balances
c. autocracy
d. separation of powers
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
30. According to the Pew Research Center, what percentage of
Americans feel that the government has too much control over
their daily lives?
a. 15 percent
b. 25 percent
c. 65 percent
d. 80 percent
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 52
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
31. Which of the following describes the power of the president to
keep communications conidential?
a. constitutional restriction
b. impoundment
c. separation of powers
d. executive privilege
31
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 62
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
32. Under the Constitution, the president is elected by which of the
following?
a. Congressional College
b. Electoral College
c. Presidential College
d. State College
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 56
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
33. What is the principle that each branch of the federal
government has the means to thwart or inluence actions by
other branches of government?
a. checks and balances
b. balances and powers
c. checks and freedoms
d. freedom and power
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 53 – 54
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Easy
34. Which of the following speciies the procedure for amending the
Constitution?
32
a. Article I
b. Article III
c. Article V
d. Article VI
Topic: Views of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.1: Describe the basic structure of
the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Page Reference: 50
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
Diiculty Level: Easy
35. Which of the following is true of judicial review?
a. The United States is the only country in which judicial review
is legal.
b. It has been used only twice in U.S. history.
c. It has given the president signiicant power over the judiciary
in the United States.
d. It originated in the United States and has been adopted by
many other countries.
Topic: Judicial Review and the “Guardians of the Constitution”
Learning Objective: LO 2.3: Explain how the use of judicial
review strengthens the courts in a separation of powers system.
Page Reference: 58
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
36. As described in Figure 2.1, The Separation of Powers and
Checks and Balances, the legislative branch is in charge of
which of the following?
a. vetoing laws
b. pardoning those convicted of federal crimes
c. nominating federal judges
d. approving the federal budget
Topic: Checking Power with Power
33
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 51
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
37. Which of the following is a major reason the U.S. Constitution
has endured for 225 years?
a. due to the power it concentrates in the chief executive
b. due to the face that it created an independent judiciary
c. due to the public’s widespread acceptance of the Constitution
d. due to the fact that it gives most power to the states
Topic: Views of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.1: Describe the basic structure of
the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
Page Reference: 50
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
38. Because the Framers knew that people are not angels, they
created a Constitution giving the government which type of
authority?
a. legitimate
b. limited
c. implied
d. deined
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 51
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
39. How has the development of new communication technologies
afected the system of checks and balances?
a. They have added to the powers of the president.
b. They have decreased the power of the judiciary.
34
c. They have decreased the power of interest groups.
d. They have increased the power of political parties.
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 57
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
40. Executive privilege is often used in matters related to __________.
a. national security
b. private property rights
c. interstate commerce
d. federal contracting
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 64
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
41. When the Democratic and Republican parties become
splintered, the inluence of which of the following can be
increased?
a. the Supreme Court
b. the president
c. third-party candidates
d. special-interest groups
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
35
42. When does divided government frequently occur?
a. when special-interest groups achieve more inluence in
Congress
b. when the president’s party loses congressional seats in the
midterm elections
c. when the president’s party gains congressional seats in the
midterm elections
d. when it is time to appoint new Supreme Court justices
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
43. Although not mentioned in the Constitution, the Supreme Court
interpreted the Constitution, in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965),
to protect which of the following rights?
a. right to privacy
b. right to bear arms
c. right to free speech
d. right to make contracts
Topic: Informal Change: The Unwritten Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.4: Assess how the Constitution has
evolved through changes in the informal, unwritten
Constitution.
Page Reference: 64
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
44. If one political party controls Congress or one of its chambers
and the other party controls the White House, which of the
following is intensiied?
a. autocracy
b. inluence of the Electoral College
c. partisanship
36
d. power of the president
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 55
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Diiculty Level: Diicult
45. The cases of District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDonald
v. Chicago (2010) revolved around the __________ Amendment.
a. Second
b. Fifth
c. First
d. Fourteenth
Topic: Introduction
Learning Objective: Introduction
Page Reference: 48
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
46. Which of the following is true of eforts to pass a constitutional
amendment to ban lag burning?
a. These eforts have been repeatedly rejected by the Supreme
Court.
b. Most Americans do not support eforts to ban lag burning.
c. These eforts have never gotten past the proposal stage.
d. These eforts have been repeatedly rejected by Congress.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 65
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
37
47. What diiculty is posed by the method of proposing
constitutional amendments through a constitutional convention?
a. It allows no input from the states.
b. It is unclear whether such a convention would be limited to a
speciic subject.
c. It limits the president’s involvement in the amendment
process.
d. It does not provide a time table for when the convention must
convene.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 65
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
48. Prior to the ratiication of the Seventeenth Amendment, how
were senators selected?
a. by direct election
b. by the president
c. by state governors
d. by state legislators
Topic: Checking Power with Power
Learning Objective: LO 2.2: Analyze how the Constitution
grants, limits, separates, and balances governmental power.
Page Reference: 56
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Diiculty Level: Moderate
49. Which of the following is one reason for the popularity of
proposing amendments to the Constitution?
a. Americans feel strongly that the equal protection clause is
insuicient for prohibiting all forms of discrimination.
b. Groups frustrated by their inability to get things done in
Congress hope to bypass it.
c. People get impatient while waiting for their case to get to the
Supreme Court, so they try to bypass it.
38
d. Special-interest groups try to get around current
amendments by proposing new ones.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 64 – 65
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
50. How did the process of proposing the Equal Rights Amendment
resemble that of the Nineteenth Amendment?
a. The same arguments were used against both.
b. Both amendments passed Congress but failed to be ratiied.
c. The same cluster of southern states opposed ratiication of
both amendments.
d. In both cases, women favored the amendments, but men were
strongly opposed.
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 68
Skill Level: Analyze It
Diiculty Level: Diicult
51. The Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Eichman was
based on the __________ Amendment.
a. Fifth
b. Second
c. Fourteenth
d. First
Topic: Changing the Letter of the Constitution
Learning Objective: LO 2.5: Describe the processes by which
formal changes to the Constitution can be made.
Page Reference: 65
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
39
