Advertising paid for by interest groups that support or oppose a candidate (or a
candidate’s position on an issue) without mentioning voting or elections is called
a. a PAC advertisement.
b. a soft money contribution.
c. issue advocacy advertising.
d. a hard money expenditure.
e. payola profiteering and pilfering.
All of the following statements about the civil service are true except
a. civil service positions are filled based on networking and political connections.
b. civil service jobs are filled based on political party affiliation.
c. reform of the civil service first began under President Jimmy Carter in 1978.
d. since 1993, civil service employees are allowed to participate in voter registration
drives.
e. today, civil service employees may make donations to political campaigns.
Most __________ have tried carefully to separate opinion pieces from straight news.
a. political blogs
b. cable news stations
c. new media
d. traditional media like newspapers
e. Both C and D.
The Jamestown colonists set a political precedent by
a. allowing the governor to use a line-item veto.
b. instituting a direct democracy.
c. instituting a representative assembly.
d. creating a judicial system.
e. writing a constitutional document.
Spending on public schools
a. has risen several times to an average of $12,500 per students.
b. is favored by a majority of those surveyed.
c. has been a point of contention between Republicans and Democrats.
d. has dipped recently due to budget issues.
e. All of the above are true.
A dissenting opinion can be important because it
a. represents the position of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
b. is the statement of the defendant’s attorney to the Court.
c. must be carried out by local police in criminal law.
d. often forms the basis of the arguments used later to reverse the previous decision and
establish a new precedent.
e. means that the case cannot be used as a precedent.
Legislation to regulate lobbying in 1946 resulted in
a. a minimal number of individuals registered as lobbyists.
b. a large number of lobbyists decided to reveal their tactics.
c. a significant decrease in the influence of special interests.
d. an increase in reporting requirements for lobbyists at federal agencies and the courts.
e. a public record of all lobbyists active that year.
New York Times v. United States
a. affirmed the no-prior-restraint doctrine in the Pentagon Papers case.
b. upheld the government’s right to let the public have information about Vietnam.
c. punished the New York Times for publishing secret documents.
d. affirmed the free speech of students in public schools.
e. Options A and C are true.
The only formal method used so far to propose an amendment to the Constitution is
a. the popular vote of the people.
b. a two-thirds vote in favor of it by both houses of Congress.
c. state legislatures or conventions in three-fourths of the states.
d. a national convention.
e. a proposal by the president.
The 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act
a. was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
b. prohibits protestors from blocking entrances to abortion clinics.
c. prohibits protestors from speaking to patients entering abortion clinics.
d. cannot be used to establish “buffer zones” around clinics.
e. Options A and B are true.
Executive orders have been used to
a. implement affirmative action regulations.
b. restructure the White House bureaucracy.
c. fight the war on terrorism.
d. raise fuel efficiency standards of cars and trucks.
e. All of the above are true.
All of the following are true of libertarians except that they
a. support personal civil liberties.
b. advocate redistribution of income.
c. support laissez-faire capitalism.
d. oppose most government activities.
e. more strongly support property rights.
The Supreme Court case, In re Gault, provided that
a. eighteen-year-olds can be given the right to vote.
b. children have a constitutional right to counsel.
c. children have a right to divorce their parents.
d. children have a right to marry at age seventeen.
e. children are the property of their parents.
In Gideon v. Wainwright, the Supreme Court ruled that
a. a lawyer does not have to be supplied in a state case.
b. search warrants are always needed to gather evidence.
c. lawyers only need to be appointed in death penalty cases.
d. there can be no cruel and unusual punishment.
e. if one cannot afford an attorney, the government must provide one.
Prior restraint is
a. used by Congress to hold secret committee meetings.
b. a method used by the government to get terrorists to talk.
c. another term for censorship, when expression is involved.
d. restraining an activity, such as expression, before that activity has actually occurred.
e. Options C and D are true.
As commander in chief, the president is
a. only a symbolic leader of the military.
b. the ultimate decision maker in military matters.
c. allowed to make military decisions, but only with the approval of the joint chiefs of
staff.
d. not responsible for military decisions.
e. obligated to sit on the Board of Regents for the military, naval, and air force
academies.
Consent of the people means
a. governments and laws derive their legitimacy from the consent of the governed.
b. the people must consent to everything the government does.
c. the government must get consent of the people before it can go to war.
d. pure democracy.
e. direct democracy.
Taxes that the British attempted to impose on the American colonies in the years
leading up to the Revolutionary War included all of the following except
a. the Sugar Act, which imposed a tax on sugar.
b. the Stamp Act, which taxed legal documents and newspapers.
c. duties on glass, lead, and paint.
d. a tax on tea.
e. an income tax.
In response to the 2008 recession, conservatives tended to blame
a. the lack of government oversight of the banking industry.
b. the Tea Party movement.
c. congressional gridlock.
d. big government.
e. All of the above.
Presidential candidates have asked individuals to join the ticket as vice presidential
candidates for all of the following reasons except
a. to balance the ticket by region or political philosophy.
b. to attract groups of voters or appease party factions.
c. to reinforce one of the presidential candidate’s strong points.
d. to shore up the presidential candidate’s perceived weaknesses.
e. to serve as a co-president.
If the police search a suspect’s home
a. the police must first have obtained a warrant.
b. the police may submit illegally obtained evidence at trial if they can prove they
would have obtained the evidence legally anyway.
c. the police must have demonstrated probable cause to a judge.
d. Options A and C are true.
e. All of the above are true.
Americans’ attitudes toward illegal immigrants and immigration, as reflected in opinion
polling
a. are overwhelmingly favorable toward illegal immigrants.
b. are overwhelmingly unfavorable toward illegal immigrants.
c. are mixed and sometimes contradictory.
d. oppose states setting their own immigration policies.
e. oppose police being able to question anyone about their immigration status.
Republicans tend to get support from interest groups like _________, while
___________ tend(s) to support Democrats.
a. the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Americans for Tax Reform
b. environmental groups; Americans for Tax Reform
c. Americans for Tax Reform; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
d. labor unions; environmental groups
e. the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; labor unions
In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court
a. ruled that African Americans are not persons for the purposes of the Constitution.
b. tried to stop the development of legal racial segregation known as Jim Crow laws.
c. stated that schools may not practice any type of racial segregation.
d. agreed that separation of races is not a violation of the Constitution.
e. ruled that the practice of slavery must cease before the end of the century.
Federal judges
a. serve lifetime terms.
b. are appointed by the president.
c. may be impeached and removed from office.
d. are approved by the Senate.
e. All of the above are true.
The First Amendment prevents Congress from making any law that
a. abridges “the right of the people to peaceably assemble.”
b. abridges the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
c. regulates the right to bear arms.
d. regulates criminal rights.
e. Options A and B are true.
Divided government
a. reflects a situation when a person votes for candidates of two parties for different
offices.
b. exists when the presidency and Congress are controlled by different parties.
c. is another name for federalism.
d. increases the control of the winning party in an election.
e. is a strong indication of the emergence of a new third party.
The law has given children certain defenses against criminal prosecution because
a. parents punish children more effectively than the criminal justice system.
b. of their presumed inability to have criminal intent.
c. the Constitution does not provide for criminal prosecution of juveniles.
d. juveniles are too costly to incarcerate.
e. constitutional protections regarding education shield a number of juvenile behaviors.
A government in which the ruler fully controls government itself but largely stays out of
religious and business institutions is
a. a democratic republic.
b. a direct democracy.
c. a representative democracy.
d. totalitarian.
e. authoritarian.
Which of the following are true of the decision in Roe v. Wade?
a. It extended the right to privacy to cover a woman’s personal decision on abortion.
b. The decision has not been challenged or redefined by subsequent cases.
c. It limited abortions to the first trimester of pregnancy.
d. State legislatures have the right to decide if abortions will be performed.
e. It allows for abortions to be performed by licensed nurse practitioners.
It is estimated that about ____________ of voters who identify as “independent” still
lean toward either the Republican or the Democratic Party.
a. 10 percent
b. 25 percent
c. 50 percent
d. 75 percent
e. 90 percent
Since the Great Depression
a. local government spending is greater than central government spending in total
dollars.
b. central government spending is greater than local government spending in total
dollars.
c. government spending has decreased in both the local and central government sectors.
d. spending has increased faster as a percentage of all government spending at the local
level than at the national level.
e. All of the above are true.
One thing that helps to diminish ideological bias in journalism is
a. that the owners of media have their own biases, often in a different direction than
their reporters.
b. a professional code that dictates objectivity and truth.
c. hiring journalists from both the right and the left, to balance reporting.
d. All of the above.
e. None of the above.