When the purpose of the organization will benefit nonmembers, it is customary to call
the group a(n)
a. public-interest lobby.
b. ideological interest group.
c. political party.
d. public-interest law firm.
e. pressure group.
This author’s book, The Jungle, dramatized the frightful conditions in meat-packing
plants in the early 1900s and helped pave the way for the Meat Inspection Act of 1906.
a. Huey Long
b. Upton Sinclair
c. Charles Dickens
d. Mark Twain
e. Sinclair Lewis
The Sierra Club was organized in the
a. 1990s.
b. 1980s.
c. 1970s.
d. 1960s.
e. 1890s.
In United States v. Morrison, the Supreme Court ruled that violence against women
a. was not an appropriate focus of punitive damages.
b. did not substantially affect interstate commerce.
c. could not be made the responsibility of distant relatives.
d. was nonjusticiable.
e. could not be regulated by law.
The trouble with trying to infer the distribution of political power from examining the
laws on the books is that
a. laws may be enacted in a great variety of circumstances.
b. laws are made to be broken.
c. legislative codes may be so obscure as to defy anyone’s comprehension.
d. many congressional enactments never get recorded at all.
e. the judicial branch is rarely independent from the legislative branch.
The financial position of the state and national governments under the Articles of
Confederation could be best described as
a. sound, strong, and based on a large surplus of revenue.
b. sound, strong, but uncertain around the edges.
c. uniformly stable at the state level, but the national government struggled with debt.
d. stable at the national level with little cause for concern in any of the states.
e. growing debt at the national level and several states with financial crises.
For the Founders, federalism was a device to
a. protect personal liberty.
b. provide efficient local administration.
c. encourage citizen participation.
d. guarantee equality.
e. protect against foreign invasion.
According to the monetarist theory, inflation occurs when
a. government holds down interest rates.
b. there is too little money, and interest rates are low.
c. demand exceeds supply.
d. the budget deficit exceeds the gross national product (GNP).
e. the government prints too much money.
Which of the following statements is incorrect?
a. During the 1920s, it was widely assumed that the federal government would play a
small role in our lives.
b. From the 1930s to the 1970s, it was generally believed that the federal government
should try to solve social and economic problems.
c. Interest group politics often produces decisions about which the public is uniformed.
d. No simple theory of politics is likely to explain both the growth and cutback of
federalpower.
e. None of the above is true.
This policy entrepreneur’s book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the
American Automobile led to new regulations on the safety ofautomobiles.
a. Upton Sinclair
b. Ralph Nader
c. Dr. Harvey Wiley
d. Senator Edmund Muskie
e. Huey Long
The nation with the highest voter turnout as percentage of voting-age population is
a. Belgium
b. Italy
c. United States
d. Sweden
e. New Zealand
Since 1974, the purpose of congressional budget resolutions passed annually in May
has been to
a. add up all the agreed-on expenditures.
b. set a ceiling on total spending.
c. get final authorization for all expenditures.
d. compromise over the spending measures of the two houses.
e. settle issues related to discrepancies in math.
An activist government is __________ susceptible to control by electoral activity than a
passive one.
a. much more
b. slightly more
c. less
d. always more
e. increasingly
Under the Foreign Intelligence Service Act of 1978, the National Security Agency
submits requests to conduct electronic surveillance to
a. the intelligence committees of Congress.
b. the Supreme Court.
c. the U.S. Foreign Surveillance Court.
d. the U.S. Justice Department.
e. the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Alan Abramowitz suggests that the culture war might be more real than imagined
because people are increasingly choosing their party affiliation on the basis of
a. issues.
b. income.
c. competition.
d. social background characteristics.
e. advertising.
The War Powers Act of 1973 mandates that
a. the president must report in writing to Congress within 48 hours after he introduces
U.S. troops into areas where hostilities have occurred or are imminent.
b. within 60 days after troops are sent into hostile situations, Congress must, by
declaration of war or other specific statutory authorization, provide for the continuation
of hostile action by U.S. troops.
c. if Congress does not authorize the use of force, the president must withdraw the
troops.
d. if Congress requires the removal of troops, the president must comply.
e. All of the above are true.
According to the text, one reason that identification with a party has declined in recent
years is that
a. young voters have weaker party identification.
b. party identification today is no longer influenced by parents’ party identification.
c. today, there are more parties with which voters can identify.
d. voters tend to lose their party identification as they grow older, and today’s
population is aging.
e. party identification is increasingly seen as a sign of closed-mindedness.
The Constitutional Convention attracted __________ delegates.
a. 74
b. 55
c. 39
d. 30
e. 12
Between 1915 and 1925, the size of the eligible voting population in the United States
almost doubled. The main reason for this was that
a. the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
b. women were given the right to vote.
c. the grandfather clause, which denied voting to blacks, was ruled unconstitutional.
d. literacy tests for blacks were ruled unconstitutional.
e. voter-registration laws were abolished in seventeen states.
Women were first given the right to vote in states that were
a. more highly populated and economically advanced.
b. part of the original thirteen colonies.
c. in the South.
d. in the Midwest.
e. in the West.
The number of civilians working for the federal bureaucracy has not increased much
since 1960. This observation fails, however, to account for the
a. enormous decrease in the government workforce that occurred between 1986 and
1990.
b. enormous increase in the government workforce that occurred between 1965 and
1970.
c. enormous increase in state bureaucracies that occurred during this period.
d. enormous increase in local bureaucracies that occurred during this period.
e. growing number of people who work indirectly for the government.
Before the passage of the Social Security Act, _________ states had some form of
old-age pension.
a. very few
b. a moderate number of
c. many
d. most
e. all of the states
The __________ states that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not
be abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous
condition of servitude”?
a. Twelfth Amendment
b. Seventeenth Amendment
c. Fifteenth Amendment
d. Twenty-fifth Amendment
e. None of the above is true.
One of the basic liberties sought by the colonists through independence from Great
Britain was
a. freedom from taxation without representation.
b. the right to bear arms and to defend life and property.
c. freedom to assemble in public and to engage in public debate.
d. the right to own and trade slaves.
e. the right to travel.
Only _________ of adults under 30 read a newspaper.
a. 15 percent
b. 13 percent
c. 30 percent
d. 40 percent
e. 5 percent
The Framers created a government for the purpose of
a. unifying citizens.
b. achieving certain substantive goals.
c. efficiency in the administration of justice.
d. accomplishing the will of the people.
e. ensuring that the will of the majority would be realized.
One bureaucratic pathology described by the text is conflict, meaning the tendency of
agencies to
a. grow, irrespective of the benefits and costs of their programs.
b. work at cross purposes with one another.
c. spend more than is necessary to buy some product or service.
d. generate complex and sometimes overlapping rules.
e. complicate matters that are better left to commonsense solutions.
In 1842, a federal law required that all House members be elected by
a. popular vote.
b. state legislators.
c. congressional delegations.
d. districts.
e. at-large elections.
The view that defense policy protects everyone, and that everyone pays for it, would
typify defense policymaking as ___________ politics.
a. client
b. entrepreneurial
c. interest group
d. majoritarian
e. neo-institutional
A supporter of equality of opportunity as a way of redressing past civil rights inequities
would be most likely to advocate
a. color-blind administration of the laws.
b. preferential treatment for blacks.
c. comparable-worth pay scales.
d. busing for racial integration of schools.
e. affirmative action.
Although we hold the president responsible for a variety of problems, it is certainly true
that
a. the president cannot address them efficiently without excessive use of the veto.
b. few are relevant to the voting decisions of most Americans.
c. most can be solved by less partisanship in Washington.
d. most can be solved with a little assistance from Congress.
e. many are totally beyond the president’s reach.
It was somewhat unusual for Richard Nixon to agree to debate John Kennedy in 1960
because
a. the setting and guiding rules gave a strong advantage to Kennedy.
b. the number of viewers was almost certain to be low.
c. the Republican Party objected to the debates.
d. polls indicated Nixon was well ahead of Kennedy.
e. Kennedy was less well known than Nixon.
The president’s troika of economic advisers includes the Federal Reserve Board, the
Council of Economic Advisers, and the secretary of the Treasury.
For materials to be ruled obscene, they must lack serious literary, artistic, political, or
scientific value.
The U.S. response to the placement of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba is an example
of clientpolitics.
Most Americans believe that people should not be allowed to vote if they cannot read or
write or voteintelligently.
People state that the top barrier keeping them from voting is time constraints and
scheduling. Discuss reforms to help citizens overcome this barrier.
The supporters of Thomas Jefferson called themselves Federalists, and the supporters of
Alexander Hamilton referred to themselves as Republicans.
Analyze how Americans view their nation’s economic system. Be sure to discuss their
views on equality of results and equality of opportunity.
The Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program was created by the
Social Security Act of 1935.
A 1992 Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the necessity of busing to achieve full
school integration regardless of housing patterns.
Identify the five principle agencies in the Executive Office.
A congress concerns itself mainly with legislative action; a parliament concerns itself
with debate.
Outline the three-part strategy that the NAACP pursued in the Supreme Court in order
to have the separate-but-equal doctrine overruled in the area of schools.
Lyndon Johnson used large liberal Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate to
pass his Great Society legislative program.
The Great Compromise reconciled the interests of the small and large states over
representation.
Write an essay in which you discuss the ways that Congress can check the judiciary.