Front-loading benefits __________.
a. challengers
b. front runners
c. incumbents
d. third parties
e. special interests
Web polls that allow anyone to weigh in on a topic are similar to which of the following
type(s) of polls?
a. exit polls and deliberative polls
b. deliberative polls
c. tracking polls and straw polls
d. biannual Cooperative Congressional Election studies
e. straw polls
What is the long-term concern about the Social Security Trust Fund?
a. The rate of Social Security payroll taxes will continue to decrease.
b. The number of current retirees contributing to the fund will continue to decrease.
c. The working poor will not have access to Social Security medical benefits.
d. There will be too few workers contributing to support the increasing number of
retirees.
e. There will be too many people paying into the Social Security system.
In 1948, the Chicago Tribune wrongly predicted that Republican Thomas E. Dewey
would beat incumbent President Harry S. Truman. Knowing what you know about the
accuracy of various polls, what kind of poll would most likely have led the Chicago
Tribune to make this erroneous prediction?
a. an exit poll
b. a push poll
c. a random-digit dialing poll
d. a straw poll
e. a tracking poll
Why is redistricting an issue for incumbents?
a. It means fewer people can donate to their reelection campaign.
b. It can pit an incumbent against another incumbent in the next election cycle.
c. It mandates that every ten years members of Congress have to switch districts.
d. It means that incumbents have to move when their district changes.
e. It necessitates a new and expensive media campaign in the next election cycle.
Americans trust the government more when __________.
a. Democrats and Republicans work together in Congress
b. electoral votes indicate a clear win in the presidential election
c. it is not a “critical election” year
d. their chosen political party controls the White House
e. there is a strong third-party candidate
Candidate debates became a regular part of presidential campaigns in which decade?
a. the 1950s
b. the 1960s
c. the 1970s
d. the 1980s
e. the 1990s
In recent years, the Supreme Court has struggled to address __________ on the Internet
in a First Amendment context.
a. slander
b. libel
c. hate speech
d. obscenity
e. fighting words
When would Congress be most likely to allow a federal agency significant discretion in
rule-making?
a. following a congressional election
b. following a presidential election
c. following the passage of a law dealing with specialist issues
d. following the passage of a law supported by both political parties
e. following the passage of a law supported by the president
What is the source for the money in the Social Security Trust Fund?
a. sales taxes
b. payroll taxes
c. progressive taxes
d. property taxes
e. income taxes
Cabinet secretaries are appointed by __________ and confirmed by __________.
a. the president; the Senate
b. the president; the House of Representatives
c. the president; the Supreme Court
d. the Senate; the president
e. the House of Representatives; the Supreme Court
Gaps in the way that citizens view government, political leaders, and public policies
may be the result of gender, race, age, party, and religion, which are collectively known
as what?
a. demographic stratigraphy
b. demographic characteristics
c. political ideologies
d. agents of political socialization
e. social identity quotients
Which of the following was a fundamental part of the George W. Bush administration’s
case for the 2003 war in Iraq?
a. Iraq was responsible for the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11,
2001.
b. Iraq, along with North Korea and Iran, was a threat to American security interests.
c. The Persian Gulf War begun by President George H. W. Bush had never really ended
and needed to be brought to a close.
d. Saddam Hussein had issued threats against the United States.
e. Saddam Hussein had permitted Osama bin Laden to use Iraq for training terrorists.
What is an unfunded mandate?
a. when the federal government creates programs without providing sufficient funds
b. when a state government requires a federal action
c. when the federal government prohibits the states to take a certain action
d. when a state government prohibits a federal action
e. when an order requires joint state and federal action
According to the Constitution, how is the president supposed to be elected?
a. appointment through Congress
b. appointment through state legislatures
c. direct election by popular vote
d. election through the Electoral College
e. party primaries followed by popular vote
How many justices currently serve on the Supreme Court?
a. five
b. six
c. twelve
d. nine
e. eight
A false written statement is __________; the same statement spoken aloud is
__________.
a. defamation, slander
b. slander, libel
c. libel, defamation
d. libel, slander
e. slander, defamation
What do economists use gross domestic product to measure?
a. the rate of government spending in the economy
b. the rate of tariffs applied to goods imported into the United States
c. the total impact of import revenues on the domestic economy
d. the total value added by government expenditures in the economy
e. the total value of goods and services produced in the economy
Why did the United States join the North American Free Trade Agreement?
a. to increase the number of markets readily available for American goods
b. to prevent the salaries of American workers from increasing faster than inflation
c. to relocate manufacturing jobs to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor
d. to slow down the pace of globalization
e. to make it harder for Japanese cars to compete in the American marketplace
At the Constitutional Convention, the delegates agreed that slaves would be counted as
__________ of a person for determining population for representation in the House of
Representatives.
a. four-fifths
b. three-fifths
c. two-thirds
d. one-third
e. one-fourth
According to Figure 9.1, How Is the American Judicial System Structured?, which of
the following has no original jurisdiction?
a. Supreme Court
b. U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
c. U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio
d. U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
e. U.S. Court of Federal Claims
In Federalist No. 10, James Madison described how a government could be designed to
control the effects of __________.
a. monarchies
b. factions
c. representative government
d. political parties
e. trade associations
How have Americans rated members of Congress in recent years?
a. Americans are increasingly supportive of congressional members.
b. Americans are ambivalent about the performance of Congress.
c. Individual members of Congress and Congress as a whole have received high
approval ratings.
d. Individual members of Congress rate slightly higher than Congress as a whole, but
approval ratings are at an all-time low.
e. Ratings are low across the board, but individual members of Congress receive the
lowest approval ratings.
Which of the following was part of both the Articles of Confederation and the
Constitution?
a. Congress
b. the presidency
c. the federal judiciary
d. collection of taxes by the federal government
e. unanimous consent for ratification
Which of the following statements, if true, would confirm the theory of pluralism?
a. The number of interest groups in Washington, D.C., has decreased over the past
several decades.
b. Elected officials rarely take into account the views of interest groups.
c. Business/economic interests have more lobbyists in Washington, D.C., than other
types of organizations.
d. Elected officials seek out the opinions of multiple interest groups when creating
policy.
e. Membership in labor unions has remained stable over the past several decades.
What did Abington School District v.Schempp find to be unconstitutional?
a. state-mandated Bible reading
b. forced sterilization
c. segregated education
d. discrimination against homosexuals
e. imprisonment without a trial
Bill Clinton launching his health care reform proposals on Nightline is an example of
what type of strategy?
a. lobbying
b. executive privilege
c. going public
d. rally-round-the-flag
e. twisting arms
Which of the following voter profiles most strongly suggests that an individual will
identify with the Democratic Party?
a. Asian, male, Evangelical Christian
b. black, female, from the Northeast
c. college-educated, male, from the South
d. senior citizen, male, annual income over $75,000
e. white, male, Protestant
How many of the thirteen colonies voted for independence?
a. thirteen
b. ten
c. eight
d. twelve
e. nine
What is the purpose of government regulation of the economy?
a. to increase the revenue collected by the federal government
b. to increase the overall level of taxes paid by produces in the economy
c. to increase the level of profits for multinational corporations
d. to minimize the costs of doing business for corporations
e. to minimize the effects of negative externalities
What is the primary tool that monetary policy uses to affect the overall economy?
a. labor regulations
b. foreign monetary investment
c. government spending
d. interest rates
e. taxation rates
If a state wanted to increase its influence in the presidential nomination, what could the
state do?
a. control media access to campaign events
b. frontload the primaries
c. mandate candidate debates in the state
d. switch to a caucus system
e. use a winner-take-all system
Of the following, which is considered a demographic characteristic?
a. employability
b. gender
c. history
d. intelligence
e. security
If you wanted to have the most informed voters during a party nomination, you would
use which nomination system?
a. caucus
b. collegian
c. primary
d. proportional
e. retrospective
What is front-loading?
a. the tendency to donate money to the first candidates who enter a presidential race
b. the tendency of major media outlets to call states early in presidential elections
c. the tendency of political parties to nominate a presidential candidate before caucus
d. the tendency of states to choose an early date on the nomination calendar
e. the tendency of voters to use early or absentee voting
Adherents to the theory of __________ federalism generally believe that the federal
government should not overstep its enumerated powers.
In responding to the 2008 __________, the federal government relied solely on fiscal
policy to restart economic growth.
Why did the size of the federal bureaucracy increase substantially over the course of the
twentieth century?
How well are the president’s foreign policy powers described in the Constitution? What
specific foreign policy powers are enumerated in the Constitution?
What was the “Don”t Ask, Don”t Tell” policy? What was the penalty for a soldier who
violated this policy? Why was it implemented? What is the current status of the policy?
When designing the Electoral College, what were the Framers trying to achieve? What
event exposed problems in the original design? What was done to solve these
problems? Do any other problems remain?
Presidents tend to have __________ approval ratings at the beginning of their term.
The __________ is the difference in voting patterns between men and women.
Why is intensity of feeling an important factor to take into consideration when
assessing the shortcomings of polling?
As a result of the __________ scandal, Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment
and a Senate trial.
How would you characterize President Obama’s presidency? Has he been a successful
or a disappointing president? Justify your answer with details from the text. Summarize
your opinion and rationale.
An early effort to define __________ focused on whether the material had any serious
literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Explain how the federal government uses federal funding to indirectly impose its will
upon the states.
The belief that free trade is especially important in a global economy was the impetus
for the __________ among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
Distinguish between the positions of advocates and critics of progressive federalism.