The Senate must approve the president’s appointments to leadership positions in the
fifteen Cabinet departments.
Most researchers now explain the gender gap in party identification with the
Republican Party’s difficulties in attracting female voters.
Many of the latest regulations enacted by Congress are in response to demands from
constituents.
The most recent economic crisis was a depression.
The Supreme Court has affirmed the right of consenting adults to engage in private
sexual activity.
Interest groups are prohibited from lobbying the executive branch of the federal
government.
Over the years, our attitudes about personal liberty have remained unchanged.
“Spin” is when a campaign staff puts forward the most favorable possible interpretation
for their candidate on any circumstance occurring in the campaign.
The increasing partisanship and unproductivity of Congress have contributed to lower
approval ratings of congressional members in recent years.
The Republican Party’s fund-raising has consistently dwarfed that of their Democratic
counterparts since 1993.
Courts have not allowed men to use the Fourteenth Amendment to fight gender-based
discrimination, since men are the majority and do not experience such discrimination.
Under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government had broad power to levy
taxes.
Barack Obama’s approach to U.S. foreign policy is best described as isolationist.
The failure of the U.S. government to notice the developing threat to American interests
posed by a new terrorist organization would suggest that the intelligence community is
not doing a good job.
The Anti-Federalists strongly supported the Bill of Rights.
The 2003 war in Iraq was the United States’ most immediate and direct response to the
September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act deemphasized Congress’s role in the federal government.
The United States and the Soviet Union were the main adversaries in the Cold War.
A bill goes through markup in a full committee after a subcommittee votes in favor of
it.
The Constitution lays out the plan for presidential power in great detail.
The district courts are appellate courts.
Gender classifications are evaluated by the Supreme Court using the strict scrutiny
standard to ensure that it is necessary to accomplish a permissible state goal and is the
least restrictive way to reach that goal.
The Clayton Act of 1914 allowed unions to organize free from prosecution and also
guaranteed their members’ right to strike.
Since 1990, the Supreme Court has consistently expanded the power of Congress to
regulate interstate commerce.
The president and Congress share oversight of the federal bureaucracy.
Social media afford politicians tremendous opportunities to communicate with the
public.
Even though the Hispanic population is fairly small, they earned their civil rights earlier
and more completely than did African Americans.
According to Max Weber, bureaucracies are characterized by hierarchical authority
structures.
Virtually all government regulation of political parties falls to the states.
The national debt is the yearly difference between government revenues and the deficit.
A divided government is when the president and the majority in one or both chambers
of Congress belong to different parties.
The North American Free Trade Agreement promotes the free exchange of goods and
services among the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The Constitution was ratified in 1776.
Public opinion polls confirm that women have more liberal attitudes than men about
social issues.
Members of partisan think tanks are primarily responsible for writing the national party
platforms.
Keynesians would likely approve of the recent government stimulus package passed by
Congress to deal with the economic crisis of the Great Recession.
Like the Literary Digest, George Gallup incorrectly predicted the results of the 1936
election between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Alf Landon.
The president traditionally has more influence over foreign policy than does Congress.
In your American government class, you learn that most Americans’ level of knowledge
about history and politics is quite low and is declining every year. You also learn that
political knowledge and political participation have a reciprocal effect on one another.
Which of the following statements aligns with the statements presented in this scenario?
a. In the future, the degree of political participation in America is likely to go up.
b. In the future, the degree of political participation in America is likely to go down.
c. On many traditional measures, Americans’ knowledge of foreign policy issues is
likely to increase in the future.
d. On many traditional measures, Americans’ knowledge of domestic policy issues is
likely to increase in the future.
e. The gender gap in political participation appears to be unaffected by falling levels of
political knowledge at present.
How does the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) influence rule-making by
departments and agencies? When was the act passed?
What did Jim Crow laws mandate?
a. voting rights
b. racial segregation
c. poll taxes
d. grandfather clauses
e. Black Codes
Who is included in the “party in the electorate”?
a. party officers who seek to educate the public on key party stances
b. party officers who seek to steer the electorate through media spin
c. public officials who are registered with one major party
d. voters active in the business of the party
e. voters who identify with a party label
Which amendment protects the right to bear arms?
a. First
b. Second
c. Third
d. Fourth
e. Fifth
In Near v.Minnesota, the Supreme Court further developed which of the following?
a. exclusionary rule
b. due process clause
c. incorporation doctrine
d. free exercise clause
e. equal protection clause
Which of the following best exemplifies the intentions of the devolution revolution?
a. New Deal legislation
b. No Child Left Behind Act
c. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
d. Troubled Asset Recovery Program
e. Violence Against Women Act
The __________ is a measure of the accuracy of a public opinion poll.
a. inaccuracy rate
b. margin of error
c. modal response
d. sample size
e. standard deviation
Which of the following best describes the Constitutional Convention?
a. The Convention was transparent.
b. The Convention was secretive.
c. The Convention was free of significant disagreement.
d. The Convention was inclusive of all types of citizens.
e. The Convention lasted only one week.
Barron v.Baltimore held that enumerated rights contained in the Bill of Rights bound
which of the following?
a. only the states
b. only the federal government
c. both the states and the federal government
d. neither the states nor the federal government
e. the people
What strategy was MOST likely behind Senators John McCain and Russell Feingold
working together to pass the 2002 campaign finance reform bill?
a. Having senators from different regions of the country would show the widespread
need for electoral reform.
b. McCain was not an influential senator at the time, so Feingold bolstered McCain’s
cause.
c. Having two senators work across the aisle limited accusations of partisanship.
d. McCain was planning on running for president, and Feingold would help his chances
of getting elected.
e. Feingold needed to improve his media image, so he worked very publicly with a
prominent senator from his own party.
What is the role of the national security advisor?
a. to consult with academics and others with foreign policy expertise
b. to provide the president with information that reinforces the president’s foreign policy
positions
c. to act as a liaison between the Department of Defense and the military
d. to lead the Department of Homeland Security
e. to give the president independent advice about foreign and military policy
Americans have the highest levels of trust in which of the following?
a. the press
b. business and industry
c. the executive branch
d. Congress
e. medicine
What is the most common critique of the military-industrial complex?
a. Ordinary citizens are generally uninformed about foreign and defense policy.
b. Defense industry interest groups have too much influence over U.S. foreign and
defense policy.
c. The military decision-making process is too slow and complex.
d. Congress should have less influence over foreign and defense policy, whereas the
president should have more influence.
e. Defense contracts are usually awarded to the lowest bidder and not on the basis of
expertise or experience, resulting in poor-quality products.
Which of the following is a minor party that was formed to oppose desegregation?
a. the American Independent Party
b. the Green Party
c. the Liberty/Free Soil Party
d. the Progressive/Bull Moose Party
e. the States’ Rights Party
How would you go about strengthening political parties in the United States?
a. Allow a multi-party system.
b. Allow public financing of elections.
c. Hold more elections.
d. Let voters elect the party leadership.
e. Switch to caucus systems in all the states for nomination contests.
Which of the following statements best characterizes the nature of the conflict between
presidents and Congress?
a. The conflict is a by-product of the weakening of American political parties.
b. The conflict is integral to the design of the Constitution, deliberately intended by the
authors of the constitution.
c. The conflict is a by-product of the recent polarization of the American party system.
d. The conflict is a by-product solely of divided government.
e. The conflict intensifies when Republicans control the presidency and Democrats
control Congress.
Which of the following created the right to privacy?
a. the Bill of Rights
b. the Constitution
c. the executive branch
d. the legislature
e. the judiciary
Which executive power was intended as a “qualified negative” by the Framers?
a. the power over the military
b. the power to appoint judges
c. the power to make treaties
d. the power to pardon
e. the power to veto
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is most
likely to fight to reduce which of the following?
a. racism
b. affirmative action
c. sexism
d. sodomy
e. job training programs
If the Federal Reserve wanted to increase lending by banks, what would it do to reserve
requirements?
a. Lower the discount rate on bank reserve requirements.
b. Lower the rate of taxation on bank reserve requirements.
c. Lower the reserve requirements for banks.
d. Increase the discount rate on bank reserve requirements.
e. Raise the reserve requirements for banks.
Why did the original Electoral College hold separate elections for president and
vice-president?
a. The Framers anticipated that partisanship would have little influence.
b. The Framers did not expect the country to become so large and diverse.
c. The Framers never expected the role of the media in elections.
d. The Framers were worried about the influences of factions and demagogues.
e. The Framers were trying to minimize the influence of the wealthy.
The main goal of fiscal policy is __________.
a. to affect how much money is available to foreign governments for investment and its
cost
b. to affect how much money is available to state governments for capital projects
c. to determine how much interest the government will pay on the federal debt
d. to stimulate the economy by increasing the number of exports into the United States
e. to use taxes and government spending to help stimulate or slow down economic
growth
The media is also known as the __________.
a. fourth estate
b. fourth branch
c. paper empire
d. third party
e. civic watcher
A court that hears and weighs evidence in order to reach the first decision in a civil or
criminal case is a court of __________ jurisdiction.
a. appellate
b. constitutional
c. trial
d. original
e. mandatory
Which Cabinet-level department has primary responsibility for U.S. foreign policy?
a. Department of Defense
b. Department of Justice
c. Department of the Interior
d. Department of Homeland Security
e. Department of State
Which president helped to create modern welfare policy in the United States?
a. Dwight Eisenhower
b. Franklin Roosevelt
c. Jimmy Carter
d. Ronald Reagan
e. Theodore Roosevelt
The First Continental Congress was a response to which of the following?
a. Stamp Act
b. Intolerable Acts
c. Coercive Acts
d. Boston Massacre
e. Townshend Acts
The “right to remain silent” is a citizen’s protection against which of the following?
a. governmental intrusion
b. search and seizure
c. religious establishment
d. a biased jury
e. self-incrimination
Why is Walter Lippmann credited with spurring the growth of public opinion polling?
a. Lippmann tried to predict the winner of the presidential contest between Andrew
Jackson and John Quincy Adams.
b. Lippmann was a pioneer in the use of the straw poll.
c. Lippmann’s polling methods were hailed widely as “amazingly right” and “uncannily
accurate.”
d. Lippmann discovered three fatal errors in the Literary Digest poll that wrongly
predicted that Republican Alfred M. Landon would beat incumbent President Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
e. Lippmann wrote a book in which he observed that research on public opinion was far
too limited, especially in light of its importance
How are federal workforce similar to policy coordinating committees?
a. Both coordinate the activities of multiple agencies.
b. Both deal with multiple policy problems.
c. Both are housed within the legislative branch.
d. Both have the authority to override the decisions of agency heads.
e. Both help coordinate the activities of the federal and state governments.
Explain the preemption legislation/ the preemption doctrine.
What are civil rights? How did the concept of equality get introduced into the
Constitution, and how has that concept been used in the struggle for civil rights for
various groups? Why was the Civil Rights Act of 1964 so important in furthering civil
rights for all groups?
Brown v. Board of Education overturned the __________ doctrine.
Explain judicial implementation.
Although many people still view the United States as a __________ nation, a great
number of religious groupsincluding Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslimshave
established roots in the United States.
What special oversight function does the Senate have with respect to presidential
appointments? How does this affect the president?
The federal government relies on a ___________ tax to fund the Social Security
program.
Rosa Parks’s refusal to give up her seat on a public bus was an act of __________ that
led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Article II of the Constitution addresses the powers of the __________ branch.
Explain James Madison’s claim that “Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.”
What was the purpose of TARP, and how was it supposed to work?
What are the strict scrutiny standard and the rational basis (or minimum rationality)
standard? What sort of classification system would cause the Supreme Court to apply
each standard to determine if a discriminatory law is constitutionally permissible?
Under what circumstances would it apply an intermediate standard? Give an example of
a law that would be subject to each standard of review. Do you agree with this
three-tiered approach? Why or why not?
Describe the different types of federal constitutional courts.
Define and give an example of a government corporation. Why are some services
provided by government corporations, whereas others are left to the private sector?