Several provisions of the War Powers Act have been ruled unconstitutional by the U.S.
Supreme Court because they interfere with the president’s commander in chief powers.
The Supreme Court is consistently swayed by public opinion.
Public interest groups always seek environmental protection.
The Mayflower Compact was a social contract.
Glenn Beck is a prominent commentator on FOX News.
To appease southern states, slaves were counted as three-fifths of a person for
representation purposes.
If you are charged with a felony in Texas and the case goes to trial, you would appear as
a defendant in a district court.
The right to privacy is enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
The lieutenant governor succeeds to the governorship if there is a vacancy.
The United States has a unitary system of government.
The president often uses executive agreements to avoid confrontations with Congress.
The general hierarchical nature of state courts is similar to that of federal courts.
The basic foundation of the legislative branch of federal government is established in
Article II of the Constitution.
The government did not define the term “lobbyist” until the 1995 Lobbying Disclosure
Act.
There are more than 87,000 state and local governments in the United States.
Issue networks are the BEST example of the increasing complexity of policy domains
in the federal government.
The Interstate Commerce Commission regulates airlines.
The problem of “ghost-voting” in the Texas House of Representatives has its roots in
the introduction of electronic voting.
Congress has attempted to make exceptions to the full faith and credit clause.
With slavery legalized in the Republic of Texas, the number of African Americans
increased rapidly, composing 20% of the population by 1840.
The Central Intelligence Agency is responsible for advising the president on foreign and
military affairs.
Members of the Senate must be natural-born citizens of the United States.
Lobbyists are a significant source of technical policy information for legislators.
The percentage of Americans enrolled in Medicare who also choose Medicare
Advantage programs shows that Medicare may not adequately cover medical expenses.
Means-tested programs are available to all citizens regardless of income.
If you were to run for president on the Republican ticket and followed the general trend,
you would likely accentuate your most conservative ideas in the primary and then
appear more moderate during the general election.
The only legislative power held by the governor is the veto.
British Petroleum (BP) welcomed independent scientists to evaluate Deepwater
Horizon just days after the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Texas children are more likely to live in poverty than are children in the United States
as a whole.
The largest interest group in America is the AFL-CIO.
Presidents often try to mold public opinion, especially in foreign affairs, where most
Americans have little political knowledge or information.
In Hernandez v. Texas, the Court ruled unanimously that Mexican Americans were
entitled to a jury that included other Mexican Americans.
If you are Hispanic, you have a greater chance of being one of the governors’ executive
appointees than someone from any other racial or ethnic group.
The Southern Democrats’ efforts to manipulate who makes up the electorate through the
1960s is similar to the way most political parties have behaved through the history of
the United States.
What do the Great Society, the New Deal, and the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 have in common?
A) They were all initiated by Republican presidents.
B) They all prompted criticism from Democrats.
C) They all significantly reformed health care.
D) They all indicate major shifts in social policy.
E) They all moved welfare away from work-oriented goals.
_____________________ are the largest source of policy decisions made by the federal
government.
A) Executive orders
B) Federal rules
C) Congressional acts
D) Supreme Court decisions
E) Constitutional amendments
According to Isaiah Berlin, a noted historian and philosopher, two factors, above all,
have shaped human history in the twentieth century. They are
A) science and technology, and trade.
B) science and technology, and religion.
C) religion and ideology.
D) science and technology, and ideology.
E) trade and ideology.
Many people are concerned about the use of mail-in ballots because
A) they fear no one will mail back their ballot.
B) candidates can change and voters can move within days of an election.
C) they fear that mailing ballots opens up a range of opportunities for voter fraud.
D) it drastically increases the cost of election administration.
E) election results in a mail-in state will be known much more quickly than in other
states.
________ was the first major national crisis over slavery.
A) Shays’s Rebellion
B) The Missouri Compromise
C) Dred Scott v. Sandford
D) The Niagara Movement
E) The Seneca Falls Convention
The Electoral College was designed
I. to work without political parties.
II. to cover the nominating phase of presidential selection.
III. to cover the selection phase of presidential selection.
IV. to produce a nonpartisan president.
A) III only
B) I and II
C) II and IV
D) I, II, and IV
E) I, II, III, and IV
Which of the following is the BEST example of public opinion affecting policy?
A) Republican members of Congress nearly universally opposed the health care reform
bill despite widespread public support for health care reform.
B) President Barack Obama largely abandoned his campaign promises to strengthen
Title IX when the public considered other issues more salient.
C) President George W. Bush continued his efforts in the War on Terror when public
opinion of it dwindled completely.
D) A president signs bills into law only if they receive a great deal of public support.
E) The Supreme Court decides to integrate public education.
Thirty-eight of the ninety delegates to the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1875
were members of an organization of farmers created in Texas following the economic
panic of 1873. This organization was known as
A) the Long Rangers, or Texas Rangers.
B) the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange.
C) the Frontiersmen, or the Men of the Soil.
D) the Patrons of Texas, or the Texas Farm Bureau.
E) the Bavarians
The lifeblood of national, state, and local campaigns are the
A) candidates.
B) political consultants.
C) speech writers.
D) volunteers.
E) voters.
In the 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control used a “Don”t Be a Butthead” campaign
to discourage youth smoking. The implementation technique used here is _______.
A) instinctual
B) incentive
C) authoritative
D) free market
E) hortatory
Which of the following statements is NOT reflective of the multifunctional nature of
Texas county governments?
A) Counties serve as sub-units of state government, helping state government provide
administrative services throughout the state.
B) Counties operate as locally elected governmental bodies, performing many strictly
local functions.
C) Counties provide services to their citizens, such as holding elections, providing
public health services, and registering automobiles, on behalf of the state.
D) Local public services provided by the county include public safety, building and
maintaining roads, and building and maintaining jails.
E) Counties provide public education to their citizens from kindergarten through grade
12.
The lieutenant governor and the heads of six state agencies are
A) appointed by the governor.
B) appointed by the legislature.
C) elected independently of the governor by the voters of Texas.
D) subject to removal by the governor.
E) supervised by the governor.
In order to become a law, how many readings must a bill have in each chamber?
A) One
B) Two
C) Three
D) Four
E) Every day for one work week
Municipal utility districts are usually created at the request of
A) developers who seek to provide water, sewage, and other utility services to new
subdivisions and developments outside a city’s limits.
B) a city’s water and sewage department to fund the construction of new capital
improvement projects such a new water line and sewage plants.
C) a county auditor seeking to create a legal mechanism within the county to review
city- owned and operated utility services.
D) the Office of the Governor for the management of existing groundwater resources
within the state.
E) the Texas Legislature in order to enhance competition among corporate utilities
provides doing business in the state.
In 2002, in companion cases from Michigan, the U.S. Supreme Court found that
A) affirmative action plans for the University of Michigan and its law school were
constitutional.
B) affirmative action plans for the University of Michigan and its law school were
unconstitutional.
C) the University of Michigan’s law school plan, which gave preference to minority
students, was constitutional.
D) the University of Michigan’s affirmative action plan for undergraduates, which
included giving minority applicants extra points, was constitutional.
E) the University of Michigan’s affirmative action plan had to be based not only on
race, but also sex, ethnicity, and national origin.
What do business interest groups and public-interest groups have in common?
A) They both run candidates in elections
B) Neither is required to register as lobbyists
C) They both advocate for the same public policies
D) They both prefer to interact with the public and with lawmakers
E) They both seek to influence public policy.
The principal purpose of a precinct convention is to
A) select delegates to the party’s county or state senatorial convention.
B) increase voter turnout in local precinct elections.
C) select delegates to the state convention and reform platform measures.
D) elect state party chairpersons.
E) nominate candidates for the general election.
Which of the following interest groups is NOT a labor group?
A) American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
B) American Federation of Teachers
C) Communication Workers of America
D) Texas Trial Lawyers Association
E) American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
If you are charged with driving while intoxicated and your case goes to trial in Texas,
your case is likely to be heard in
A) a municipal court.
B) a justice of the peace court.
C) a county court.
D) a district court.
E) an intermediate appellate court.
At the First Continental Congress, there were delegates from
A) every colony except New York.
B) every colony except Rhode Island.
C) all thirteen colonies.
D) all the colonies and a representative of the king.
E) every colony except Georgia.
Third parties do best when
A) there is a major scandal.
B) trust in the major parties is low.
C) they have a dynamic candidate.
D) major parties are more similar in their issue positions.
E) they concentrate on winning national office, not state and local elections.
During the 2008 presidential elections, one study estimated that Americans learned
_____________ about the presidential campaign from alternative sources such as The
Daily Show as they did from traditional sources such as CNN or the New York Times.
A) significantly less
B) significantly more
C) about the same amount
D) slightly less
E) slightly more
Most criminal and civil cases before the district courts of Texas
A) go to trial.
B) are settled before trial by plea bargains and negotiated settlements, respectively.
C) are brought to the district courts as trials de novo from lower trial courts.
D) result in hung juries.
E) deal mainly with capital offenses.
Members of Congress contribute to candidates via
A) party caucuses.
B) foreign organizations.
C) PACs.
D) back-door donations.
E) Internet funding groups.
The initial purpose of the food stamp program was to
A) provide special nutritional programs for poor women.
B) alleviate poverty during the Great Depression.
C) alleviate poverty and hunger during the 1960s.
D) reduce hunger and malnutrition in children.
E) expand domestic markets for farm commodities.
Political scientist V.O. Key was among the first to note which of the following
examples of shortcomings of polling?
A) A survey about presidential approval had a sample size of ten respondents.
B) A survey asked only African Americans about the Iraq War.
C) When asking if a respondent likes ice cream, it gives two options for a response, yes
or no.
D) A survey question asks, “Do you support the extremist views of the Tea Party
movement or not?”
E) A survey asks 350 different questions.
The creation of the Tea Party movement is an example of
A) interest theory.
B) communist theory.
C) disturbance theory.
D) pluralist theory.
E) transactions theory.
Warrantless searches are
A) patently unconstitutional.
B) always in violation of the Fourth Amendment since they are conducted without court
approval.
C) not regulated by state or local governments.
D) constitutional only under certain circumstances.
E) always constitutional.
The division of authority among the three branches of government is called
A) federalism.
B) pluralism.
C) separation of powers.
D) compromise.
E) gridlock.
The main purpose of the War Powers Act was to
A) reassert Congress’s budgetary authority over the conduct of war.
B) rein in the ability of the president to wage war.
C) show support for the troops.
D) overrule a Supreme Court decision enhancing the president’s ability to wage war.
E) strengthen the president’s powers as commander-in-chief.
The early Anglos who settled in Texas from 1815 to 1836 were drawn primarily from
A) Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and North Carolina.
B) Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama.
C) Michigan, Vermont, and Virginia.
D) South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia.
E) New York, West Virginia, Mississippi, and South Carolina.