According to the authors of the textbook, under what circumstances will Texas adopt an
income tax?
A) When the proportion of retired Texans increases by at least 30 percent
B) When the business community decides that an income tax is necessary for the state’s
economic survival
C) When the voters are tired of paying property taxes
D) When there is a Democrat in the governor’s office, a Democratic lieutenant
governor, and a Democratic Speaker of the Texas House
E) When there is a confluence of all of the factors listed above
Police powers are the basis for
A) interstate commerce.
B) federal sentencing guidelines.
C) federal civil statutes.
D) Medicaid.
E) Massachusetts’s universal health care system.
A PAC is an officially registered campaign financing arm of
A) a political party.
B) a House or Senate conference.
C) any group wishing to make contributions to federal elections.
D) an executive branch agency.
E) a labor union.
The legal status of American Indian tribes is that of
A) federal citizens.
B) domestic dependent nations.
C) state citizens.
D) registered aliens.
E) undocumented residents.
In Texas, any party whose candidate for governor receives more than 20 percent of the
vote must
A) hold a primary election to nominate candidates.
B) hold a party caucus to nominate a candidate.
C) subject the proposed slate of candidates to a state-wide referendum.
D) hold a recount of all primary votes.
E) register with the Texas Ethics Commission.
The Supreme Court will hear a case if ________ justices vote to do so.
A) three
B) four
C) five
D) six
E) seven
The costs of Social Security
A) have always exceeded revenues.
B) are expected to exceed revenues in 2050.
C) are expected to exceed revenues around 2015 or shortly thereafter.
D) are mandated by law to equal revenues.
E) are not expected to exceed revenues until 2085.
________ correctly predicted every presidential election from 1920 to 1932.
A) Time
B) The New Yorker
C) The Gallup Report
D) Literary Digest
E) Newsweek
In the 1950s and 1960s, __________ were generally in control of the government in
Texas.
A) independents
B) liberal Democrats
C) moderate Republicans
D) conservative Democrats
E) conservative Republicans
Pure independent voters
A) are becoming less common.
B) comprise 50 percent of the electorate.
C) rarely have party loyalties of any kind.
D) comprise nearly 95 percent of the electorate.
E) have not increased as robustly as “independent leaners.”
What does the expression “That dog won’t hunt” mean in Texas politics?
A) An individual lacks a credible proposal or argument
B) A lack of faith in a person’s convictions
C) An individual’s lack of political power
D) That something is a “non-issue”
E) Disappointment in the ethical behavior of a politician
According to Article 17 of the Texas Constitution of 1876, proposed amendments to the
constitution must begin with a(n)
A) joint resolution passed by a two-thirds votes of both the Texas House and the Texas
Senate.
B) majority vote of special constitutional convention called by the governor.
C) bill introduced and passed by the Texas House and then ratified by the Senate.
D) bill passed by the legislature, signed by the governor, and ratified by three-fourths of
the counties.
E) executive order issued by the governor.
In situations of conflict between state and national law, national law prevails due to
A) federalism.
B) the supremacy clause.
C) the Tenth Amendment.
D) judicial interpretation.
E) the Bill of Rights.
The first major effort by the national government to protect consumers involved
A) meatpacking.
B) sugar.
C) tea.
D) chamomile.
E) produce.
Under the U.S. Constitution, states have the power to make laws dealing with
________, as long as they do not violate principles set out in that document or as
interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court.
I. the death penalty
II. abortion restrictions
III. regulating commerce with Indian nations
IV. coining money
A) I and III
B) I and II
C) II and III
D) III and IV
E) I, II, III, and IV
The biggest source of Texas taxpayer dissatisfaction and anger in recent years has been
the
A) grocery sales tax.
B) local property tax.
C) oil and gas severance tax.
D) personal income tax.
E) severance tax.
A system of government where the local and regional governments derive all authority
from a strong national government is known as a
A) unitary system.
B) federal system.
C) confederate system.
D) monarchy.
E) presidential system.
Which of the following is most clearly a benefit of e-government?
A) E-government saves money.
B) Citizens have greater access to government information.
C) Your neighbors can look up your voting records online.
D) Sunshine laws do not apply to e-government.
E) E-government increases public trust in government.
The Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution limits a president from serving in
office more than ________ years.
A) four
B) eight
C) ten
D) twelve
E) fourteen
As a result of amendments made in 1999 by the Texas Legislature to the Municipal
Annexation Act, a city must take all of the following steps in order to annex property
into the city limits EXCEPT
A) develop a three-year annexation plan and not annex the target area in that three-year
period.
B) make and inventory of current services in the area and require negotiations and
arbitration regarding services.
C) provide all services currently provided in its full-purpose boundaries no later than
two-and-a-half years after annexation.
D) conduct at least two public hearings and not reduce service levels in the area from
what they were before annexation.
E) pay the property taxes on the acquired land for the first ten years after annexation.
U.S. Supreme Court justices are appointed by the
A) president.
B) Cabinet.
C) states.
D) House of Representatives.
E) Senate.
The 1869 constitutional convention
A) featured four separate voting blocs that pursued their own agendas.
B) had been under-funded from the start by a legislature that wanted them to fail.
C) ran out of money because the businesses and hotels doubled the prices for the
delegates.
D) failed to enact any constitutional changes because of a nationwide fluctuation in
currency values.
E) relied entirely on Confederate money which was worthless after the Civil War.
If you vote for a candidate whom you believe thinks and acts exactly like you, then you
MOST likely subscribe to which theory of representation?
A) Delegate
B) Trustee
C) Politico
D) Representative
E) Statesman
The main organizational vehicle in the House and Senate is
A) the two major political parties.
B) the committee chairs.
C) the two major political parties plus the Independents.
D) the strong party leaders.
E) the subcommittees.
“To the victors belong the spoils” is a term MOST frequently attributed to President
A) Abraham Lincoln.
B) Theodore Roosevelt.
C) Andrew Jackson.
D) Franklin D. Roosevelt.
E) James Monroe.
On the whole, the _______ have raised more money than ________ in elections since
the early 1990s.
A) Republicans/Democrats
B) Green Party candidates/Communist Party candidates
C) Democrats/Republicans
D) challengers/incumbents
E) female candidates/male candidates
A unified government helped both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in
setting their congressional agenda.
________ was the driving force behind the Supreme Court’s holding that gender-based
discrimination violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
A) Ruth Bader Ginsburg
B) Sandra Day O’Connor
C) Hillary Rodham Clinton
D) The NAACP
E) NOW
A committee was appointed at the Constitutional Convention to work out the
differences between the proposals of large and small states; the result was the
A) Virginia Plan.
B) New Jersey Plan.
C) Great Compromise.
D) Electoral College.
E) Bill of Rights.
The Supreme Court ruled that states were not completely free to limit forms of political
expression in
A) Near v. Minnesota.
B) Gitlow v. New York.
C) Palko v. Connecticut.
D) Pointer v. Texas.
E) Cantwell v.Connecticut.
The process by which the Supreme Court has chosen to apply the specific guarantees in
the Bill of Rights to the states is called
A) due process.
B) the inclusion doctrine.
C) selective establishment.
D) selective incorporation.
E) the exclusion doctrine.