Which statement best summarizes Madison’s view of federalism?
a. He was a consistent supporter of the notion of a supreme national government.
b. He was a consistent supporter of the notion of the supremacy of state governments.
c. He was first an ardent supporter of national supremacy, then of states’ rights.
d. He was first an ardent supporter of states’ rights, then of national supremacy.
e. He assumed the national government would be supreme except in times of war.
A major argument in favor of reducing the separation of powers called for in the U.S.
Constitution is that it would
a. allow prompt, decisive leadership in times of crisis.
b. weaken the presidency and give greater protection against executive dictatorship.
c. disperse credit or blame equally among the three branches of government.
d. apportion responsibility for implementing government programs among members of
Congress.
e. create a truly independent judiciary.
According to the text, the persistence in our political vocabulary of the term
__________ is evidence of Americans’ common hopes and values.
a. freedom
b. Americanism
c. morality
d. equality
e. righteousness
The process of revising agency budget requests is commonly called __________.
a. gutting
b. reconciling
c. bait and switch
d. marking up
e. red-marking
Until 1920, women were generally kept from voting by
a. intimidation.
b. social custom.
c. their own choice.
d. tradition.
e. law.
The political compromise reached on taxation in the first half of the twentieth century
included
a. high marginal tax rates and numerous loopholes.
b. low marginal tax rates and numerous loopholes.
c. high marginal tax rates and few loopholes.
d. low marginal tax rates and few loopholes.
e. None of the above is true.
What effect does the national media most likely have on the political agenda?
a. Publicize issues by giving them most attention
b. Influence politicians into voting a particular way
c. Produce stories that force politicians to act
d. The size and power demands act
e. None of the above is true.
As a result of two clear blocs of liberal and conservative justices, __________ often
casts a “swing vote” on the Supreme Court.
a. Justice Breyer
b. Justice Stevens
c. Justice Kennedy
d. Justice Ginsburg
e. Chief Justice Roberts
The USA Patriot Act modifies the law for grand jury hearings by
a. allowing investigators to exchange information obtained in such proceedings.
b. requiring oaths of allegiance by grand jury members.
c. limiting the number of such proceedings in a given year.
d. allowing hearsay in such proceedings.
e. None of the above is true.
All of the following are basic elements of the U.S. political culture except
a. liberty.
b. democracy.
c. individualism.
d. civic duty.
e. economic equality.
From the inauguration of income tax up to the 1950s, tax rates tended to rise and fall
with
a. the cycles of public opinion.
b. good and bad economic times.
c. war and peace.
d. Democratic and Republican administrations.
e. critical or realigning elections.
If properly conducted, a survey of public opinion can capture opinions of 300 million
citizens by interviewing as few as __________ respondents.
a. 300
b. 500
c. 1,000
d. 1,500
e. 3,000
Increasingly, pollsters
a. do not even attempt to measure ideology.
b. measure political ideology by self-identification.
c. measure political ideology by looking for constraint.
d. see political ideology as irrelevant to politics.
e. research ideology in presidential, but not congressional, elections.
VEP measures of turnout might be preferable to VAP measures because they
a. usually render a lower, more conservative, estimate.
b. round fractions up to the nearest tenth.
c. are derived from representative samples in telephone interviews.
d. are based on census data.
e. remove ineligible voters from the equation.
The __________ is responsible for regulating radio and television broadcasting.
a. National Public Radio
b. American Broadcast Organization
c. Federal Communications Commission
d. Federal Exchange Commission
e. Office of Television in the Department of Commerce
Identify the machinery of economic policymakingsometimes called the “troika.”
Explain their roles.
All of the following activities are specifically forbidden by the Ethics in Government
Act of 1978except
a. bribery.
b. refusal of a president to disclose income from stocks and bonds.
c. employment of a former government official by a lobbying group.
d. outside employment by a government official if such employment might create a
conflict of interest.
e. solicitation of funds for the performance of duties.
If any given voter has an equal chance of being in a survey, the sample is best described
as a __________ sample.
a. random
b. stratified quota
c. split
d. two-stage
e. bifurcated
One way that Congress exercises authority over agencies is through
a. the statutes that create and define them.
b. control of Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hiring practices.
c. the use of discharge petitions.
d. dismissal of an agency head.
e. the use of the Civil Service Exam.
When legal issues have arisen out of foreign policy disputes between the president and
Congress, the Supreme Court has generally
a. favored Congress.
b. favored the president.
c. refused to intervene.
d. interpreted the U.S. Constitution quite literally.
e. relied on the solicitor general to resolve conflicts.
___________committees are more or less permanent bodies with specific legislative
responsibilities.
a. Standing
b. Select
c. Conference
d. Joint
e. Rejoinder
Elites have probably influenced, if not led, public opinion on all of the following topics
EXCEPT
a. racism.
b. sexism.
c. HIV/AIDS.
d. environmentalism.
e. perceptions of crime.
The typical member of Congress is a(n)
a. middle-aged, white, Protestant businessman.
b. older, white, Protestant businessman.
c. older, white, Catholic lawyer.
d. middle-aged, white, Protestant lawyer.
e. young, white communications major.
The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 required that all increases in nonentitlement
spending be followed by
a. abolition of frivolous agencies.
b. matching funds from the states.
c. spending cuts in discretionary programs.
d. tax increases.
e. decrease in spending on other discretionary programs or increase in taxes.
Which religious group or leader advocated constitutional amendments that would
require prayer in public schools and ban abortion?
a. the Great Awakening
b. the Moral Majority
c. Prohibitionists
d. Martin Luther King, Jr.
e. Rev. Jesse Jackson
A member of the Senate has just been elected to a position that requires him to keep the
majority leader informed about the opinions of other party members. He has just been
elected
a. majority party whip.
b. president pro tempore.
c. chairman of the Steering Committee.
d. chairman of the Policy Committee.
e. chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
When the president uses the prestige and visibility of the office to guide or mobilize the
American people, we say that he/she is using the
a. executive prerogative.
b. inside-outside strategy.
c. regal approach.
d. grassroots podium.
e. bully pulpit.
Which is notan example of political participation?
a. Voting
b. Keeping informed about government.
c. Giving money to a candidate.
d. Attending a school board meeting.
e. All of the above are true.
One reason that public policy often differs from public opinion is that
a. the U.S. Constitution places many checks on the influence of public opinion.
b. public opinion polling tends to express the opinions of a political elite.
c. public opinion is easy to gauge, whereas the effectiveness of public policy is not.
d. public opinion tends to change much more slowly than public policy.
e. public opinion is rarely informed at the beginning of the policymaking process.
Presidents are now limited to two terms by the
a. Fourteenth Amendment.
b. Sixteenth Amendment.
c. Nineteenth Amendment.
d. Twenty-first Amendment.
e. Twenty-second Amendment.
Dividing power between the states and the national government is referred to as
a. sovereignty.
b. dual legitimacy.
c. egalitarianism.
d. plutocracy.
e. federalism.
de Tocqueville argued that American democracy endured as the byproduct of
a. geography.
b. laws.
c. customs.
d. manners.
e. All of the above.
When it comes to news, the Internet is dominated by a few sites and should not be
considered a free market of news coverage.
There was general agreement that the essential rights included life, liberty, and property
long before Thomas Jefferson wrote them into the Declaration of Independence.
The Bill of Rights was the by-product of concerns expressed at the ratifying
conventions in the states.
In the 1800s, most people voted straight party ticket.
Discuss interest groups in America, Great Britain, and Germany.
The conflicting goals of government are often a reflection of the conflicting desires of
citizens.
Voter turnout in primaries is only slightly lower than turnout in the general election.
Note some recent examples of cases where the U.S. Supreme Court has revealed its
view that the commerce clause does not justify any federal action.
The most important part of the economic policymaking machinery is Congress.
Identify the three parts of the original Constitution that deal with slavery.
Unions composed of government workers are becoming the most important part of the
unionmovement.
The solicitor general decides what cases the government will appeal from lower courts
and personally approves every case the government presents to the Supreme Court.
What new regulations were applied to lobbyists as of March 2007?
The text suggests that it is increasingly more difficult to conduct reliable polling.
Public schools may not have clergy lead prayers at graduation ceremonies was decided
in Lee v. Weisman.
Identify the three largest social welfare programs as a percentage of the federal budget.