SSCI 14155 | Course Paper

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A major consequence of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was

a. the elimination of discriminatory voter registration tests.

b. the establishment of federal voter registrars.

c. the establishment of federally administered voter registration procedures.

d. limitations on the abilities of counties in the South to change voter registration

procedures without federal approval.

e. All of the above are true.

Most news media in the United States are

a. private, for-profit corporations.

b. dependent on their newspaper sales to make a profit.

c. public and government subsidized.

d. small and independently owned.

e. None of the above.

Peer groups are most likely to influence political attitudes when

a. people are over the age of fifty.

b. it is not an election year.

c. people within peer groups do not have strong party identification.

d. they are actively involved in political activities.

e. their members are all of the same gender.

As chief executive, the president is constitutionally bound to

a. enforce laws, treaties, and court orders.

b. submit a balanced budget to Congress.

c. inform Congress prior to any military action.

d. oversee actions of state governments.

e. honor pronouncements of previous presidents.

Independent regulatory agencies

a. are administered independently of all three branches.

b. make rules that have the force of law.

c. provide enforcement of the rules they have passed.

d. decide disputes over the rules they have made.

e. All of the above are true.

The Virginia Plan

a. called for a bicameral legislature.

b. worked to the advantage of small states.

c. provided for the direct election of a president by the people.

d. settled all controversy.

e. Options B and C are true.

Which is true of federal and state laws?

a. They have encouraged third parties to get candidates on the ballot.

b. They let third parties get fewer signatures to place their candidates on the ballot than

major parties.

c. The two major parties have a clear advantage because the laws have fewer obstacles

for them.

d. The federal laws have made it easy for third- or minor-party candidates to get federal

matching funds.

e. All of the above are true.

The crisis faced by the newspaper industry has been caused

a. when newspaper websites cannot sell enough advertising to cover their costs.

b. by difficulty in making a profit with traditional print newspapers.

c. by a decline in revenue as classified advertising moves online.

d. when the recent economic crisis depressed advertising spending.

e. All of the above.

All of the following statements about the war in Vietnam are true except

a. the war was an effort to exercise containment policy.

b. the war was between the pro-west North and the pro-Communist South Vietnam.

c. more than 58,000 American forces were killed.

d. the U.S. involvement in the war caused contention at home and led to congressional

efforts to limit the war powers of the presidency.

e. the war greatly expanded during the Johnson administration.

Which is (are) true of the New Deal period?

a. President Roosevelt’s programs were open to whites and African Americans.

b. The Great Depression shattered working-class voters’ confidence in the Republican

Party.

c. Roosevelt’s coalition of whites and blacks was large enough to establish the

Democrats as the majority party.

d. Democrats made major interventions in the economy to combat the Great

Depression.

e. All of the above are true.

Since 2003, federal court rulings, including those by the Supreme Court, have

_______________ but have not __________________.

a. generally loosened same-sex marriage restrictions; overruled same-sex marriage bans

nationwide

b. banned same-sex marriages; banned same-sex civil unions

c. taken marriage powers away from the states; taken away powers over civil unions

d. given the power over marriage to the federal government; overturned same-sex

marriage bans

e. Both B and C.

The 1990 Persian Gulf War began as a result of the invasion of ____________ by

______________.

a. Saudi Arabia; Iraq

b. Kuwait; Iran

c. Iran; Iraq

d. Kuwait; Iraq

e. Israel; Iran

In an effort to spin the Affordable Care Act in a way that would benefit their side

a. Republicans highlighted the initial failures of the website.

b. Democrats highlighted the number of individuals who eventually signed up.

c. Congress highlighted the Supreme Court upholding the law.

d. Both A and B.

e. All of the above.

The Founders were wary of direct democracy because the masses

a. were considered too uneducated to self-govern.

b. were too prone to the influence of demagogues.

c. were too likely to subordinate minority rights for majority rights.

d. might resort to mob rule.

e. All of the above are true.

A comprehensive set of beliefs about the nature of people and the role of government is

called

a. a political culture.

b. a dogma.

c. an ideology.

d. the political spectrum.

e. political science.

The police may enter your home without a warrant

a. if pursuing a suspected felon into your house.

b. if your landlord lets them in.

c. if you refuse to show identification.

d. if they have a general suspicion of illegal activity.

e. only if you are home.

The election of 2000 demonstrated

a. the effectiveness of the electoral college in mirroring the popular vote.

b. that Democratic blue states and Republican red states were largely the same as a

century earlier.

c. the close political divisions of the nation.

d. how far the country had swung toward a period of Republican dominance.

e. None of the above.

The manner in which members of the electoral college are selected within each state is

currently governed by

a. state laws.

b. the Federal Electoral Selection Act.

c. Article II of the U.S. Constitution.

d. congressional oversight.

e. federal district court judges.

Super PACs

a. allow America’s millionaires and billionaires to donate unlimited funds to

influenceelections.

b. are political advertising councils that design political campaigns.

c. are limited to raising no more than $10 million per campaign cycle.

d. raise money to run both positive and negative campaign ads.

e. Options A and D are true.

A president’s consultations with the cabinet are

a. required by federal law.

b. required by the Constitution.

c. funneled through the vice president, as demanded by the Constitution.

d. entirely at the discretion of the president.

e. Both B and C.

Presidential popularity

a. is irrelevant to bureaucrats.

b. has stayed within a small range since Gallup began measuring it.

c. is of little concern to second-term presidents.

d. is required before a president may claim executive privilege.

e. is an important resource for presidents to use to persuade Congress to pass

legislation.

If the office of vice president becomes vacant

a. it remains unfilled until the next election, and the Speaker of the House becomes

president if the president dies.

b. the president nominates a replacement who must be approved by both chambers of

Congress.

c. the president names a replacement that is not subject to congressional approval.

d. the president nominates a replacement who must be approved by the Senate.

e. the secretary of state becomes vice president.

The 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United v. FEC

a. increased the political power of corporations.

b. was supported by Republicans on the basis of free speech.

c. was opposed by Democrats because it gave corporations some political rights given

to individual citizens.

d. ruled that corporations, unions, and non-profit organizations may spend freely to

support or oppose candidates as long as those expenditures are not coordinated with the

candidatecampaigns.

e. All of the above are true.

The supremacy doctrine asserts the superiority of

a. large states over small states.

b. non-slave states over slave states.

c. national law over state law.

d. natural law over man-made law.

e. None of the above is true.

When Literary Digest incorrectly predicted the results of the 1936 election after polling

only its own readers, its failure was because

a. its readers were asked to guess as to the outcome, rather than offering up their own

opinions.

b. it had not obtained a random sample of the population.

c. its readers were generally wealthy, and not reflective of the population at large.

d. Both A and B.

e. Both B and C.

Political endorsements by interest groups are

a. important because the group can publicize its choices in its membership publication.

b. not very important because while candidates can publicize the fact that their

campaign is endorsed by groups, they cannot identify the specific source of the

endorsement.

c. relatively ineffective today.

d. a violation of campaign finance reform laws.

e. allowed only in local elections, but forbidden in races for federal office.

All of the following are true of the election of 2012 except

a. Hispanic voters reached a new high as a percentage of the electorate at 10 percent.

b. President Obama was reelected by a very narrow margin of 1 percent.

c. Republicans lost seats in Congress.

d. Republicans retained control of the U.S. House.

e. President Obama won over 70 percent of Hispanic voters.

The powers of the Speaker of the House include all of the following except

a. presiding over meetings of the House.

b. appointing members of conference committees.

c. scheduling legislation for floor action.

d. presiding over the conference of the majority party.

e. sending legislation to the appropriate standing committee.

All of the following would be included in the inherent powers of the national

government except

a. making treaties.

b. waging war.

c. providing for the general welfare.

d. engaging in trade.

e. acquiring territory.

In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court held that

a. ethnic minorities have no rights to equal treatment by the government.

b. public school segregation of races violates the equal protection clause of the

Fourteenth Amendment.

c. the national government does not have the power to force any type of action on local

school boards.

d. separation of races for a reason such as education is not a violation of the

Constitution.

e. African Americans could not be denied the right to a college education.

The whips assist the party leaders by

a. voting to support the party platform at the national convention.

b. attempting to convince the general public that congresspersons should vote the party

line.

c. passing information to and from members of Congress in accordance with the desires

of the leadership of the party.

d. gathering research information.

e. pressuring them to take positions popular among the party rank-and-file.

The Civil War amendments

a. abolished slavery.

b. sought to guarantee equal rights under state laws.

c. gave the right to vote to African Americans.

d. defined who was a citizen of the United States.

e. All of the above are true.

In the United States, basic guarantees of liberty are found in

a. the Declaration of Independence.

b. the annual Congressional budget report.

c. the Bill of Rights.

d. the statement of Rights and Responsibilities.

e. the National Rights Foundation.

All of the following are true of public opinion and polls except

a. polls show that people give Congress a high rating.

b. in 2009 and 2010, polls showed that “most important problems” in the United States

were the economy and unemployment.

c. public opinion can have an impact on government policies.

d. public opinion can put limits on what government does.

e. polls indicate that a majority of the public believe that public opinion should

influence public policy.

In light of recent Supreme Court decisions on issues as diverse as voting rights,

same-sex marriage, immigration, and healthcare, craft an argument in which you

discuss whether power is shifting toward or away from the states and assess this move

as good or bad for politics.