The person closest to the candidate who makes the essential day-to-day decisions is the
__________.
a. campaign manager
b. finance chair
c. communications director
d. press secretary
e. chief campaign consultant
Based on what you know about election history, what is the most likely reason Senator
John McCain chose Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008?
a. Palin appealed to a younger demographic.
b. Palin balanced McCain’s lack of experience.
c. Palin was more conservative than McCain.
d. Palin appealed to urban working mothers.
e. No other candidate had been from Alaska.
Profanity, obscenity, and threats are examples of which of the following?
a. hate speech
b. prior restraints
c. fighting words
d. free speech
e. free exercise
What do proponents of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility call its prisoners?
a. war criminals
b. enemy combatants
c. prisoners of war
d. foreign aggressors
e. enemy troops
What type of legislature did the United States have under the Articles of Confederation?
a. bicameral
b. unified
c. divided
d. populist
e. unicameral
Internet service providers __________.
a. may limit users’ access to illegal content
b. have championed “net neutrality” with Google.
c. may not slow transmission to users who use peer-to-peer programs
d. may not infringe upon subscribers’ rights to access legal content
e. have interfered with congressional efforts to end online piracy
Political appointees in the federal bureaucracy __________.
a. may remain in office until a new party majority in Congress
b. may remain in office until a new president is elected
c. often remain in office despite political changes
d. serve fixed terms of office lasting two years
e. serve fixed terms of office lasting four years
What is executive privilege?
a. the ability to refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress
b. the ability to veto programmatic requests in a bill
c. the power to declare war or initiate a police action
d. the right to direct the policy of federal agencies
e. the right to keep communications confidential to the presidency
Why is there the potential for conflict over virtually all aspects of government?
a. National legislatures choose the chief executives, so the unified parties need to be in
control.
b. All constitutional powers are shared.
c. There is always a divided government.
d. Parties have been ideologically incohesive since the mid-1990s.
e. There are no checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches of
government.
Which of these became an official presidential qualification in 1951?
a. natural born citizen
b. at least 35 years old
c. resident of the United States for two years
d. a maximum of two terms
e. a college degree
In order to prevent tyranny, what did Benjamin Franklin think had to be included in the
Constitution?
a. a resolution to limit the president’s power to send troops into battle
b. a process for dealing with a vacancy in the office of the president
c. a process of impeachment
d. a limit to the number of terms a president can serve
e. a process for the people to directly elect the president
The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from engaging in what activity?
a. adjudicating legal disputes
b. exercising administrative discretion
c. running for elected office
d. refusing to implement laws passed by Congress
e. ignoring the directives of the president
Today, the United States is the only western country to use which of the following to
punish crime?
a. prison system
b. juvenile justice system
c. Eighth Amendment
d. death penalty
e. corporal punishment
The USA PATRIOT Act expands an exception found in which amendment to allow
spying?
a. First
b. Second
c. Fourth
d. Fifth
e. Sixth
Which function of government provides for police protection?
a. establishing justice
b. providing for the common defense
c. promoting the general welfare
d. ensuring domestic tranquility
e. securing the blessings of liberty
What is the current legal status of American Indian tribes?
a. They are sovereign nations.
b. They have a status similar to states.
c. They have a status similar to counties.
d. They have a status similar to towns or townships.
e. They have a status similar to incorporated businesses.
What was one result of nineteenth century muckraking?
a. the purchase of favorable coverage by corporations
b. popular demand for anti-trust regulations
c. precedent for press glorification of the president
d. ratification of the first ten Amendments
e. the creation and rise of yellow journalism
The __________ was one of the first executive branch departments in the U.S.
government.
a. the Department of Agriculture
b. the Department of Labor
c. the Department of the Interior
d. the Commerce Department
e. the Treasury Department
According to Figure 11.4, how have party unity scores in Congress changed over the
last sixty years?
a. decreased dramatically over time
b. decreased slightly over time
c. increased dramatically over time
d. increased slightly in the past ten years
e. remained at a constant level
How many courts of appeals are in the federal system?
a. two
b. six
c. thirteen
d. eleven
e. five
How are the Fourteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 similar?
a. They both were enacted quickly and easily.
b. They both passed the strict scrutiny test administered by the Supreme Court.
c. They were both based on Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.
d. They both sought equal rights for women.
e. They both sought equal rights for African Americans.
Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues are known as
what?
a. deliberative polls
b. exit polls
c. push polls
d. straw polls
e. tracking polls
A lobbyist for the NRA would be most effective when targeting a legislator
___________.
a. whose voting behavior supports gun control
b. whose voting behavior opposes gun control
c. with a large and mostly unoccupied support staff
d. who wants cash for personal trips to gun shows
e. who has likely never been to a gun show
According to Table 9.2, How Does a President Affect the Federal Judiciary?, which of
the following presidents had the greatest influence on the composition of the federal
judiciary?
a. Carter
b. Reagan
c. Bush
d. Clinton
e. G.W. Bush
Why was Madison particularly concerned about factions in Federalist No. 10?
a. He believed that factions pursuing their self-interest would work against the broader
public interest.
b. He worried that factions were too focused on the public good and that they neglected
to take care of their own needs.
c. He worried that the Constitution did not provide enough opportunities for factions to
be involved in politics.
d. He worried that factions might prevent the Constitution from being ratified.
e. He worried that the faction he belonged to would lose power if the Constitution were
ratified.
The colonists rebelled against the unilateral imposition by the British government of
which of the following?
a. taxes
b. a military draft
c. curfews
d. religious laws
e. health care
__________ are working groups established to facilitate the coordination of policy
making and implementation across a host of government agencies.
a. Interagency councils
b. Iron triangles
c. Issue networks
d. Independent regulatory commissions
e. Independent executive agencies
Which of the following provides the greatest source of revenue for the federal
government?
a. income taxes
b. Medicaid taxes
c. regressive taxes
d. Social Security taxes
e. taxes on cigarettes
What is lobbying?
a. communicating with government officials to persuade them to support a particular
policy position
b. conducting surveys to gauge public opinion on a policy issue
c. convincing potential members to join an interest group by offering them material
benefits
d. fundraising for political candidates
e. educating the public about the activities of government
Which example best demonstrates a legislator acting as a trustee of his or her
constituency?
a. A legislator considers public opinion, refining it with information and careful
thought.
b. A legislator does whatever is best for his or her reelection.
c. A legislator follows the public opinion of his or her constituency.
d. A legislator heeds public opinion in every case, except in matters of personal
conscience.
e. A legislator may follow his or her conscience unless public opinion is clear.
Historically, vice-presidential candidates are chosen to __________.
a. help set the president’s agenda
b. mentor the president
c. politically balance the ticket
d. succeed the president in the next election
e. take over as president in an emergency
Leslie is a white, middle-class mother of two, who works as a librarian in the public
library system of a large city in the American West. She is 57 years old. Given her
demographic profile and the information presented in Table 10.1 on differences in the
political opinions of women and men, which of the following statements about her
political opinions would pollsters expect to be true?
a. Leslie believes that labor unions are not necessary to protect the rights of working
men and women.
b. Leslie believes that American military interventions are usually a bad idea.
c. Leslie believes that school boards have a right to fire teachers who are homosexual.
d. Leslie believes that women’s opportunities for good jobs are equal to those of men.
e. Leslie believes that we should loosen restrictions on people coming to the United
States.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was designed to overturn which of the following?
a. integration
b. Jim Crow laws
c. nonviolent direct action
d. the Fifteenth Amendment
e. Reconstruction
__________ is the right of state to declare a federal law void.
a. Amendment
b. Nullification
c. Referendum
d. Reformation
e. Veto
Explain the purpose, process, and potential problems associated with redistricting.
Describe attempts by states and the federal government to solve redistricting problems.
Were these solutions effective?
Explain how critics of the Defense of Marriage Act invoke the full faith and credit
clause.
How did the events of Miranda v. Arizona lead to the police practice of reading
criminal defendants their rights upon arrest?
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s __________ ushered in a forty-year period of Democratic Party
dominance.
Judicial __________ is a philosophy of judicial decision making that posits judges
should use their power broadly to further justice.
Only one member of Congress may __________ a bill at its introduction, though other
members show support by placing their names on the legislation.
Why are checks and balances important to the U.S. Constitution?
The __________ was the U.S. effort to help rebuild Western Europe after World War II.
In what ways are those who answer mail surveys different from the general electorate?
Compare and contrast the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How successful was the United
States in these conflicts?
Most of the Framers believed in the necessity of a federal government, but they also
agreed that it should have __________ powers.
According to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, if a vacancy occurs in the office of the vice
president, the __________ appoints a new vice president.
How is terrorism fundamentally different from traditional military action?
How did the concept of prior restraint help early Americans address the Alien and
Sedition Acts?
Explain why public opinion polls have concluded that Americans, Russians, and the
Chinese all have less favorable opinions of Germany as a global power than EU
member states.
You are a freshman member of the House of Representatives and want to represent your
district to the best of your ability. You know that being on the right committee is crucial.
What committee(s) would you most like to be on, and why? When and how might you
become chair? What advantages will being on a committee offer you and your
constituents? With what obstacles will you have to contend? Be sure to consider how
your particular district affects your choices.