Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense to argue for American independence from Great
Britain.
Tuition for all public universities is established by the legislature and is equal across
universities, while the fees universities charge can fluctuate wildly.
Native Americans have not fared well in the protection of religious freedom.
Lowering interest rates is an example of deficit spending.
The Texas House cannot consider any bill unless it has been presented to the public in a
formal committee meeting where citizens can testify in favor or against they bill.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve holds approximately four months worth of oil.
Sometimes it is difficult to separate the activities of lobbyists from those of interest
groups.
The Constitution limits the number of presidential appointees requiring Senate
confirmation.
Most of the Committee of Five were southern delegates.
Following Plessy v. Ferguson, single-sex schools would likely have been deemed
constitutional by the Supreme Court.
The supremacy clause is found in Article I, section 8.
Corporations can now take part in electioneering communications despite BCRA’s
prohibition on doing so.
Most Americans give federal agencies high marks.
All judges in Texas, except for municipal judges, are selected in partisan elections.
Less than 2 percent of Americans receive unemployment insurance.
The modern Supreme Court has ruled that peonage is constitutional.
Studying the bureaucracy gives us answers to what Harold D. Laswell once defined as
the who, what, and where of politics.
The laissez-faire state is when the government takes an active role in guiding and
managing the private economy.
Texas Supreme Court justices are appointed by the governor; most other Texas judges
are elected in partisan elections.
There are uniform educational and training standards for Texas judges across the state
and across the structure of the court system.
The Washington Post is more conservative than the Washington Times.
Partisan considerations are absent in the Texas legislature.
In Texas, search warrants are not required for searches pursuant to a lawful arrest and
for seizures of evidence in plain view of an officer.
A significant amount of property law in Texas is derived from the homestead principle.
The Republican Party was the dominant party in Texas in the early 1900s.
The greatest environmental disaster in American history was the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The U.S. solicitor general appears to orally argue every case decided by the Supreme
Court.
The power to tax is a concurrent power in the U.S. federal system.
A good place to build a wind-energy farm would be the non-coastal areas of East Texas.
In 2010, Republicans suffered the worst electoral defeat for any party since 1938.
Texas public schools were administered by county commissioners before they were
administered by school districts.
The Ethics in Government Act allows former executive branch employees to lobby the
bureaucracy no fewer than three years after they leave their position.
Constitutionally, the Texas governor is weak.
If 2012 brings an economic depression, causing Republicans to sweep elections, and
over the next several years, scores of people flock to join the Republican Party, 2012
could be described as a critical election.
The federal bureaucracy is often called the fourth branch of government.
Democrats are more likely than Republicans to listen to National Public Radio.
Social capital refers to the interactions of lobbyists and members of Congress.
Because of the electorate’s greater volatility, predicting and explaining the vote choice
among Texans have become more difficult.
Both legislative and constitutional courts are staffed by judges with life tenure.
Which of the following provisions of the Bill of Rights has not been incorporated?
A) Right to bear arms
B) Right to counsel
C) Freedom of the press
D) Civil jury trial
E) Public trial
Which of the following BEST describes the relationships among states under the
Articles of Confederation?
A) A strong constitutional system
B) A form of government modeled after Canada
C) A life-long rivalry
D) A loose league of friendship
E) An interdependent, cohesive partnership
The scare-off effect is NOT due to an incumbent’s
A) war chest.
B) name recognition.
C) prior campaign experience.
D) age.
E) legislative staff.
Which of the following is NOT a function of the governor’s staff?
A) Working with local, state, and federal official
B) Working with the legislature and political party officials
C) Working with lobbyists and the public
D) Working with reporters and performing public relations
E) Preparing a state budget proposal that will be adopted by the legislature.
Of the following entities, which one does NOT have oversight and regulatory authority
over public schools in Texas?
A) County commissioners courts
B) State Board of Education
C) The commissioner of education
D) The Texas legislature
E) Texas Education Agency
The U.S. Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in all cases EXCEPT
A) cases affecting ambassadors.
B) cases involving public ministers.
C) citizens seeking writs of mandamus.
D) cases where two states are the parties.
E) cases involving public consuls.
The political clout of the AFL-CIO
A) is at its highest level in history.
B) diminished in the aftermath of the defection of many member unions.
C) waxes and wanes with its fluctuating membership.
D) was illustrated in the Iowa Caucuses in 2004.
E) is a result of its white-collar, professional membership.
In 1973, the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries
A) declared war on the Soviet Union.
B) subsidized oil drilling in efforts to reduce prices.
C) announced an embargo to nations that supported Israel.
D) joined the North American Treaty Organization.
E) lobbied the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for membership
According to the text, traditional telephone polls are becoming increasingly difficult to
conduct in part because of the
A) prevalence of iPhones.
B) distrust of polling.
C) advent of caller ID.
D) variety of languages spoken by Americans.
E) increasing volume of busy signals.
According to the Electoral College map in your text, which state was MOST influential
for Republicans in the 2008 presidential election?
A) California
B) Texas
C) Florida
D) Missouri
E) Alaska
In 2010, the population of Texas was about
A) four million.
B) nine million.
C) thirteen million.
D) twenty-five million.
E) thirty million.
Which of the following statements about the Texas sales tax is accurate?
A) It is explicitly prohibited by the Texas Constitution.
B) All goods and services are subject to a sales tax of 6.25 percent.
C) It is regressive.
D) The wealthy pay a higher percentage of their income in sales taxes because they tend
to buy more.
E) Sales taxes are the primary source of revenue for public education.
American Indians
A) were the first U.S. citizens.
B) were not made U.S. citizens until 1924.
C) negotiated land rights for citizenship.
D) enjoy more religious protections than other racial minorities.
E) have made no attempt to become involved in the political process.
The most common day to hold Democratic primaries is
A) Super Tuesday.
B) Primary Day.
C) Democrat Day.
D) March 15.
E) March Madness.
After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, many nations vowed to help the United
States seek justice because they considered the attacks a threat to their own safety. This
mentality follows the principle of
A) engagement.
B) unilateralism.
C) collective security.
D) world peace.
E) democratic peace theory.
Nearly _____ of people in a 2009 survey did NOT believe they had achieved the
American dream.
A) half
B) two-thirds
C) 70 percent
D) 20 percent
E) one-quarter
During the 1820s through 1840s, the number of eligible voters increased due to
A) the establishment of universal suffrage for all U.S. citizens.
B) women gaining the right to vote.
C) slaves gaining the right to vote.
D) lowering the voting age to eighteen.
E) the abolition of property-owning requirements for males.
Laws that denied most legal rights to newly freed slaves and prohibited blacks from
voting, sitting on juries, or appearing in public places after the Civil War in the South
were known as
A) Jim Crow laws.
B) carpet-bagging.
C) abolitionism.
D) Black Codes.
E) scalawag laws.
Pennsylvania and Virginia actually went to war with one another due in large part to the
lack of _________ in the Articles of Confederation.
A) a judiciary to resolve conflicts
B) a national military to appease rebellions
C) a chief executive to enforce order
D) taxation provisions
E) proportional representation in the Congress
Which of the following is NOT a reason cited for the failure of the constitutional
revision efforts of the 1974 Constitutional Convention?
A) The convention was comprised entirely of state legislators who considered the
revision process “politics as usual” and, thus, bowed to political infighting and
pressures.
B) The onerous rules for decision, particularly the two-thirds majority vote needed for
adoption of the report and submission to the voters
C) The right-to-work provision demanded by business interested represented in the
convention caused tremendous controversy and became a bitter point of contention,
particularly with labor union interests represented in the convention.
D) A lack of leadership, centered around the president of the convention, House
Speaker Price Daniel, Jr.
E) The uncompromising demands of the religious right represented in the convention
which demanded a provision in a new constitution declaring the Christianity the official
religion of the state
The Texas Constitution has NOT been
A) revised in a piecemeal fashion.
B) revised comprehensively.
C) amended.
D) criticized.
E) in effect since 1876.
The War Powers Act provides for all of the following EXCEPT
A) allowing the president thirty days to implement a withdrawal of troops.
B) giving the president the right to declare war.
C) requiring the president to obtaining congressional approval before committing troops
abroad.
D) requiring the president to notify Congress within forty-eight hours of deploying
troops.
E) requiring the president to withdraw troops after sixty days unless Congress declares
war.
Advocates of the Tea Party movement, who advocate strongly for states’ rights, would
MOST likely support which of the following types of government?
A) Confederation
B) Federal system
C) Unitary system
D) Republicanism
E) Communitarianism
According to the text, some political scientists argue that public opinion polling
A) is good for democracy.
B) allows our leaders to be trustees.
C) sometimes overwhelms the phenomena they are supposed to be measuring.
D) is key to any political campaign.
E) should always guide a leader’s views and decisions.
A loose and informal web of relationships among a large number of actors working in
broad policy areas is a(an)
A) party caucus.
B) think tank.
C) issue network.
D) iron triangle.
E) political action committee.
Political participation in state and local politics is more ________ than national politics.
A) partisan
B) indirect
C) personal and issue-oriented
D) ideological
E) respectable
President Ronald Reagan was the first president to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda
since
A) Gerald R. Ford.
B) Richard M. Nixon.
C) John F. Kennedy.
D) Lyndon B. Johnson.
E) Franklin D. Roosevelt.
While interest groups developed slowly in Texas, they proliferated
A) when Texas was annexed as a state.
B) after the Republican Party was formed in Texas.
C) after the election of Franklin Roosevelt as president.
D) after World War II.
E) in the 1960s.
Labor unions are the largest and most powerful interest groups in America.
If the Supreme Court decided to rule that an Arizona immigration law is
unconstitutional, it would be practicing what is called
A) stare decisis.
B) a seriatim opinion.
C) judicial review.
D) a partial en banc opinion.
E) a summary decision.
Which party’s officeholders are most ethnically diverse?
A) Republican
B) Democratic
C) Libertarian
D) Populist
E) Independent
According to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, issue advocacy ads are limited to
within____ days of a primary and ______ days of the general election.
A) ten/twenty
B) fifteen/thirty
C) twenty/forty-five
D) thirty/sixty
E) forty-five/sixty
What is the court of last resort for criminal cases in Texas?
A) Texas Supreme Court
B) Texas Supreme Criminal Court
C) Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
D) Texas Probate Court
E) Texas Court of Appeals
One of the concerns about the decline of newspapers is
I. the potential demise of objectivity in news.
II. citizens’ knowledge of political events will suffer.
III. older Americans will no longer have any way to get news.
IV. fear about the validity of other sources of news.
A) I and III
B) I, III, and IV
C) I, II, and III
D) I, II, and IV
E) II, III, and IV