American National Government Review Questions
Course Introduction
This course provides an in-depth exploration of the structure, functions, and processes of American national government. Students will examine the historical foundations and constitutional framework that define the United States political system, including the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The course also covers topics such as federalism, civil rights and liberties, political participation, elections, interest groups, and the influence of public opinion. Throughout, students will analyze current events and policy debates to better understand the challenges and dynamics shaping governance in the United States today.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Stories of a Nation 1st Edition Scott F. Abernathy
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18 Chapters
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Stories
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Sample Questions
Q1) List and describe the forms of equality discussed in your text.Provide examples of how these forms of equality relate to the American system of government.
Answer: Social equality - no individuals have higher social status. American system of government focuses more on equality of social opportunity. Political equality - members of society possess same rights under laws of the nation. Rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution as well as through federal and state laws. Economic equality - situation in which wealth is evenly distributed across society. In U.S. , the focus is on equal opportunity rather than equal outcome, and we treasure the ability to differentiate ourselves economically through hard work, education, and risk-taking behavior.
Q2) Explain the similarities and differences between politics and government.Give examples.
Answer: While politics and government are closely connected to each other, politics describes processes such as elections, law making, and policy creation, which influence the outcomes of government. On the other hand, government describes the rules and institutions that come as a result of political action.
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Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Sample Questions
Q1) The confederal government had the power to
A)conduct foreign trade and coin money.
B)interpret and enforce national laws.
C)intervene in disputes between states.
D)declare war and conduct foreign policy.
Answer: D
Q2) Americans would refer to "These United States " rather than "The United States," demonstrating a desire to maintain strong states' rights.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Tyranny of the minority occurs when
A)a large number of citizens use their power to trample on the rights of smaller groups.
B)small numbers of citizens trample on the rights of the larger population.
C)authoritarian leaders trample on the rights of the citizens through unitary rule.
D)liberal leaders give more rights to their supporters than they do to their opponents.
Answer: B
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4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) President Roosevelt's plan for tackling the Great Depression was known as the A)Great Society.
B)New Deal.
C)Broad Horizon.
D)Grand Contract.
Answer: B
Q2) One of the main tools of President Nixon's attempts to reduce national authority was the use of
A)grants-in-aid.
B)categorical grants.
C)block grants.
D)revenue sharing.
Answer: C
Q3) In the 1830s, South Carolina Senator John Calhoun argued for the rights of states to A)decide form themselves the issue of slavery.
B)secede from the Union.
C)nullify federal laws.
D)maintain sovereignty over the national government.
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Questions
Q1) Edward Snowden has been called "The most wanted man in the world" because he accused of releasing secret information stored by the NSA.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Sixth Amendment is important because of which of the following protections?
A)political speech
B)no unreasonable search and seizure
C)protection from self-incrimination
D)a fair and speedy public trial
Q3) In which famous Supreme Court case did it uphold the right of public school students to wear black armbands as protest against the Vietnam War?
A)Mapp v. Ohio
B)Morse v. Frederick
C)United States v. O'Brien
D)Tinker v. Des Moines ISD
Q4) Alexander Hamilton's concern for "rights not enumerated" would be addressed in the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Securing Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) In which Supreme Court case were slaves, former slaves, and their descendants deemed property and not citizens?
A)Scott v. Sandford
B)Plessey v. Ferguson
C)Missouri ex Gaines v. Canada
D)Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
Q2) ______ segregation is best translated as segregation by law.
Q3) In 1957, what did President Eisenhower do in order to enforce a desegregation order in Little Rock, Arkansas?
A)sent U.S. Marshalls
B)appointed more federal district judges
C)declared martial law
D)sent federal troops
Q4) By 1964, 10 years after the Court's Brown ruling, what percentage of African American children attended integrated schools?
A)3%
B)10%
C)50%
D)80%
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) In February 2015, United States Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO)and 11 other senators introduced which of the following pieces of legislation as an immediate result of the Carry That Weight movement?
A)the Sexual Violence on Campus Act
B)the Campus Accountability and Safety Act
C)the Student Domestic Violence Act
D)the Date Rape on Campus Act
Q2) According to data presented in your textbook, voter turnout is likely to be highest for A)congressional elections.
B)mayoral elections.
C)statewide elections.
D)presidential elections.
Q3) Americans have a tradition of high levels of electoral participation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The denial of voting privileges to those who have been convicted of a serious crime is best described as ______.
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) The main problem with scientific polling is one of A)administration.
B)construction.
C)sampling.
Q2) Which of the following best describes the minimalist paradigm?
A)Individuals have sufficient political knowledge to vote and take political action.
B)People have insufficient capacity to acquire political knowledge and cannot make rational political decisions.
C)Most people fall short of what we expect them to know, think about, and pay attention to in the complicated world of politics and policy.
D)Most citizens do not need to acquire political information or civic education, and governments run with minimal interaction from their citizenry.
Q3) The goal of scientific polling is to
A)maximize uncertainty while maximizing cost.
B)minimize uncertainty while maximizing cost.
C)minimize uncertainty while minimizing cost.
D)maximize uncertainty while minimizing cost.
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Chapter 8: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) How have changes in social media consumption and production impacted the ability of Americans to get their voices heard?
Q2) In April 2005, Lieutenant General John R.Vines issued a policy that
A)opened the use of milblogs to all soldiers and their families.
B)allowed for free government-created and -monitored websites for soldiers and family.
C)required servicemen to register their web server/web page with unit commanders for monitoring.
D)required servicemen to remove their web server/web page in order to maintain order and security.
Q3) On August 20, 1787, Charles Pinckney from South Carolina proposed the inclusion of which of the following guarantees to the Constitution?
A)Freedom of Assembly
B)Freedom of Religion
C)Freedom of Speech
D)Freedom of the Press
Q4) Stories that focus on celebrities, personalities, and entertaining events rather than events of political or economic importance would be classified as ______ stories.
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to political scientist John Aldrich, things get really interesting when
A)party leadership exerts control over the candidates.
B)candidates no longer feel that the party leadership is serving their own goals.
C)candidates seek outside financing and support and forego party resources.
D)party leadership fails to control a renegade candidate and loses party unity.
Q2) Critics of open primaries argue
A)the importance of registered party members is diluted.
B)independent voters are generally excluded from the process.
C)party members switch primaries on a frequent basis.
D)the system gives too much attention to party insiders.
Q3) To take advantage of the benefits of holding an early primary or caucus, many states try to engage in a process known as ______.
A)rear-ending
B)caucus stacking
C)bulldozing
D)front-loading
Q4) What do you see as the future of third parties in the American political system?
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Sample Questions
Q1) The size of the House is currently fixed at ______ members.
A)100
B)281
C)392
D)435
Q2) The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives are prescribed by the A)national legislature.
B)state legislatures.
C)chief executive.
D)national judiciary.
Q3) A perceived problem with Republican Hispanic candidates has been their viewpoint on the issue of A)health care.
B)education.
C)immigration.
D)drugs.
Q4) What impact do you feel the Latina/Latino vote will have on national elections in the future? What factors might limit that impact in the near future? Explain your answer.
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Q1) Occupy Wall Street would be a good example of an astroturf lobbying effort.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Tangible benefits made available to members and contributors of a group are best described as
A)collective benefits.
B)selective benefits.
C)social benefits.
D)material rewards.
Q3) Since 2000, the lobbying influence over Congress has
A)increased.
B)decreased.
C)remained stable.
D)not been measured.
Q4) The movement of individuals between government and lobbying positions is known as the ______ phenomenon.
A)open window
B)revolving door
C)closed circuit
D)employment cycle
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the House, a member may file a ______ to free a bill from an unfriendly committee and move it to the House floor for a vote.
A)cloture amendment
B)filibuster request
C)discharge petition
D)quorum call
Q2) Congressional elections are usually not conducive to amateurs, who often lack the knowledge, political organization, and well-honed political skills required for success in the high-stakes enterprise of a national campaign.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As the size of the American republic and the complexity of issues before Congress have both grown, so has the size of
A)Congressional staff.
B)inside lobbying.
C)political action committees.
D)Congressional representation.
Q4) A written law established by a legislative body is defined as a ______.
Q5) The act of "standing for" one's constituents in government is defined as ______.
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) A right claimed by presidents to keep confidential certain conversations, records, and transcripts from outside security, especially by Congress, is described as executive
A)confidentiality
B)agreement
C)privilege
D)order
Q2) How many presidents have been convicted and removed by the Senate?
A)none
B)one
C)two
D)three
Q3) According to the text, the most powerful first lady was most probably
A)Martha Washington
B)Edith Bolling Galt Wilson
C)Dolly Madison
D)Eleanor Roosevelt
Q4) Congressional overrides of presidential vetoes are rather common.
A)True
B)False
Page 15
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The primary administrative units of the federal bureaucracy are the three branches of government.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Private corporations and companies are considered bureaucracies.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Scholars of American political development have highlighted the importance of ______, in which a set of political choices at one time produces a set of outcomes that shapes the possibilities for future politics and public policies.
A)organizational interdependence
B)path dependence
C)agency independence
D)decision centralism
Q4) Why do you think terms like "red tape" are often recalled whenever discussing the federal bureaucracy? Is this a fair assessment of how our federal bureaucracy works?
Q5) What are some ways that the federal bureaucracy is controlled? What recommendations would you make for reform?
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Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) Judicial review is the authority of a court to create new laws and actions over other branches and levels of government so as to become the highest law in the land.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to the text, the two questions about the federal judiciary that arise at a deeper level are:
A)(1)how political is it? and (2)how powerful is it?
B)(1)how important is it? and (2)how necessary is it?
C)(1)what is its role? and (3)what authority should it have?
D)(1)what is its relationship to Congress? and (2)how should it exercise its authority?
Q3) The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction over which of the following cases?
A)appeals filed in state courts making their way from state supreme courts
B)all civil cases (both state and federal)regardless of court of origin
C)all cases affecting ambassadors, ministers, and consuls or when a state is a party
D)All federal appellate cases must be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court at some point.
Q4) Describe the structure of the American legal system and the federal judiciary.
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Page 17
Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Sample Questions
Q1) Having been authorized by relevant federal and/or state governmental actors, policies must next be ______ in order to be enacted in the real world.
A)constituted
B)enforced
C)implemented
D)communicated
Q2) As of January 2015, the average monthly benefit from Social Security was ______ per month.
A)$565
B)$1,328
C)$2,750
D)$3,899
Q3) Conservatives tend to advocate ______ with regard to social welfare policy.
A)individual choice and free-market power
B)federal government intervention and regulated markets
C)state decision making and funding and devolution
D)no governmental interaction at any level
Q4) After the passage of New Deal programs in the 1930s, the ______ became much more involved in the provision of social welfare policy.
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The 2010 midterm elections resulted in the Democratic Party's loss of A)public confidence.
B)the House of Representatives.
C)the Senate.
D)the House and Senate.
Q2) How do entitlement programs pose a threat to the ability of the federal government to use fiscal policy to strengthen the national economy?
Q3) Supply-side theory is often called
A)capital contraction.
B)Obamacare.
C)fiscal federalism.
D)Reaganomics.
Q4) Under Keynesian economics, in periods of economic contraction, the government should
A)inject more money into the economy.
B)withdraw investments from banks and businesses.
C)pay off debts to avoid a budgetary deficit.
D)make direct loans and grants to citizens.
Q5) Analyze the benefits versus the risks of monetary policy as described in your textbook.
19
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The policy that asserted that the United States was the guarantor of political, military, and economic stability in Latin America and the Caribbean was called the
A)Louisiana Purchase.
B)Monroe Doctrine.
C)Madison Policy.
D)Roosevelt Corollary.
Q2) The head of all of the intelligence agencies in the United States is
A)the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
B)the Secretary of Homeland Security.
C)the National Security Advisor.
D)the Director of National Intelligence.
Q3) The federal agency charged with investigations for the Attorney General and with safeguarding national security is
A)the Central Intelligence Agency.
B)the National Defense Council.
C)the intelligence community.
D)the National Security Agency.
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