American National Government Test Preparation
Course Introduction
American National Government provides an in-depth examination of the structure, functions, and processes of the United States federal government. This course covers the foundational principles outlined in the Constitution, the roles and interactions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the influence of federalism, political parties, interest groups, and public opinion on policymaking. Students will explore the historical development of American political institutions, analyze contemporary political issues, and gain a critical understanding of civic responsibilities and participation in the democratic process.
Recommended Textbook
American Government 13th Edition by Walter E. Volkomer
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14 Chapters
841 Verified Questions
841 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/2054
Page 2
Chapter 1: Politics, Democracy, and the American People
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58 Verified Questions
58 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/40879
Sample Questions
Q1) Political power is the ability to influence the political behavior of others.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Which of the following BEST defines democracy?
A)Power is held by a small group of people.
B)Governmental powers are held by a single person or group.
C)Power is shared by all citizens.
D)Government is unnecessary.
E)Government consists of three branches: legislative, executive, judicial.
Answer: C
Q3) Alexis de Tocqueville was
A)a British philosopher who argued against democracy.
B)a French aristocrat who visited America in the 1830s.
C)a Spanish political thinker who wrote a book on government in the twentieth century.
D)an American senator who was not fully trusted by the voters.
E)an Italian political philosopher who argued against direct democracy
Answer: B
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3
Chapter 2: From Colonialism to Constitutionalism
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66 Verified Questions
66 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Federalism is a system for organizing government that is based on a geographic division of power.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) With the passage of the Sugar Act, Parliament ignored a fundamental freedom extended to English citizens and to colonists until that point.What fundamental right was ignored?
A)Taxes could only be imposed on citizens by popular election.
B)Taxes could only be imposed on citizens by elected representatives with the king's consent.
C)Taxes could only be imposed on citizens by elected representatives.
D)Taxes could only be imposed on citizens by the king.
E)taxes could be imposed by anyone in government for any reason.
Answer: C
Q3) A constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery was not ratified until after the Civil War.
A)True
B)False Answer: True
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Chapter 3: The Federal System
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61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Constitution provides only an outline off the American federal system.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The U.S.Constitution created the world's first federal form of government.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Local government revenue is primarily collected from
A)corporate tax.
B)real property tax.
C)personal income tax.
D)excise taxes.
E)sales taxes.
Answer: B
Q4) The guarantee clause refers to the Constitution's "guarantee" of a republican form of government for the states.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Public Opinion and the Mass Media
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62 Verified Questions
62 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explore the influence of the Internet - and more specifically websites - on presidential campaigns in the future.Evaluate what you think the Internet's role should be.Will it advance or hinder political participation? Democracy?
Q2) Choosing a relatively small number of cases to be studied for information about the larger population is a process known as sampling.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Media bias is an accusation that
A)the media is biased in favor of liberals.
B)the media is biased in favor of conservatives.
C)reporters have a liberal bias and the ownership has a conservative bias.
D)media owners have a conservative bias and won't hire any reporters disagreeing with their views.
E)a bias exists in favor of foreign countries.
Q4) The creation of election websites favors emerging candidates with a strong message.
A)True
B)False
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6
Chapter 5: Political Parties and Interest Groups
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) George Washington and James Madison strongly supported political parties and their role in politics.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The dealignment theory stresses that, currently,
A)political parties are in a state of disintegration.
B)a realignment of party loyalties is taking place that will lead to a transfer of voter support from one party to the other.
C)each major political party is splitting into conservative and liberal wings.
D)the rise of the black vote now gives the Democratic party an advantage over the Republican party in national elections.
E)national party organizations are becoming more powerful than the state or local party organizations.
Q3) The Greenbacker, Free-Soil, and Prohibitionist parties were all third parties.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Since 1976, the number of people who consider themselves Independents has grown.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Nominations and Elections
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61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Indiana ballot lists all candidates in columns according to party affiliation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The amount of money spent on congressional campaigns has
A)declined due to the increase of PAC activity.
B)declined dramatically as more focus has been placed on presidential contributions.
C)remained steady over the past thirty years.
D)increased greatly in recent years.
E)increased very slightly in recent years.
Q3) To be elected president of the United States, a candidate must win at least
A)270 electoral votes.
B)538 electoral votes.
C)600 electoral votes.
D)a majority of the popular votes.
E)the electoral votes in a majority of the states.
Q4) Most states use the open primary.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Congress
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61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Who is primarily responsible for rounding up the votes of party members and persuading them to be present when their votes are needed?
A)Speaker of the House
B)Clerk of the House
C)majority leader
D)Senate president
E)whips
Q2) Policy agenda is "the list of subjects to which government officials and those around them are paying serious attention."
A)True
B)False
Q3) What would be the appropriate step to take a bill out of the jurisdiction of a committee and bring it to the floor of the House for consideration?
A)filibuster
B)cloture vote
C)unanimous consent agreement
D)public hearing
E)discharge petition
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9
Chapter 8: The Chief Executive
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59 Verified Questions
59 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Recess appointments are rare.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Public approval of a president tends to decline throughout his years in office.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In addition to the "natural born" requirement under the Constitution, presidents also must
A)be 40 years old and have lived in the United States their whole lives.
B)be 45 years old, be a lawyer, and have lived in the United States for 15 years.
C)be 35 years old, have served as a governor, and have lived in the United States for 30 years.
D)be 35 years old only.
E)be 35 years old and a 14-year resident of the United States.
Q4) In addition to veto power, almost all state governors have the right to use line item veto.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: The Federal Bureaucracy
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61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Under what circumstances is deregulation most likely to occur? What factors have stopped deregulation, and what trend is likely in the future? Explain.
Q2) When a bureaucracy's power is checked by the courts, the judiciary is exercising
A)judicial review.
B)legislative oversight.
C)impoundment legislation.
D)the Freedom of Information Act.
E)removal power.
Q3) How many executive or cabinet departments are there in the U.S.government?
A)6
B)15
C)25
D)38
E)104
Q4) The Department of the Interior is one of the four departments performing basic government functions.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: The Judiciary
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64 Verified Questions
64 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) An extensive set of rules issued by agencies of the federal, state, and local governments are collectively known as
A)statutory law.
B)administrative law.
C)common law.
D)constitutional law.
E)writs of certiorari.
Q2) The requirement that a person must have suffered some sort of concrete harm or injury in order to litigate an issue is known as
A)an advisory opinion
B)adversary system
C)appellate jurisdiction
D)original jurisdiction
E)standing
Q3) A judge who believes in a textual interpretation of the Constitution is one who believes in its adaptability to modern circumstances.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain the role of standing within the context of the adversary system.
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Chapter 11: Civil Liberties
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the first major test of the Smith Act?
A)Engel v.Vitale
B)Miller v.California
C)Brandenburg v.Ohio
D)Dennis v.United States
E)Mapp v.Ohio
Q2) The intent of the exclusionary rule of evidence is to
A)allow criminals to go free.
B)deter illegal searches and seizures by the police.
C)punish police officers.
D)make sure confessions are freely given.
E)give criminal an advantage at trial.
Q3) Grand juries return indictments in only 10 percent of the cases that they hear.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Supreme Court has interpreted the freedom of speech under the First Amendment as absolute.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Civil Rights
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44 Verified Questions
44 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which one of the following is true of the Supreme Court's decision in Planned Parenthood v.Casey (1992)?
A)It overturned Roe v.Wade.
B)It required second-term abortions to be performed in licensed clinics only.
C)It struck down a constitutional amendment intended to permit the states to restrict abortion.
D)It struck down a Missouri law that imposed a number of restrictions on abortions.
E)It established a standard of reviewing whether abortion restriction placed an "undue burden" on women seeking to have an abortion.
Q2) Frederick Douglass was
A)a president.
B)an abolitionist movement leader.
C)a free speech expert.
D)the first black Supreme Court justice.
E)a Confederate general.
Q3) Compare and contrast de facto and de jure segregation.Are efforts by the government to eradicate de facto segregation appropriate, in your opinion? Why or why not?
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14
Chapter 13: Public Policy: What Government Does
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60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Evaluate the efforts to reform welfare and their effectiveness.
Q2) Each of the following statements about public policy is true, EXCEPT
A)public policy does not include governmental inactivity.
B)public policy involves all levels of government.
C)public policy is not limited to formal actors, such as Congress and the president.
D)public policy includes decisions by courts.
E)public policy deals with real or perceived problems.
Q3) Describe the process whereby public policy is formed, being sure to identify the key stages of the public policy process.
Q4) In 2006, the Congress passed the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Act, which
A)provided more than $100 million in emergency assistance to rural farmers.
B)established new education programs for welfare recipients.
C)required states to increase job participation for those receiving welfare.
D)reflected a dramatic decline in the number of Americans requiring assistance from the federal government.
E)shifted control of welfare administration from the states to the federal government.
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15
Chapter 14: Foreign Policy
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57 Verified Questions
57 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) "Nations are free to act according to their interests as they define them." This statement reflects which theory of international relations?
A)liberalism
B)idealism
C)systemic
D)nationalist
E)realism
Q2) Gruesome images shown by various media organizations have caused policy makers to act.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Realpolitik under President Theodore Roosevelt meant greater assertion of America's presence abroad and frequent intervention in Latin America.
A)True
B)False
Q4) It is often argued that U.S.foreign policy uses both realism and liberalism. Explain what is meant by this in the context of post-Cold War foreign policy.
Q5) Describe the governmental sources of American foreign policy.
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