Course Introduction
American Politics
Chapter Exam Questions
American Politics explores the foundational principles, institutions, and processes that define the political system of the United States. The course examines the Constitution, federalism, civil rights and liberties, the roles of Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court, as well as the influence of political parties, interest groups, media, and public opinion. Students analyze key issues, policy debates, and the dynamics of elections, enabling them to understand how American democracy functions and the challenges it faces in a contemporary context.
Recommended Textbook
The Struggle for Democracy 9th Edition by
Edward S. Greenberg
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Democracy and American Politics
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Q1) Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A) The United States is a majoritarian representative democracy--meaning that the people rule through elected representatives.
B) Democracy is a system of rule by the people, rooted in three fundamental principles representatives, with elections are decided on the basis of what a majority of the people want.
C) The organizing framework of the book visualizes the world of American politics as a set of interrelated <ITAL>actors</ITAL> and <ITAL>influences</ITAL>-institutions, groups, and individuals-that operate in three Interconnected realms: the <ITAL>structural, political linkage,</ITAL> and <ITAL>governmental</ITAL> sectors.
D) Democracy is a system of self-government by the people; rule by the many.
E) All of the above are true
Answer: E
Q2) Democracy is viewed by many as best at protecting human rights.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Identify the four categories in the authors' analytical framework.
Answer: structural, political linkages, governmental, and governmental action
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) The meaning of the Constitution can only be changed by formal amendment.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) One of the freedoms that republicans wanted to protect against the intrusions of a tyrannical government was the right of the people
A) to acquire and enjoy private property.
B) to practice their own religions.
C) to vote.
D) to privacy.
E) to own slaves.
Answer: A
Q3) The Articles of Confederation provided for a strong central government and a legislature with the powers to make war, levy taxes, and regulate interstate commerce.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) Why do we sometimes refer to the Constitution as "the living Constitution"?
Answer: Because of its tendency to change with the times.
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Chapter 3: Federalism States and Nations
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Q1) In a confederation,
A) the states hold the dominant power position.
B) there is an equal sharing of power between the national and state governments.
C) the national government holds the dominant power position.
D) a constitution is unnecessary.
E) there is no central government.
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following powers does the Constitution grant to the states?
A) coining money
B) making treaties with foreign governments
C) vetoing national legislation
D) deciding who could vote for members of the U.S. House of Representatives
E) regulating interstate commerce
Answer: D
Q3) The "reservation clause" in the Tenth Amendment reserves power to the ________ or the ________.
Answer: states; people
Q4) Congress regulated new "unfunded mandates" during the ________. Answer: 1990s
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Chapter 4: Structural Foundations of the American Government
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Q1) Population movements to the South and West over the last 20 years can mostly be traced to
A) the increasing profits of heavy manufacturing.
B) companies that have moved their plants to pro-union states.
C) government defense spending in the East and Midwest.
D) new jobs in those regions.
E) influx in agricultural jobs.
Q2) Which of the following is a consequence of the urbanization/suburbanization of America?
A) increased power of the rural voice in state and national politics
B) the passage of a "national urban strategy" by the U.S. Congress
C) diminished power of the rural voice in state and national politics
D) Urbanization/suburbanization has had very little effect on state and national politics.
E) a general stability in population geography.
Q3) Using the information provided in your textbook, trace the history of median household income in the United States. Has median household income usually tracked with overall economic growth? Why or why not? What consequences might this have for American democracy?
Q4) How has the U.S. been situated as a world power since the end of the Cold War?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Public Opinion
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Q1) What is the importance of the term "nonattitudes"?
A) They call into question the accuracy of surveys, as peoples' answers change randomly from one interview to another.
B) They show the difficulty in having public opinion influence the government when there is no real public opinion.
C) They show how the electorate is so poorly informed that it can't really be trusted to run the government.
D) They represent issues that have come up when surveying the youth vote, in that a significant portion of this group has no strong opinions.
E) They show the ineffectiveness of small surveys, because if only a few respondents have nonattitudes, they throw off the results of the entire poll.
Q2) In the U.S., women got the Constitutional right to vote in A) 1789.
B) 1865.
C) 1920.
D) 1960.
E) 1968.
Q3) What impact does "social class" have on American politics?
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Chapter 6: News Media
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Q1) According to your text, the media's primary roles involve
A) acting as a "watch dog".
B) clarifying electoral choices.
C) providing policy information.
D) covering the horse race.
E) A, B, & C
Q2) News coverage of US foreign policy tends to be episodic.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Prior restraint is unconstitutional through the
A)First Amendment.
B) Fourth Amendment.
C) Fifth Amendment.
D) Sixth Amendment.
E) Seventh Amendment.
Q4) The use of investigative reporting by journalists has increased over time.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the cozy relationships that sometimes develop between reporters and government officials.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Interest Groups and Business Corporations
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Q1) The main difference between the inside game and the outside game in interest groups politics is the type of groups that play them.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The factions that James Madison spoke of would now be called
A) Congressional committees.
B) bureaucrats.
C) citizens' forums.
D) interest groups.
E) pluralists.
Q3) If there is an upper-class bias in the interest group system, then the concept of ________ is violated.
A) popular sovereignty
B) elitism
C) political equality
D) political independence
E) political influence
Q4) Business interests always get their way.
A)True
B)False
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Social Movements
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Q1) Which of the following was NOT a result of the Civil Rights movement?
A) the Civil Rights Act of 1964
B) the Voting Rights Act of 1965
C) increases in the number of black elected officials in America
D) Thirtieth Amendment
E) divided government
Q2) What helped sound the death knell of "Jim Crow" and the "separate but equal" doctrine from the Plessy decision?
A) the Civil War
B) the election of Richard Nixon
C) the Civil Rights Act of 1964
D) the Vietnam War
E) the women's suffrage movement
Q3) There were virtually no black organizations in place before the civil rights movement appeared as a mass phenomena.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Resources are not important for successful social movements.
A)True
B)False
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) Bipartisanship is
A) cooperation across political party lines.
B) cooperation among different interest groups.
C) increasing in recent years.
D) a by-product of divided government.
E) a result of clearly policy positions of the two major political parties.
Q2) State parties are unified and effective extensions of the national party organization.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of these groups was NOT part of the New Deal coalition?
A) business interests
B) Catholics
C) racial minorities
D) small- and medium-sized farmers
E) southern Democrats
Q4) Gridlock is most common under conditions of divided government.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss the nature and role of minor parties in a two-party system.
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Chapter 10: Participation Voting, and Elections
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Q1) Which of the following groups won the right to vote last?
A) women
B) southern blacks
C) 18- to 20-year-olds
D) felons
E) minorities
Q2) Despite the low voter turnout levels in the United States, Americans are actually more likely than people in other countries to participate actively in ________.
Q3) What is the "normal vote"?
Q4) In which state does the first presidential primary take place?
A) Massachusetts
B) New Hampshire
C) Rhode Island
D) Iowa
E) South Carolina
Q5) Why might it not make any difference whether people vote?
Q6) Political action committees (PACs) are the same thing as 527s.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Congress
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Q1) Congressional incumbents
A) win at lower rates than they did several decades ago.
B) cannot receive money directly from PACs.
C) win at about the same rates as they did in the late 1970s.
D) increasingly come from relatively "safe" districts.
E) receive less PAC dollars than their challengers.
Q2) Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House after the 2006 midterm elections.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The House of Representatives is most likely to use what kind of representation style A) delegate
B) trustee
C) responsive
D) federal
E) local
Q4) The lawmaker who introduces a bill (or resolution) is its ________.
Q5) Discuss the historical development of bicameralism in Congress, including the constitutional debate that led to its formation.
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Chapter 12: The President
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Q1) The president is the foreign policy leader, while Congress is the domestic policy leader.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How did Franklin Roosevelt change the functions of the presidency?
Q3) The Constitution says very little about presidential power. Why is this so? How has this helped or hurt presidents over the course of American history?
Q4) The president's cabinet is outlined in the Constitution.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Executive agreements require ratification by the Senate.
A)True
B)False
Q6) American presidents enjoy considerable freedom of action in waging war.
A)True
B)False
Q7) What makes a president successful with Congress? The most important factor is ________ control of Congress.
Page 14
Q8) Presidential succession and disability is discussed in the ________ Amendment.
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Chapter 13: The Executive Branch
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Q1) The authors use the case study of the Consumer Product Safety Board to illustrate what?
Q2) Among other things, ___________is known for appointing the highest number of women and racial groups to executive branch positions.
A) George W. Bush
B) Carter
C) Clinton
D) Ford
E) George H. W. Bush
Q3) How might the federal bureaucracy be reformed?
Q4) A method of evaluating rules and regulations by weighing their potential costs against the potential benefits to society is known as
A) cost-reduction examination.
B) cost-benefit analysis.
C) bureaucratic oversight.
D) bureaucratic methodology.
E) presidential leadership over the bureaucracy.
Q5) What was the impact of the Pendleton Act of 1883?
Q6) What attitudes do most Americans have towards the executive branch bureaucracy?
Page 15
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Chapter 14: The Courts
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Q1) Class action suits are suits brought by an individual an behalf of a class of people who are in a similar situation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Who would be considered a strict constructivist?
A) Justice Harry Blackmun
B) Justice David Souter
C) Justice William Brennan
D) Chief Justice Earl Warren
E) Justice Antonin Scalia
Q3) Of the 60,000 cases filed annually in the federal appeals courts, about how many reach the formal hearing stage?
A) 1,500
B) 8,000
C) 10,500
D) 15,000
E) 25,000
Q4) There are 24 federal circuit courts.
A)True
B)False
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Freedom: the Struggle for Civil Liberties
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Q1) Griswold v. Connecticut established abortion as a constitution right.
A)True
B)False
Q2) An ex post facto law retroactively declares some action as illegal.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What was the significance of Furman v. Georgia?
A) It was the case where a split court declared the death penalty as used in states "cruel and unusual punishment."
B) The court said that statistical evidence is not enough; the defendant must show that a specific case of racism has occurred in his or her trial.
C) The court allowed the execution of a convicted murderer with the intelligence of a seven-year-old.
D) It made delays less likely by eliminating many means of challenging a conviction.
E) The Court eliminated the right of "death row" inmates convicted in state courts to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Q4) The major liberty stated in the original Constitution was ________.
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Chapter 16: Civil Rights: the Struggle for Political Equality
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Q1) In Dowell v. Oklahoma City, the Supreme Court ruled that
A) busing was constitutional.
B) public schools had fulfilled their obligation for equal protection of the races.
C) public schools had to engage in more active methods of desegregation.
D) busing was unconstitutional.
E) reversals in integration trends were alarming.
Q2) What was a "grandfather clause"?
Q3) The Supreme Court, even with numerous follow-up cases, was able to accomplish little after the Brown decision until the president and Congress backed up the justices with the
A) Civil Rights Act of 1964.
B) Voting Rights Act of 1965.
C) American with Disabilities Act of 1967.
D) Both A and B above
E) None of the above
Q4) Based on the case study entitled "The Return of Segregated Schools," discuss the current status of civil rights policies in the United States.
Q5) What is meant by the concept "strict scrutiny"?
Q6) What kind of scrutiny do gender-conscious laws receive by the courts?
Page 18
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Chapter 17: The Budget and Economic Policies
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Q1) _____________ include all public officials and institutions (Congress, the president, the federal bureaucracy, and the Supreme Court) that have formal, legal responsibilities for making public policy for the United States.
A) Political factors
B) Political linkage factors
C) Structural factors
D) Government factors
E) Electoral factors
Q2) What does the federal government spend its money on? How do U.S. government spending patterns compare to those of other modern nations?
Q3) On which type of economic policy would business interest groups be most likely to speak with a unified voice?
A) Interest rates
B) Tax shelters
C) Business deregulation
D) Defense spending
E) Fiscal spending
Q4) ________ is about putting a policy into effect.
Q5) The national government depends primarily on ________ taxes and payroll taxes.
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Chapter 18: Social Safety Nets
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Q1) Public assistance is unpopular in the United States largely because
A) it seems to contradict cherished American values.
B) it has been a miserable failure.
C) it takes up a huge portion of the federal budget.
D) the elderly do not benefit from Social Security.
E) it benefits the wealthy.
Q2) In 1996, Congress passed the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act (TANF). Which of the following is a major feature of TANF?
A) The status of welfare assistance as a federal entitlement has been ended.
B) States must provide Medicaid to all who qualify under current law.
C) The design and administration of welfare programs has been turned over to the individual states.
D) States receive block grants from the federal government to help them finance the welfare systems they devise.
E) All of the above
Q3) Despite their success, social insurance programs are also plagued by problems. What are these problems?
Q4) What is Medicare?
Q5) What is SCHIP?
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Chapter 19: Foreign Policy and National Defense
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Q1) Which of these statements is correct?
A) The constitutional authority to declare war in an emergency situation belongs to the president.
B) Only Congress can declare war.
C) Congress and the president must act together to enact a declaration of war.
D) The U.S. Supreme Court rules on the legality of a declaration of war.
E) The War Powers Act gives authority to presidents to declare war.
Q2) Despite the enormous economic strength of the United States, we are a second-rate military power.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The United States is considered a superpower because it
A) has the largest population in the world.
B) has nuclear weapons, and it has the richest population.
C) has nuclear weapons, and it can project its military and economic power anywhere in the world.
D) endured World War II with few casualties and unquestioned military dominance.
E) has never lost a war.
Q4) Does the president have a free hand in foreign policy? Why or why not?
Q5) The Constitution gives ________ the power to declare war.
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