American Politics
Exam Answer Key
Course Introduction
American Politics explores the foundations, structures, and functions of the United States government, examining the Constitution, federalism, civil rights and liberties, and the roles of major political institutions such as Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. The course analyzes how political parties, interest groups, elections, and public opinion shape the policymaking process, as well as contemporary issues that challenge American democracy. Through critical analysis, students gain insight into the dynamics of political power, representation, and participation in the American political system.
Recommended Textbook Government in America People Politics and Policy Brief Edition 11th Edition by George C. Edwards
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17 Chapters
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introducing Government in America
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Sample Questions
Q1) Harold Lasswell's definition of politics is
A)"who gets what,when,and how."
B)"what gets done,then,and now."
C)the authoritative allocation of the gross national product,or GNP.
D)voting in a duly constituted election.
E)joining a political party.
Answer: A
Q2) The idea that the desires of the people should be replicated in government through the choices of elected officials is the idea of representation.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Highways and public parks are examples of public goods.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Free speech and a free press are essential to enlightened understanding.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) As of January 2011,how many amendments have been added to the Constitution?
A)Ten
B)Twelve
C)Fifteen
D)Twenty
E)Twenty-seven
Answer: E
Q2) Which of the following was NOT occurring under the Articles of Confederation?
A)Abolition of religious qualifications for office holding
B)Adoption of bills of rights
C)Upper-class dominance
D)Expanded political participation
E)None of the above was occurring under the Articles.
Answer: C
Q3) The emergence of political parties made it less likely that the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes will also receive the most electoral votes.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) In our federal system,the powers of the state governments are ultimately granted by
A)their state's Supreme Court.
B)the people of their state.
C)their state legislature.
D)the United States Constitution.
E)the United States government.
Answer: D
Q2) The main instrument the national government uses to influence state governments is
A)grants-in-aid.
B)mandates.
C)judicial review.
D)the Tenth Amendment.
E)presidential decrees.
Answer: A
Q3) The power to regulate health,safety,and morals is a province of the states.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy
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Q1) The Federal Trade Commission regulates the nature,content,and existence of radio and television broadcasting.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Describe the rights to assemble and to associate protected by the First Amendment.Under what circumstances has the Supreme Court permitted restrictions on these rights?
Q3) Gregg v.Georgia (1976)is significant in that it
A)marks the Supreme Court's ruling that the death penalty is constitutional,even though it is an extreme sanction for the most extreme of crimes.
B)was the first time the Court found a state's death penalty practices (in this case,the state of Georgia)to be "freakish" and "random."
C)settled once and for all debate over whether the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
D)Both a and c are true.
E)Both b and c are true.
Q4) In what ways have recent Supreme Court decisions clarified the individual rights protected by the Second Amendment?
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights and Public Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Fourteenth Amendment forbids slavery and grants the right to vote to African Americans and other non-Whites in the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Civil Rights Act of ________,the most important law since the Emancipation Proclamation,made racial discrimination illegal in public accommodations throughout America.
A)1954
B)1964
C)1974
D)1984
E)1994
Q3) What are the three levels of scrutiny used by the Supreme Court to discover whether discrimination is permissible?
A)Reasonableness,inherently suspect,and the intermediate standard
B)Reasonableness,inherently suspect,and grossly discriminatory
C)Arguably discriminatory,reasonable analysis,and negligent
D)Negligent,arguably discriminatory,and reasonable
E)Suspect,inherently suspect,and the intermediate standard
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action
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Q1) The number of college degrees that Asian Americans hold is twice that of the national average.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Almost half of most Americans have no opinion on the scope of government,according to survey data from 2000.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Who said America "is not merely a nation but a nation of nations"?
A)Franklin D. Roosevelt
B)John F. Kennedy
C)Ronald Reagan
D)Bill Clinton
E)George W. Bush
Q4) What are exit polls,and why have they been so severely criticized?
Q5) What are some of the ways in which people participate in politics? Compare conventional and unconventional participation.How do they affect policy in different ways? Which form of participation has more influence,why?
Q6) What is the importance of the family to the process of political socialization?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda
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Q1) An intentional news leak for the purpose of assessing the political reaction to that news is called a(n)
A)talking head.
B)press conference.
C)media event.
D)trial balloon.
E)investigative journalism event.
Q2) The first daily newspaper in America was
A)the Associated Press,established in 1841.
B)the New York Times,established in 1800.
C)printed in Philadelphia in 1783.
D)the Colonial Gazette,printed in 1607.
E)Common Sense,printed in 1776.
Q3) The primary interest of publicly owned media is _____________; the primary interest of privately owned media is_______________.
A)making a profit; serving the public interest
B)serving the public interest; making a profit
C)spreading propaganda; being as objective as possible
D)serving the state; serving the people
E)undermining democracy; supporting democracy
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Voters registered as Independents cannot vote in closed Republican or Democratic primaries.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What was Nixon's "Southern Strategy"? What were the goals and were they achieved?
Q3) Until the early twentieth century,American political parties selected and nominated candidates for political office with little input from the voters.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The first party system in the United States consisted of the
A)Democrats and Whigs.
B)Federalists and Whigs.
C)Democrats and Republicans.
D)Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
E)Democratic-Republicans and Whigs.
Q5) In your mind,what are the consequences for the party system of the increasing numbers of young Americans who do not identify with either the Republican or Democratic parties?
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Chapter 9: Campaigns and Voting Behavior
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Sample Questions
Q1) The way in which candidates attempt to manipulate money,the media,and momentum to achieve the nomination is through
A)campaign strategy.
B)primaries.
C)charisma.
D)propaganda.
E)party support.
Q2) Does it really matter that voter participation in the U.S.is so low? Should we be concerned? Why?
Q3) Which of the following is TRUE about the Electoral College?
A)It overrepresents small states.
B)It is scheduled to be phased out in 2011,though some still argue its usefulness and want to rescind the phase-out.
C)It is used in nearly half of the democratic nations around the world.
D)An elector has never voted differently from the popular vote winner of his state.
E)All 50 states employ a winner-take-all system in which all of their electors are awarded to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes statewide.
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Chapter 10: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) A pluralist interpretation of special interest groups could be seen as evidence that James Madison's system worked as he intended.
A)True
B)False
Q2) An advantage for small groups is that
A)free riders can be forced out of the organization,creating more unity.
B)it is easier to reconcile divergent interests in small groups.
C)there is more at stake for each member,making it easier to organize and activate all members.
D)collective goods do not have to share with the big interests.
E)they are able to "hide" in the political process so that opposing groups are not able to organize against them.
Q3) Proponents of elite theories of politics would argue that the interest group with the most power consists of
A)business leaders.
B)agriculture and agribusiness.
C)energy and environmental groups.
D)consumer and public interest lobbies.
E)labor unions.
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about incumbency is FALSE?
A)Most incumbents forgo the opportunity to run for reelection.
B)Most incumbents decide to run for reelection.
C)Most incumbents running for reelection are victorious.
D)Not only do more than 90 percent of incumbents seeking reelection win,but most win more than 60 percent of the vote.
E)Incumbents tend to win even when challengers' positions are closer to voters' positions.
Q2) The minority whip
A)assists the majority leader in party-line votes.
B)becomes the Speaker automatically if the Speaker resigns.
C)represents African Americans,Hispanic Americans,and Asian Americans in each chamber of Congress.
D)keeps a close head count on key votes and attempts to keep party members in line.
E)is used to punish members who do not vote with the rest of their party.
Q3) What are the functions of the House Rules Committee? What makes this committee so important?
Q4) In what ways is incumbency the single most important factor in elections?
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Presidency
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Sample
Questions
Q1) Describe the major strengths and weaknesses of the president in his role as chief legislator.What factors strengthen his ability to pass legislation he prefers? What factors weaken his ability to pass legislation?
Q2) The executive power is discussed in which part of the Constitution?
A)Article I
B)Article II
C)Article III
D)Article IV
E)Tenth Amendment
Q3) What is the National Security Council? Who are its members? What are its purposes?
Q4) To what extent does the office of the presidency enlarge the scope of government? Why or why not? Provide specific examples from various presidencies to support your answer.
Q5) Most studies of media coverage of news,including news about the presidency,have revealed a systematic liberal bias.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Describe the impeachment process.
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Chapter 13: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Regulation refers to
A)procedures for everyday decision making that bring efficiency and uniformity to the running of complex organizations.
B)the authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem.
C)the use of government authority to control or change some practice in the private sector.
D)the stage of policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected.
E)translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating,ongoing program.
Q2) The creation of the new Department of Homeland Security in 2002 is an example of A)reorganization.
B)fragmentation.
C)standard operating procedure.
D)administrative discretion.
E)decentralization.
Q3) How does politics permeate bureaucracies? What factors make it difficult to control bureaucracies?
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15
Chapter 14: The Federal Courts
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what ways do interest groups try to influence the courts?
Q2) In recent years,the Court has made about 80 formal written decisions per year.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Studies of Supreme Court decisions have found that
A)the Court prefers to base its decisions on the Constitution rather than narrower and more contentious technical grounds.
B)the Court is usually out of line with public opinion.
C)there is no correlation between public opinion and Court decisions.
D)the Court is normally in line with popular majorities.
E)the Court renders fewer decisions in election years.
Q4) A written opinion in a Supreme Court case is a
A)legal argument submitted by an attorney in a case seeking to sway a justice's decision.
B)way of establishing the Court's agenda.
C)statement of the legal reasoning behind a decision.
D)formality handled by the chief justice's law clerks.
E)form of press release written by the chief justice.
Q5) What is a per curiam decision? Why is it significant?
Q6) What is a justiciable dispute?
Page 16
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Politics of Taxing and Spending
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which federal agency was created in order to collect the federal income tax?
A)The Congressional Budget Office
B)The Treasury Department
C)The General Accounting Office
D)The Auditors General
E)The Internal Revenue Service
Q2) In 2003,Congress increased tax rates on capital gains and dividends.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A budget is
A)a blueprint for what the government should do.
B)a policy determination of how much to spend.
C)a policy document allocating burdens (taxes)and benefits (expenditures).
D)passed by the president's cabinet.
E)None of the above is true.
Q4) The Sixteenth Amendment permits Congress to levy an income tax.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How does the federal government borrow money?
Q6) What are the challenges facing the future of Social Security? Page 17
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Page 18
Chapter 16: Social Welfare Policymaking
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Timothy Smeeding,
A)the U.S. has seen large increases in income inequality over the last four decades.
B)income inequality is greater in the U.S. than most developed countries.
C)the U.S. has the widest extremes of income compared to other developed countries.
D)All of these are true.
E)None of these is true.
Q2) How are income and wealth distributed in the United States? What are the characteristics of the poor,and how is poverty defined? Do you agree with the current definition of poverty? Why or why not?
Q3) The "War on Poverty" programs were later attacked and had their funding reduced substantially by President
A)Dwight Eisenhower.
B)Lyndon Johnson.
C)Ronald Reagan.
D)Richard Nixon.
E)George H. W. Bush.
Q4) What is the poverty line? How is it determined?
Q5) How do Americans view responsibility for social welfare?
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Chapter 17: National Security Policymaking
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Q1) The containment doctrine did not prevent the communists from winning a stunning victory in which country in 1949?
A)Turkey
B)East Germany
C)China
D)Taiwan
E)Vietnam
Q2) How did President Reagan reshape America's Cold War foreign policy?
Q3) Which agency within the American intelligence community is responsible for using imagery satellites to monitor missile sites and other military activities around the world?
A)The National Security Agency
B)The National Security Council
C)The National Reconnaissance Office
D)The Central Intelligence Agency
E)The Defense Intelligence Agency
Q4) What is Congress' role in shaping American foreign policy?
Q5) What is the Monroe Doctrine,and how has it shaped American foreign policy?
Q6) What is an international organization,and how is it different from a nongovernmental organization?
Page 20
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