American Politics
Test Preparation
Course Introduction
American Politics examines the foundational structures, processes, and key institutions that define the political system of the United States. The course explores the Constitution, the roles and powers of the three branches of government, federalism, civil rights and liberties, political parties, the electoral process, and the influence of public opinion and media on governance. Students will analyze contemporary policy debates, the evolution of American political thought, and the ways in which social movements and interest groups shape national decision-making. Emphasis is placed on critical thinking and evaluating how historical and current events influence the functioning of American democracy.
Recommended Textbook
American Democracy Now 4th Edition by Brigid Callahan Harrison
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19 Chapters
1359 Verified Questions
1359 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: People, Politics, and Participation
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73 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which age group is MOST liberal?
A) 18-29
B) 30-49
C) 45-64
D) 65+
E) All age groups are about equally liberal.
Answer: A
Q2) Political engagement can be defined as
A) citizen actions intended to solve public problems through political means.
B) citizen actions intended to address ideological differences through public interaction.
C) individual and collective actions designed to identify issues of public concern.
D) individual and collective efforts to describe political actions and outcomes.
E) citizen actions intended to generate public awareness of the country's problems.
Answer: A
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3
Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which constitutional amendment indicated that the list of already-included civil liberties in previous amendments was not exhaustive?
A) Sixth Amendment
B) Seventh Amendment
C) Eighth Amendment
D) Ninth Amendment
E) Tenth Amendment
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following chronological sequences of events is correct?
A) Boston Tea Party; First Continental Congress; Declaration of Independence
B) Shays's Rebellion; Annapolis Convention; Declaration of Independence
C) Declaration of Independence; Stamp Act; Philadelphia Convention
D) Articles of Confederation; Declaration of Independence; Annapolis Convention
E) First Continental Congress; Stamp Act; Articles of Confederation
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) What phrase is used by political scientists to describe the way state judges base decisions on state constitutions when those laws grant more liberties and rights than those guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution?
A) horizontal federalism
B) judicial federalism
C) judicial libertarianism
D) judicial individualism
E) interstate compacts
Answer: B
Q2) Which of these pairs of presidents are most closely associated with new federalism, or devolution?
A) Andrew Jackson and William McKinley
B) Ulysses Grant and Andrew Johnson
C) Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson
D) Dwight Eisenhower and Harry Truman
E) Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan
Answer: E
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Define selective incorporation and discuss its historical development.
Q2) Compare and contrast the Court's interpretations and treatments of symbolic and commercial speech.
Q3) Discuss the implications of Griswold v. Connecticut for the Court's interpretation of privacy rights.
Q4) The Supreme Court has selectively incorporated some of the Bill of Rights and applied them to state action through the
A) Fifth Amendment.
B) Second Amendment.
C) First Amendment.
D) Fourteenth Amendment.
E) Thirteenth Amendment.
Q5) The first ________ amendments to the Constitution explicitly limited the power of legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the national government.
A) seven
B) nine
C) ten
D) twelve
E) fifteen
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) The mass movement for Mexican American civil rights, of which Cesar Chavez was a leader, is known as
A) the Latino Movement.
B) LULAC.
C) the Chicano Movement.
D) NALEO.
E) the Lambda Legal Movement.
Q2) Where did most of the initial battles for women's rights take place?
A) at the federal level
B) in the courts
C) in the home
D) with the president
E) at the state level
Q3) Identify the three tests used by the federal government to determine the legality of suspect classifications.
Q4) Identify the purpose and impact of the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
Q5) Outline the important provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Q6) Discuss the origins and features of Jim Crow laws.
Q7) Explain the impact of the civil rights movement on voter registration in the southern states.
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Chapter 6: Political Socialization and Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since 2008, which of the following issues has been identified by respondents as the "most important problem" facing the country?
A) jobs
B) the housing market
C) the economy
D) foreign wars
E) the threat of terrorism
Q2) When are children in the United States first exposed to socialization by being encouraged to believe in democracy and express patriotism?
A) preschool
B) kindergarten
C) elementary school
D) middle school
E) high school
Q3) Identify the two main influences of political socialization that we experience from early childhood.
Q4) Identify issues associated with Internet sampling techniques.
Q5) Define quota sampling and explain its uses.
Q6) Explain the relationship between peer groups, diversity, and norms and values.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) When interest groups employ former members of government as lobbyists, they are creating
A) an iron triangle.
B) an issue network.
C) a mutually beneficial network.
D) a lobbying network.
E) a direct action network.
Q2) Relationships that improve our individual lives by giving us social connections to solve common problems are forms of
A) intellectual capital.
B) social capital.
C) leveraged networks.
D) associative relationships.
E) empowering networks.
Q3) Identify at least two public interest groups and explain their functions and issues.
Q4) Discuss lobbying, and identify tactics used by lobbyists to communicate with and influence policy makers.
Q5) Explain why interest groups use celebrities to publicly communicate their message.
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the best predictor of a person's party identification?
A) education
B) income
C) ethnicity
D) ideology
E) age
Q2) Why would it be a difficult for a third major party to be successful?
A) The support for a third major party is spread across people of widely varying ideologies.
B) The support for a third major party is well below 50 percent.
C) The support for a third major party is concentrated among far-right conservatives.
D) The support for a third major party is concentrated among far-left communists.
E) The United States Constitution specifically states that there should be only two major parties.
Q3) Define a political party's platform and identify some prominent issues that are included.
Q4) Outline the responsible party model, and provide an example of legislation enacted according to these principles.
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Chapter 9: Elections, Campaigns, and Voting
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Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following are considered informal qualifications for federal office EXCEPT
A) possession of a college degree.
B) considerable professional experience.
C) strong communications skills.
D) age and gender.
E) None of these answers is correct.
Q2) Outline how new technologies have changed the conduct of political campaigns in recent years.
Q3) What theory states that making the conscious choice not to vote is rational and logical?
A) rational abstention thesis
B) voter fatigue thesis
C) cumulative cost thesis
D) rational actor thesis
E) nonvoter rationalization thesis
Q4) Explain the relationship between party competitiveness and voter turnout.
Q5) Define a caucus and explain its function in elections.
Q6) Discuss the increased use of, and various functions performed by, political consultants in recent elections.
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Chapter 10: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify various forms of media that are present today.
Q2) Which U.S. president's fireside chats were the first to exploit the value of radio as a device for political communication?
A) Dwight D. Eisenhower
B) Franklin D. Roosevelt
C) Herbert Hoover
D) Harry S. Truman
E) Theodore Roosevelt
Q3) Traditional media sources include all of the following, EXCEPT
A) newspapers.
B) magazines.
C) radio.
D) websites.
E) television.
Q4) Which media technology dominated between the 1940s and 1980?
A) newspapers
B) radio
C) broadcast television
D) cable television
E) satellite television
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Politics and Technology
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Sample Questions
Q1) To mobilize supporters, organizers of protests use sites like Twitter to quickly distribute information to a large amount of people. This is known as
A) e-campaigning.
B) remarketing.
C) promoted tweets.
D) a cyber cascade.
E) micro-blogging.
Q2) The WikiLeaks website, which released millions of secret government documents, is an example of what mode of political participation?
A) e-campaigning
B) macro-protesting
C) hacktivism
D) microtargeting
E) e-mobilization
Q3) What are the key controversies currently surrounding the government's technology-based domestic surveillance programs?
Q4) Describe virtual communities and discuss their impact on civic engagement and participation in the real world.
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) How often are House members elected?
A) every two years, in even-numbered years
B) every two years, in odd-numbered years
C) every three years, in even-numbered years
D) every three years, in odd-numbered years
E) every four years, in even-numbered years
Q2) Which former senator and vice president warned of the constituent service dilemma?
A) Dick Cheney
B) Al Gore
C) Walter Mondale
D) Harry Truman
E) Richard Nixon
Q3) Which of the following statements about reapportionment is NOT accurate?
A) It redraws the congressional district boundaries within the state.
B) It is a reallocation of seats in the House of Representatives.
C) It is based on the federal census.
D) It can diminish the advantage of incumbency.
E) It may cause a state to gain or lose congressional representatives.
Q4) Identify the advantages of incumbency in congressional elections.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: The Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which two presidents were formally impeached by the House of Representatives?
A) Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton
B) Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
C) Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton
D) Andrew Johnson and Richard Nixon
E) Richard Nixon and Warren Harding
Q2) Which of the following presidential powers are granted by the Constitution?
A) expressed powers
B) inherent powers
C) statutory powers
D) expressed powers and inherent powers
E) expressed powers and statutory powers
Q3) Which of the following BEST describes presidential use of the line-item veto?
A) It has not been as effective as hoped, because it cannot be used on appropriations bills.
B) It has become a common tool among modern presidents.
C) It is virtually unused by modern presidents, because they fear encroaching on congressional power.
D) It is no longer in use because the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional.
E) Is tends to be used mostly by presidents during the election cycle.
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Chapter 14: The Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following BEST describes the business of an independent regulatory commission?
A) the selling of services in order to make a profit
B) development of standards for specific industries and businesses
C) responsibility for broadly defined policy areas
D) accountability for a narrowly defined function
E) researching policy areas, and reporting to the relevant cabinet agency
Q2) Outline the development of the merit-based civil service system.
Q3) Which piece of legislation established the Office of Government Ethics (OGE), which is charged with preventing bureaucratic conflicts of interest?
A) Ethics in Government Act
B) Administrative Procedure Act
C) Freedom of Information Act
D) Sunshine Act
E) E-Government Act
Q4) Discuss the purpose and structure of government corporations.
Q5) Outline the process of administrative rule-making, and provide an example of its use.
Q6) Define bureaucrats and identify their key functions and roles.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: The Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) How many federal district courts are there in the U.S. court system?
A) 13
B) 39
C) 56
D) 76
E) 94
Q2) The leading justice on the Supreme Court, who provides both organizational and intellectual leadership, is known as the
A) chief justice.
B) associate justice.
C) official justice.
D) advisory justice.
E) head justice.
Q3) The term symbolic representation refers to which of the following in the selection of federal judges?
A) judicial qualifications of the candidate
B) the candidate's ideological views
C) the demographic represented by the candidate
D) opinions of constituents regarding the candidate
E) All these answers are correct.
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Chapter 16: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following programs is among those defined as mandatory spending obligations?
A) Social Security
B) Medicare
C) Medicaid
D) national debt payments
E) All these answers are correct.
Q2) What type of tax takes a larger percentage of lower income earners' income and a smaller percentage of the income of those who earn more?
A) progressive tax
B) proportional tax
C) regressive tax
D) direct tax
E) indirect tax
Q3) Explain the main features and arguments of supply-side economics.
Q4) Discuss the difference between a pure capitalist economy and a regulated capitalist economy.
Q5) Outline the theories of monetarism and identify monetarists' ideal level of inflation.
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Chapter 17: Domestic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Department of Homeland Security was formed in A) 1947.
B) 1969.
C) 1986.
D) 2002.
E) 2010.
Q2) People with NIMBY ("not-in-my-backyard") syndrome take which of the following stances on civic engagement?
A) They never participate until directly threatened by government action.
B) They rarely participate, viewing government as corrupt and ineffective.
C) They often participate, but form narrow ideological positions.
D) They often participate in an attempt to limit government authority.
E) They often participate in an attempt to expand government authority.
Q3) Discuss the circumstances that led to the development of a national energy policy in the United States.
Q4) Define direct provision and provide examples of its application.
Q5) Explain the purposes of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 regarding people's access to health insurance.
Q6) Describe the circumstances that led to the creation of Earth Day.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy and National Security
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Sample Questions
Q1) The early nineteenth-century view in American foreign policy circles that the United States should establish hegemony over its own hemisphere resulted in the declaration of what in 1823?
A) war against Spain
B) the Treaty of Ghent
C) the Monroe Doctrine
D) the Roosevelt Corollary
E) manifest destiny
Q2) Explain the purpose and features of the War Powers Act of 1973.
Q3) Which Cold War policy was designed to prevent the spread of communism?
A) massive retaliation
B) engaged diplomacy
C) containment
D) détente
E) brinksmanship
Q4) Define regime change as a foreign policy objective and identify examples of its application by the United States.
Q5) Outline the important features of normal trade relations between the United States and other countries.
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Chapter 19: State and Local Government
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Sample Questions
Q1) In all states but Nebraska the state legislature is
A) appointed by the governor.
B) elected every six years.
C) bicameral.
D) unicameral.
E) based on proportional representation.
Q2) Which of the following statements about the collection of sales taxes on Internet and online purchases is NOT correct?
A) States can only require companies that have a physical presence in a state to pay sales tax.
B) Federal requirements on state sales tax have caused many states to lose urgently needed tax revenue.
C) States are vigorously lobbying for changes to federal law so that they can collect taxes on Internet and online purchases.
D) If an Internet vendor is not required to collect sales tax on a purchase, the purchaser is exempt from paying any sales tax.
E) As the volume of Internet sales continues to increase, the amount of state sales tax revenue decreases.
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