Civic Engagement and American Government Practice Exam
Course Introduction
This course explores the foundational principles and contemporary practices of civic engagement within the context of American government. Students will examine the structures and functions of federal, state, and local governments, as well as the roles individuals and groups play in shaping public policy and societal outcomes. Through a blend of historical perspectives and current events, the course highlights the importance of informed participation, the impact of civic actions on democracy, and strategies for effective involvement in governmental processes. Emphasis is placed on critical analysis, ethical citizenship, and the development of skills necessary for active and responsible participation in American public life.
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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Q1) When Thomas Jefferson wrote about the "pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence, he was actually tapping into
A)the ideals of liberty.
B)fair and equal justice.
C)equality of outcome.
D)the American Dream.
Answer: D
Q2) The baron de Montesquieu proposed that A)power should be shared among political leaders.
B)power should be divided between different branches.
C)power should be delegated by a central aristocracy.
D)power should be held solely by an authoritarian ruler.
Answer: B
Q3) Thomas Jefferson was selected as principal author of the Declaration of Independence primarily because of
A)Jefferson's role as a Southerner and Virginian.
B)Jefferson's leadership role in the Continental Congress.
C)Jefferson's education and academic background.
D)Jefferson's unique reputation as a political "hothead."
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Q1) In October 1786, the Massachusetts legislature passed the ______ Act, absolving sheriffs and other officials from prosecution for killing rioters.
A)Martial Law
B)Townsend
C)Mann
D)Riot
Answer: D
Q2) Some scholars have argued that the founders were motivated not necessarily by their own economic motives but by those of their ______.
A)states
B)families
C)religions
D)experiences
Answer: A
Q3) The president has unlimited power over the actions of Congress.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) The Constitution expressly gives Congress the power to establish an air force.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) The case of Barron v.Baltimore dealt with which of he following?
A)expanding the government's powers under the Supremacy Clause
B)acknowledging states' rights under the 10th Amendment
C)limiting the government's powers under the 5th Amendment
D)defining the boundaries of governmental commerce power
Answer: C
Q3) Under the New Deal, federalism shifted to which of the following forms?
A)dual federalism
B)coercive federalism
C)cooperative federalism
D)unitary federalism
Answer: C
Q4) The most important financial tool of cooperative federalism is the use of federal
Answer: grants-in-aid, grants
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Q1) Suppressing an article prior to its publication would best be described as
A)selective incorporation.
B)judicial review.
C)prior restraint.
D)executive privilege.
Q2) The case through which the Fourth Amendment's protections were incorporated to the states was ______.
Q3) Unlike Eric Snowden, Benjamin Gitlow was considered a hero and not an outlaw in his day.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The most recently incorporated rights brought down to the states involved the Third Amendment.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which of the following cases has been given the nickname "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"?
A)Mapp v. Ohio
B)Morse v. Frederick
C)United States v. O'Brien
D)Tinker v. Des Moines ISD
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Securing Civil Rights
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Q1) The cases included in arguments for Brown v.Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, dealt with whether it was constitutionally permissible to legally segregate African American and white children in public schools on the basis of race.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In announcing its decision in the Brown v.Board cases, the Supreme Court ruled that "separate educational facilities are inherently ______."
A)unfair
B)unenforceable
C)unequal
D)uncommon
Q3) Which branch of government took the most active role in desegregating public schools immediately preceding and following the Brown v.Board decision of 1954?
Q4) African Americans began to make their presence felt in Washington, DC, by
A)violent action.
B)nonviolent protest.
C)calling for new legislation.
D)voting in larger numbers.
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Landen Gambill circulated a petition to multiple state legislatures arguing against allowing campus carry policies.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following ethnic groups is least likely to vote?
A)Anglo Americans
B)African Americans
C)mixed-race Americans
D)Latina and Latino Americans
Q3) Which of the following is the best example of political mobilization?
A)an individual who starts a national political movement
B)a local group that plans and organizes a series of political marches
C)the National Democratic Party establishes moveon.org in order to register young voters
D)the NRA creates a commercial supporting concealed weapons on college campuses
Q4) By its nature, a representative democracy requires ______
A)construction
B)restriction
C)action
D)division
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Q1) A political candidate has constructed a survey instrument and intends to administer it to a randomly selected sampling of respondents who are divided by geographic region, political party membership, age, gender, and ethnicity.This would be an example of a
A)scientific poll.
B)self-selected opinion poll.
C)straw poll.
D)census instrument.
Q2) How we define ourselves in terms of race, gender, or ethnicity can form clear, consistent, and persistent patterns of similarity and division in American public opinion.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following best describes a term referring to the lack of stable and coherent opinions on political issues and candidates?
A)stereotype
B)attitude
C)nonattitude
D)knowledge
Q4) The primary source of political socialization is considered to be the ______.
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Chapter 8: The Media
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Q1) The NBC correspondent who was suspended for six months for embellishing his experiences while embedded in Iraq was
A)Tom Brokaw.
B)Brian Williams.
C) Lester Holt.
D)Luke Russert.
Q2) Early newspapers were nicknamed the
A)partisan press.
B)yellow press.
C)penny press.
D)people's press.
Q3) The military see the use of Internet and social media resources as a(n)
A)ongoing threat to national security.
B)personal safety threat to soldiers and family.
C)source of bias and untruth that distracts from mission readiness.
D)huge morale factor for both soldiers and their families.
Q4) Through its ability to select which stories are covered, the media may exert an ______ role by highlighting which issues are worthy of coverage and, as a consequence, worthy of the public's attention.
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) By 1824, the Democratic-Republican Party was largely dissolved and had become known as the ______ Party.
A)Whig
B)Federalist
C)Tory
D)Bull Moose
Q2) One main difference between Republicans and Democrats in the assignment and selection of delegates is that the Republicans include the use of superdelegates, while Democrats do not.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The reigning political paradox of our era is
A)partisanship is strong but parties are weak.
B)parties are powerful and partisanship is declining.
C)voters exercise power and parties do not.
D)candidates gain votes while parties do not.
Q4) The responsible party model requires little or no party cohesion in order to succeed.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Q1) ______ are tools by which the American political system chooses its representatives, presidents, senators, and members of Congress.
A)Local initiatives
B)Political caucuses
C)National elections
D)Party primaries
Q2) The grouping of individuals based on shared characteristics such as ancestry, race, ethnicity, and gender is known as
A)petrographics
B)heliogrphics.
C)reprographics.
D)demographics.
Q3) Nearly everything pertaining to candidates and campaigns for Congress is profoundly influenced by whether a candidate is a.a challenger.
b.popular with PACs.
c.an incumbent.
d.a successful fundraiser.
Q4) What impact does money have on today's national election process?
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Q1) The coordinated (and mutually beneficial)activities of interest groups, Congress, and the bureaucracy to achieve shared policy goals, sometimes against the general interests of society or specific groups within it, best describes A)agency capture.
B)the iron triangle.
C)internal lobbying.
D)illegal lobbying.
Q2) Political scientist Robert Dahl, in confronting the question of how a democratic system works amid an inequality of resources, focused his attention on the theory of
A)elitism
B)nationalism
C)pluralism
D)constitutionalism
Q3) Interest groups most often try to influence judicial decisions by way of A)direct testimony.
B)indirect lobbying.
C)amicus curiae briefs.
D)directly sponsoring cases.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Congress
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Q1) Which of the following terms was James Madison's way of referring to the dangers of faction?
A)"tyranny and anarchy"
B)"usurpation and perfidy"
C)"dominance and treachery"
D)"collaboration and duress"
Q2) The first stage of the legislative process is the assignment of a bill to a committee and/or subcommittee for consideration.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In contrast to members of the House, Senators must be ______.
A)older
B)wealthier
C)more educated
D)property holders
Q4) The act of "standing for" one's constituents in government is defined as A)delegation.
B)representation.
C)constituency.
D)populism.
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Q1) The part of the Obama administration's decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki that made many political experts uncomfortable was its
A)level of violence.
B)degree of autonomy.
C)constitutionality.
D)degree of secrecy.
Q2) The portion of the Constitution that states "The Executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America" can be found in
A)Article I Section 8.
B)Article II Section 1.
C)Article III Section 2.
D)Article IV Section 1.
Q3) Less populous states were in favor of which of the following methods of selecting the president?
A)direct election
B)state delegation
C)electors chosen by state legislatures
D)congressional appointment
Q4) The president is required to give Congress Information on the ______.
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Questions
Q1) Shifting control over the provision of certain governmental functions from the federal bureaucracy to the private sector is known as ______.
Q2) According to Barnard, the job of the leader was to
A)effectively acquire and wield power over the labor force.
B)administer authority over clients and workers alike.
C)secure the cooperation of those within the organization.
D)delegate authority to specialized workers and supervisors.
Q3) The CIA is an example of a(n)______ in which agencies otherwise similar to cabinet departments exist outside the cabinet structure and usually have a narrower focus of mission.
A)private informational agency
B)autonomous congressional committee
C)independent executive agency
D)public governmental corporation
Q4) The First Civil Service Commission was created under the Hatch Act.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Cabinet departments vary in size and budget.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Q1) The right to a "speedy public trial by an impartial jury," the right to confront witnesses, and the right to the assistance of an attorney are all guaranteed in ______ of the Constitution.
A)Article III
B)Article VI
C)Amendment V
D)Amendment VI
Q2) What factors have led to federal judicial proceedings becoming so politically charged? Why should these proceedings be so politically divided?
Q3) Legal documents presented by plaintiffs, defendants, and, at times, other interested parties outlining their arguments in writing are best described as A)memos.
B)petitions.
C)briefs.
D)writs.
Q4) The Supreme Court can exercise both original and appellate jurisdiction.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Q1) Reforms that set specific state- or nationwide student achievement goals, rewards for success, and consequences for failure are called ______ reforms.
A)academic-achievement
B)instructional-initiative
C)performance-incentive
D)standards-based
Q2) The National Defense and Education Act of 1958 was passed as a reaction to
A)the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik.
B)the perceived need of inner-city schools.
C)the public cry for better science and math programs.
D)citizen pressure to improve higher education offerings.
Q3) With the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), Bill Clinton signed into law the principles of ______ to social welfare programs.
A)devolution
B)federalism
C)accountability
D)dependence
Q4) Policy experts call counties without adequate access to supermarkets "______."
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Q1) If Congress chooses to lower taxes and fund programs with borrowed money, which of the following may result?
A)increasing interest rates
B)decreasing employment
C)lower price levels
D)overall economic stability
Q2) A key group in the rather long list of the 99% of Americans who felt they had been left behind in the wake of the financial bailout of 2008 was
A)military veterans.
B)college students.
C)upper-class workers.
D)social welfare recipients.
Q3) Formally, the president's budget proposal carries a great deal of ______ weight.
A)constitutional
B)legislative
C)political
D)executive
Q4) By the end of 2015, the ______ continued to grow to nearly $19 trillion.
Q5) If the federal government takes in more money than it spends, it runs a ______.
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Q1) Thanks to intense diplomatic efforts and controls, at no point during the Cold War did the world's superpowers come close to a nuclear conflict.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Most current American efforts to coordinate international economic policy focus on fostering
A)protectionism.
B)command policies.
C)mixed economics.
D)free trade.
Q3) The first Secretary of State was
A)Benjamin Franklin.
B)Alexander Hamilton.
C)Thomas Jefferson.
D)John Adams.
Q4) One of the groups that fought against the Assad regime in Syria following the Arab Spring was ______, with the clear and stated goal "to establish a worldwide caliphate" using international terrorism as its primary tool.
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