Civics
Textbook Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Civics is the study of the rights and responsibilities of citizens within a society, as well as the functioning of government and political systems at local, national, and global levels. This course explores foundational concepts such as democracy, the rule of law, citizenship, and the structure of government institutions. Students learn about the processes through which laws are made, the roles of different branches of government, and the importance of civic engagement and participation. By examining historical and contemporary issues, the course encourages critical thinking about social justice, policymaking, and the impact of individual and collective actions on communities and nations.
Recommended Textbook
American Government and Politics Today Essentials 2015 2016 Edition 18th Edition by Barbara A.
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16 Chapters
1120 Verified Questions
1120 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: The Democratic Republic
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Sample Questions
Q1) The periods after the Pearl Harbor attack and the September 11, 2001 terror attacks are similar in that
A) calls were made to enhance security at the expense of civil liberties.
B) liberties were largely maintained at the expense of national security.
C) the United States declared a war on terrorism.
D) the U.S. government suffered a loss of legitimacy.
E) Both A and C.
Answer: A
Q2) Unlike liberals or conservatives, socialists advocate
A) personal liberties.
B) private property rights.
C) market capitalism.
D) private investment in governmental systems.
E) replacing investor ownership of businesses by government ownership.
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) With regard to the system of courts, delegates to the Constitutional Convention decided to do all of the following<B> except</B>
A) allow presidents to nominate Supreme Court justices.
B) create both a Supreme Court and a system of lower courts.
C) allow the Senate to confirm justices to the Supreme Court.
D) allow Congress to establish lower courts.
E) create a Supreme Court.
Answer: B
Q2) The Articles of Confederation
A) provided for a bicameral legislature.
B) established a strong executive branch.
C) allowed the states to retain most of the power.
D) created a way to raise taxes to fund an army.
E) ended slavery.
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which government system is used most in the world today?
A) unitary system
B) confederate system
C) federal system
D) bicameral system
E) None of the above is true.
Answer: A
Q2) Federal mandates are
A) rules for operation in the Supreme Court.
B) requirements attached to state laws to dispense state grants.
C) requirements in federal legislation that force states to comply with federal rules.
D) always accompanied by ample federal funding to cover costs of the mandate.
E) unconstitutional.
Answer: C
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) As originally presented in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights
A) limited only the power of the national government, not that of the states.
B) protected citizens from all forms of government.
C) protected citizens from the national and state governments, but not from local governments.
D) limited only the power of state governments.
E) contained no language on religion.
Q2) The First Amendment prevents Congress from making any law that
A) abridges "the right of the people to peaceably assemble."
B) abridges the right "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
C) regulates the right to bear arms.
D) regulates criminal rights.
E) Options A and B are true.
Q3) Gag orders have been used to
A) prohibit one criminal from testifying against another.
B) restrict the publication of news about a trial in progress or a pre-trial hearing.
C) restrict what a juror may say to the press after the trial.
D) restrict what evidence must be shown to defense lawyers.
E) Options C and D are true.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) Define the concept of strict scrutiny and discuss how and why it is used, making sure to note cases where it has been used to both help and harm racial minorities.
Q2) In the 1960s and 1970s, women's groups became divided over issues including A) the Equal Rights Amendment.
B) pornography.
C) abortion rights.
D) Options A and C are true.
E) All of the above are true.
Q3) The population of unauthorized immigrants in the United States is
A) about 500,000 and increasing.
B) about 1 million and stable.
C) about 7 million and declining.
D) about 11 million and stable.
E) about 32 million and increasing.
Q4) Explain the arguments both for and against affirmative action.
Q5) Using the concepts of de jure and de facto discrimination, compare the experiences of two of the following racial minority groups: African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and American Indians.
Q6) Describe the barriers to voting faced by African Americans after the Civil War.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jewish voters tend to
A) vote for candidates who are politically conservative.
B) vote at a lower rate than Protestants.
C) focus almost totally on domestic issues.
D) be more liberal than average on economic and cultural issues.
E) be similar to the overall population in political preferences.
Q2) Explore the means by which political socialization occurs in the United States.
Q3) The process by which people acquire political beliefs and attitudes is called
A) opinion leadership.
B) political socialization.
C) agenda setting.
D) peer grouping.
E) consensus building.
Q4) Recent allegations of polling fraud have included
A) concerns about secret in-house weights being added to results.
B) concerns that results were fabricated.
C) concerns that reader surveys are being published as scientific polls.
D) Skype users flooding poll results with duplicate entries.
E) Options B and C are true.
Q5) Explain how demographic influences shape voting behavior.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Interest Groups
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Q1) In an effort to reduce the power of special interests, the Obama administration
A) tried to prevent former lobbyists from holding positions in the administration.
B) introduced legislation to ban all lobbying.
C) refused to meet with any lobbyists on any issue.
D) created the Bureau of Lobbying Interests to oversee lobbying and recommend reforms.
E) Both A and D.
Q2) Legislators and government officials are often more impressed by contacts from A) constituents than interest groups.
B) aides to the Supreme Court than the bar association in their district.
C) lobbyists who threaten to take their case to the public than their constituents.
D) reporters who leak classified information to the press than the media in general.
E) representatives from foreign governments than lobbyists from American interests.
Q3) Describe the categories of economic interest groups and provide examples of each.
Q4) Explain the indirect techniques used by interest groups.
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) All of the following statements about the early Republican Party are true <B>except</B>
A) it was initially led by Thomas Jefferson.
B) it supported a strong, more active central government.
C) it was supported by artisans and farmers.
D) it supported states' rights.
E) in office, its members acquired Louisiana and established a national bank.
Q2) Examples of party polarization include all of the following<B> except</B>
A) party-line voting.
B) the end of overlapping party ideologies.
C) the rise of extreme ideology in the Republican Party.
D) the rise of liberal Republicans.
E) All of the above are true.
Q3) The two-party system
A) emerged as a consequence of the form of government created by the Constitution.
B) is a requirement in the Constitution.
C) emerged in the twentieth century.
D) was favored by George Washington.
E) Options A and D are true.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Campaigns and Elections
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following groups tends to be overrepresented in the electorate?
A) wealthier people
B) people under the age of sixty-five
C) very young voters aged eighteen to twenty-four
D) the poor and homeless
E) Hispanics
Q2) Using the voting-age population to measure voter turnout is flawed because it
A) contains felons who have lost the right to vote.
B) contains non-citizen immigrants, who cannot vote.
C) does not contain potential voting citizens living abroad.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.
Q3) Compare the features of two different types of primary elections and craft an argument in support of one of these.
Q4) The use of the party-column ballot has been shown to ________________________.
A) increase the coattail effect.
B) decrease the coattail effect.
C) decrease straight-ticket voting.
D) increase voter turnout.
E) Both B and C.
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Chapter 10: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since the "daisy girl" political advertisement in 1964, we have seen _________________ because _________________.
A) a decline in negative advertising; it is perceived as having little or no effect
B) a decline in negative advertising; it only harms the campaign that "goes negative"
C) an increase in negative advertising; it is perceived as effective
D) a decline in both positive and negative political advertising; they are perceived as ineffective
E) a decline in both positive and negative political advertising; they are too costly
Q2) A brief, memorable comment that can easily fit into news broadcasts is known as A) a media bite.
B) a sound bite.
C) a quick quote.
D) a sound frame.
E) a media frame.
Q3) Discuss the principle of net neutrality and argue whether such a principle should or should not be enforced by law.
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Chapter 11: The Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) The whips assist the party leaders by
A) voting to support the party platform at the national convention.
B) attempting to convince the general public that congresspersons should vote the party line.
C) passing information to and from members of Congress in accordance with the desires of the leadership of the party.
D) gathering research information.
E) pressuring them to take positions popular among the party rank-and-file.
Q2) The people whom a legislator represents and spends considerable time and effort serving are called
A) delegates.
B) trustees.
C) constituents.
D) representatives.
E) members.
Q3) Explain the roles played by the members of the House and Senate leadership.
Q4) Describe the history of the term gerrymandering and how it has been used in practice.
Q5) Explain the functions and rules regarding filibuster, cloture, and reconciliation.
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Chapter 12: The President
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Q1) A president's consultations with the cabinet are
A) required by federal law.
B) required by the Constitution.
C) funneled through the vice president, as demanded by the Constitution.
D) entirely at the discretion of the president.
E) Both B and C.
Q2) A constitutional amendment to clarify the way votes are cast in the electoral college was necessary because
A) there was no way to tell which votes were for president and which were for vice president.
B) there was a tie in the electoral votes in the election of 1800.
C) large states did not have fair representation in the electoral college.
D) in three elections no candidate received a majority of votes for the president.
E) Options A and B are true.
Q3) Analyze the president's functions as party chief and superpolitician.
Q4) Detail the reasons and ways in which a vice president may assume the presidency, without actually winning election to that office.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: The Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The spoils system is sometimes called
A) nepotism.
B) political capital.
C) patronage.
D) the civil service.
E) the Pendleton system.
Q2) Through negotiated rulemaking, federal agencies have begun encouraging businesses and public interest groups to become directly involved in
A) taking responsibility for their own self-regulation.
B) drafting the regulations that affect them.
C) lobbying Congress to relax regulations.
D) lobbying the president concerning bureaucratic reorganization.
E) administering regulations.
Q3) Enabling legislation
A) provides appropriations to federal agencies.
B) is proposed by departments wishing to increase their budgets.
C) is enacted by the president.
D) provides authorization for new federal agencies.
E) All of the above are true.
Q4) Describe the manner(s) in which Congress attempts to control the bureaucracy.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: The Courts
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Q1) Describe the process of appointing judges to the federal courts. Explain how the process is fraught with partisan bickering.
Q2) The power of judicial review
A) is not specifically listed in the Constitution.
B) is the judicial power to review the constitutionality of laws or actions by other branches of government.
C) was claimed by the Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison.
D) All of the above.
E) None of the above.
Q3) Is it legitimate that the U.S. Supreme Court possesses the power of judicial review? Why, or why not?
Q4) Jurisdiction refers to
A) rules and principles announced in court decisions.
B) the authority of a court to hear and decide a particular class of cases.
C) the constitutionality of a law.
D) statutory law.
E) common law.
Q5) Should federal judges serve for lifetime or be term-limited? Thoroughly explain your answer.
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Chapter 15: Domestic and Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The number of incarcerated persons in the United States
A) includes an equal number of African American males and females.
B) has increased requiring more prisons to be built.
C) has declined in recent years.
D) is greater in federal prisons than state prisons.
E) is growing mostly due to arrests to prevent terrorism.
Q2) Agenda building
A) is making Congress aware that a problem requires congressional action.
B) may occur as a result of a crisis.
C) may occur as a result of a technological change.
D) may occur through a mass media campaign.
E) All of the above are true.
Q3) Detail the efforts made during the Obama administration to address environmental problems and the controversy surrounding such efforts.
Q4) With a progressive tax
A) all taxpayers pay taxes at the same percentage rate.
B) people with higher incomes pay taxes at a higher percentage rate.
C) people with higher incomes pay taxes at a lower percentage rate.
D) the tax burden consists mostly of property and sales taxes.
E) tax rates increase by a set percentage every year.
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Foreign Policy
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Q1) Presidents have been largely successful in getting treaties
A) approved by the World Court.
B) through both the House and the Senate.
C) approved by the Supreme Court.
D) through the Senate.
E) approved by the State Department.
Q2) Terrorism
A) is a systematic attempt to inspire fear to gain political ends.
B) typically includes indiscriminate use of violence against non-combatants.
C) is a term that was coined to refer to radicals who were in control of the government at the height of the French Revolution (1789-1799).
D) Options A and B are true.
E) Options A, B, and C are true.
Q3) American isolationism permanently ended
A) with the onset of the Great Depression.
B) with the bombing of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor.
C) when the United States entered the United Nations.
D) when France and the United States signed a mutual alliance pact.
E) with the Korean War.
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