Contemporary Issues in American Government Study Guide Questions
Course Introduction
This course examines the most pressing and significant issues facing American government today, such as partisanship, political polarization, civil rights, immigration, campaign finance, and the influence of the media. Students will analyze the origins, impacts, and debates surrounding these contemporary challenges within the framework of the U.S. political system, exploring how governmental institutions, public opinion, and interest groups interact to shape policy outcomes. The course emphasizes critical thinking and informed discussion, encouraging students to engage with diverse perspectives on current events and to understand the evolving nature of American democracy.
Recommended Textbook
The Challenge of Democracy American Government in Global Politics 13th Edition by Kenneth Janda
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Chapter 1: Freedom, Order, or Equality
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Q1) Services that benefit all citizens and are not likely to be produced by the voluntary acts of individuals are known as
A)public goods.
B)communism.
C)social welfare.
D)private benefits.
E)volunteered materials.
Answer: A
Q2) An underlying assumption of the text is that perfect freedom and order can never be achieved because
A)no government structure is perfectly designed.
B)some political officials will always be corrupt or incompetent.
C)these two values are inherently in conflict and cannot be provided simultaneously.
D)these terms refer essentially to the same thing.
E)upper-class citizens do not want parity with lower-class citizens.
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: Majoritarian or Pluralist Democracy
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Q1) Bible readings in public schools would violate a _________ principle,freedom of religion.
A)democratic
B)procedural
C)doctrinal
D)substantive
E)pluralist
Answer: D
Q2) The ancient Greeks classified governments as autocracies,oligarchies,or democracies based on
A)the fundamental purposes for which the government was instituted.
B)the extent of government power.
C)the types of elected officeholders.
D)the kinds of decisions the government was responsible for.
E)the number of citizens involved in governing.
Answer: E
Q3) Identify and discuss some of the problems with participatory democracy,and ways to respond to those problems.
Answer: Answers will vary.
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Page 4
Chapter 3: The Constitution
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Q1) The first fighting in the American Revolution happened in ________ in early 1775.
A)Georgia
B)New York
C)Texas
D)Virginia
E)Massachusetts
Answer: E
Q2) The plan presented at the Constitutional Convention generally favored by large states was
A)the Connecticut Compromise
B)the New Jersey Plan
C)the Three-fifths Compromise
D)the Virginia Plan
E)the Annapolis Compromise
Answer: D
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Federalism
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Q1) Which of the following is not an essential premise of dual federalism?
A)The Constitution is the creation of the people of the United States.
B)The national government rules by enumerated powers only.
C)The national government has a limited set of constitutional purposes.
D)Each government unit, both nation and state, is sovereign within its sphere.
E)The relationship between nation and state is best characterized by tension.
Q2) In recent years,the Supreme Court has denied states the power to execute individuals who are
A)mentally disabled.
B)poor and uneducated.
C)from broken homes.
D)seventeen years old.
E)mentally disabled and/or seventeen years old.
Q3) Conflicts related to power-sharing between states and the national government are settled by
A)the president.
B)a committee of state governors.
C)a congressional conference committee.
D)the supreme court.
E)the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Chapter 5: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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Q1) One critique that pluralists make of the public as a whole is that
A)subgroups within the public do not express opinions on specific matters.
B)the public simplifies complex issues into too-neat, easy solutions.
C)the public tends to overwhelmingly focus on a handful of policy issues and ignore the rest.
D)the public seldom demonstrates clear, consistent opinions on daily issues of government.
E)public opinion has moved increasingly against minority rights in recent decades.
Q2) About _______ of immigrants in America are undocumented.
A)5 percent
B)a quarter
C)a third
D)half
E)three quarters
Q3) Explain what skewed,bimodal,and normal distributions are.
Q4) Identify and discuss the factors that can cause polls results to be wrong.
Q5) How is geographic region related to Americans' political beliefs?
Q6) How is education related to attitudes toward social order and economic freedom?
Q7) Discuss issue framing and how it can be used by politicians and others.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: The Media
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Q1) Officials send out __________ when they intentionally leak news to gauge the reaction of the public or other political leaders.
A)trial balloons
B)air memos
C)opinion hounds
D)ghost polls
E)lead balloons
Q2) In response to financial stress,some have suggested that newspapers operate as ___________,allowing them to be funded through endowments,donations,and perhaps government support.
A)for-profit enterprises
B)members of chains
C)nonprofits
D)online-only venues
E)ideological think tanks
Q3) What does research show with respect to the political leanings of major news media reporters?
Q4) How are political blogs influencing news reporting and politics?
Q5) Describe the history and current influence of radio on American politics.
Q6) Explain what is meant by the media playing the role of gatekeeper.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Participation and Voting
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Q1) __________ is political action that expresses allegiance to country and government.
A)Direct action
B)Unconventional participation
C)Terrorism
D)Supportive behavior
E)Influencing behavior
Q2) A 2013 supreme court decision regarding the Voting Rights Act allowed numerous states to
A)approve more generous voting restoration rights for felons who have served their full sentences.
B)reinstate the all-white primary election.
C)enforce new voter identification laws.
D)legalize voting by mail.
E)restrict voting only to residents of an elected official's home district.
Q3) Summarize the expansion of voting rights by describing federal government actions that granted the franchise to those who had been denied suffrage.
Q4) What do we know about trends in voter turnout and other forms of political participation from 1952 to 2012?
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain what a party machine is and how such machines generally lost power over time.
Q2) During the Jacksonian Era,parties had to appeal to much larger numbers of voters,and one response was using _________ to select presidential candidates.
A)party caucuses
B)national primaries
C)state-by-state primaries
D)national conventions
E)congressional caucuses
Q3) In his first run for the presidency,Andrew Jackson
A)won a majority of the electoral votes and became president.
B)won a plurality of the popular vote but was not chosen as president by the House of Representatives.
C)was chosen president by the House of Representatives.
D)became president after a run-off election.
E)lost the presidency because an elector changed his official vote.
Q4) How has party identification changed amongst white southerners from 1952 to the present?
Q5) Discuss the functions served by political parties in today's political system.
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Chapter 9: Nominations, Elections, and Campaigns
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Q1) Entering the 2012 general election,Obama and Romney both focused on nine states that voted for Bush in 2004 but for Obama in 2008.Closely contested states like these are known as
A)swing states.
B)battleground states.
C)consultant states.
D)leverage states.
E)swing states and battleground states.
Q2) In modern elections,candidates _______________ to learn about voters' interests.
A)consult local party officials
B)commission public opinion polls
C)canvass door-to-door noting reactions they receive
D)rely on national party organizations
E)depend on media coverage
Q3) Discuss what we know about how voters make choices about which candidates they support.
Q4) Present three arguments for selecting a president by electoral votes rather than by popular vote.
Q5) Summarize the story of the Florida recount in the 2000 election.
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Chapter 10: Interest Groups
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Q1) The greater the potential number of members of a group,the more likely that individuals will ___________________.
A)contribute to the activities of the group
B)see the group as influential
C)make a financial contribution
D)decide to be free riders
E)question the sincerity of commitment to the stated goals of the group of its leaders
Q2) When the air you breathe is made cleaner as a result of lobbying done by an interest group to which you do not belong,you are an example of
A)a program monitor.
B)an interest group entrepreneur.
C)the PAC problem.
D)a freeloader.
E)a free rider.
Q3) Identify and discuss the variables that contribute to ability of interest groups to successfully organize.
Q4) Why has there been a significant increase in Washington,D.C.based health-care lobbyists over the years?
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Chapter 11: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) About __________ of Congress are millionaires.
A)5 percent
B)20 percent
C)32 percent
D)50 percent
E)69 percent
Q2) The 113th Congress is considered by some to be ___________,compared to the general population.
A)the most diverse in history
B)about as diverse as previous sessions
C)far less diverse
D)almost perfectly representative
E)of uncertain diversity because of legal restrictions on asking demographic questions
Q3) The vice president
A)has no formal constitutional title over the U.S. Senate.
B)has the ability to select Senate committee chairmen.
C)can break tie votes in the Senate.
D)frequently visits the Senate to lobby on behalf of the president.
E)can veto Senate resolutions.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe four major duties and/or powers the Constitution conveys on the president.
Q2) It takes a _________ vote of Congress to overturn a presidential veto.
A)one-third
B)majority
C)three-fifths
D)two-thirds
E)three-fourths
Q3) Discuss the expansion of presidential power that took place during the Lincoln administration and the Civil War.
Q4) What are Inherent Powers? Give some examples of how have they been implemented by presidents in the years since the terrorist attacks of September 11,2001.
Q5) ________ describes a situation in which government is incapable of acting on important issues.
A)Partisanship
B)Gridlock
C)Honeymoon period
D)Polarization
E)Fundamentalism
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Page 14
Chapter 13: The Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Presidents can exert considerable influence over agency policymaking by
A)appointing administrators sympathetic to their policy goals.
B)requiring agencies to submit draft regulations to a White House office.
C)announcing surprise audits of agency budgets.
D)putting pressure on agency heads to fire civil servants who defy the president's wishes.
E)appointing administrators sympathetic to their policy goals and requiring agencies to submit draft regulations to a White House office.
Q2) Government regulation of business grew in response to the realization that A)a laissez-faire approach does not always result in competitive markets.
B)business cannot be trusted to seek profits.
C)members of the public deserve a say in everything that affects them.
D)American competitiveness requires a government role in business.
E)government study of business practices will increase government efficiency.
Q3) What does the text mean when it refers to "bureaucratic culture"? Provide some examples of how norms affect bureaucratic behavior.
Q4) Discuss the impact of deregulation in the telephone and food and drug industries.
Q5) Describe what the Pendleton Act (1883)was,and how it helped reduce patronage.
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Chapter 14: The Courts
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss judicial activism and judicial restraint,and explain what role political ideology plays,if any,in whether an opinion is considered to be representative of either.
Q2) To appeal means to
A)make a plea on national television.
B)take a case to a higher court.
C)submit a "friend of the court" brief.
D)argue a case before a judge or a court.
E)ask for a reduction in the sentence imposed.
Q3) Explain the relationship between public opinion and Supreme Court decisions.
Q4) What is the principle of stare decisis?
Q5) Within eight months of the _________ Supreme Court decision,more than two dozen constitutional amendments had been introduced in Congress,although none passed.
A)Roe v. Wade
B)Brown v. Board of Education
C)Marbury v. Madison
D)Bush v. Gore
E)None of these choices is true.
Q6) Discuss the process through which judges are appointed to the federal judiciary.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Order and Civil Liberties
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Q1) A reporter obtained information from a confidential source pertaining to an ongoing criminal grand jury investigation.The free press standard that the reporter must adhere to in this situation requires that the reporter
A)go to jail for contempt rather than reveal the information.
B)divulge the information from the source but not give the name of the source.
C)give whatever testimony the reporter is capable of giving.
D)divulge information only if the name of the confidential source is revealed first.
E)decline to appear before the grand jury.
Q2) Powers and privileges guaranteed to the individual and protected against arbitrary removal at the hands of the government or other individuals are best defined as A)civil rights.
B)human rights.
C)civil liberties.
D)negative liberties.
E)inalienable rights.
Q3) Discuss the dispute and outcome of two Supreme Court decisions governing constitutional guarantees for criminal defendants.
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Chapter 16: Equality and Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) Demands for women's rights were born in large part from
A)the abolitionist movement.
B)debates held during the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
C)the aftermath of the Civil War and the growth of freedom that ensued.
D)the largely African-American-inspired Civil Rights movement.
E)anger over defeat of the Suffragist Movement.
Q2) In the years after the Civil War,the Supreme Court ruled that government could prohibit
A)all forms of racial discrimination.
B)private acts of racial discrimination.
C)acts of omission by a state.
D)only governmental acts that discriminated on the basis of race.
E)private acts of racial discrimination and acts of omission by a state.
Q3) Civil disobedience is
A)the willful but nonviolent breach of "unjust" laws.
B)the failure to fulfill a contractual agreement.
C)engaging in actions that are unlikely to promote social change.
D)violent societal protest, such as staging a riot.
E)the lawful refusal to follow a court order.
Q4) What were the major provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) A tax where the rich pay proportionately higher taxes as a share of their income than the poor is also known as a(n)
A)regressive tax.
B)payroll tax.
C)flat tax.
D)progressive tax.
E)decoupled tax.
Q2) Explain the difference between laissez-faire economics and Keynesian economics.
Q3) The text suggests that no one in Congress is responsible for the budget as a whole because
A)one group in each house plans for revenues, and many other groups plan for spending.
B)the executive branch dominates the process at every point.
C)committee chairpersons make the critical decisions in secret.
D)the election cycle creates too much turnover in membership.
E)informal norms prevent members from revealing the sources of key decisions.
Q4) Explain some of the ways America's tax policies have traditionally favored the wealthy.
Q5) What are the three ways the Fed controls the money supply?
Q6) Explain the basic premises of supply-side economics.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Policymaking and Domestic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Among those who are less likely to have health insurance are A)young people.
B)African Americans.
C)Hispanics.
D)families with incomes under $50,000
E)All of these choices are true.
Q2) Suppose a state decides to reduce tax credits for low-income workers in order to finance tax cuts for businesses and corporations; this would be an example of a A)distributive policy.
B)redistributional policy.
C)public assistance policy.
D)social welfare policy.
E)None of these choices is true.
Q3) Who,other than the poor,are recipients of public assistance,and what types of assistance do they receive?
Q4) How is the poverty level measured,and why has criticism developed concerning the current formula?
Q5) Identify and define the four stages in the policymaking process.
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