Foundations of American Democracy
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
Foundations of American Democracy explores the historical, philosophical, and institutional roots of the American political system. The course examines the development of democratic ideals and practices in the United States, focusing on key documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Federalist Papers. Students analyze the influence of Enlightenment thought, debates over federalism, the evolution of civil liberties and rights, and the enduring challenges of balancing majority rule with minority protections. Through case studies and critical discussion, the course provides a comprehensive understanding of how foundational principles continue to shape contemporary American government and civic life.
Recommended Textbook
American Government and Politics Today The Essentials 17th Edition by Barbara A. Bardes
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Chapter 1: The Democratic Republic
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Q1) Describe the consequence to the daily life of an average citizen in a country without the Bill of Rights.
Answer: The Bill of Rights remains an active force in contemporary American life as a major element of CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The meaning of its protections remains hotly debated. For example, the privilege to bear arms to support a militia, which appears in the second amendment, produces significant political controversy today. More sweepingly, the extension of the Bill of Rights to protect individuals from abuse not only by the federal government, but also from state and local governments remains an unsettled aspect of Constitutional interpretation. Originally, the protections were solely meant to limit the federal government, but with the fourteenth amendment's guarantee in 1868 that no state could deprive its citizens of the protections in the Bill of Rights this original view began to be expanded. To this day the SUPREME COURT has not definitively decided if the entire Bill of Rights should always be applied to all levels of government.
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) The group that actually elects the president of the United States is called
A) the Presidential Election Commission.
B) the Congressional Election Forum.
C) the Association of State Legislatures.
D) the electoral college.
E) the electorate at large.
Answer: D
Q2) The Founders designed the system of electors to select the president because A) they hoped the people would lobby the electors.
B) they hoped the people would delegate the selection to a group of notable citizens.
C) they believed in direct democracy.
D) they wanted a system for selecting presidents identical to Britain.
E) All of the above are true.
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) Give examples of powers reserved for state governments and provide the Constitutional source of that power.
Answer: Powers reserved for state governments include the ability to regulate intrastate commerce, establish and maintain public schools, and conduct elections. These powers are derived from the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that any powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states or the people. Additionally, state governments have the power to establish and maintain a militia, regulate intrastate transportation, and manage public health and safety, among other responsibilities.
Q2) All of the following are true of a confederation or confederate political system, \(\bold{except}\)
A) a confederation is a league of independent states.
B) in a confederation, a central government handles only matters delegated to it by the member states.
C) the United States was a confederation.
D) a confederation gives most of the power to the member states.
E) a confederate system is the same thing as a federal system.
Answer: E
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Q1) Symbolic speech is
A) a law that is worded in a vague manner.
B) an area of expression that is not protected by the First Amendment.
C) the nonverbal expression of beliefs.
D) usually an expression of obscenity.
E) not applicable to flag burning.
Q2) Right-to-life advocates
A) continue to push for laws restricting abortion.
B) endorse candidates who support their views.
C) organize protests.
D) argue that bans on specific procedures are not effective.
E) Options A, B, and C are true.
Q3) The teaching of evolution in public schools
A) violates the establishment clause of the Constitution.
B) may be taught side by side with creationist theory.
C) violates the free exercise clause of the Constitution.
D) was addressed in Epperson v. Arkansas and various court cases since 1968.
E) All the above are true.
Q4) Describe the religious freedom protections afforded in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Q1) Today there are __________ Native Americans living in the United States.
A) 30 million
B) 13 million
C) 800 thousand
D) 3.2 million
E) 300 million
Q2) All of the following are true of the 1964 and 1968 Civil Rights Acts \(\bold{except}\)
A) the right to equality of opportunity in employment was included.
B) discrimination in public accommodations was banned.
C) it allowed state governments to control school integration.
D) discrimination in housing was banned.
E) it provided penalties for those attempting to interfere with civil rights workers.
Q3) In an attempt to achieve integration,
A) students were sent to the school that was near to where they lived.
B) busing students across neighborhoods was ordered by the courts.
C) methods were determined by local committees of parents.
D) busing was peacefully accomplished in many big cities.
E) All the above are true.
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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Q1) The results of an opinion poll
A) are usually reported in terms of a specific number.
B) should be reported as a range of numbers to be more accurate.
C) usually are accompanied by a specific margin of error.
D) may be reported daily as a tracking poll.
E) All of the above are true.
Q2) Discuss four things that influence one's public opinion.
Q3) Which of the following is true?
A) Telephone polling began to predominate over in-person polling in the 1940s.
B) Telephone polling remains a popular option even though it is more expensive and takes more time than in-person polling.
C) With the pervasiveness of telemarketing, people have now grown accustomed to being solicited over the telephone and respond well to telephone polling.
D) Those conducting telephone polls have designed technological improvements that allow them to bypass caller ID and other forms of call screening.
E) Cell phone numbers are not included in random digit dialing programs or listed in telephone directories, limiting the ability of telephone polls to reach many people.
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Interest Groups
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Q1) A free rider is
A) an interest group member.
B) a participant in a social movement.
C) someone granted free passage to Washington to lobby or demonstrate.
D) someone who benefits from the actions of a group without joining it.
E) a civil rights activist.
Q2) All of the following are true of the AARP \(\bold{except}\)
A) most people who join AARP are doing so based on material incentives.
B) the AARP is the largest interest group in the United States.
C) the AARP provides discounts and insurance plans for members.
D) the AARP can claim it represents millions of senior citizens.
E) most people join the AARP because of its free rider policy.
Q3) The Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007
A) requires lobbyists to report their activities annually.
B) requires Congress to post lobbying information on the Internet.
C) significantly changed the culture in Washington.
D) requires that all pork spending proposals be reported to the President.
E) limits spending by lobbyists to $100,000 per quarter.
Q4) Describe the categories of economic interest groups and provide examples of each.
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Q1) Third parties have influenced American politics by
A) refusing to allow their policies to be adopted by a major party.
B) sometimes determining whether the Republicans or Democrats win an election.
C) focusing their efforts on getting judges appointed to the bench rather than winning elections for the executive or legislative branches.
D) winning elections to state legislative bodies.
E) gaining control of several municipal governments.
Q2) 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.
Q3) Progressivism was
A) a response to the growing power of corporations.
B) embraced by Teddy Roosevelt.
C) a belief that honest, impartial government could regulate the economy.
D) Options A and B are true.
E) All of the above are true.
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Campaigns, Elections, and the Media
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Q1) If a candidate is a highly visible incumbent seeking reelection,
A) the strategy will be to get the incumbent's name before the voters as much as possible.
B) a front porch campaign has been proven most effective.
C) there may be little need for campaigning except to remind the voters of the officeholder's good deeds.
D) the strategy will be to keep as low a profile as possible.
E) the incumbent must devote almost every moment to campaigning to avoid seeming overly confident and arrogant.
Q2) All of the following statements are true \(\bold{except}\)
A) Voter I.D. laws are likely to suppress the vote of low-income voters.
B) The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Indiana voter ID law.
C) Voter I.D. laws are favored by Republicans.
D) Voter I.D. laws are favored by Democrats.
E) Voter I.D. laws are likely to suppress the vote of minority voters.
Q3) Explain the ways in which new media (Internet, blogs, podcasts) are used in campaigns.
Q4) How has the advent of online fundraising changed the process of raising campaign funds? Which candidates have used the technique with great success?
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Chapter 10: The Congress
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Q1) All of the following are true of bicameralism \(\bold{except}\)
A) it establishes two bodies in the legislature.
B) the Framers wished to balance the interests and the numerical superiority of the common citizens with the property interests of the less numerous landowners, bankers, and merchants.
C) it provided for House members to be directly elected by the people.
D) it set up different ways to amend the Constitution.
E) originally, senators were to be chosen by elected representatives in the state legislatures who would more likely be members of the elite.
Q2) The real leadership power in the Senate rests in the hands of the
A) president of the Senate.
B) president pro tempore of the Senate.
C) senator designate selected by the president.
D) Senate majority leader.
E) speaker of the Senate.
Q3) Explain the causes of the increase in the federal deficit during the presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Q4) Explain how a bill becomes a law.
Q5) Explain the roles played by the members of the House and Senate leadership.
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Chapter 11: The President
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Q1) Which of the following is true?
A) A person that is born in another country but becomes a U.S. citizen may run for president.
B) A person born in U.S. territories is not considered a natural born citizen.
C) A person born in the United States but has lived abroad for fourteen years may not become president.
D) A person who is born on U.S. soil or is born to American parents may become president.
E) All of the above are true.
Q2) Contrast the importance of the cabinet and the Executive Office of the President.
Q3) Analyze the circumstances in which impeachment has been used throughout our history.
Q4) A veto is
A) usually employed to punish members of the president's party who disagree with him.
B) more likely when the president's party controls Congress.
C) a clear-cut indication of the president's dissatisfaction with legislation.
D) likely to be overridden about half the time.
E) required to be used at least once during each president's term.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy
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Q1) All of the following statements about political appointees are true \(\bold{except}\)
A) they have been called the "aristocracy" of the federal government.
B) they are sometimes appointed as a reward for campaign contributions or other political favors.
C) they will probably occupy their position for a brief time compared to career civil servants.
D) career civil servants sometimes ignore their wishes.
E) their major source of authority is the ease with which they can fire civil servants.
Q2) When the industry that is being regulated gains control over the agency that is supposed to regulate it, the process is called A) cooption.
B) capture.
C) complacency.
D) collusion.
E) pork.
Q3) Explain the concepts of iron triangles and issue networks. What could be done to change the iron triangles?
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Chapter 13: The Courts
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Q1) In 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that the Bush administration's treatment of Guantánamo detainees violated the U.S. Constitution. In response to this,
A) Congress passed legislation that said prisoners' challenges to their detention would be reviewed by military commissions.
B) new measures passed by Congress to restrict the federal courts' jurisdiction over detainees were declared illegal.
C) the Obama administration abolished the category of enemy combatant in 2009.
D) President Obama claimed in May 2009 the right to detain certain accused terrorists held at Guantánamo indefinitely without trial, possibly in a prison on the mainland.
E) All of the above are true.
Q2) Indications are that the Roberts Court will
A) continue the Burger Court's shift to the left.
B) moderate conservative ideology on the environment and capital punishment.
C) sustain the Reagan Court's moderation on defendants' rights.
D) flip-flop ideologically.
E) continue the Rehnquist Court's shift to the right.
Q3) How do recent Supreme Court decisions show how the Court has moved rightward?
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Chapter 14: Domestic and Economic Policy
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Q1) Which of the following statements regarding incarceration is true?
A) Incarceration does not prevent average predatory street criminals from committing additional crimes once they are out of prison.
B) The majority of prisoners are incarcerated for their full sentence.
C) Incarceration rates for African Americans are much lower than for any other ethnic group.
D) The majority of people arrested and sent to jail have committed the crime of theft.
E) Overcrowding is not an issue in prisons.
Q2) Which of the following is not an entitlement program?
A) Medicare
B) Social Security
C) Income tax refunds
D) Unemployment compensation
E) They all are entitlement programs.
Q3) Examine the federal budget deficit, why it occurred and what measures should be taken to bring it down.
Q4) Assess the advantages and disadvantages of a nation having a substantial immigrant population.
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Chapter 15: Foreign Policy
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Q1) Terrorism
A) is a systematic attempt to inspire fear to gain political ends.
B) typically includes indiscriminate use of violence against noncombatants.
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) Both options A and B are true.
E) Options A, B, and C are true.
Q2) A major theme in U.S. foreign policy
A) in the early years, was aimed at getting very involved in foreign entanglements.
B) in the twentieth century, has been increasing global involvement.
C) has been inconsistent and changes with the current president.
D) attempts to make the United States a major supporter of pollution control and global warming.
E) today focuses on bringing immigrants from other countries to the United States to help fill low paying jobs.
Q3) Explain the constitutional clash of powers between the president and Congress in the area of foreign policymaking.
Q4) What problems might there be if the draft was used again in the United States?
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