Foundations of American Government Mock Exam
Course Introduction
This course explores the historical and philosophical foundations of the American government, examining the development of the U.S. Constitution, the principles of federalism, and the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Key topics include the influence of Enlightenment thought, the constitutional convention, and the evolution of civil liberties and rights. Students will analyze significant documents, such as the Federalist Papers and the Bill of Rights, to understand the structure and function of American political institutions and the ongoing challenges related to democracy, representation, and governance.
Recommended Textbook
We the People 11th Essentials Edition by Benjamin Ginsberg
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
14 Chapters
1101 Verified Questions
1101 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/1008
Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction: the Citizen and Government
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
73 Verified Questions
73 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19986
Sample Questions
Q1) The existence of slavery in the United States is a good example of how
A) American values are not always reflected in practice.
B) Americans have never valued liberty.
C) European ideals have influenced American political culture.
D) political needs are often placed above economic needs.
Answer: A
Q2) The Bill of Rights was designed to protect
A) equality.
B) liberty.
C) democracy.
D) capitalism.
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following statements best describes naturalization laws in the United States prior to 1870?
A) All free people could become naturalized citizens after living in the country for at least five years.
B) Only free whites could become naturalized citizens.
C) Only freed African American slaves could become naturalized citizens.
D) Only Native Americans could become naturalized citizens.
Answer: B
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 3
Chapter 2: The Founding and the Constitution
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
102 Verified Questions
102 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19987
Sample Questions
Q1) What did the New Jersey Plan propose for Congress?
A) Representation would be equal for each state.
B) Representation would be based on population.
C) Representation would be proportionate to the share of taxes paid by each state to the federal government.
D) Representatives to Congress would be appointed by the state legislatures.
Answer: A
Q2) Federal judges are appointed by the ________ and must be approved by the
A) Senate: president
B) president: Senate
C) president: House of Representatives
D) president: Supreme Court
Answer: B
Q3) The three branches of government created by the Constitution are
A) constitutional, elected, and appointed.
B) executive, legislative, and judicial.
C) federal, state, and local.
D) military, courts, and bureaucracy.
Answer: B
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
94 Verified Questions
94 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19988
Sample Questions
Q1) ________ compels state governments to obey costly federal regulations but does not reimburse those costs.
A) A grant-in-aid
B) An unfunded mandate
C) A block grant
D) General revenue sharing
Answer: B
Q2) The power of Congress to regulate commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and with Native American tribes is found in ________ of the U.S. Constitution.
A) Article I
B) the Preamble
C) the First Amendment
D) the Tenth Amendment
Answer: A
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
131 Verified Questions
131 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19989
Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ forbade workplace discrimination based on race.
A) Fourteenth Amendment
B) Civil Rights Act of 1875
C) Civil Rights Act of 1964
D) Nineteenth Amendment
Q2) What were the Alien and Sedition Acts?
A) laws passed in the 1790s that made it a crime to say or publish anything that would defame the government of the United States
B) laws that made it a crime for foreign immigrants to belong to the Communist Party or other anti-American organizations
C) laws passed during the Civil War denying Confederate sympathizers the right to free speech
D) a law passed by Congress in 1921 that restricted immigration to the United States
Q3) The Supreme Court has not given full protection to fighting words because
A) such words are not part of the essential exposition of ideas.
B) they are a form of sedition.
C) they are a form of obscenity.
D) they are necessarily slanderous.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 6
Chapter 5: Public Opinion
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
59 Verified Questions
59 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19990
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about public opinion in America is true?
A) The average American's political knowledge is fairly high.
B) Citizens with low levels of knowledge are generally better able to evaluate new information and determine its relevancy to their beliefs.
C) Citizens with high levels of knowledge are generally better able to evaluate new information to determine its relevancy to their beliefs.
D) Almost 90 percent of Americans can name their U.S. senators.
Q2) A frequent cause of measurement error in polls is due to A) unresponsiveness.
B) poorly worded questions.
C) push polling.
D) the increased use of cell phones.
Q3) ________ generally support abortion rights and oppose state involvement with religious institutions.
A) Liberals
B) Conservatives
C) Socialists
D) Internationalists
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: The Media
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
51 Verified Questions
51 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19991
Sample Questions
Q1) Despite its widespread availability, ________ typically provide(s) the least depth of news coverage.
A) radio
B) television
C) the Internet
D) newspapers
Q2) The content and character of news programming can have far-reaching political consequences. Discuss three kinds of media effects and give a detailed example of each. Is there any bias in the kind of issues media chooses to report? Explain.
Q3) Large media conglomerates own approximately ________ percent of daily newspapers.
A) 25
B) 40
C) 55
D) 75
Q4) Evaluate the three types of traditional (i.e., nondigital) news sources in the United States. What are some of the distinct characteristics of each medium? How do the sources differ from each other in terms of the ways in which they disseminate news as well as the audiences they reach?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: Political Parties, Participation, and Elections
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
101 Verified Questions
101 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19992
Sample Questions
Q1) During midterm elections, voters are selecting
A) federal judges.
B) members of Congress.
C) the president.
D) national-level referendums.
Q2) The idea behind micro-targeting is to
A) send different campaign messages to different demographic groups of voters.
B) send hundreds of very short messages to the largest possible number of voters.
C) spend as little money as possible on advertising and to instead maximize "free media" coverage.
D) raise money through thousands of small donations rather than a small number of large donations.
Q3) ________ warned Americans against the dangers of political parties in his farewell address.
A) George Washington
B) Thomas Jefferson
C) James Madison
D) James Monroe
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
9
Chapter 8: Interest Groups
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19993
Sample Questions
Q1) AARP has approximately ________ members today.
A) 38,000
B) 338,000
C) 3,800,000
D) 38,000,000
Q2) In recent years, the religious right has had a great effect on American politics through
A) grassroots mobilization.
B) gaining access.
C) campaign financing.
D) iron triangles.
Q3) The practice of lobbying is protected by
A) the First Amendment.
B) state and federal laws dating from the 1930s.
C) internal rules of Congress.
D) a 1961 Supreme Court decision.
Q4) What are some of the historical reasons for the proliferation of interest groups during the 1960s? Using examples of specific organizations, explain how the groups that emerged in the 1960s differed from the groups that preceded them.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 10
Chapter 9: Congress
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
75 Verified Questions
75 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19994
Sample Questions
Q1) Approximately ____ percent of the ____ bills introduced in a typical congressional session die in committee.
A) 50; 1,000
B) 85; 1,000
C) 50; 10,000
D) 85; 10,000
Q2) Who has the most real power in the Senate?
A) the president of the Senate
B) the majority and minority leaders
C) the Senate president pro tempore
D) the chair of the Rules Committee
Q3) One reason why redistricting is controversial is that
A) those charged with drawing districts use sophisticated computer technologies to come up with the most favorable district boundaries.
B) incumbents never lose when districts are redrawn.
C) it is unclear whether districts have to be drawn in such a way that each district includes roughly the same number of people.
D) interest groups and PACs exert a great deal of influence over the specific shape of each district.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 11
Chapter 10: The Presidency
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
62 Verified Questions
62 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19995
Sample Questions
Q1) ________ occurs when the president directs administrative agencies to promulgate specific rules and regulations.
A) Regulatory review
B) Administrative oversight
C) Delegation
D) An executive agreement
Q2) President Clinton was unusual among modern presidents because he left the White House
A) less popular than when he entered.
B) more popular than when he entered.
C) without issuing a single signing statement.
D) without issuing a single executive order.
Q3) As a means of managing the gigantic executive branch, presidents have increasingly come to rely upon the
A) Cabinet.
B) Kitchen Cabinet.
C) White House staff.
D) Speaker of the House.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 12
Chapter 11: Bureaucracy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
62 Verified Questions
62 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19996
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about state and local government employment is most accurate?
A) The number of state and local government employees has remained relatively unchanged since 1950.
B) The number of state and local government employees has declined since 1950.
C) The number of state and local government employees has increased since 1950.
D) The number of state and local government employees has always been less than the number of federal government employees.
Q2) Approximately ________ percent of the nation's employed workforce are employees of state or local government.
A) 1
B) 5
C) 15
D) 33
Q3) The Internet was created by
A) Apple.
B) International Business Machines (IBM).
C) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
D) the Advanced Research Projects Agency.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 13
Chapter 12: The Federal Courts
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
64 Verified Questions
64 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19997
Sample Questions
Q1) In a typical tort case,
A) the defendant is not allowed to appeal the verdict if he or she loses.
B) the plaintiff is not allowed to appeal the verdict if he or she loses.
C) the government immediately appeals the verdict if it loses.
D) one individual charges that he or she has been injured by another's negligence or malfeasance.
Q2) A certiorari pool describes the
A) computerized lottery system by which the Supreme Court selects its cases each year.
B) practice by which Supreme Court law clerks work together to evaluate each petition.
C) method used to appoint the chief justice.
D) nickname for the water fountain in the courtyard of the Supreme Court building.
Q3) What is the most frequent and best-known action of Supreme Court justices in their role as circuit justices?
A) vetting cases for the Supreme Court
B) hearing challenges to state laws
C) reviewing requests for stays of execution
D) overturning laws passed by Congress
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 14
Chapter 13: Domestic Policy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
84 Verified Questions
84 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19998
Sample Questions
Q1) In 2016, each individual's required contribution to Social Security was
A) zero percent of his or her first $118,500 of income.
B) 1.45 percent of his or her first $118,500 of income.
C) 6.2 percent of his or her first $118, 500 of income.
D) 7.65 percent of his or her first $118,500 of income.
Q2) Social Security provides a vital role for younger people by providing
A) survivor benefits to those whose parents die or become disabled.
B) unemployment compensation for those who lose their jobs.
C) health care benefits to those whose jobs do not provide it.
D) food stamps for those who fall under the poverty line.
Q3) Congress's 2003 Medicare reform bill
A) added a prescription drug benefit to the package of health benefits provided to the elderly.
B) eliminated a prescription drug benefit to the package from health benefits provided to the elderly.
C) increased the minimum age of Medicare recipients from 65 to 75 years old.
D) decreased the minimum age of Medicare recipients from 75 to 65 years old.
Q4) Describe the differences between contributory and noncontributory programs and provide at least three examples of each. Which programs are the most generous and why?
Page 15
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 14: Foreign Policy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/19999
Sample Questions
Q1) The world's wealthiest nation is
A) China.
B) Sweden.
C) the United States.
D) Switzerland.
Q2) The World Bank's chief mission is to
A) provide development aid to poor countries.
B) set the exchange rate for transferring money from one country to another.
C) handle the finances of the United Nations.
D) store the official gold reserves that back up the world's financial system.
Q3) Among the most visible and important elements of U.S. international economic policy is trade policy. What is the main goal of American trade policy, and what are some of the main organizations and agreements that help America achieve this goal?
Q4) In the sphere of foreign policy, which of the following is a constitutional power possessed by Congress?
A) declaring war
B) regulating commerce with foreign nations
C) confirming foreign ambassadors
D) All of these are correct.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 16