Foundations of American Politics Final Test Solutions

Course Introduction

Foundations of American Politics introduces students to the core principles, institutions, and processes that shape the U.S. political system. The course covers the historical development of American democracy, the Constitution and federalism, civil liberties and civil rights, and the roles of Congress, the presidency, and the judiciary. Emphasis is placed on political culture, political parties, interest groups, and how ordinary citizens engage in the political process. Students will analyze key debates and events that have influenced American political institutions and explore current challenges in governance and representation.

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MindTapR in Action American Government 1st Edition by Cengage

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Page 2

Chapter 1: The Constitution

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Q1) In what year was the Constitutional Convention?

A) 1783

B) 1785

C) 1787

D) 1789

Answer: C

Q2) ?Which of the following statements is not true about the American colonies?

A) ?Time and distance made them difficult for Great Britain to govern.

B) ?They provided revenue for Great Britain.

C) ?They generated a large debt for Great Britain.

D) ?They provided raw material for Great Britain.

Answer: C

Q3) The Federalist Papers were written by

A) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and Robert Yates.

B) James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Jay.

C) James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

D) James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Robert Yates.

Answer: C

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Page 3

Chapter 2: Federalism

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Q1) Which government units retained most of the sovereignty during the period of the Articles of Confederation?

A) The federal government and the people

B) The states and the federal government

C) The states and the people

D) Only the federal government

Answer: C

Q2) Sovereignty is best defined as the

A) authority and power to govern the people within the territory of a nation-state.

B) right to govern regardless of the will of the people.

C) intent to govern within the territory and colonies of a nation-state.

D) absolute authority that derives from a constitutional monarchy.

Answer: A

Q3) Which type of power is described in the Constitution of the United States?

A) Reserved

B) Conditional

C) Parallel

D) Supreme

Answer: A

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Page 4

Chapter 3: Civil Liberties

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Q1) The free exercise clause addresses public policies that

A) appear to burden the government.

B) allow for some religious activities.

C) allow religious freedom.

D) appear to burden religion.

Answer: D

Q2) Which of the following events has not been a catalyst for state legislative and congressional action regarding the Second Amendment?

A) The assassination attempt on President Reagan

B) The St. Valentine's Day Massacre

C) The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting

D) The constitutionality of flag burning

Answer: D

Q3) The Anti-Federalists believed individual rights would most likely be

A) taken away if not expressly stated in the U.S. Constitution.

B) taken away if not directly expressed in state constitutions.

C) protected by limiting federal power through the creation of checks and balances.

D) protected by the federal structure created by the Constitution.

Answer: A

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Page 5

Chapter 4: Civil Rights

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Q1) The Removal Act of 1830 encouraged tribes to sign removal treaties by

A) creating independent farmers out of Native Americans.

B) granting citizenship to any Native American who moved west of the Mississippi.

C) giving the U.S. military the power to forcibly remove Native Americans from their lands in the southeast.

D) establishing a process that granted land west of the Mississippi to Native American tribes that agreed to give up their homelands.

Q2) Where did the modern movement for disability rights find its origins?

A) The activism of women

B) The activism of African-Americans

C) The activism of veterans

D) The activism of educators

Q3) The first version of the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced to Congress in A) 1921.

B) 1923.

C) 1973.

D) 1978.

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Page 6

Chapter 5: Congress

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Q1) The committee system in Congress is

A) developed over time to organize the lawmaking process.

B) led by the party that holds the minority.

C) specifically detailed in the Constitution.

D) not used to create national policy.

Q2) Any bill may be proposed in either chamber of Congress exceptfor A) revenue bills.

B) transportation bills.

C) foreign relations bills.

D) immigration bills.

Q3) The framers of the Constitution created two houses because one would represent the

A) agricultural areas and one would represent the urban areas.

B) lower and middle socioeconomic classes and one would represent the upper class.

C) people and one would represent the states.

D) people and one would represent the federal government.

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Page 7

Chapter 6: Presidency and Foreign Policy

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Q1) Implied powers are

A) essential to the functioning of the office.

B) powers Congress has given to the president.

C) open to interpretation and change with each president.

D) directly stated in the Constitution.

Q2) Emergency powers derive from

A) Article II of the Constitution.

B) the oath of office.

C) the Supreme Court.

D) congressional acts.

Q3) Executive orders become

A) law after judicial review.

B) law with congressional approval.

C) law without congressional approval.

D) directives not laws.

Q4) The end of the Cold War began in _______ when the Berlin Wall came down.

A) 1988

B) 1989

C) 1990

D) 1991

Page 8

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Chapter 7: Bureaucracy

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Q1) What type of furlough is precipitated by a shutdown in appropriations, as was the case in 2013?

A) Emergency furlough

B) Administrative furlough

C) Personnel furlough

D) Permanent furlough

Q2) What was the intended role of the Interstate Commerce Commission?

A) To combat price fixing and prevent unfair business practices

B) To regulate and increase foreign trade

C) To oversee employer-employee relations

D) To manage new territory and the process of settlement

Q3) Franklin Roosevelt's model of activist government continued under President

A) Eisenhower.

B) Kennedy.

C) Johnson.

D) Nixon.

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Page 9

Chapter 8: Judiciary

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Q1) What does civil law govern?

A) Public safety

B) Private interactions among individuals and organizations

C) Social interactions that do not involve harm

D) Interactions between states

Q2) The Court is likely to take a case in all of the following situations except when

A) it is a synthesis of civil cases.

B) there is a disagreement between appellate courts on the issue.

C) the U.S government is a party.

D) the case involves civil rights and civil liberties defined under constitutional law.

Q3) Which of the following is not typical of a criminal case?

A) Cases are initiated by government officials.

B) The defendant is charged with a crime.

C) There is an arraignment and the defendant enters a plea.

D) Financial redress is directed to the plaintiff.

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Chapter 9: Public Opinion

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Q1) What are double-barreled questions?

A) Questions that are focused on more than one issue, but allow for two responses

B) Questions that are focused on more than one issue, but allow only one response

C) Questions regarding two trending major issues

D) Questions about gun laws and the Second Amendment

Q2) What was the reason the Literary Digest incorrectly forecast the winner of the 1936 presidential election?

A) Quota sampling

B) A biased sample

C) Random sampling

D) Exit polling

Q3) Which of the following is not an example of an unscientific poll?

A) A call-in poll

B) A straw poll

C) A Gallup poll

D) A single-question poll on a website

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Chapter 10: Interest Groups

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Q1) What tends to gain the most media attention for interest groups?

A) Public relation events

B) Press releases

C) Large scale protests

D) Policy advocacy

Q2) What are interest groups?

A) Independent, voluntary associations that seek to influence government policies

B) Congressional subcommittees that seek to influence industry

C) Policy committees of the executive branch that seek to streamline the bureaucracy

D) Independent joint subcommittees from the executive and legislative branches

Q3) What are the two types of donations from interest groups?

A) Sincere and legislative

B) Legislative and corporate

C) Strategic and corporate

D) Sincere and strategic

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Chapter 11: Media

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Q1) Who participated in the first televised debate?

A) Wendall Wilkie and Franklin D. Roosevelt

B) Adlai Stevenson and Estes Kefauver

C) John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon

D) George McGovern and Hubert Humphrey

Q2) The sensationalist stories of muckrakers can be said to have contributed to the policies of

A) Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights movement.

B) Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Movement.

C) John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier.

D) Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

Q3) What led to the professionalization of journalism in the latter part of the twentieth century?

A) The increase of lawsuits filed against newspapers for libel and slander

B) The rise of investigative journalism during the Cold War and Vietnam War

C) The increasing pressure from governmental agencies for newspapers to discipline reporters and provide balanced reporting

D) The development of communications and journalism as an academic discipline, and the creation of professional ethics

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Page 13

Chapter 12: Political Parties

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Q1) Which statement about the spoils system is accurate?

A) It was developed for the purpose of rewarding supporters for loyalty, but it led to corruption.

B) It was developed for addressing the needs of those who lost elections, but it failed to meet its goals.

C) It was developed to appease voters who had supported the losing party, but instead it made them angry.

D) It was developed to offer incentives to political candidates, but it ended up providing incentives to their opponents.

Q2) The formation of parties in the early legislatures of the United States was a necessity for all of the following purposes except

A) mobilizing votes for a party.

B) developing media coverage for parties.

C) enhancing the position of a minority party.

D) transforming smaller parties into mass parties.

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Chapter 13: Participation

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Q1) Which of the following is not one of the three characteristics generally shared by people who participate in unconventional methods of political participation?

A) Distrust of the political system

B) Highly developed sense of group consciousness

C) Strong sense of political efficacy

D) Desire to use representative channels of government

Q2) Which is an example of conventional political participation?

A) The Occupy movement

B) Petitioning

C) The Boston Tea Party

D) Boycotts

Q3) What document created in the mid-1800s stated that "all men and women had been created equal"?

A) The Fifteenth Amendment

B) The Declaration of Independence

C) The Fourteenth Amendment

D) The Declaration of Sentiments

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Chapter 14: Campaigns and Elections

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Q1) Which type of primary allows only registered party members to vote?

A) Open primary

B) Semi-open primary

C) Semi-closed primary

D) Closed primary

Q2) Who was the first presidential candidate to reject public funds for the general election campaign?

A) Barack Obama

B) Jimmy Carter

C) Ronald Reagan

D) George Walker Bush

Q3) Which figure comes closest to identifying the amount spent during the 2012 Obama and Romney presidential campaigns?

A) $25 million

B) $500 million

C) $1 billion

D) $2 billion

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Chapter 15: Domestic Policy

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Q1) Which of the following best defines the term gross domestic product?

A) The average standard of living per capita

B) The change in prices over time of a standard market basket

C) The output of the goods and services produced by labor

D) The unemployed as a percent of the labor force

Q2) In 2009 and 2010, health care spending represented more than what fraction of the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S. economy?

A) one-third

B) one-half

C) one-sixth

D) one-ninth

Q3) Which type of taxation charges a higher percentage to wealthier taxpayers than to those less wealthy?

A) Regressive

B) Proportional

C) Flat

D) Progressive

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