Introduction to American Government Final Exam
Course Introduction
Introduction to American Government provides students with a comprehensive overview of the foundational principles, structures, and functions of the United States government. This course examines the origins and evolution of the U.S. Constitution, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, federalism, civil liberties, political participation, elections, and public policy. Through critical analysis of institutions and key political processes, students will gain a deeper understanding of how government influences society and the lives of Americans, as well as explore contemporary challenges facing the American political system.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Stories of a Nation 1st Edition Scott F. Abernathy
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Stories
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Sample Questions
Q1) An unintended consequence of the Mergens decision was the application of the Equal Access Act (EAA)to organizations and clubs related to
A)intramural sports.
B)free speech and debate.
C)LGBT associations.
D)Bible study groups.
Answer: C
Q2) The systematic design to keep women out of involvement in government and public life could best be described as ______.
A)"supportive suppression"
B)"selective obsession"
C)"protective oppression"
D)"collective inclusion"
Answer: C
Q3) Thomas Paine's pamphlet was unanimously accepted by other American pamphleteers.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Q1) In comparing the Declaration of Independence to the United States Constitution, the authors of the Declaration felt the need to ______, while the framers of the Constitution sought to ______.
A)change the structure of existing government | declare American independence to the world
B)outline a blueprint for government | persuade colonists to support separation
C)announce and justify their separation from Great Britain | create a new nation
D)create an organized and structured national government | reinforce the power of state governments
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following is superior to the others?
A)the Executive Branch
B)the Legislative Branch
C)the Judicial Branch
D)the United States Constitution
Answer: D
Q3) The Constitution is written so as to make it easy to amend it by popular vote.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) In the mid-19th century, as the original Federalist judges began to retire or passed away, many of their replacements held a stronger view of
A)state authority.
B)local authority.
C)national authority.
D)international authority.
Answer: A
Q2) Many states criticize the use of categorical grants because of the "carrots" and "sticks" that often come with them.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Justice Stephen Breyer referred to Prop.215, the law that made medical marijuana legal at the state level in California, as
A)"medicine by regulation."
B)"usurping national power."
C)"entirely the right of the citizens."
D)"medicine by referendum."
Answer: D
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Q1) The right to just compensation when a person's private property is taken for public use can be found in which part of the Bill of Rights?
A)First Amendment
B)Second Amendment
C)Fifth Amendment
D)Eighth Amendment
Q2) Which of the following cases allowed the Supreme Court to create a tool by which actions under the Establishment Clause of the Bill of Rights could be measured?
A)Everson v. Board of Education (1947)
B)Board of Education v. Allen (1968)
C)Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971)
D)Engel v. Vitale (1962)
Q3) The Bill of Rights was included with the original draft of the Constitution in 1787. A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the issues and controversies which arose from the Eric Snowden case and discuss its implications on both civil liberties and national security.
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Chapter 5: Securing Civil Rights
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Q1) According to data presented in your textbook, the South remained fully segregated for almost ______ years following the Brown v.Board decision in 1954.
Q2) The intentional refusal to obey a law in order to call attention to its injustice is defined as
A)popular dissonance.
B)civic disorder.
C)civil disobedience.
D)Posse Comitatus.
Q3) ______ segregation is best translated as segregation by law.
Q4) The Constitutional basis for the assault on educational segregation in the courts was the Equal Protection Clause of the 15th Amendment.
A)True
B)False
Q5) In the 1950s, Judith Heumann was refused attendance at her local elementary school for
A)protesting for civil rights.
B)exercising her civil liberties.
C)causing a potential fire hazard.
D)causing a disruption to the school.
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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Questions
Q1) Which of the following best defines suffrage?
A)the right to vote
B)the requirement to register
C)partisan political activity
D)nonpartisan political action
Q2) A strategy that calls for campuswide education in the areas of domestic violence and sexual assault and the action of individuals to diffuse potentially violent or abusive situations is known as
A)bystander intervention.
B)organizational education.
C)action-based inclusion.
D)groupwide attention.
Q3) Americans have a tradition of high levels of electoral participation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) National political and congressional elections are, by tradition, held on A)the fifteenth of November.
B)the second Monday following the first Tuesday in November.
C)the first Tuesday following the second Monday in November.
D)the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Q1) A political tool that gives elected officials broader knowledge of the overall preferences of the citizens as a whole is
A)straw polling.
B)scientific polling.
C)elections.
D)census taking.
Q2) On August 9, 2015, demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, rallied to the slogan
A)"Hands up, don't shoot."
B)"Black lives matter."
C)"All lives matter."
D)"Police brutality."
Q3) A subgroup of individuals within a larger population that is intended to be representative of the larger group is called a ______.
Q4) How we define ourselves in terms of race, gender, or ethnicity can form clear, consistent, and persistent patterns of similarity and division in American public opinion.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the role of accurate and reliable information in the political process.
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Chapter 8: The Media
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Q1) How have changes in social media consumption and production impacted the ability of Americans to get their voices heard?
Q2) Coverage of political campaigns that focuses more on the drama of the campaign than on policy issues is known as the
A)horse race phenomenon.
B)reporter bias.
C)"feeding frenzy."
D)commercial bias.
Q3) The fairness doctrine has ceased to be rigorously enforced, partly because of the growth in cable television channels and shows.
A)True
B)False
Q4) When a news agency focuses on the drama of the race rather than on the policy differences of the candidates, this is called the ______ phenomenon.
Q5) As cable news channels became more prevalent, television news became more partisan in its presentation.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) Who traditionally chooses the national chair of his/her party?
A)the Speaker of the House
B)the president
C)the exiting chairperson
D)the presumptive nominee
Q2) Once in office, candidates are free to conduct their own campaigns with little intervention from their political party leadership.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Parties sometimes try to discourage prospective candidates because they fear that these candidates will ______.
A)draw votes away from the party's preferred choice
B)gain undeserved favor with the voting public
C)stray from the party's official policy platform
D)ignore the direct orders of party leadership
Q4) In some races and in some states, the electoral process may pit members of the same party against each other in the general election.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Q1) ______ attack an opponent or opponents and try to raise doubts in voters' minds about them.
Q2) What advantages do Congressional incumbents have in retaining their seats in Congress? Why?
Q3) A form of voting that reflects on an incumbent's past performance in an election is called ______.
Q4) In analyzing a set of legislative districts, experts sometimes find an uneven distribution of the population among them.This is best described as
A)proportional representation.
B)malapportionment.
C)partisan gerrymandering.
D)misappropriation.
Q5) Once selected by their parties, the nominees proceed to the A)statewide convention.
B)general election campaign.
C)national convention.
D)national balloting process.
Q6) Organizations that are permitted to make campaign contributions within legal limits are known as ______.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Q1) James Madison realized that to eliminate factions, a republic must also
A)highly restrict the liberties of its citizens.
B)encourage citizens to exercise their civil rights.
C)discourage citizens from participating in elections.
D)encourage civic duty and responsibility.
Q2) Iron triangles are the coordinated and mutually beneficial activities of interest groups, Congress, and the bureaucracy to achieve a set of shared policy goals, sometimes against the general interests of society of the specific groups within it.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Successful lobbyists must have
A)solid, useful policy knowledge as well as the ability to be heard by those in government.
B)impeccable credentials accompanied by a wide spectrum of professional experience.
C)high levels of education, which give credibility to the message they deliver to Congress.
D)the fortune of being in the right place at the right time in a political campaign.
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13
Chapter 12: Congress
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Q1) An individual House or Senate member, chosen by their party members, whose job is to ensure party unity and discipline is described as a ______.
Q2) The agency whose role is to provide information and estimates of the likely budgetary consequences of funding the agencies and programs created by Congress is the Office of ______.
A)General Accounting Oversight
B)Legislative Review
C)Congressional Representation
D)Management and Budget
Q3) Two important ways in which the framers of the Constitution tried to contain the dangers of faction were through
A)the Bill of Rights and liberalism.
B)tyranny and regulation.
C)federalism and separation of powers.
D)confederalism and collaboration.
Q4) Unorthodox lawmaking has become increasingly rarely used, particularly with regard to major legislation.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Q1) What position did Roger Brooke Taney hold in May of 1861?
A)vice president of the United States
B)ambassador to the Confederate States
C)Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
D)Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army
Q2) While Congress may have the broader power to "make war," the Founding Fathers feared that the nation might
A)find itself in a unilateral military operation with a foreign power without Congress's authorization.
B)be unable to respond quickly to threats when Congress was not in session.
C)be susceptible to military invasion by foreign powers without proper protection.
D)lack centralized military expertise and leadership under presidential authority.
Q3) According to your text, the ingredients of successful diplomacy are
A)strength, authority, influence, and supremacy.
B)stealth, longevity, consideration, and consolidation.
C)secrecy, dispatch, unity, continuity, and access to information.
D)gentleness, communication, collaboration, and cooperation.
Q4) The president is required to give Congress Information on the ______.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Government corporations act as administrative links within the federal government.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Bureaucrats can often act as representatives of the American public.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Of all of the concerns in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina, perhaps most worrisome was the ______ system.
A)levee and pump
B)emergency preparedness
C)evacuation route
D)fire and EMS
Q4) Following a successful election, the opportunity to clean house of one's opponents and install supporters in their place is referred to as the ______ system.
A)patronage
B)merit
C)spoils
D)insider
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Page 16
Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Q1) The powers of the federal judiciary are outlined in which part of the Constitution?
A)Article I
B)Article II
C)Article III
D)Article IV
Q2) In order to "flesh out the nature and organization of the nation's system of courts," Congress passed
A)the Judicial Review Act of 1802.
B)the District Courts Act of 1790.
C)the Inferior Courts Act of 1787.
D)the Judiciary Act of 1789.
Q3) The modern Supreme Court receives, on average, between ______ and ______ petitions from lower courts per year.
A)1,000 | 3,000
B)5,000 | 7,000
C)8,000 | 9,000
D)10,000 | 12,000
Q4) Explain the impact and influence of the Marbury v.Madison case as it relates to the modern judiciary.
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Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Q1) Social Security is an example of a
A)federal grant in aid.
B)social insurance program.
C)social welfare program.
D)means-based program.
Q2) ______ reforms allow parents and guardians more control over their students' schools and enable school officials to chart their educational courses.
A)Policy implementation
B)Institutional accountability
C)Structural design
D)School choice
Q3) Chubb and Moe argue that by introducing ______ in education, the energy, innovation, and initiative of those who teach and run schools will be unleashed, freed from a stifling and unresponsive bureaucracy.
A)political power
B)federal authority
C)market forces
D)local leadership
Q4) Policy experts call counties without adequate access to supermarkets "______."
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Q1) If Congress chooses to lower taxes and fund programs with borrowed money, which of the following may result?
A)increasing interest rates
B)decreasing employment
C)lower price levels
D)overall economic stability
Q2) The rising level of student loan debt in America is a cause of concern for economic policy as a whole because
A)students aren't always immediately prepared to pay off their loans right out of college.
B)when a significant number of students are forced to use a substantially large proportion of their income to pay for high levels of student loans, they are unable to contribute to the economy in other ways.
C)states must reallocate financial resources to offset higher tuition costs, resulting in lower revenues.
D)more students are forced to stay in college for a longer period in order to avoid having to repay their loans.
Q3) By the end of 2015, the ______ continued to grow to nearly $19 trillion.
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Q1) As protests arose against authoritarian governments in North Africa and the Middle East in the Spring of 2010, the movement that became known as the ______ began to spread.
Q2) The international organization formed to gather other countries in support of Soviet containment was the
A)European Union.
B)United Nations.
C)Warsaw Pact.
D)World Monetary Fund.
Q3) Until recently, which state was second only to California in accepting Syrian refugees?
A)Texas
B)Arizona
C)Florida
D)North Carolina
Q4) In the 20th century, American foreign policy changed to one of
A)isolationism.
B)internationalism.
C)absolutism.
D)socialism.
Page 20
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