Introduction to American Government Question Bank
Course Introduction
Introduction to American Government offers a comprehensive overview of the foundational structures, principles, and functions of the United States government. The course examines the Constitution, federalism, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the significance of civil rights and civil liberties. Students explore the political processes, including elections, political parties, and the influence of public opinion, as well as contemporary issues facing American democracy. Through critical analysis and discussion, learners gain a deeper understanding of how the U.S. government operates and its impact on society and individuals.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Stories of a Nation 1st Edition Scott F. Abernathy
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18 Chapters
2010 Verified Questions
2010 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Stories
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129 Verified Questions
129 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) British officials and soldiers criticized American patriots for their continuing the practice of slavery.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) How did Dr.King's political policies and actions impact the future of civil rights in America? What factors and techniques were most instrumental in the success of his movement?
Answer: Dr. King used a revolutionary policy that combined the ideas of natural rights with nonviolent protest and a political strategy that was designed to force confrontation of and response to civil rights ideas in order to influence moderate white Americans in taking a stance, thus allowing for success in the civil rights movement.
Q3) European settlement and exploration were accepted by indigenous peoples without opposition.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Constitution was intentionally designed to put brakes on popular desire to
A)allow for majority rule.
B)accommodate for minority rights.
C)allow for a powerful executive.
D)change public policy quickly.
Answer: D
Q2) The confederal government under the Articles of Confederation was intentionally made stronger than the sovereignty of the individual states.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) State legislative elections in 1786 and 1787 had gone to ______ candidates who favored stronger national government.
A)sectionalist
B)nationalist
C)confederal
D)agrarian
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Constitution clearly establishes that ultimate political authority rests with the
A)president.
B)states.
C)national government.
D)people.
Answer: D
Q2) President Roosevelt's first priority was to strengthen the nation's crumbling ______ system.
A)highway
B)stock
C)banking
D)farming
Answer: B
Q3) Economically, the 1930s were a period of ______.
A)prolonged deflation and scarce money
B)exaggerated inflation and cheap credit
C)extreme prosperity and economic domination
D)rapidly growing employment opportunities
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Sixth Amendment is important because of which of the following protections?
A)political speech
B)no unreasonable search and seizure
C)protection from self-incrimination
D)a fair and speedy public trial
Q2) In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court uphold restrictions on obscenity and pornography and establish a working definition?
A)Chaplinsky v. State of New York
B)United States v. Flynt
C)Roth v. United States
D)Pope v. Illinois
Q3) Which 1940 law made it a federal crime to advocate for the overthrow of the national government?
A)the Sedition Act
B)the Patriot Act
C)the Smith Act
D)the Espionage Act
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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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following was the most crucial legal component to the second-wave fight for women's rights?
A)the 19th Amendment
B)the Civil Rights Act of 1964
C)the Voting Rights Act of 1965
D)the Equal Rights Amendment
Q2) The reaction of the nation to the Brown v.Board decision was
A)strong yet weakly divided.
B)strong and immediate but not uniform.
C)weak and uniformly immediate.
D)weak and heavily divided.
Q3) Describe and analyze the problem of "intersectionality" with regard to the rise of multiracial identification in recent census surveys.
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) Judith Heumann was refused entry to elementary school because she was a "______."
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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100 Verified Questions
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Sample
Questions
Q1) Many political experts believe young people are increasingly choosing to protest because
A)they wish to get electorally and politically connected.
B)they feel that they lack political power.
C)they see it as a way of increasing civic engagement.
D)they wish to influence the outcome of electoral campaigns.
Q2) Which of the following groups is least likely to vote in a national election?
A)65+
B)50-65
C)35-49
D)18-34
Q3) In a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers ______.
A)advocated for carrying guns on college campuses
B)challenged the effectiveness of self-defense gun use
C)advocated for open-carry gun use in public buildings
D)found that self-defense gun use is an effective deterrent to crime
Q4) Discuss factors and barriers the impact American voting behavior and their effect on voter turnout rates in the United States.
Q5) How do partisan political parties go about affecting the behavior of American voters?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Questions
Q1) In a survey of Americans, political scientist George Bishop asked respondents about their opinions on "the Public Act Affairs Act of 1975." What problem did his study reveal?
A)Respondents tend to self-select.
B)Many respondents lack sufficient subject knowledge.
C)Survey wording can influence the results of a survey.
D)Question framing can impact the results of a survey.
Q2) Lippmann described a public that is ______.
A)highly reflective and averse to efforts that might change their opinions
B)intensely interactive and fluidly reactive to change
C)moderately reflective and lacking sufficient levels of information to be of value
D)dangerously unreflective and vulnerable to attempts to shape our opinions
Q3) When the race or ethnicity of respondents and interviewers impacts the outcome of a survey, political scientists refer to this as
A)race-of-interviewer effect.
B)racial discrimination.
C)interviewer bias.
D)respondent bias.
Q4) Explain the role of accurate and reliable information in the political process.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) A strategy used to create a greater presence of traditional network broadcast journalists in other venues has been to
A)emphasize traditional news broadcasting.
B)emphasize nontraditional news broadcasting.
C)blur the lines between traditional and nontraditional news broadcasting.
D)rebrand traditional news media services as nontraditional news outlets.
Q2) Which of the following are all valid themes of today's media?
A)technology, dramatic change, and partisan politics
B)communal ownership, biased stories, and a lack of objectivity
C)capitalistic ownership, freedom from bias, and objectivity
D)relative stability, partisan-free politics, and bias-free reporting
Q3) CNN gained prominence in 1986 with its coverage of what famous news event?
A)the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan
B)the taking of American hostages in Iran
C)the resignation of Richard M. Nixon
D)the space shuttle Challenger disaster
Q4) What role does the public's desire for entertainment play in the media's decisions to focus its stories on sensational and entertaining topics?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The majority of states choose their delegates through A)presidential primary elections.
B)statewide caucus meetings.
C)local party elections.
D)party committee decisions.
Q2) What type of power does the national party have over the state and local parties beneath it?
A)supervisory
B)administrative
C)regulatory
D)advisory
Q3) State parties are governed by a(n)______ comprised of elected members that govern the operations of the state party.
A)central committee
B)advisory council
C)regulatory commission
D)administrative body
Q4) What factors have led to the relative stability of American party systems throughout the nation's history? What has led to change?
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Sample Questions
Q1) Electors who change their mind in between the general election and the electoral college vote are known as
A)the party faithful.
B)faithless electors.
C)undetermined voters.
D)political spoilers.
Q2) Once the official campaign process begins, declared candidates must compete with
A)candidates from the opposite party.
B)others for their party's nomination.
C)the press for media attention.
D)third parties for potential votes.
Q3) The problem with Latina and Latino voting is that their potential voting population far exceeds the number of Latinas and Latinos who actually participate in the voting process.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio share a common Cuban heritage.
A)True
B)False
Page 12
Q5) What impact does money have on today's national election process?
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Sample Questions
Q1) Webs of influence among interest groups, policy makers, and policy advocates are called ______.
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) Many would argue that the federal government's response to the financial crisis of 2008 favored powerfully connected financial firms at the expense of the average citizen.Would you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
Q4) The AAA offers roadside assistance service only to its dues-paying members in good standing.This is an example of A)collective benefits.
B)selective benefits.
C)social benefits.
D)purposive benefits.
Q5) What is a collective action? How do interest groups overcome the major challenges that collective action problems pose?
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to James Madison in the Federalist Papers, a bicameral legislature
A)"doubles the security to the people in schemes of usurpation and perfidy."
B)"assures a more perfect system of lawmaking."
C)"accounts for the tyranny of the majority."
D)"determines the absolute integrity of representation."
Q2) If a member of Congress wishes to get a project funded without writing a separate bill, they can attach it to a larger funding bill in the form of an ______.
A)earmark
B)filibuster
C)cloture
D)oversight
Q3) Joint committees contain members of both the House and the Senate.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The assistant to the Speaker of the House is the
A)House Minority Leader.
B)Majority Party Whip.
C)House Majority Leader.
D)Minority Party Whip.
Q5) The act of "standing for" one's constituents in government is defined as ______.
Page 14
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) When a president issues a policy directive to the executive branch bureaucracy, it is called an executive ______.
A)confidentiality
B)agreement
C)privilege
D)order
Q2) Woodrow Wilson was firmly convinced that his presidency was part of a(n)______.
A)national referendum
B)international solution
C)grand conspiracy
D)divine plan
Q3) As chief diplomat, the president has the power to
A)declare war.
B)fund foreign operations.
C)ratify treaties.
D)receive ambassadors.
Q4) How do the examples of Anwar al-Awlaki and John Merryman demonstrate the ability of the president to expand his/her powers in time of war or national emergency? Why do you think it is important to understand these particular examples?
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Weberian bureaucracy is characterized by which of the following organizational traits?
A)clear division of labor
B)hierarchal organization
C)impersonal relationships
D)all of these
Q2) The First Civil Service Commission was created under the Hatch Act.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Shifting control over the provision of certain governmental functions from the federal bureaucracy to the private sector is known as ______.
Q4) Problems that arise when bureaucracies stray from their established goals and devote their energies and efforts to nonessential tasks are commonly referred to as bureaucratic ______.
A)deliberation
B)drift
C)gridlock
D)capture
Q5) Define bureaucracy and describe its defining characteristics.
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Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) Antifederalists argued that by granting the power to overturn legislation in the Supreme Court, the nation would run the risk of unconstrained justices imposing their own views of what is constitutional and what is not.
A)True
B)False
Q2) 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
Q3) While the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary cannot act as unilateral policy makers, their unique position in the nation and the federal government gives them a unique ability to aid in
A)setting the national agenda.
B)determining the course of future laws.
C)examining the current political context.
D)reviewing the authority of the legislative branch.
Q4) Describe the structure of the American legal system and the federal judiciary.
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Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Sample Questions
Q1) Public schools that are funded only by taxpayer money and subject to many of the same regulations as traditional public schools but accountable primarily to their founding document and with greater curricular and professional autonomy are known as
A)charter schools.
B)schools of excellence.
C)magnet schools.
D)public choice schools.
Q2) Explain the purposes of public policy and discuss whether such policy should be in the hands of the federal government.
Q3) In order to ensure that individual schools did not "encourage" or allow lower-scoring students not to show up for required annual tests, No Child Left Behind holds schools accountable for
A)student attendance.
B)academic proficiency.
C)graduation rates.
D)test participation rates.
Q4) Explain the advantages and disadvantages of privatization using the voucher system of Cleveland and other methods of school choice as an example.
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Under Keynesian economics, in periods of economic contraction, the government should
A)inject more money into the economy.
B)withdraw investments from banks and businesses.
C)pay off debts to avoid a budgetary deficit.
D)make direct loans and grants to citizens.
Q2) Monetarists tend to focus their attention on the A)consumer price index.
B)money supply.
C)unemployment rate.
D)gross domestic product.
Q3) The federal agency tasked with the responsibility to produce independent analysis of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process is the A)Office of Management and Budget.
B)Congressional Budget Office.
C)General Accountability Office.
D)General Service Administration.
Q4) Economic tools that are designed to regulate the amount of money in the economy (in circulation and in deposits)are collectively known as ______.
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union served as the world's two
A)greatest threats.
B)diplomatic partners.
C)superpowers.
D)economic leaders.
Q2) In 2016, President Obama continued to push for congressional support for the
A)North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
B)North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
C)International Trade Commission.
D)Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Q3) Internationalism can best be defined as an approach to international affairs that emphasizes
A)close contact and cooperation between nations.
B)little, if any, contact between nations.
C)distrust between nation states.
D)global conflict and militaristic diplomacy.
Q4) One of the groups that fought against the Assad regime in Syria following the Arab Spring was ______, with the clear and stated goal "to establish a worldwide caliphate" using international terrorism as its primary tool.
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