Introduction to American Government Practice Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to American Government examines the foundational structures, principles, and processes of the United States government. Students will explore the Constitution, the federal system, the roles and functions of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the political behaviors that shape decision-making at the national, state, and local levels. The course also covers civil rights and liberties, the influence of public opinion, political parties and interest groups, and the impact of media on politics, providing a comprehensive overview of how American democracy operates and evolves.
Recommended Textbook
We the People 11th Essentials Edition by Benjamin Ginsberg
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14 Chapters
1101 Verified Questions
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction: the Citizen and Government
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Sample Questions
Q1) The goal of politics is to
A) get as much power as possible in order to serve one's own interests.
B) construct a perfect constitutional order.
C) construct a political system that is conducive to economic growth.
D) have a say in a government's leadership, organization, and policies.
Answer: D
Q2) A government that is not constrained by legal limits and also seeks to eliminate any challenges to its authority is known as a(n) ________ government.
A) authoritarian
B) totalitarian
C) democratic
D) republican
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following is an instrument of direct democracy?
A) the electoral college
B) litigation
C) ballot initiatives
D) social media
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Founding and the Constitution
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Sample Questions
Q1) Colonial protesters of the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act rallied around which slogan?
A) "no taxation without representation"
B) "give me liberty or give me death"
C) "a house divided against itself cannot stand"
D) "don't tread on me"
Answer: A
Q2) 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
Q3) The Articles of Confederation were concerned primarily with A) creating a unitary form of government.
B) creating a federal form of government.
C) creating a government in which the states were largely subservient to the national government.
D) limiting the powers of the central government.
Answer: D
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) The specific powers granted to Congress in Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution are called the ________ powers.
A) implied
B) expressed
C) sovereign
D) executive
Answer: B
Q2) The principle of ________ gives the federal government the power to override any state or local law in one particular area of policy.
A) cooperative federalism
B) grant-in-aid
C) preemption
D) home rule
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) Describe the piecemeal nationalization of the Bill of Rights throughout American history. In particular, discuss the Supreme Court's pre-Civil War interpretation of the scope of the Bill of Rights, the Fourteenth Amendment, and the process of selective incorporation.
Q2) Near v. Minnesota (1931) is significant because it
A) struck down ex post facto laws.
B) protected the right of habeas corpus.
C) forced state governments to obey the Second Amendment of the Constitution.
D) held that the First Amendment prohibits government agencies from seeking to prevent newspapers or magazines from publishing whatever they wish.
Q3) What is the right to privacy and what is the constitutional basis for it? Discuss three areas of law that directly involve questions about how far the right to privacy extends. In your answer, be sure to mention at least one Supreme Court case for each area of law.
Q4) Not all speech is treated equally. Describe the different kinds of speech and discuss which forms receive the highest and lowest levels of constitutional protection. Why is some protection for freedom of speech essential in a democracy?
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fact that many middle-class and lower-middle-class citizens who did not stand to benefit from President George W. Bush's tax cuts seemed to favor them is an example of the
A) importance of political knowledge.
B) importance of self-interest.
C) importance of political efficacy.
D) "spiral of silence."
Q2) A liberal would most likely support
A) an expansion in governmental social services.
B) an increase in the federal military budget.
C) prayer in the public schools.
D) a reduction in foreign aid for poor countries.
Q3) During the 2000 South Carolina Republican primary, George W. Bush supporters telephoned conservative white voters to ask if they would be more or less likely to vote for John McCain if they knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child. This was an example of a
A) push poll.
B) bandwagon poll.
C) saliency illusion.
D) nonresponse bias.
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Chapter 6: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the relationship between the government and the media in the United States today?
A) The government controls most media content through regulations and tightly controlled press briefings.
B) The government owns, but does not control, the major sources of media.
C) The government does not own but regulates the content and ownership of broadcast media.
D) The government heavily regulates print media but imposes no regulations on radio and television broadcasts.
Q2) Which of the following requires a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license in order to legally broadcast in the United States?
A) satellite radio channels
B) cable television stations
C) Internet websites
D) over-the-air television stations
Q3) 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.
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Chapter 7: Political Parties, Participation, and Elections
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Sample Questions
Q1) Third-party candidates are better off under A) the majority system.
B) the plurality system.
C) proportional representation.
D) the spoils system.
Q2) When Richard Nixon employed his "Southern strategy," he
A) used the FBI to help collect secrets and blackmail southern Democratic leaders.
B) ignored the southern states in favor of voters in the Midwest and Northeast.
C) appealed to disaffected white voters in the South.
D) appealed to black southerners who had recently mobilized for civil rights.
Q3) The two major parties in the United States during the 1830s and 1840s were the ________ and the ________.
A) Federalists; Jeffersonians
B) Federalists; Whigs
C) Democrats; Whigs
D) Democrats; Republicans
Q4) Explore the role of political parties in American politics. In what ways do political parties differ from interest groups? How do parties contribute to democratic government?
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Chapter 8: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ occurs when interest groups take out advertisements and hold marches.
A) Mobilizing public opinion
B) Partisan politics
C) Lobbying
D) Litigating
Q2) National defense is a good example of a A) material benefit.
B) collective good.
C) solidary benefit.
D) purposive benefit.
Q3) Another name for lobbying is
A) stalking.
B) mobilizing.
C) petitioning.
D) litigating.
Q4) The Sierra Club is a(n) ________ group.
A) public interest
B) ideological
C) labor
D) business
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Chapter 9: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) The House Rules committee is important because it A) is placed in charge of selecting the Speaker of the House. B) decides the order in which bills come up for a vote on the House floor and determines the specific rules that govern the length of debate and opportunity for amendments. C) reviews all applications regarding the formation of select committees. D) determines the jurisdiction of every congressional standing committee.
Q2) ________ bills are one of Congress's favorite vehicles for pork-barrel spending.
A) Education
B) Veteran's affairs
C) Health care
D) Highway
Q3) Following the 2006 elections, ________ became speaker of the U.S. House.
A) Dennis Hastert
B) Newt Gingrich
C) Nancy Pelosi
D) John Boehner
Q4) Describe the process by which a bill becomes a law. What are the major steps in the process? What are the main differences in the legislative process between the two houses of Congress?
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Chapter 10: The Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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.
Q2) What happened when President Harry Truman seized control of industry during the Korean War?
A) His action was upheld by the Supreme Court justices as a constitutional exercise of war powers.
B) Congress passed a bill shortly afterward that retroactively approved the steel mill seizures.
C) The Supreme Court justices declared that his actions were without basis in law or the Constitution.
D) Congress immediately passed a bill that legally prohibited the president from seizing the mills, and President Truman quickly rescinded his executive order.
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Chapter 11: Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is a government corporation?
A) Each department in the executive branch is legally registered as a corporation.
B) It is an agency that performs and charges for services usually provided by the private sector.
C) It is a private company, publicly traded, whose sole investor is the federal government.
D) It is a government agency that is charged by Congress to make a profit.
Q2) The first regulatory agencies Congress established were
A) in the Department of Commerce.
B) independent regulatory commissions.
C) government corporations.
D) in the Labor Department.
Q3) Which of the following statements about the merit system is INACCURATE?
A) Every member and official of a government agency has been appointed as part of the merit system.
B) The merit system establishes competitive exams for jobs.
C) The merit system gives bureaucrats job protection.
D) The merit system in federal employment originated in the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Federal Courts
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Sample Questions
Q1) There are ________ circuits in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
A) 4
B) 8
C) 12
D) 20
Q2) Through the exercise of ________, the Supreme Court has held actions or laws of the executive and legislative branches unconstitutional.
A) stare decisis
B) writs of certiorari
C) clemency
D) judicial review
Q3) Which of the following statements about the Supreme Court is true?
A) In 2014, seven of the nine justices were appointed by Democratic presidents.
B) In 2014, seven of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents.
C) In 2014, all of the justices were appointed by Democratic presidents.
D) In 2014, five of the nine justices were appointed by Republican presidents.
Q4) There are different kinds of judicial philosophy in how to interpret the law. Outline the theories of judicial restraint and judicial activism. Discuss an example of the Supreme Court employing judicial activism.
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Chapter 13: Domestic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why have politicians always favored using subsidies to promote certain economic activities?
A) They can be treated as benefits that can be widely spread in response to many demands.
B) They are generally cheaper than other forms of government support.
C) Recipients are always required to pay back the subsidies.
D) Congress does not have to pass legislation in order to provide subsidies.
Q2) Which of the following is the strongest factor in predicting which groups in society receive the most benefits from government's social policies?
A) groups that make up the largest percentage of the population
B) groups that are the most politically powerful
C) groups that have the largest membership
D) groups that are made up of people who cannot help themselves, like children or the elderly
Q3) 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.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Foreign Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following set off a new set of power struggles in Washington, D.C., over control of the intelligence community?
A) the creation of the Department of Homeland Security
B) the appointment of Donald Rumsfeld as the secretary of Defense
C) the appointment of a national intelligence "czar"
D) the placing of the FBI and the CIA into the same federal department
Q2) What was the key to American security during the nineteenth century?
A) the largest naval fleet in the world
B) troops stationed on the borders
C) geographical isolation
D) the largest nuclear arsenal in the world
Q3) ISIS stands for
A) "I Stand with the Islamic State."
B) the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
C) the Islamic State in India and Sri Lanka
D) the Islamic State in Solidarity.
Q4) Discuss how security policy has evolved over the course of American history. What were the key policy approaches during the nineteenth century, during the Cold War, and in the post-Cold War era (including the Bush and Obama administrations)? Explain.
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