Introduction to American Government Exam Materials
Course Introduction
Introduction to American Government explores the fundamental principles, institutions, and processes that shape the political system of the United States. Students will examine the Constitution, federalism, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, as well as the functions of political parties, elections, and interest groups. The course provides insights into how public policies are developed and implemented, the importance of civil liberties and civil rights, and the ongoing challenges facing American democracy. Through analysis of contemporary issues, students will gain a deeper understanding of the governments impact on society and their own roles as citizens.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Power and Purpose 15th Edition by Stephen Ansolabehere
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17 Chapters
2398 Verified Questions
2398 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Five Principles of Politics
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128 Verified Questions
128 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A public good is any service provided by the government.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) If all the members of a group share common values and objectives, a well-organized group usually emerges easily.
A)True
B)False Answer: False
Q3) A tribal council that meets occasionally to advise the chief has all the essential elements of a government.
A)True
B)False Answer: True
Q4) Past events and experiences are largely irrelevant to decisions made today because the world is fundamentally different today than even 20 years ago.
A)True
B)False Answer: False
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Chapter 2: Constructing a Government: The Founding and the Constitution
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145 Verified Questions
145 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why is the process for amending the Constitution a source of path dependency?
A)After the Constitution was amended once, adding new amendments became easier and easier.
B)Once the Constitution was adopted, the amending process requires supermajority support from multiple institutions and levels of government.
C)Politicians learned how to amend the Constitution over time, so it became easier.
D)Congress often prefers to incorporate its policies into the Constitution instead of enacting public laws.
Answer: B
Q2) Staggered terms of service in the Senate were intended to make that body even more politically responsive to popular opinion.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Throughout the Constitution, the principle of majority rule prevails.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Federalism and the Separation of Powers
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134 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The framers of the Constitution reinforced the principle of federalism in the Bill of Rights.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) A government that has supreme and independent political authority is said to have
A)the structure of a republic.
B)the structure of a democracy.
C)sovereignty.
D)a dictator.
Answer: C
Q3) Which of these is NOT a constitutional mechanism for the three branches of government to check and balance each other?
A)the president's ability to veto congressional legislation
B)the congressional right of stare decisis
C)the Senate's power to approve or reject executive appointments
D)the Supreme Court's power of judicial review
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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122 Verified Questions
122 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The establishment of procedural and substantive limitations on government to protect civil liberties reflects which of the five principles of politics?
A)the collective action principle
B)the institution principle
C)the policy principle
D)the history principle
Q2) When evidence obtained from an illegal search of Dollree Mapp's house was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court as inadmissible evidence, it exemplified the A)illegal searches and seizures rule.
B)equal protection clause.
C)criminal rights standard.
D)exclusionary rule.
Q3) The Bill of Rights is basically a series of amendments on what A)citizens must do.
B)citizens must not do.
C)the federal government must do.
D)the federal government must not do.
Q4) Explain due process and the constitutional rights protected under due process.
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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105 Verified Questions
105 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Supreme Court ruling that definitively established the view that constitutionally permissible use of race must serve a compelling state interest was
A)Regents v. Bakke.
B)Grutter v. Bollinger.
C)Korematsu v. United States.
D)Ricci v. DeStefano.
Q2) Congress passed an equal rights amendment, but it fell short on the number of states needed for ratification.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Immigration policy has been an increasingly important political issue over the last two decades. What are some of the key immigration issues currently facing the federal government?
Q4) Plessy v. Ferguson was a civil rights case involving the
A)privileges and immunities clause in Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution.
B)reserved powers clause of the Tenth Amendment.
C)freedom of assembly clause of the First Amendment.
D)equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Q5) Should affirmative action be continued? Why or why not?
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Chapter 6: Congress: The First Branch
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154 Verified Questions
154 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The franking privilege is an example of a practice that contributes to
A)the incumbency advantage.
B)frequent ethics violations.
C)pork-barrel legislation.
D)patronage.
Q2) Which term best describes a legislative assembly, such as the Congress, that is divided into two chambers or houses?
A)bipolar
B)bicameral
C)bilateral
D)bipartisan
Q3) A congressional representative's statement to his legislative colleague that he will support her bill if she will support his is an example of A)whipping.
B)logrolling.
C)the distributive tendency.
D)a filibuster.
Q4) In your opinion, should congressional representatives act more as delegates or as trustees? Explain why.
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Chapter 7: The Presidency As an Institution
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160 Verified Questions
160 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The New Deal shifted the national structure from a Congress-centered government to a president-centered government. This historical shift and the inability of any modern government to return to a Congress-centered government is an example of
A)instrumental behavior.
B)principal-agent problem.
C)path dependency.
D)the institution principle.
Q2) Under this congressional act, the president can send troops into action abroad only by authorization of Congress or if U.S. troops are already under attack or seriously threatened.
A)War Powers Resolution
B)Operation Iraqi Freedom Act
C)Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
D)USA Patriot Act
Q3) A president uses the veto as a means to bargain with Congress.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In what ways do presidents expand their power?
Q5) Is the American president too powerful? Why or why not?
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Chapter 8: The Executive Branch: Bureaucracy in a Democracy
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147 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain the trade-off between controlling bureaucratic drift and controlling coalitional drift.
Q2) Despite attempts to control the growth of bureaucracy, the number of federal employees in the civil service has grown exponentially over the past 30 years.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which is not part of a cabinet department, is most accurately classified as a(n)
A)government corporation.
B)multinational corporation.
C)independent regulatory commission.
D)independent agency.
Q4) Which choice is an example of a powerful before-the-fact political weapon for controlling the bureaucracy?
A)the appointment process
B)a procedural control
C)the appropriations process
D)a congressional hearing
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Q5) Should bureaucracy be reduced? If so, how?
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Chapter 9: The Federal Courts
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157 Verified Questions
157 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Supreme Court is a policy-making body.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Individuals or groups who are not parties to a lawsuit but who seek to assist the court in reaching a decision (including, often, the solicitor general) can present additional briefs called
A)per curiam.
B)amicus curiae.
C)dissenting opinions.
D)concurring opinions.
Q3) This is the term for a court opinion agreeing with the decision of the majority but not entirely agreeing with the rationale provided in the majority opinion.
A)concurrence
B)amicus curiae
C)conditional acceptance
D)qualified accordance
Q4) How has the power of the Supreme Court expanded beyond the limited role established by the Constitution?
Q5) Why do some cases reach the Supreme Court and not others?
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Chapter 10: Public Opinion
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143 Verified Questions
143 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Politicians typically make little to no use of public opinion polls, except during election season.
A)True
B)False
Q2) When the media choose to present a story from a particular angle to invoke a desired reaction, people are influenced through the process known as
A)plastering.
B)priming.
C)overcoverage.
D)framing.
Q3) The two primary pathways through which media coverage shapes what people think are
A)priming and framing.
B)advertising and position taking.
C)yellow journalism and issue leadership.
D)subliminal messages and ad hominem coverage.
Q4) The mass media affect public opinion through priming and framing.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Elections
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163 Verified Questions
163 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) If a candidate promises to convert the federal income tax to a "flat tax" system, what effect would that have on the distribution of taxes?
A)Tax rates would stay the same but tax collection would improve.
B)Tax rates would decrease for the poor and increase for the rich.
C)Tax rates would increase for the poor and decrease for the rich.
D)Tax rates would decrease during recessions and increase during growth years.
Q2) Most Americans identify more or less strongly with one or the other of the two major political parties.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the case of Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court ruled that spending money in a campaign was essentially equivalent to speech.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Competition creates strong incentives for those vying for office to reveal information to the electorate.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How does government regulate the electoral process?
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Chapter 12: Political Parties
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153 Verified Questions
153 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How has party loyalty in the U.S. Congress changed since the early 1970s?
A)It varies with the personality and media tactics of the president.
B)It has trended downward for the last five decades.
C)It has trended upward for the last five decades.
D)Southern Democrats have become more conservative, while northeastern Republicans have become more liberal.
Q2) Ross Perot's 1992 campaign for president is an example of a(n)
A)third-party candidacy.
B)fourth-party candidacy.
C)antilabor candidacy.
D)anti-incumbent candidacy.
Q3) In the modern age, party leaders do not actively recruit or discourage potential candidates from running for office.
A)True
B)False
Q4) During Barack Obama's presidency, Republican candidates suffered at the state level so that by 2016 a clear majority of state legislators were Democratic.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Groups and Interests
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140 Verified Questions
140 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Union members who label other members as "scabs" for their refusal to strike is an example of
A)union opposition.
B)political entrepreneurship.
C)solidary support.
D)coercion.
Q2) A companion brief to an existing court case is called
A)amicus curiae.
B)lex scripta.
C)non compos mentis.
D)writ of mandamus.
Q3) To build a financial structure capable of sustaining an organization and funding the group's activities, what do most interest groups primarily rely on?
A)grants from charitable foundations
B)research contracts and royalties from intellectual properties
C)selling of ancillary services such as insurance or vacation tours
D)membership dues and voluntary contributions
Q4) Does the Madisonian model ensure that all groups within a democratic political system are represented equitably and fairly? Why or why not?
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Chapter 14: The Media
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136 Verified Questions
136 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The general pattern in surveys of journalists is that the ratio of respondents who classify themselves as Democratic to those who classify themselves as Republican is about
A)1:1.
B)2:1.
C)3:1.
D)4:1.
Q2) In the 2016 presidential election, newspaper endorsements
A)were split evenly between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
B)leaned heavily toward Donald Trump.
C)leaned heavily toward Hillary Clinton.
D)illustrated the history principle, with nearly every outlet endorsing the candidate of the same party it endorsed in 2012.
Q3) Most of the programs on talk radio are liberal in opinion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In recent years, cable television has been growing in importance as a news source.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Economic Policy
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144 Verified Questions
144 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The type of policy that governs taxing and spending powers is
A)fiscal policy.
B)dollar policy.
C)open-market operations
D)monetary policy.
Q2) The national government gives grants-in-aid directly to individuals to build their businesses.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which term describes the inefficient allocation of society's economic resources?
A)trade deficit
B)black market
C)market failure
D)inflationary spiral
Q4) The existence of a single firm in a market that controls all the goods and services of that market is called a(n)
A)single company sector.
B)captured market.
C)dominated market.
D)monopoly.
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Chapter 16: Social Policy
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125 Verified Questions
125 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most spending on social welfare in the United States goes to such programs as
A)Social Security and medical insurance for the elderly.
B)Aid to Families with Dependent Children and food stamps.
C)Head Start and other educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth.
D)National Institutes of Health and other scientific research organizations.
Q2) During the Great Depression, Americans abandoned their traditional distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Cost-of-living adjustments for the Social Security system are based on changes in the
A)index of consumer prices.
B)gross national product.
C)gross domestic product.
D)quarterly national living standards survey.
Q4) Has welfare reform been politically and fiscally successful? Do you believe that welfare will need to be significantly reformed in the foreseeable future?
Q5) How does the national government improve the welfare of the poor?
Q6) What are the foundations of the social welfare system?
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Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
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142 Verified Questions
142 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What would the framers of the Constitution think of the president's ability to commit U.S. military forces abroad?
A)They would be surprised because Congress was assigned the power to declare war.
B)They would be happy because the president is intended to have full discretion over foreign policy.
C)They would be surprised because the military is supposed to exercise its own judgment on national security issues.
D)They would be surprised because the Supreme Court is required to rule on the constitutionality of each military deployment before it occurs.
Q2) In his farewell address, which president warned the American people to "steer clear of permanent alliances" and "to have . . . as little political connection as possible" with foreign nations?
A)George Washington
B)John Quincy Adams
C)Theodore Roosevelt
D)Franklin D. Roosevelt
Q3) Has the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war made the world a safer place?
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