Introduction to Political Science Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Introduction to Political Science offers students a foundational understanding of the key concepts, theories, and methodologies that define the study of politics. This course explores central topics such as political systems, institutions, ideologies, political behavior, public policy, and international relations. Through examining both historical and contemporary cases from around the world, students gain insights into how governments function, how power is distributed and exercised, and the various ways citizens participate in the political process. The course encourages the development of critical thinking skills and provides a basis for understanding the complexities of political life in a global context.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Brief 14th Edition by Stephen Ansolabehere
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14 Chapters
1549 Verified Questions
1549 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Five Principles of Politics
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Institutions do the public's business while relieving communities of having to reinvent collective action each time it is required.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) For which of the following reasons is government NOT necessary?
A)to provide public goods
B)to provide national defense
C)to maintain order
D)to provide private goods
E)to protect property
Answer: D
Q3) Autocracy can best be defined as rule by A)all.
B)one.
C)few.
D)many.
E)self-executing laws.
Answer: B
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Founding and the Constitution
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103 Verified Questions
103 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The result of the 1777 Continental Congress was a constitution concerned primarily with
A)preventing domestic insurrection.
B)limiting the powers of the central government.
C)generating new tax revenues to help pay for armed resistance.
D)regulating trade among the colonies as well as imports and exports.
E)centralizing currency and monetary policy.
Answer: B
Q2) The purpose of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights was basically to give each of the three branches of government
A)increased flexibility.
B)broader and more explicit powers.
C)clearer and more restricted boundaries.
D)fewer opportunities to come into conflict with each other.
E)a broader grant of power.
Answer: C
Q3) The Constitutional Convention passed the New Jersey Plan with little compromise.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Federalism and the Separation of Powers
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121 Verified Questions
121 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Unfunded Mandate Reform Act (UMRA) limits the number of unfunded mandates Congress may place on states in a given year.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Congress uses grants-in-aid because it does not have the political or constitutional power to command local governments to do its bidding.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) The first and most important Supreme Court case favoring national power over the economy was
A)Barron v.Baltimore.
B)United States v.Lopez.
C)McCulloch v.Maryland.
D)Dred Scott v.Sandford.
E)Plessy v.Ferguson.
Answer: C
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5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Civil Rights
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151 Verified Questions
151 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The German government's "church tax" that requires citizens to give a portion of their income (through taxation) to churches is an example of a practice that would be unconstitutional in the United States under the
A)establishment clause.
B)free exercise clause.
C)Third Amendment.
D)Fourteenth Amendment.
E)Fifth Amendment.
Q2) What is the higher standard of judicial scrutiny afforded to cases involving democratic political processes called?
A)strict scrutiny
B)critical threshold
C)intense benchmarking
D)the preponderance of the evidence
E)heightened scrutiny
Q3) Constitutional objections to the death penalty often invoke the necessary and proper clause of the Constitution.
A)True
B)False
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Congress: the First Branch
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114 Verified Questions
114 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is one way in which the Founders made the Senate more distant from the will of the majority than the House?
A)Senators have to be U.S.citizens longer than House members.
B)Senators have longer terms than House members.
C)There are more senators than members of the House.
D)Senators have shorter terms than members of the House.
E)Senators have higher salaries than members of the House.
Q2) Redistricting can give an advantage to one party by clustering votes with some ideological or sociological characteristics in a single district.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In the House of Representatives,who determines the order in which bills come up for a vote?
A)the majority whip
B)the president pro tempore
C)the Rules Committee
D)the Deliberations Committee
E)the Agenda Committee
Q4) How does Congress organize itself to carry on the public's business?
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Chapter 6: The Presidency
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123 Verified Questions
123 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The president may deploy troops in a state or city without a specific request from the state legislature or governor if the president considers it necessary to protect federally guaranteed civil rights.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What are the powers given to the president by Congress called?
A)manifest prose
B)delegated powers
C)expressed powers
D)transferred authorities
E)invested powers
Q3) What powers does the Constitution specifically provide for the president,and how have presidents over time worked to increase the power of the office?
Q4) What are the primary administrative tools that presidents use to shape policy? How can Congress respond to these tactics?
Q5) If a president does not sign a bill within 5 days,it automatically becomes law.
A)True
B)False
Q6) In what ways do presidents expand their power?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: The Executive Branch
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114 Verified Questions
114 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which two agencies take center stage among agencies for external national security?
A)the State Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
B)the State Department and the Department of Defense
C)the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
D)the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security
E)the Department of State and the Department of International Affairs
Q2) The 1921 Budget and Accounting Act conferred agenda-setting powers over the budget to the president.This change in power over the budget helped create what is now known as
A)bureaucratic drift.
B)coalitional drift.
C)congressional oversight.
D)the managerial presidency.
E)the distributive tendency.
Q3) Each expansion of the national government into new policies and programs in the twentieth century was accompanied by a parallel restriction on the president's management authority.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: The Federal Courts
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118 Verified Questions
118 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) How do presidents and Congress influence decision making by the Supreme Court?
Q2) Rarely in American history have presidents been disappointed by the judges they have named to the bench.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The power of the Supreme Court to review state legislation or other state action and to determine its constitutionality is implied by the logic contained in the A)tradition of common law inherited from the English judicial system. B)system of separated institutions sharing powers as outlined in the Constitution. C)1890 State Act and the necessary and proper clause to the Constitution. D)supremacy clause of Article VI of the Constitution and the Judiciary Act of 1789. E)cases and controversies clause of Article III.
Q4) Cases in the federal district courts are,in form,very different from cases in the state trial courts.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How do the jurisdictions of federal and state courts differ?
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Public Opinion and the Media
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107 Verified Questions
107 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss the role of identity in U.S.politics and political behavior.To what extent does identity shape our opinions and attitudes toward politics?
Q2) Which of the following is a reason political opinions are often economically based?
A)American political parties have always been based on social class,with an upper-class party against a lower-class party.
B)Americans prefer to vote for candidates who make the same income as they do.
C)Rich people elected to office customarily reward voters by donating new public buildings to their cities or states.
D)When the economy is good,voters are likely to gamble on new leadership to make it work even better.
E)Governments directly and indirectly hire millions of people.
Q3) Which of the following is NOT an advantage of the Internet for news purposes?
A)The Internet allows frequent updating.
B)The Internet allows for great depth of coverage.
C)The Internet potentially has the timeliness of television and radio.
D)The Internet is not bound by the same journalistic standards as print media.
E)Online news is easily archived and searched.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Elections
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92 Verified Questions
92 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Making certain that a political party's roster of candidates includes members of as many important groups as possible is known as
A)balancing the ticket.
B)diversifying the slate.
C)pandering to constituents.
D)spreading guns and butter.
E)providing opium to the masses.
Q2) Australia and Germany require all citizens to vote.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which landmark Supreme Court case on campaign finance first equated spending money with the right of free speech?
A)Buckley v.Valeo
B)McConnell v.FEC
C)McCain v.Feingold
D)Gibbons v.Ogden
E)Colorado Republican Party v.FEC
Q4) Explain the differences between prospective voting and retrospective voting.What effects do these have on the campaign strategies of the candidates?
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Chapter 11: Political Parties
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105 Verified Questions
105 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Third-party candidates often emerge to represent issues that were not given voice by the major parties.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Party identification is a voter's psychological tie to one party or the other.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When recruiting candidates,parties consider that,at the very least,a serious candidate for a U.S.Senate seat must be able to raise several __________ dollars.
A)hundred
B)thousand
C)hundred thousand
D)million
E)billion
Q4) Why do politicians and political activists form political parties? What problems are parties meant to solve? Are they effective at doing so?
Q5) Compare and contrast the organization of the two major political parties in the United States.
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Chapter 12: Groups and Interests
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101 Verified Questions
101 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Citing specific examples,relate how the expansion of government encourages a corresponding increase in the number and activities of interest groups.
Q2) In the quest for political influence,insider strategies include
A)going public.
B)running media campaigns.
C)using electoral politics.
D)meeting with a senator.
E)holding a demonstration on the sidewalk outside the Supreme Court.
Q3) Which late nineteenth-century group originally promoted the political tactic known as the initiative?
A)Populists
B)Socialists
C)Libertarians
D)party bosses
E)muckrakers
Q4) How do interest groups attempt to influence elections?
Q5) What is going public,and what do interest groups hope to achieve when using this strategy? How has it been used successfully in the past?
Q6) To what extent are interest groups effective at influencing political outcomes?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Introduction to Public Policy
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131 Verified Questions
131 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social Security is an example of a __________ program.
A)contributory
B)noncontributory
C)monetary
D)phasing
E)means-tested
Q2) Government funds given to a state or locality that are earmarked by law for specific categories are called
A)categorical grants-in-aid.
B)block grants.
C)furtherances.
D)endowments.
E)pass-throughs.
Q3) Laws that structure the conditions under which you can sell your property are called
A)trade agreements.
B)market standards.
C)contractual terms.
D)laws of exchange.
E)collective bargaining agreements.
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Page 15
Chapter 14: Foreign Policy
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106 Verified Questions
106 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) After the 2008 election,how did the Obama administration initially respond to hostile states?
A)President Obama initially chose to step up American's military effort in Afghanistan and keep U.S.forces in Iraq.
B)President Obama renounced the Bush doctrine.
C)President Obama immediately accelerated the departure of American troops from Iraq but not Afghanistan.
D)President Obama immediately accelerated the departure of American troops from Afghanistan but not Iraq
E)President Obama immediately accelerated the departure of American troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Q2) Although it has numerous political parties,the UN General Assembly is basically dominated by three major political coalitions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Should the United States avoid foreign entanglements,or should it be engaged in world affairs? Explain your answer.
Q4) Explain the role of Congress in modern American foreign policy.
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