Political Institutions of the United States Exam Solutions
Course Introduction
This course explores the foundational structures and functions of political institutions in the United States, including the Constitution, Congress, the Presidency, the federal judiciary, and the bureaucracy. Students examine the development, organization, and interactions among these institutions, as well as their roles in shaping public policy and governance. The course also addresses the influence of federalism, political parties, interest groups, and the media on the functioning of American political institutions. Through case studies and critical analysis, students gain a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and challenges within the American political system.
Recommended Textbook Government in America 2014 Elections and Updates 16th Edition by by George
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C. Edwards III
Chapter 1: Introducing Government in America
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Q1) Congress,the presidency,and the courts are all policymaking institutions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Which principle of traditional democracy theory is violated in circumstances in which the wealthy have influence over the government's policy agenda that far exceeds what would be expected based on their numbers?
A) citizen control of the agenda
B) effective participation
C) enlightened understanding
D) equality in voting
Answer: A
Q3) In the United States,pluralism suggests which of the following?
A) Because most citizens fail to pay attention to serious issues, government has become an elite institution.
B) Congress is stronger and more influential than the presidency.
C) Many groups vie for power with no one group dominating politics.
D) Too many influential groups cripple government's ability to govern.
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) The Constitution limits the government's ability to suspend writs of habeas corpus. What does this protect individuals against?
A) free speech infringement
B) taxation of private property
C) unlawful incarceration
D) infringement of religious freedom
Answer: C
Q2) Which of the following is a branch of the U.S. government?
A) House of Representatives
B) Supreme Court
C) presidency
D) legislative
Answer: D
Q3) The Articles of Confederation required __________ consent from the states for ratification.
A) majority
B)three-fifths
C) two-thirds
D) unanimous
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) The Constitution is more specific about the __________ states do not have than about those they possess.
A) grants
B) entitlements
C) powers
D) authorities
Answer: C
Q2) There are two major types of federal grants-in-aid for states and localities: categorical grants and block grants. Define each type and show how they are used.
Answer: 1. Define the two types of grants.
2. Show how categorical grants are structured to restrict usage of funds. Contrast the restrictions of categorical grants with the inherent discretion allowed the states by block grants.
Q3) Which of the following is an example of fiscal federalism?
A) a blue ribbon task force on education
B) gas mileage requirements
C) grants-in-aid
D) minimum wage legislation
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy
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Q1) The USA Patriot Act enhances the government's ability to do which of the following?
A) examine private records
B) take personal property
C) imprison citizens without trial
D) issue pardons for those accused of war crimes
Q2) Most developed countries use some form of the death penalty.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What does the Sixth Amendment guarantee to those accused of a crime?
A) assistance of counsel
B) the right to parole
C) reasonable bail
D) a written indictment
Q4) In Abington School District v. Schempp,the Court ruled that state-mandated Bible readings were constitutional under the free exercise clause.
A)True
B)False
Q5) __________ rights include the right to remain silent.
Q6) Why did the Supreme Court suspend capital punishment in 1972?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights and Public Policy
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Q1) What did the Supreme Court decide in Korematsu v. United States (1944)regarding the internment of American citizens of Japanese ancestry living in the United States?
A) It was permissible.
B) It was unconstitutional, and Japanese Americans must be duly compensated.
C) It did not pass the strict scrutiny test, and the internment was promptly terminated.
D) It was unconstitutional, but it was too late to do anything about it.
Q2) Even though the Hispanic population is fairly small,they earned their civil rights earlier and more completely than did African Americans.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Gender classifications are evaluated by the Supreme Court using the "inherently suspect" standard to ensure that they are necessary to serve a compelling public interest and that they are the only way to accomplish that goal.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In Korematsu v. United States,the Supreme Court upheld the use of __________ for Japanese Americans.
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action
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Q1) __________ encompasses the many activities in which citizens engage to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue.
Q2) Why does the United States have a relatively restrained scope of government compared to most European nations?
A) the predominance of conservatives in the United States
B) the predominance of liberals in the United States
C) the absence of moderates in the United States
D) the absence of pluralist thinking in the United States
Q3) Cedric is a high school graduate who works as an assistant manager at a big-box retailer located in the suburb of a major metropolitan center. Gayle lives in the Midwest,has two master's degrees,and works part-time as an estate planner. Who is more likely to vote,Cedric or Gayle? On what evidence do you base your conclusion?
Q4) The strategy used by the Reverend Martin Luther King,Jr.,and others in the civil rights movement was influenced by India's __________.
Q5) Nonviolent __________ was one of the most effective techniques of the civil rights movement in the American South.
Q6) What is the gender gap in public opinion? Why does it exist?
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Page 8
Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda
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Q1) The issues that attract the serious attention of public officials and others involved in politics are collectively known as the policy agenda.
A)True B)False
Q2) Press conferences are meetings of __________ with reporters.
Q3) Newspaper circulation rates in the United States have been steadily declining. A)True B)False
Q4) How has the Internet changed news reporting? How has it changed political campaigns and elections? What effect does the Internet have on other news media?
Q5) Research suggests that most reporting is systematically biased in a liberal direction. A)True B)False
Q6) __________ are intentional news leaks for the purpose of assessing the political reaction.
Q7) If a reporter is assigned to cover news from the Pentagon,it is considered the reporter's __________.
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Q1) A critical election is typically associated with __________.
A) dealignment
B) party realignment
C) unpopular presidents
D) party stability
Q2) One of the important purposes of the "Contract with America" was to __________.
A) decrease split-ticket voting
B) increase confidence in the military
C) make politics user friendly for voters
D) reduce corruption in Congress
Q3) Give an overview of the key eras of political party development in the United States. Be certain to demonstrate where realignments have occurred and the reasons why. Evaluate in detail what dealignment entails,and assess whether it has occurred.
Q4) European democracies have more parties in positions of political power than does the United States because of their use of __________.
A) party platforms
B) winner-take-all systems
C) critical elections
D) proportional representation
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Chapter 9: Campaigns and Voting Behavior
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Q1) What 2012 candidate lost momentum when he could not remember the names of the three federal cabinet departments he would eliminate?
A) Mitt Romney
B) Rick Perry
C) Rick Santorum
D) Jon Huntsman
Q2) __________ are people who are awarded automatic slots as delegates to a national party convention based on the office they currently hold.
Q3) Which of the following groups is overrepresented among voters?
A) government workers
B) people who are single
C) younger citizens
D) men
Q4) A majority of eligible Americans vote in most congressional elections.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Independent expenditure-only groups are known as __________ because they may accept donations of any size and can endorse candidates.
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Chapter 10: Interest Groups
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Q1) A(n)__________ refers to an organization of people with shared policy goals entering the policy process at several points to try to achieve those goals.
A) corporation
B) interest group
C) iron triangle
D) faction
Q2) Which of the following comes closest to James Madison's conception of factions?
A) the media
B) women
C) interest groups
D) workers
Q3) The __________ problem occurs when people fail to join a group because they can get the benefits the group offers without contributing to the group's efforts.
A) free-rider
B) pluralist
C) collective goods
D) group coordination
Q4) Discuss the role of interest groups in elections.
Q5) How do lobbyists seek to persuade legislators to support certain policies?
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Chapter 11: Congress
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Q1) A __________ is an informal group of members of Congress who share some interest or characteristic; its goal is to promote the interests around which it is formed.
A) caucus
B) colloquium
C) committee
D) conference
Q2) In the House of Representatives,not only do more than 90 percent of incumbents seeking reelection usually win,but most of them win with more than 60 percent of the vote. Discuss why the rate at which incumbents are reelected to the Senate is lower than at which House members are reelected.
Q3) For a bill to become law,it must be passed by both the House and the Senate. This gives each chamber the power to veto the policies of the other.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the formal responsibilities and informal powers held today by the Speaker of the House.
Q5) Weigh the pros and cons of incumbency on politicians and society.
Q6) What is the House Rules Committee? What are its functions?
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Chapter 12: The Presidency
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Q1) If Barack Obama wants to disapprove individual items within a spending bill rather than the bill in its entirety,he can use the line-item veto.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What was intended to give Congress a greater voice in the decision to introduce American troops into hostilities?
A) the Twenty-second Amendment
B) executive privilege
C) the legislative veto
D) the War Powers Resolution
Q3) What situations was the Twenty-fifth Amendment enacted to address?
Q4) Of all those who have served as president starting with Eisenhower,who issued the most vetoes?
A) Eisenhower
B) Kennedy
C) Nixon
D) Clinton
Q5) __________ occur(s)when voters cast their ballots for congressional candidates of the president's party.
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Chapter 13: The Budget: the Politics of Taxing and Spending
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Q1) The Social Security Act was enacted in __________.
A) 1865
B) 1890
C) 1935
D) 1964
Q2) The Constitution requires that Congress approve taxes and appropriations.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In 1985,President Reagan indexed taxes to the cost of living in order to
A) prevent massive tax cuts
B) create new tax incentives
C) increase social insurance taxes
D) keep inflation from impacting tax brackets
Q4) What is the largest tax expenditure in the United States?
A) deduction of mortgage interest on owner-occupied houses
B) deferral of income from controlled foreign corporations
C) exclusion of employer contributions to health care and insurance
D) exclusion for interest earned on state and local government bonds
Q5) President Eisenhower warned against the increasing influence of the __________.
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Q1) What is administrative discretion? Suppose you are a police officer who believes that the recreational use of small amounts of marijuana does not pose a significant risk to the user or to the general public. How would this belief likely affect your use of administrative discretion when you encounter small-time recreational marijuana users?
Q2) Which of the following statements best describes the president's influence over agency budgets?
A) The president has final say over all department budgets, but has no control of the budgets of independent agencies.
B) The president proposes agency budgets, but depends on Congress for appropriations of federal money.
C) The president has sole authority to determine executive administrative budgets.
D) The president has no authority in the budgeting process.
Q3) According to Max Weber,bureaucracies are characterized by hierarchical authority structures.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The federal bureaucracy is part of the __________ branch of government.
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16
Chapter 15: The Federal Courts
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Q1) At President Roosevelt's urging,Congress passed dozens of laws designed to end the Depression. Why did the Supreme Court initially overturn these New Deal policies?
A) The Court believed that federal intervention in the economy was unconstitutional.
B) The Court believed that Roosevelt was meddling in the Court's jurisdiction.
C) The Court typically gave deference to the decisions enacted by the elected branches of government.
D) Federal intervention in the economy was perceived as being the best way to end the Great Depression.
Q2) Describe the difference between civil and criminal law.
Q3) The Supreme Court regularly exercises its original jurisdiction.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Who nominates judges to the U.S. district courts?
A) the president
B) the House of Representatives
C) the Senate
D) the Supreme Court
Q5) What are class action lawsuits?
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Chapter 16: Economic and Social Welfare Policymaking
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Q1) To what does the text attribute the declining poverty rate among the elderly?
A) the feminization of poverty
B) progressive taxation
C) Social Security
D) supply-side economics
Q2) Which of the following is an entitlement program?
A) food stamps
B) Medicaid
C) Medicare
D) employer-provided health insurance
Q3) Why do adjustments to interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board matter?
Q4) What is the concern regarding the Social Security Trust Fund?
Q5) The official poverty counts tend to overestimate poverty in America.
A)True B)False
Q6) What portion of the federal government is responsible for monetary policy,and how does it affect the economy?
Q7) The best way to influence the money supply is through fiscal policy.
A)True B)False
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Chapter 17: Policymaking for Health Care, the Environment, and Energy
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Q1) One major obstacle to Barack Obama's proposed health care reform was anxiety by the insured that the quality of their care would diminish.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the Superfund?
A) a congressional fund to reduce carbon emissions
B) a congressional fund to study global warming
C) a congressional fund to improve air quality
D) a congressional fund to clean up hazardous waste sites
Q3) Health care costs account for about one-tenth of America's gross domestic product (GDP).
A)True
B)False
Q4) Medicare Part A covers prescription drugs.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act,but held that states could opt out of extending __________ coverage.
Q6) Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the Medicaid program.
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Chapter 18: National Security Policymaking
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Q1) Who is the president's chief adviser on intelligence matters?
A) the director of the Central Intelligence Agency
B) the director of national intelligence
C) the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
D) the National Security Agency
Q2) The __________ has primary responsibility for foreign,military,and defense policy in the United States.
Q3) Which of the following countries is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council?
A) Germany
B) India
C) Spain
D) the United States
Q4) Why did the United States join the North American Free Trade Agreement?
A) to lower trade barriers
B) to relocate manufacturing jobs to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor
C) to slow down the pace of globalization
D) to make it harder for Japanese cars to compete in the American marketplace
Q5) How is terrorism fundamentally different from traditional military action?
Q6) The __________ was the U.S. effort to help Western Europe after World War II.
Page 20
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