Political Science
Exam Questions
Course Introduction
Political Science is the systematic study of government, political institutions, processes, and behavior. This course explores the foundations of political theory, the organization and function of governments across the world, and the ways in which power and policy are shaped and contested. Students will analyze political ideologies, movements, public policies, international relations, and the roles of citizens in political systems, gaining a comprehensive understanding of how politics impacts societies and global affairs. The course fosters critical thinking, analytical skills, and informed engagement with current political challenges.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Institutions and Policies 16th Edition by James Q. Wilson
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Study of American Government the Study of
American Government
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Sample Questions
Q1) Safety requirements for automobiles are an example of client politics.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Samuel P.Huntington argued that morally impassioned elites made most important changes EXCEPT
A) during periods of great social change.
B) for decisions made by political parties.
C) during normal, "business as usual" periods.
D) for decisions by religious leaders.
E) during wars.
Answer: C
Q3) By authority,the authors mean the
A) right to use power.
B) manner in which power is spread.
C) use of power for good causes.
D) desire to have power.
E) desire to give power to others.
Answer: A
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Chapter 2: The Constitution the Constitution
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Sample Questions
Q1) The philosophical ideas that drove the American Revolution could best be described as
A) destined to succeed.
B) truly revolutionary.
C) standard for the time.
D) lofty and impractical.
E) cautiously moderate.
Answer: B
Q2) The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were popularly elected.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) In Federalist No.10 and No.51,Madison argued in favor of a large republic,which went against the ideas of this political philosopher.
A) John Locke
B) Thomas Hobbes
C) Plato
D) Montesquieu
E) None of these are correct.
Answer: D
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Chapter 3: Federalism Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) When the Framers drafted the Constitution,the Antifederalists opposed it primarily on the grounds that the new government
A) empowered state governments.
B) created a bicameral Congress.
C) gave states the power to coin money.
D) created a navy.
E) gave too much power to the national government.
Answer: E
Q2) For the Founders,federalism was a device to
A) protect personal liberty.
B) provide efficient local administration.
C) encourage citizen participation.
D) guarantee equality.
E) protect against foreign invasion.
Answer: A
Q3) The text says,"Devolution did not become a revolution." Explain.
Answer: Large federal-state programs were not turned into block grant programs.Spending on most federal and state programs increased.Public support was never very strong.Devolution seems to have resulted in more,not fewer,governmental rules and regulations.
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Chapter 4: American Political Culture American Political Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the 1830s,de Tocqueville was amazed how __________ Americans were in comparison to his fellow Europeans.
A) religious
B) tolerant
C) educated
D) progressive
E) All of these are correct.
Q2) Identify and define the two sides in the so-called "culture war." Then,explains Morris Fiorina's viewpoint on red states and blue states in this nation.
Q3) Donald Kinder and David Sears view Americans strong belief in economic individualism as "symbolic racism"-a kind of plausible camouflage for anti-black attitudes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss Max Weber's "Protestant ethic" and its influence on American political culture.
Q5) Summarize the long-term trends in public confidence in government and what the authors say about how such data should be interpreted.
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Chapter 5: Civil Liberties Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) When the USA Patriot Act was renewed in 2006,
A) Democrats in Congress made sure there were major overhauls.
B) almost all of its provisions were made permanent.
C) so many changes were made that its original supporters opposed its passage.
D) no changes were made to the original act.
E) its major provisions were extended for two additional years.
Q2) In Palko v.Connecticut (1937),the Supreme Court broadly ruled that certain provisions of the U.S.Constitution's Bill of Rights applied to the states because of
A) the notion of a reasonable person.
B) the shock-the-conscience test.
C) a rational basis standard.
D) the due process and equal protection clauses.
E) the notions of ordered liberty and fundamental rights.
Q3) Slander differs from libel in that it refers to
A) oral statements.
B) written statements.
C) public officials.
D) private individuals.
E) administrative hierarchies.
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Chapter 6: Civil Rights Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Supreme Court's deep division over affirmative action is evident in its opinions.Give five general standards that seem to be emerging from its decisions.
Q2) The leaders of the Seneca Falls Convention demanded that women be given
A) the right to get a graduate education.
B) the right to get an undergraduate education.
C) the right to vote.
D) the same employment opportunities as men.
E) equal pay for equal work as men.
Q3) A core premise of the strict scrutiny standard is that some instances of drawing distinctions between different groups of people are
A) socially inevitable.
B) legally necessary.
C) inherently dubious.
D) morally wrong.
E) politically incorrect but valid.
Q4) Describe the facts and discuss the effect of the ruling of the case Plessy v.Ferguson.
Q5) Identify,define,and explain the three standards that the Supreme Court uses in discrimination cases.
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Exit polls are conducted
A) just after a voter registers to vote.
B) during the national conventions.
C) on election day at polling places.
D) after each presidential debate.
E) when voters change their party identification.
Q2) In social science,the term "elite" refers
A) to people who are better than others.
B) to people who have more money, education, popularity, or political power than others.
C) to people born into the "right" families.
D) to people with royal titles.
E) only to the people that hold political office.
Q3) In his analysis of public opinion concerning school vouchers,Terry M.Moe found that citizens supplied with basic information
A) can have an in-depth understanding of the issue.
B) can participate in a very knowledgeable debate regarding the issue.
C) can adopt their positions for good substantive reasons.
D) still cannot understand the issue.
E) will become more trustful of the government.
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Chapter 8: Political Participation Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) With respect to impact of motor voter laws,the evidence suggests
A) the number of registrants has not increased but voter turnout has increased slightly.
B) the number of registrants has increased somewhat but voter turnout has not increased significantly.
C) voter turnout and registration has increased significantly.
D) voter turnout and registration has not increased significantly.
E) None of these are correct.
Q2) Voting is more often viewed as a special occasion in Europe than it is in America.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In most European countries,voter registration is
A) complex.
B) costly.
C) automatic.
D) as difficult as in the United States.
E) not effective.
Q4) Compare the voting registration procedures of the United States with the procedures in other democracies.
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Chapter 9: Political Parties Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Socialist Party in the United States is a(n)__________ party.
A) single-issue
B) ideological
C) economic protest
D) factional
E) consensual
Q2) Define and discuss the significance of critical or realigning elections.Also,discuss the three clearest examples of such elections given in the text.
Q3) The two-party system has worked in the United States,but not in Europe,because
A) Americans are more aggressive and less deferential.
B) fewer Americans want to participate in party activities.
C) Americans agree on enough issues to form broad coalitions.
D) Americans are more economically conservative than Europeans.
E) Europeans are less ideological than Americans.
Q4) The 2016 election resulted in
A) a unified Republican government.
B) a unified Democratic government.
C) a Republican president and a Democratic Congress.
D) a Democratic president and a Republican Congress.
E) a Republican president and a split Congress.
Page 11
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Chapter 10: Elections and Campaigns Elections and Campaigns
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Sample Questions
Q1) The authors suggest that campaigns focus on assigning credit and blame for the state of the nation,activating latent partisanship,and introducing and judging the candidates' characters.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Discuss fundraising in modern presidential campaigns and compare it to the past.
Q3) In 2016,Republican leaders voted to frontload the primary process and make it easier for a candidate to capture the nomination early on.This move ultimately
A) almost prevented Donald Trump from winning.
B) allowed Donald Trump to clinch the nomination on March 1.
C) helped Donald Trump win.
D) caused many Republicans to abandon the party.
E) caused many Democrats to vote Republican.
Q4) During ordinary times,every election is critical and forces the parties to fight over a single dominant issue.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Compare and contrast presidential and congressional campaigns.
Q6) Why is retrospective voting more common than prospective voting?
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) The National Organization for Women (NOW)is an example of a feminist organization whose membership incentives are primarily
A) material.
B) purposive.
C) solidary.
D) sociological.
E) concurrent.
Q2) Which of the following would probably have the most difficulty raising money?
A) A lobbying organization representing a nonprofit organization
B) A lobbying organization representing a for-profit organization
C) A membership organization relying on appeals to purpose
D) A membership organization relying on solidary incentives
E) A lobbying organization representing a collection of Fortune 500 companies
Q3) Interest groups can legally supply money to public officials who are running for office.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What new regulations were applied to lobbyists as of March 2007?
Q5) What information must all registered lobbyists report twice a year?
Q6) Compare interest group membership in America to that of other democracies.
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Media the Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since 1980,the audience for nightly news programs has dropped by more than
A) a quarter.
B) half.
C) three quarters.
D) ninety percent.
E) ninety-nine percent.
Q2) In places where a local paper has closed,citizens
A) are neither better nor worse off than they were before.
B) know more about the issues and are more politically active.
C) know more about the issues but are less politically active.
D) are more politically active while knowing less about the issues.
E) know less about the issues and are less politically active.
Q3) The television weekly "60 Minutes" runs a segment on the role of local politicians in the drug trade.The issue soon becomes the subject of national debate.In these circumstances,"60 Minutes" is acting as a(n)
A) gatekeeper.
B) scorekeeper.
C) watchdog.
D) investigator.
E) game framer.
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Chapter 13: Congress Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) The number of women in Congress has increased in recent years.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The purpose of a filibuster is to
A) ensure that all sides of an issue are heard.
B) delay action in a legislative body.
C) protect majority rule.
D) shift legislative power to Senate committees.
E) magnify the impact of specific special interests.
Q3) Politically moderate Americans are
A) able to get more out of Congress than extreme partisans.
B) less active than ideological extremists, but not by much.
C) overwhelmingly politically inactive.
D) overwhelmingly politically inactive
E) None of these are correct.
Q4) Congress tends to be a decentralized institution,with all members more interested in their own views and those of their voters than with programs proposed by the president.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: The Presidency the Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) The District of Columbia receives three electoral votes even though it has no representatives in Congress.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Richard Neustadt used the label in and outers for
A) Congressmen who inconsistently supported the president.
B) members of the cabinet who resigned before the end of the term.
C) presidential staff members without experience in government.
D) persons who alternated between government and private-sector jobs.
E) bureaucrats who changed party identification with some frequency.
Q3) Today,senior White House staff members are drawn from the ranks of
A) the president's campaign staff.
B) Ivy league colleges and universities.
C) the nation's top law schools.
D) Congress.
E) the Department of Justice.
Q4) Like most governors,the president has the line-item veto.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The text asks: "Does gridlock matter?" Summarize the discussion on this topic.
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Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy the Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Discuss some of the procedures to fire a federal bureaucrat.
Q2) The current level of presidential patronage is unprecedented.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Scholar Donald F.Kettl coined the "Mildred Paradox" to describe
A) the ability of citizens to receive costly federal government services without ever interacting with civil servants.
B) the greater flexibility of government-by-proxy versus traditional government.
C) the inability of citizens to accurately assess the cost of government services they use.
D) the way that unitary systems are affected by government-by-proxy.
E) All of these are correct.
Q4) __________ legislation specifies the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program.
A) Allocation
B) Appropriation
C) Committee clearance
D) Trust
E) Authorization
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Chapter 16: The Judiciary the Judiciary
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Q1) Chief Justice John Marshall was a strong advocate of state's rights and the supremacy of state law over federal law.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Brown v.Board of Education is an example of a
A) taxpayer suit.
B) class-action suit.
C) Section 1983 suit.
D) reapportionment suit.
E) client participatory suit.
Q3) One unintended consequence of the Supreme Court's heavy caseload is an increase in the influence wielded by
A) the chief justice.
B) associate justices.
C) the attorney general.
D) the deputy attorney general.
E) law clerks.
Q4) Carefully explain the background and the Court's ruling in Marbury v.Madison.
Q5) Define judicial review and note how many federal laws have been declared unconstitutional.
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Domestic Policy Domestic Policy
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Q1) Groups that aren't considered worthy of government benefits increasingly get around this problem by
A) campaigning to change the opinion of Washington insiders.
B) campaigning to change public opinion.
C) using subsidies rather than regulations.
D) using regulations rather than subsidies.
E) None of these are correct.
Q2) The Taft-Hartley Act
A) made illegal the union practice of a closed shop.
B) made illegal the union practice of a secondary boycott.
C) authorized the president to obtain a court order blocking for up to eighty days any strike that imperiled the "national health or safety."
D) favored management over labor.
E) All of these are correct.
Q3) The Medicare program does not utilize a means test.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the unique features of U.S.environmental politics and how these features shape environmental policy.
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Chapter 18: Economic Policy Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 2015,the national debt rose to over $__________ trillion.
A) 3
B) 5
C) 18
D) 44
E) 102
Q2) Discuss the difference between deficit and debt.
Q3) Tax loopholes are a quintessential example of __________ politics.
A) client
B) entrepreneurial
C) interest-group
D) majoritarian
E) sociotropic
Q4) Before the creation of the federal income tax,most of the money that the government needed came from
A) loans.
B) state contributions.
C) private wealth.
D) tariffs.
E) public charity.
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Foreign and Military Policy Foreign and Military Policy
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Q1) The British prime minister can declare war without the consent of Parliament.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The president usually takes the leading role on foreign policy issues that are matters of __________ politics.
A) majoritarian
B) interest group
C) entrepreneurial
D) client
E) neo-institutional
Q3) In this decision,the Supreme Court ruled that American foreign policy is vested entirely in the federal government where the president has plenary power.
A) Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. v. United States
B) Korematsu v. United States
C) Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer
D) Hamdi v. Rumsfeld
E) Rasul v. Bush
Q4) Describe the constitutional powers held by the president and Congress in the area of foreign policy.
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Chapter
20: American Democracy, Then and Now
American Democracy, Then and Now
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Q1) Compare the presidency in the New System with that of the Old System.
Q2) Which of the following policy questions would most likely be asked in the New System?
A) Would a new federal program abridge states' rights?
B) Should the federal government enter a new policy area?
C) How can we fix and pay for an existing policy?
D) Is it legitimate for the federal government to pass certain legislation?
E) None of these are correct.
Q3) Members of the House of Representatives began to enjoy relatively secure seats during the 1930s.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The text suggests that the reason it is difficult to cut back on what the government does is that
A) cutting programs usually means cutting jobs
B) party politics make gridlock inevitable
C) the public wants what the government does
D) powerful interest groups use money to buy influence in Washington and overrule public opinion
E) None of these are correct.
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