Political Science I: American Government Test Preparation
Course Introduction
Political Science I: American Government provides an introduction to the structure, functions, and processes of the United States government. The course examines the foundational principles of the U.S. Constitution, federalism, civil liberties and rights, the roles of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and the influence of political parties, interest groups, and the media. Students explore how policy is made and implemented, analyze the dynamics of political participation, and gain insights into contemporary issues shaping American democracy. Through case studies and current events, the course encourages critical thinking about civic responsibilities and the ongoing evolution of governance in the United States.
Recommended Textbook
The American Political System 2nd full Edition with policy chapters 2014 Election Update by Ken
Available Study Resources on Quizplus
17 Chapters
948 Verified Questions
948 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/566
Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
43 Verified Questions
43 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10540
Sample Questions
Q1) A collective dilemma represents conflict between ____________________.
A) two or more groups attempting to achieve different political goals
B) two or more individuals with different preferences about what course a group should pursue
C) individual self-interest and group goals
D) individual economic interests and individual moral values
E) information or arguments that suggest different optimal choices for a group
Answer: C
Q2) Executive-branch agencies may not always enforce laws as Congress and the president prefer.This is an example of a ____________________.
A) free-rider problem
B) principal-agent problem
C) Prisoner's Dilemma
D) social choice problem
E) coordination problem
Answer: B
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 3
Chapter 2: the Constitution
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
53 Verified Questions
53 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10541
Sample Questions
Q1) A business in North Carolina has a legal dispute with a business in New York,yet each party is behaving legally according to their own states' laws.How does the Constitution anticipate conflicts like this?
A) by ensuring that both states have the autonomy to change their own laws
B) by ensuring that both states have equal representation in Congress, where the two states' Congressional delegations can resolve conflicts of law
C) by creating a strong executive who could override states' laws
D) by creating an independent federal judiciary to resolve disputes between state laws
E) by creating an independent federal judiciary with circuit courts that can hear local disputes
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following are NOT included in the Bill of Rights?
A) right to vote
B) right to free speech
C) freedom of assembly
D) right to bear arms
E) right to counsel for criminal defendants
Answer: A
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10542
Sample Questions
Q1) Throughout the twentieth century,federalism questions were most often decided in favor of ____________________.
A) greater power for state governments
B) greater power for the national government
C) greater intergovern-mentalism
D) greater balance between the national and state governments
E) greater power for the people
Answer: B
Q2) Which form of local government is most likely to be inefficient because of collective-action problems among city executives?
A) mayoral
B) council-manager
C) commission
D) special district
E) county
Answer: B
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Rights and Liberties
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
53 Verified Questions
53 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10543
Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the current state of the debate over abortion in U.S.politics?
A) There is no abortion debate in American politics: the issue was resolved in Roe v. Wade (1973).
B) Abortion is an issue only within the states, and is not a national issue.
C) The Court has stayed out of the issue since Roe v. Wade, allowing states and the federal government to make laws.
D) The issue is still controversial, and has polarized presidential politics, parties, and Supreme Court nominations.
E) The federal government is concerned with abortion, while state governments have for the most part used the decision in Roe v. Wade as their primary policy on the issue.
Q2) Define the terms civil rights and civil liberties.How are these concepts related? How are they different? Identify three civil rights and civil liberties protected by the Bill of Rights.
Q3) Identify two major failures of the constitutional system of rights and liberties that have occurred in American history.What circumstances produced these failures? How have they been addressed? In your opinion,how successful have these efforts been?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 6
Chapter 5: Congress
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10544
Sample Questions
Q1) What is the importance of markups for individual representatives?
A) Representatives can bribe other representatives in this process.
B) Party leaders can control the actions of committee members.
C) Presidents influence the markup process.
D) Bureaucrats give testimony about the needs of their programs.
E) Representatives can control bill content at this stage.
Q2) What is the best description of the difference between the informational and distributional models of congressional organization?
A) Informational places more weight on the opinions of party leaders.
B) Distributional places less emphasis on jurisdictions of committees.
C) Informational places more emphasis on members receiving benefits.
D) Distributional places less emphasis on the needs of constituents.
E) There is no true difference between the two models of organization.
Q3) The ____________________ is more responsive to constituents than the ____________________.
A) president/House
B) Supreme Court/House
C) bureaucracy/Senate
D) Supreme Court/president
E) House/Senate
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 7
Chapter 6: the Presidency
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
45 Verified Questions
45 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10545
Sample Questions
Q1) How can divided government shape bargaining between Congress and the president?
A) Fewer laws are passed under divided government, so bargaining between the branches is easier.
B) More laws are passed under divided government, so bargaining between the branches is more difficult.
C) The preferences of Congress and the president are further apart, making passing legislation easier.
D) The preferences of Congress and the president are further apart, making passing legislation more difficult.
E) Congress rationally anticipates numerous presidential vetoes, and thus passes no legislation.
Q2) What is the electoral college? How does it work? Why did the Founders assign responsibility for electing the president to the electoral college rather than to a direct national election? How does the electoral college influence the choice of president made by the American people?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 8
Chapter 7: the Bureaucracy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10546
Sample Questions
Q1) Employees of the Food and Drug Administration are in frequent contact with pharmaceutical company representatives,and over time these bureaucrats hear more and more stories from company representatives about people who are harmed because medications remain unavailable during the lengthy process of clinical trials.As more and more employees of the FDA become convinced that these harms must be addressed,the agency moves to shorten the length of required clinical trials,even though drugs may reach the market with more unknown and potential harmful side effects.This is an example of ____________________.
A) police-patrol oversight
B) fire-alarm oversight
C) bureaucratic drift
D) coalitional drift
E) bureaucratic capture
Q2) Upon whose orders do federal bureaucrats act?
A) Congress, governors, and the president
B) Congress, the president, and courts
C) the president, governors, and executive office agencies
D) executive office agencies, courts, and Congress
E) the president, courts, and governors
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 9
Chapter 8: the Judiciary
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10547
Sample Questions
Q1) In Brown v.Board of Education,the Supreme Court invalidated the "separate but equal"doctrine articulated in its 1896 decision in Plessy v.Ferguson.The Court's decision in Brown was,therefore,a violation of ____________________.
A) Certiorari
B) class action
C) civil law
D) stare decisis
E) fundamental rights
Q2) Which constitutional provision establishes the federal judiciary?
A) Article I
B) Article II
C) Article III
D) Article IV
E) Article V
Q3) Compare and contrast the legal,attitudinal,and strategic models of judicial behavior.Identify and explain the models.What assumptions do they make about judges' values and preferences? What implications does each set of assumptions have for how judges are understood to decide cases? Which model is,in your opinion,the most accurate representation of the behavior of judges? Explain your answer.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 10
Chapter 9: Public Opinion
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
59 Verified Questions
59 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10548
Sample Questions
Q1) Susan conducts a telephone survey about offshore drilling.The people who respond to her calls are overwhelmingly senior citizens,with very few young adults answering her survey questions.Her sample is likely to be ____________________.
A) biased, because younger and older voters hold different opinions on the issue
B) biased, if more older voters than younger voters responded
C) biased, because she did not randomly select her respondents
D) unbiased, if younger and older voters hold similar opinions on the issue
E) unbiased, because the age of a respondent does not matter
Q2) What is rationality? How does an individual's rational consideration of her interests influence her attitudes toward public policies or public figures? How might a person's rational consideration of her own self-interest lead her to become less informed or involved about important political questions?
Q3) Which of the following is loyalty or psychological attachment to a political party?
A) partisanship
B) belief system
C) party identification
D) policy attitude
E) philosophy
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Chapter 10: Political Participation
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
47 Verified Questions
47 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10549
Sample Questions
Q1) Which is the process by which citizens enroll themselves with the government to gain permission to vote in an election?
A) voter registration
B) voter enrollment
C) suffrage
D) civic license
E) political license
Q2) Which term denotes a person's general understanding of how the political system works and who runs the government?
A) political awareness
B) political sophistication
C) political knowledge
D) political intelligence
E) street smarts
Q3) Which of the following is another term for the right to vote?
A) suffrage
B) polling
C) verdict
D) conflagration
E) conjunction
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 12
Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
55 Verified Questions
55 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10550
Sample Questions
Q1) Explain how the collective-action problem relates to the organization of interest groups and social movements.How are some groups able to overcome this barrier to collective action? How can interest groups and social movements serve democratic interests? How might interest groups and social movements undermine democratic governance?
Q2) Which is a private good offered by an interest group in order to entice individuals to support the group?
A) selective incentive
B) public good
C) latent interest
D) group interest
E) individual utility
Q3) Compare and contrast insider and outsider lobbying techniques.How do these different strategies aim to influence policy makers? How are they alike? How are they different? In your opinion,which set of tactics is most likely to be successful in influencing the policy-making process?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 13
Chapter 12: Political Parties
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
52 Verified Questions
52 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10551
Sample Questions
Q1) Candidates for which public office or offices are formally selected at national party conventions?
A) president and vice president
B) president, vice president, and speaker of the House
C) speaker of the House and Senate majority leader
D) Supreme Court justice
E) Senate majority leader and House majority leader
Q2) Which explains the relative success of the New Deal coalition?
A) resolution of the Prisoner's Dilemma by Teddy Roosevelt
B) inclusion of new blocks of voters into the Democratic party
C) inclusion of new block of voters in the Republican party
D) creating the federal bureaucracy for the first time
E) the decision in Plessy v. Ferguson
Q3) Why does the opinion of other potential voters matter to a single voter's opinion of a candidate's chances to win election?
A) Donations are likely to come from different sources.
B) Voters desire to not waste their votes on unsuccessful candidates.
C) More candidates are likely to enter general elections if opinion shifts.
D) Less news coverage is given to stable races.
E) Voters exist as entirely myopic evaluators.
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 14
Chapter 13: Elections and Campaigns
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
61 Verified Questions
61 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10552
Sample Questions
Q1) What distinguishes a ballot initiative from a referendum?
A) Nothing. The terms are interchangeable.
B) A ballot initiative is financed by private citizens or organizations. A referendum is financed by the state.
C) A referendum is used to consider constitutional questions. A ballot initiative is used for ordinary legislation.
D) A ballot initiative is used to consider changes to federal law. A referendum is used to consider changes in state law.
E) A referendum considers legislation proposed by a legislature. A ballot initiative considers legislation proposed by citizens.
Q2) Which electoral rule governs the election of the president and vice president by the electoral college?
A) majority rule
B) unanimity rule
C) plurality rule
D) Borda count
E) consensus
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 15
Chapter 14: Mass Media and the Press
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
52 Verified Questions
52 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10553
Sample Questions
Q1) Which is most consistent with the partisan hypothesis?
A) A generally conservative individual watches a liberal cable news outlet to see "what the other side is up to."
B) An investor who is only mildly interested in political news that does not influence her business interests primarily visits financial news Web sites that principally cover economic and business news.
C) A liberal individual watches a liberal cable news outlet to see stories that match her ideological predispositions.
D) A generally conservative person with little interest in politics happens to be exposed to some political news stories while he watches a local news broadcast to hear the scores of local sporting events and the weather report.
E) A person intentionally chooses to avoid political news coverage on television in general because she finds the style of modern broadcast journalism distasteful.
Q2) The Internet has drastically changed how individuals get information,as well as the messages they receive.How has the Internet and new media in general changed American politics? In particular,how have elections and campaigns been affected?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
Page 16
Chapter 15: Economic Policy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10554
Sample Questions
Q1) According to the University of Illinois's agricultural outreach service,the average wholesale price of corn rose from $1.03 in 1960 to $2.36 in 2006.The decline in the corn purchasing power of a dollar is an example of ____________________.
A) inflation
B) stagnation
C) stagflation
D) conflation
E) deflation
Q2) ____________________ policies are more directly oriented toward encouraging growth,whereas ____________________ policies are oriented toward preventing volatility,which can include encouraging growth but also slowing down the economy.
A) Stabilization; promotion
B) Elevation; promotion
C) Elevation; equilibrium
D) Promotion; stabilization
E) Promotion; equilibrium
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above. Page 17
Chapter 16: Social Policy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
60 Verified Questions
60 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10555
Sample Questions
Q1) Identify and describe two major federal programs that provide health care.In each case,who is taxed to provide the health care,and who receives the health care? Are these programs distributive or redistributive? Are they means-tested?
Q2) Aside from health care expenses,federal programs to aid the poor have never exceeded ____________________ of the federal budget.
A) 1 percent
B) 3 percent
C) 5 percent
D) 10 percent
E) 15 percent
Q3) Explain the division of responsibility between the federal government and the state governments in the domain of social policy.Which policy areas are largely dominated by federal programs? Which areas are principally reserved to the states? In which areas are the federal and state governments both active? What constitutional and practical considerations might structure this particular division of programming?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
18
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
Available Study Resources on Quizplus for this Chatper
48 Verified Questions
48 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/10556
Sample Questions
Q1) Which is a philosophy of international politics based on the assumption that countries primarily seek to increase their own power relative to other countries?
A) conservatism
B) idealism
C) confrontationalism
D) isolationism
E) realism
Q2) The United States Senate's decision to reject American membership in the League of Nations in 1919 is most consistent with which philosophy of international affairs?
A) conservatism
B) idealism
C) confrontationalism
D) isolationism
E) realism
Q3) How does the United States convince other countries to make choices that are compatible with U.S.interests? What are the principal tools of U.S.foreign policy? Which tools are used during the normal course of international relations? Which tools are available during times of crisis?
To view all questions and flashcards with answers, click on the resource link above.
19