Politics and the Electoral Process
Chapter Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the fundamental principles, structures, and dynamics of electoral systems and political processes. It examines how elections are organized, the role of political parties and interest groups, and the factors influencing voter behavior. Students analyze different types of electoral systems used globally and their impact on governance and representation. The course also covers campaign strategies, election laws, and contemporary challenges such as electoral fraud and voter suppression, providing a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between politics and the electoral process.
Recommended Textbook
Struggle for Democracy 2012 Election Edition 11th Edition by Edward S. Greenberg
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Democracy and American Politics
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Q1) What constitutes government action?
A) public officials that have formal, legal responsibility in making policy
B) political actors that do not hold official public office
C) institutions that transmit preferences to elected officials
D) what issues become important in politics and government
E) what government does
Answer: E
Q2) After the 2008 presidential election, the news media frequently presented standard geographic maps of the United States that were intended to summarize the election results. These maps typically had states won by Barack Obama colored blue, while states won by John McCain were colored red. What might be a misleading factor observed on the standard maps?
A) The maps overemphasize the partisan divide in the United States.
B) The maps do not take into account population density within each state.
C) The maps exaggerate the diversity of voters within each state.
D) The maps make appropriate adjustments for the size of a state's population
E) The maps emphasize people over geographical space.
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) Which Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence?
A) Second
B) Third
C) Fourth
D) Fifth
E) Tenth
Answer: A
Q2) The Articles of Confederation required __________ consent from the states for ratification.
A) majority
B) three-fifths
C) three-fourths
D) two-thirds
E) unanimous
Answer: E
Q3) The __________ favored a weak national government and strong state governments.
Answer: Anti-Federalists
Q4) The __________ Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. Answer: Second
Page 4
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Chapter 3: Federalism: States and Nation
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Q1) Which statement best describes the decision in Wickard v. Filburn?
A) Congress can regulate any activity that has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.
B) Congress can only regulate commercial activity that actually reaches over state lines.
C) States can regulate any product that crosses state lines.
D) Congress can regulate activity that has a minimal impact on interstate commerce.
E) States can regulate any activity that has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.
Answer: A
Q2) __________ occurs when a national law or regulation takes precedence over a conflicting state or local law or regulation.
Answer: Preemption
Q3) Devolution was particularly strong during the 1990s.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) __________ gives Congress the authority to exercise its enumerated powers.
Answer: Article I, Section 8
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Chapter 4: The Structural Foundations of American
Government and Politics
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Q1) Which of the following best describes where the 787 Dreamliner was built?
A) all over the United States and then assembled outside Seattle, Washington
B) all over the world and then assembled outside Seattle, Washington
C) entirely in and around Washington, D.C.
D) entirely in the state of Washington
E) entirely in the United States
Q2) What were the political effects of the shift of the American population from rural areas to cities and from cities to suburbs?
Q3) Nativists are primarily concerned with ensuring that Native American Indians have equal rights.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Americans are slightly more likely to believe that immigrants strengthen the U.S. through their work and talent rather than think of them as a burden to society because they take jobs and receive public benefits.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The __________ have poked fun at the United States, calling the intense competitiveness of Americans the Anglo-Saxon disease.
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Chapter 5: Public Opinion
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Q1) Which of these things is more likely than the others to undermine the validity of survey research?
A) Researchers purposely avoid discussion of controversial issues with people who are part of a prospective random sample.
B) People who are part of a prospective random sample screen their phone calls.
C) People who are part of a prospective random sample are contacted as close to Election Day as possible.
D) Researchers ask people who are part of a prospective random sample too many open-ended questions.
E) Researchers have to try several times to get through to people who are part of a prospective random sample.
Q2) __________ ensures that each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected.
Q3) Identify three core beliefs that contribute to American political culture.
Q4) The religiously committed, only if they are Protestant, are more likely than other Americans to vote Republican and to hold conservative views, particularly on social issues.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: The News Media
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Q1) The book states that, "In 2009, Michael Jackson accounted for 60 percent of television news shows during the two days following his death, far more coverage than the mass antigovernment demonstrations in Iran." This is an example of what?
A) bias
B) agenda setting
C) nationalism
D) infotainment
E) investigative journalism
Q2) The main source for most foreign and domestic news is __________.
A) foreign correspondents
B) wire services
C) elite newspapers
D) academics
E) search engines
Q3) Studies show that media coverage __________.
A) has little influence on citizens' policy preferences
B) varies little in credibility over time
C) influences what people think about
D) has a conservative bias
E) has a liberal bias
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Chapter 7: Interest Groups and Business Organizations
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Q1) Why are campaign contributions so important for interest groups seeking to influence government?
A) Legislators only grant meetings with interest groups that offer campaign contributions.
B) Campaign contributions help elect candidates who are friendly to groups' goals.
C) Groups can offer contributions in return for favorable votes on pending legislation.
D) Organizations seeking to offer input on a political party's platform are required to make campaign contributions.
E) There are very few restrictions on campaign contributions, compared to restrictions on lobbying.
Q2) An interest group holding a demonstration outside the White House is an example of __________.
Q3) Because of federalism, checks and balances, and the separation of powers, access to public officials is relatively easy in the United States.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Social Movements
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Q1) In the sense of the definition "social movements are the instruments of outsiders," how did women's rights, civil rights, religious fundamentalist, and pro-immigration activists make the political climate more democratic?
A) by encouraging participation
B) by overcoming political inequality
C) by creating new majorities
D) by overcoming constitutional limitations on change
E) by organizing violent protests
Q2) The Eighteenth Amendment prohibits any U.S. citizen from being denied the HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffrage" \o "Suffrage" right to vote based on gender.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What prominent civil rights activist made the call for "black power" in 1966?
A) Stokely Carmichael
B) Martin Luther King, Jr.
C) Malcolm X
D) James Meredith
E) Rosa Parks
Q4) How people engage in politics-and how often-is in part a function of __________.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) The form of change in which a dominant party declines and is replaced by another dominant party is called dealignment.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is done at the national party conventions when they meet every four years?
A) Delegates are assembled so the party can assess their future political potential based on their writing of the party platform.
B) Presidential and vice presidential candidates are nominated, a party platform is written, and party rules are revised.
C) Candidates are sworn to adhere to both the letter and the spirit of the party platform once they are elected to office.
D) Elections are held to determine the new party leaders, who then appoint the members of the national and state committees.
E) Presidential and vice presidential candidates are nominated, and nominations for state and local party candidates are approved.
Q3) Franklin D. Roosevelt's __________ ushered in a forty-year period of Democratic Party dominance.
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11
Chapter 10: Voting, Campaigns, and Elections
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Q1) One instance of gridlock occurred in the late 1990s when __________.
A) the president was a Democrat and the Republicans controlled Congress
B) the president was a Republican and the Democrats controlled Congress
C) the president was a Democrat and Democrats controlled the House
D) the president was a Republican and Democrats controlled the Senate
E) the president was a Democrat and neither party had a majority in Congress
Q2) A gathering of delegates who nominate a party's presidential candidate is called a __________.
A) party convention
B) electoral convention
C) caucus convention
D) caucus election
E) party election
Q3) Generally, politically active people tend to have higher-than-average __________ and more __________.
A) intelligence; children
B) energy levels; political connections
C) incomes; education
D) rates of marriage; income
E) education; children
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Chapter 11: Congress
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Q1) Representatives and senators who are concerned about retaining their seats in Congress would be most likely to spend significant time on which of the following activities in the months leading to up to an election?
A) considering the issues that interest them, with the idea that their constituents trust them to know what is most important to their districts
B) making time for committee work, by putting aside correspondence from their constituents
C) meeting with well known lobbyists in Washington, rather than visiting with people in their home districts, so their constituents can see that they work hard
D) paying attention to public opinion polls
E) responding to public concerns in their districts, rather than trying to shape public opinion there
Q2) In the Senate, a member introduces a bill to the body after being recognized by the presiding officer. In the House, a member introduces a bill by putting it into the
Q3) Describe majority-minority districts and explain their purpose(s).
Q4) After the Speaker, the next most powerful person in the House is the __________.
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Chapter 12: The Presidency
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Q1) How has the office of vice president changed over the years?
A) The vice president is no longer trusted as he once was.
B) The vice president, who once was very involved, is now frozen out of the policy-making process.
C) The vice president has been more involved in the policy-making process in recent years than in the past.
D) The vice president used to be involved in important tasks, but now spends most of his time acting as a figurehead.
E) The vice presidency has become a prerequisite for the presidency.
Q2) The ability to persuade has always been central to a successful president.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Vetoes are rarely overridden.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Since the early months of 2011, Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad has sought to suppress domestic dissent through the extensive use of deadly force. If President Obama sought to involve the United States in the crisis, what formal and informal powers could he use to enlist congressional and public support?
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Chapter 13: The Executive Branch
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Q1) The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to which of the following?
A) increased violence in the southeastern United States
B) heightened tensions with European nations
C) the terrorist attacks on 9/11
D) a movement by the Tea Party
E) a legislative mandate issued in 1995
Q2) Which executive agency is responsible for creating tests and advertising and filling civil service vacancies?
A) the Merit Systems Protection Board
B) the Office of Personnel Management
C) the Executive Staffing Agency
D) the Civil Service Bureau
E) the Civil Service Executive Academy
Q3) Why was the spoils system ultimately discontinued?
A) due to growing concerns about a poorly functioning federal bureaucracy
B) due to public pressure to shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy
C) due to a Supreme Court decision ruling the spoils system unconstitutional
D) due to the diversification of federal bureaucracy following the Civil War
E) due to congressional demands for greater control over the federal bureaucracy
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Chapter 14: The Courts
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Q1) Describe the different types of federal courts.
Q2) If North Dakota sues South Dakota, the case will be heard by the __________.
Q3) In court rulings, reliance on past decisions to formulate decisions in new cases is known as which of the following?
A) per curiam
B) stare decisis
C) coram nobis
D) amicus curiae
E) common law
Q4) A writ of __________ is a request submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court decision.
A) mandamus
B) prohibition
C) capias
D) attachment
E) certiorari
Q5) What are amicus curiae briefs and what purpose do they serve? Why would a party want to be amicus curiae in a case?
Q6) Describe the strict construction (or original intent) judicial philosophy.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Civil Liberties: the Struggle for Freedom
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Q1) Profanity, obscenity, and threats are examples of which of the following?
A) hate speech
B) prior restraints
C) fighting words
D) free speech
E) free exercise
Q2) A law prohibiting a newspaper from publishing a story exposing military secrets is an example of what kind of law?
A) violation of free speech
B) prior restraint
C) content-based
D) civil
E) criminal
Q3) Discuss how the Supreme Court analyzes obscenity under the First Amendment.
Q4) How does the Lemon test examine the constitutionality of religious establishment issues?
Q5) The Burger Court vehemently enforced the rights identified in Miranda v. Arizona.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: Civil Rights: the Struggle for Political Equality
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Q1) The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is most likely to fight to reduce which of the following?
A) racism
B) affirmative action
C) sexism
D) sodomy
E) job training programs
Q2) Which of these does the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ban?
A) poll taxes and grandfather clauses
B) discrimination in public accommodations
C) integration in public transportation
D) discrimination based on sexual orientation
E) nonviolent direct action
Q3) What did Jim Crow laws mandate?
A) voting rights
B) racial segregation
C) poll taxes
D) grandfather clauses
E) black codes
Q4) The __________ Amendment guarantees African Americans the right to vote.
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Chapter 17: Domestic Policies
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Q1) In an economic slowdown, Keynesian economic policy would advocate __________.
A) decreasing inflation
B) increasing government spending
C) increasing the money supply
D) increasing the unemployment rate
E) raising interest rates
Q2) Payroll taxes are earmarked for __________.
A) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
B) Obamacare and Medicaid
C) Social Security and Medicare
D) unemployment insurance
E) personal retirement savings accounts
Q3) Why is Medicaid such a complicated program?
A) because it is a federal program, and all federal programs are complicated
B) because it is administered by cities, which have very large bureaucracies
C) because it relies on monies from the Social Security Trust Fund
D) because it varies a great deal by state
E) because it was designed by bureaucrats
Q4) The money supply __________ when the Federal Reserve Board increases interest rates.
Chapter 18: Foreign Policy and National Defense
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Q1) How is terrorism fundamentally different from traditional military action?
Q2) When President Obama took office, why did he emphasize using soft power over use of the military to settle foreign policy disagreements?
A) Soft power is more likely to be successful.
B) Soft power is more likely to halt nuclear proliferation.
C) Soft power is less likely to lead to multilateralism.
D) Soft power is more likely to restore America's image and standing in the world.
E) Soft power is less likely to be appropriate for trade disagreements.
Q3) The Senate can influence foreign policy by approving (or refusing to approve) __________ negotiated by the president.
Q4) What is the role of the national security advisor?
A) to consult with academics and others with foreign policy expertise
B) to provide the president with information that reinforces the president's foreign policy positions
C) to act as a liaison between the Department of Defense and the military
D) to lead the Department of Homeland Security
E) to give the president independent advice about foreign and military policy
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