U.S. Government and Politics
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Course Introduction
U.S. Government and Politics provides an in-depth exploration of the foundations, structures, and functions of the American political system. The course examines the Constitution, federalism, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the processes through which public policies are formulated and implemented. Students analyze political parties, interest groups, election systems, civil rights, and civil liberties, gaining insight into how democracy operates in the United States. Emphasis is placed on current events, critical issues, and the impact of government decisions on American society and its global relations.
Recommended Textbook
American Government and Politics Today Essentials 2015 2016 Edition 18th Edition by Barbara A.
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Chapter 1: The Democratic Republic
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Sample Questions
Q1) The fertility rate of 2.1, with which populations are expected to eventually stabilize, is known as
A) the plateau rate.
B) the reproductive stabilization rate.
C) the short-term replacement rate.
D) the long-term replacement rate.
E) None of the above.
Answer: D
Q2) Politics exists
A) only in government institutions.
B) in every community that makes decisions.
C) in schools, social groups, and organized groups of individuals.
D) only in formal settings.
E) Options B and C are true.
Answer: E
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) The only formal method used so far to propose an amendment to the Constitution is
A) the popular vote of the people.
B) a two-thirds vote in favor of it by both houses of Congress.
C) state legislatures or conventions in three-fourths of the states.
D) a national convention.
E) a proposal by the president.
Answer: B
Q2) The Three-Fifths Compromise did all of the following<B> except</B>
A) illustrate the power of the southern states at the convention.
B) partially apportion the House of Representatives and the electoral college on the basis of property.
C) give African Americans representation that was equal to what free whites received.
D) give more voting power to southern slave owners.
E) fail to address the slave trade directly.
Answer: C
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4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) After early rulings by the Supreme Court increased the power of the national government, states sought a shift back to states' rights due to
A) increasing divisions between the North and the South over the slavery issue.
B) conflict over congressional passage of a tariff on trade in 1828.
C) concern over expanding power by the federal government in the regulation of commerce.
D) conflict over the role of the national government and that of the states.
E) All of the above are true.
Answer: E
Q2) State laws that have legalized the medical or recreational uses of marijuana conflict with federal law and may be invalidated because of
A) the necessary and proper clause.
B) the supremacy clause.
C) the commerce clause.
D) reserved powers.
E) Both A and C.
Answer: B
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Q1) New York Times v. United States
A) affirmed the no-prior-restraint doctrine in the Pentagon Papers case.
B) upheld the government's right to let the public have information about Vietnam.
C) punished the New York Times for publishing secret documents.
D) affirmed the free speech of students in public schools.
E) Options A and C are true.
Q2) What are the Miranda rights? What exceptions have been allowed to these rights?
Q3) Allowing government to have roving wiretaps
A) has led to the widespread monitoring of speech.
B) appears to be inconsistent with the Fourth Amendment.
C) has led to the political parties using the power of government to spy on one another.
D) allows government to monitor a person's communications as he or she moves from one communication device to another.
E) Both B and D.
Q4) Under which circumstances is the government able to interfere with freedom of speech?
Q5) Describe the religious freedom protections afforded in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Q1) Since 1999, the number of states allowing same-sex marriages has _________, through actions by _________.
A) increased; a combination of state and federal courts, state legislatures, and citizen votes
B) increased; state legislatures alone
C) increased; federal courts alone
D) decreased; a combination of state and federal courts
E) decreased; a combination of state legislatures and federal courts
Q2) Explain the significance of the constitutional amendments enacted in the five years following the end of the Civil War.
Q3) In an attempt to achieve integration
A) students were sent to the school that was near to where they lived.
B) busing students across neighborhoods was ordered by the courts.
C) methods were determined by local committees of parents.
D) busing was peacefully accomplished in many big cities.
E) All of the above are true.
Q4) Define the concept of strict scrutiny and discuss how and why it is used, making sure to note cases where it has been used to both help and harm racial minorities.
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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Q1) Public opinion in the United States tends to be more _____________ than political elites in areas such as religion in public schools, but more ______________ in areas such as Social Security spending.
A) conservative; liberal
B) liberal; conservative
C) secular; liberal
D) conservative; libertarian
E) libertarian; centrist
Q2) The process by which people acquire political beliefs and attitudes is called
A) opinion leadership.
B) political socialization.
C) agenda setting.
D) peer grouping.
E) consensus building.
Q3) Recent allegations of polling fraud have included
A) concerns about secret in-house weights being added to results.
B) concerns that results were fabricated.
C) concerns that reader surveys are being published as scientific polls.
D) Skype users flooding poll results with duplicate entries.
E) Options B and C are true.
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Chapter 7: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since 1960, the greatest growth in unionization has occurred among
A) military personnel.
B) professional athletes.
C) public employees.
D) private sector employees.
E) information technology employees.
Q2) A free rider is
A) an interest group member.
B) a participant in a social movement.
C) someone granted free passage to Washington, DC, to lobby or demonstrate.
D) someone who benefits from the actions of a group without joining it.
E) a civil rights activist.
Q3) Most interest groups have a bias toward
A) the middle and upper classes.
B) the middle and lower classes.
C) the common good.
D) the political right.
E) the political left.
Q4) Explain the direct techniques used by interest groups.
Q5) Explain the factors that make an interest group powerful.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Q1) A political party is a group of individuals who
A) agree on all policy issues.
B) organize to win elections and operate the government.
C) pay monthly dues to an ideological organization.
D) have been elected to office and have obtained positions of power.
E) accept the decisions of the party's leaders.
Q2) A voter or a candidate who does not identify with a political party is called
A) a naysayer.
B) an independent.
C) a liberal.
D) a conservative.
E) a libertarian.
Q3) Which of the following is true about the 2012 elections?
A) Fourteen out of the fifteen wealthiest states tended to vote Republican.
B) Southern states voted for Democratic candidates more than for Republicans.
C) Thirteen out of the fifteen poorest states voted Republican.
D) The reverse-income effect proved that those with lower incomes usually vote for independent candidates.
E) In the Democratic presidential primaries, working-class voters voted for Obama rather than for Hillary Clinton.
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Chapter 9: Campaigns and Elections
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Q1) In presidential elections
A) voters elect the president directly.
B) the number of electors equals each state's number of senators (two) plus its number of representatives.
C) electors have always voted for the candidate who won their state's vote.
D) Options A, B, and C are true.
E) None of the above is true.
Q2) With regard to presidential candidates
A) Iowa and New Hampshire have the first caucus and primary, respectively, in voting for presidential candidates.
B) many states are moving their primaries to earlier dates in order to have more input into the selection of presidential candidates.
C) moving state primaries into the first months of the year is known as front-loading.
D) in 2008, twenty-four states had primaries on the same day.
E) All of the above are true.
Q3) Describe the evolution of campaign regulation in the United States. Include details about efforts by Congress to reform the ways in which campaigns are financed.
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Chapter 10: The Media
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Q1) A service like that provided by Google, which searches the Internet but provides little original content,
A) is considered an aggregator.
B) is a not-for-profit service that others use to provide their content.
C) pulls in the bulk of advertising revenue.
D) Both A and B.
E) Both A and C.
Q2) The role of the media in determining what government ought to do is known as A) setting the public agenda.
B) the media constituency.
C) priming.
D) framing.
E) None of the above.
Q3) Management of news coverage by campaigns includes all of the following<B> except</B>
A) understanding the technical aspects of media coverage.
B) planning events to accommodate the press.
C) granting favors to reporters and news organizations.
D) hiring reporters to report the campaigns perspective through the news media.
E) planning events that will be interesting as part of the news.
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Chapter 11: The Congress
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Q1) All of the following statements regarding the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives are true <B>except</B> that the Speaker
A) is elected by a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives every two years.
B) must be an elected member of the House.
C) presides over House meetings.
D) is the most influential member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
E) schedules legislation for vote.
Q2) Explain the different types of committees and their functions.
Q3) One major difference between the House and Senate is the total number of members. As a result
A) the House will spend much more time on a bill on the floor as opposed to the Senate.
B) the Senate is able to decide on the proper action on a bill quicker than the House.
C) a greater number of formal rules are needed to govern activity in the House.
D) House members must sit on more committees than Senators.
E) a constitutional amendment has been proposed to increase the size of the House and to reduce the numbers in the Senate.
Q4) Describe the enumerated or expressed power of Congress.
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Chapter 12: The President
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Q1) The following two presidents are the only ones in American history to have actually been impeached:
A) Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton
B) Richard Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt
C) Andrew Johnson and William McKinley
D) Thomas Jefferson and Martin Van Buren
E) Andrew Johnson and Jimmy Carter
Q2) Executive orders
A) issued by the president have the force of law.
B) are used to enforce legislative statutes.
C) represent the president's legislative power.
D) have been used to establish rules for the executive administrative agencies.
E) All of the above are true.
Q3) The organization created by President Franklin Roosevelt to assist in carrying out major presidential duties is
A) the Executive Office of the President.
B) the Presidential Bureaucratic Office.
C) the Administrative Office of the Executive.
D) the Office of Executive Action.
E) None of the above.
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Chapter 13: The Bureaucracy
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Q1) The Social Security Administration, Small Business Administration, and the Smithsonian Institution are examples of
A) cabinet departments.
B) independent executive agencies.
C) independent regulatory agencies.
D) government corporations.
E) corporations subject to regulation.
Q2) In 2008, the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP)
A) was used to create the government-sponsored enterprises, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
B) provided bailouts to homeowners who were upside down in their home loans.
C) was the first time the government intervened in a business failure in American history.
D) provided a bailout to banks, automobile companies, and the AIG insurance company.
E) helped small businesses expand during the economic downturn.
Q3) Describe the evolution of the civil service with particular emphasis on legislation that implemented reforms in government employment policies.
Q4) Describe the difference between Sunshine laws and Sunset provisions.
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Chapter 14: The Courts
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Q1) In order to insulate the courts from ____________, the founders ensured that federal judges are _____________.
A) popular passions; chosen in a secret process
B) popular passions; appointed for life
C) Congress; elected by the people
D) the President; chosen by Congress
E) corruption; accountable for their decisions through re-appointment
Q2) A procedure used by the Supreme Court in determining which cases it will hear is
A) the rule of four.
B) the gang of four.
C) the sign of four.
D) the rule of six.
E) the sign of five.
Q3) President Obama appointed
A) Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, to replace Justices Souter and Stevens.
B) the first Hispanic member of the Supreme Court.
C) the first African American member of the Supreme Court.
D) Both A and B.
E) Both A and C.
Q4) Describe the sources of American law.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Domestic and Economic Policy
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Q1) Immigration
A) at current rates will create a United States where the "white majority" no longer dominates American politics.
B) is regarded by some as a plus for the United States because it offsets the low birthrate and aging population.
C) helps expand the workforce and the taxes paid help to support government programs that benefit older Americans.
D) will result in jobs that pay lower wages for Americans with few skills, some argue.
E) All of the above are true.
Q2) The process of injecting water, sand, and chemicals under high pressure into rocks to release oil and natural gas is known as
A) hydraulic fracturing.
B) fracking.
C) pressurized energy release.
D) Both A and B.
E) All of the above.
Q3) Explain the impact of Keynesian economics on fiscal policy in the United States.
Q4) Explain the stages of the policymaking process.
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Chapter 16: Foreign Policy
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Q1) The U.S. led invasion of Iraq in 2003
A) was a consequence of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. B) was an attempt to capture Osama bin Laden.
C) was done with the full backing of the NATO alliance.
D) included Great Britain, Germany, and France as coalition partners. E) was done after failing to get UN Security Council approval for the military action.
Q2) In 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in his hiding place in A) Afghanistan.
B) Iraq.
C) Iran.
D) Pakistan.
E) Saudi Arabia.
Q3) Describe the difference between moral idealism and political realism and provide examples of each from the history of American foreign policy.
Q4) Describe U.S. efforts to handle international issues with diplomacy rather than armed force. In your examples, were these efforts largely successful or failures?
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