U.S. Government and Politics
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Course Introduction
This course offers a comprehensive overview of the foundational principles, structures, and functions of the United States government and its political processes. Students will explore the Constitution, federalism, civil rights and liberties, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the significance of political parties, interest groups, and elections. Through analysis of key historical events, landmark Supreme Court cases, and contemporary issues, the course fosters a deeper understanding of how government policies are formulated, implemented, and their impact on American society.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Stories of a Nation 1st Edition Scott F. Abernathy
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18 Chapters
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Stories
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Sample Questions
Q1) The proposal for a union of British colonies in North America in which colonial legislatures would appoint delegates to form a law-making body under the direct leadership of Great Britain was referred-to as the ______.
A)Connecticut Plan
B)Albany Plan
C)Philadelphia Plan
D)Virginia Plan
Answer: B
Q2) Prior to the Seven Years War, British policy toward the colonies could best be described as ______.
A)support the mother land
B)pay your fair share
C)hands-off
D)direct political control
Answer: C
Q3) Thomas Paine was the founder of the Sons of Liberty.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Sample Questions
Q1) One of the most important divisions during the Constitutional Convention was over the issue of slavery.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) In response to rebellions in Massachusetts, local citizens formed ______ to petition their governments to take action to help them.
A)committees of correspondence
B)elected bodies
C)selective commissions
D)executive councils
Answer: A
Q3) It was not unnatural at the time of the Second Continental Congress to envision a government in which ______ was/were the real center(s)of power.
A)representatives
B)elites
C)states
D)national authority
Answer: C
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most of the enumerated powers in the Constitution were granted to the ______ branch.
A)executive
B)legislative
C)judicial
D)bureaucratic
Answer: B
Q2) How did 19th century interpretations of American federalism lead to the denial of fundamental rights to specific groups of Americans?
Answer: Students should discuss the strict post-Civil War interpretation of the Constitution under the tradition of dual federalism. Since power rested with the states and national government separately, the Supreme Court was unwilling to become involved in the question of civil rights, particularly for African Americans. While, by this time, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments protected the rights of African Americans, they were either unenforced or selectively enforced. Perhaps the most important cases during this post-Civil War era were the Slaughterhouse and Plessey v. Ferguson cases. Students should discuss these cases and use them as examples of these narrow 19th-century interpretations. In particular, the Plessey case would have a legacy of "separate but equal" treatment that would last until the 1950s.
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The case of Board of Education v.Allen (1968)dealt with which of the following issues?
A)paying for transportation to private schools with public money
B)establishing mandatory prayer in public schools
C)providing private religious schools with textbooks at public expense
D)prohibiting any religious celebrations, assemblies, or performances
Q2) Recently, the Supreme Court has extended its Gideon v.Wainwright decision by
A)requiring free counsel in both criminal and civil cases.
B)allowing those who cannot afford counsel to select their own attorney.
C)requiring criminal defendants receive "effective" legal representation not just representation.
D)requiring courts to pay legal defense expenses for any defendant regardless of ability to pay.
Q3) If a person is found not guilty in a state court, the person can be tried for a similar crime in federal court and vice versa.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the debate and essential compromises made between Federalists and Antifederalists over the inclusion of a Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Securing Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the 1978 Supreme Court decision Regents of the University of California v.Bakke, the court outlawed the use of ______ as a part of the application and enrollment process.
A)quotas
B)exams
C)transcripts
D)essays
Q2) Ultimately, the Supreme Court's Ruling in Scott v.Sandford (Dred Scott)threatened ______.
A)the constitutionality of any state laws against slavery
B)the objectivity of any ruling dealing with the slave trade
C)the subjectivity of the Constitution's slavery clauses
D)the legality of slavery and segregation in Southern states
Q3) In the case of Gratz v.Bollinger, the Court ruled ______ was/were unconstitutional.
A)affirmative action
B)entrance exams
C)application essays
D)a points system
Q4) ______ segregation is best translated as segregation by law.
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Senator McCaskill, colleges and universities that fail to respond to sexual assault complaints on their campuses are in violation of
A)the Equal Protection Clause of the14th Amendment.
B)the Discrimination Clause of the Civil Rights Act of 1972.
C)Title IX of the Higher Education Act of 1972.
D)Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Q2) Voting and supporting candidates are considered part of what category of political participation?
A)inside electoral processes
B)outside political processes
C)inside political processes
D)outside electoral processes
Q3) Amanda Collins claimed the right of herself and others to ______.
A)place signs around campus protesting date rape
B)organize a political action group to stop sexual predators
C)protest against campus based domestic violence
D)legally carry firearms on college and university campuses
Q4) The denial of voting privileges to those who have been convicted of a serious crime is best described as ______.
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) Zaller's theory of consideration says that our
A)knowledge and emotions both come into play when forming an opinion.
B)desire to become politically active is influenced by family and societal acquaintances.
C)interest in the political process is an innate human response to societal engagement.
D)opinions and attitudes are influenced more by institutions than by family and friends.
Q2) The effects of national events and crises on opinions and attitudes work on a highly individual level.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A poll conducted several months after Mr.Brown's shooting found that large majorities of Americans expressed support for the use of ______ by law enforcement to record their interactions with people.
A)personal logs
B)body cameras
C)increased paperwork
D)dash cams
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Chapter 8: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) The blurring of the lines between providing information and entertaining audiences when covering events is known as
A)soft news.
B)edutainment.
C)infotainment.
D)hard news.
Q2) The main consumers of early newspapers were the A)uneducated masses.
B)middle class.
C)financial and political elite.
D)literate lower class.
Q3) Ward Carrol, editor of military.com, saw the contribution of milbloggers as A)exposing foreign operations abroad in a negative light.
B)providing essential information to soldiers on news from home.
C)essential reading for understanding the war.
D)contributing to the overall morale of soldiers abroad.
Q4) When a news agency focuses on the drama of the race rather than on the policy differences of the candidates, this is called the ______ phenomenon.
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The choice of having a primary or caucus is often a factor of how much
A)control a state seeks to exercise over the delegate selection process.
B)influence the national party seeks to exert over the candidate selection process.
C)administration is necessary by the statewide party leadership team.
D)cost the procedure will have to the state and party leadership.
Q2) Who traditionally chooses the national chair of his/her party?
A)the Speaker of the House
B)the president
C)the exiting chairperson
D)the presumptive nominee
Q3) Because of federalism, ______ play a key role in party politics.
A)national committees
B)national leaders
C)local activists
D)state parties
Q4) One important way that parties try to influence or shape elections is through the ______ of candidates.
Q5) What factors have led to the relative stability of American party systems throughout the nation's history? What has led to change?
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Sample Questions
Q1) Party electors who change their mind between the general election and voting in the electoral college are termed ______.
Q2) Electors who change their mind in between the general election and the electoral college vote are known as
A)the party faithful.
B)faithless electors.
C)undetermined voters.
D)political spoilers.
Q3) States in which no one political party tends to dominate national elections are described as
A)independent states.
B)swing states.
C)radical states.
D)moderate states.
Q4) The size of the House is currently fixed at ______ members.
A)100
B)281
C)392
D)435
Q5) What impact does money have on today's national election process?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Sample Questions
Q1) voluntary associations share common traits in that they
A)operate under Congressional and federal authority.
B)tend to form naturally and without any logical reason.
C)are granted articles of incorporation by the state.
D)get their rights to organize from the First Amendment.
Q2) How political interest groups wield power and how much power they have depends on
A)the demographic makeup of the group,
B)the level of wealth and elitist leadership.
C)the level of organization within the group.
D)they type of group it wishes to become.
Q3) Because banks could not produce enough loans to supply the mortgage-backed securities market, they began to
A)take increasingly larger risks.
B)forge mortgage documents.
C)decline mortgage customers.
D)approve loans only for the wealthy.
Q4) Interest groups rarely involve themselves in the election process.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) Much of the formal structure of Congress revolves around the role of ______.
A)political constituency
B)monetary contributions
C)political leadership
D)political parties
Q2) First-timers, regardless of political party, gender, racial or ethnic identity, or religious preference, are all driven in part to advance and advocate for a set of policy goals in order to change the political conversation
A)True
B)False
Q3) The norm of ______ generally allows senators to nominate lower-lever federal judges to serve in their states with the expectation that they will be confirmed without significant opposition.
A)congressional oversight
B)senatorial courtesy
C)advice and consent
D)state federalism
Q4) What obstacles do first-time candidates for Congress face? How can they overcome those obstacles?
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) Once the founders settled on a single president, the most contentious issue facing the delegates was
A)how the president would be selected.
B)what qualifications the president should have.
C)the length of a presidential term.
D)whether there should be term limits.
Q2) President Jefferson was able to
A)exert executive control over Congress.
B)double the size of the U.S. with the Louisiana Purchase.
C)defeat the British in the War of 1812.
D)veto bills without ever being overridden by Congress.
Q3) The part of the Obama administration's decision to target Anwar al-Awlaki that made many political experts uncomfortable was its
A)level of violence.
B)degree of autonomy.
C)constitutionality.
D)degree of secrecy.
Q4) ______ powers are those that Congress grants the president in order to carry out the laws that Congress has passed.
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following best describes the pattern of growth for American bureaucracy?
A)steadily and predictably increasing
B)constant and unchanging
C)periods of little growth followed by periods of rapid growth
D)periods of rapid decline followed by periods of slight growth
Q2) As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, one area of the federal bureaucracy that continued to grow was defense.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The advisory system designed by the Department of Homeland Security was often criticized for which of the following?
A)its complexity and lack of public responsiveness
B)its specificity and constant public messaging
C)its vagueness and failure to make threat levels public
D)its ambiguity and its intense focus on public communication
Q4) When resources and appropriations are plentiful, turf wars are most common.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) The powers of the federal judiciary are outlined in which part of the Constitution?
A)Article I
B)Article II
C)Article III
D)Article IV
Q2) In addition to considering federal questions, an important element of a case is
A)challenge to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
B)federal question.
C)confusion about or alternate presentation of the law.
D)risk to civil liberties.
Q3) Amendment VIII to the Constitution protects against A)double jeopardy.
B)self-incrimination
C)unreasonable search and seizure.
D)cruel and unusual punishment.
Q4) The American legal system is based on dual systems of federal and state courts that share the tradition of the adversarial system of justice.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Sample Questions
Q1) Chubb and Moe argue that by introducing ______ in education, the energy, innovation, and initiative of those who teach and run schools will be unleashed, freed from a stifling and unresponsive bureaucracy.
A)political power
B)federal authority
C)market forces
D)local leadership
Q2) The differences in school performance of students of majority ethnicity and higher incomes versus those of minority ethnicity and lower incomes has been described as the A)performance discrepancy.
B)achievement gap.
C)educational differentiation.
D)academic bubble.
Q3) The necessarily limited set of issues on which policy makers focus their attention is best defined as the A)policy-making process.
B)policy-making cycle
C)policy agenda.
D)policy feedback loop.
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Page 18
Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Students have never been considered among those who were "left behind" in the wake of the financial bailout of 2008.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A report by the Federal Reserve in July 2015 implicated ______ in the rise of tuition.
A)an increase in student demand
B)massive institutional building programs
C)American governmental policies
D)the availability of private loans and scholarships
Q3) The author of the foundational publication An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations in 1776 was
A)Benjamin Franklin.
B)Adam Smith.
C)Thomas Jefferson.
D)John Locke.
Q4) Why may student loan forgiveness be a "bad policy"? Do you agree or disagree with arguments made in your textbook? Explain your answer.
Q5) If the federal government takes in more money than it spends, it runs a ______.
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union fought proxy wars in which neither nation was directly involved.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A distribution of power in the international system in which one state exerts most of the power and influence is defined as
A)bipolarity.
B)unipolarity.
C)bilateralism.
D)unilateralism.
Q3) The advancement of a nation's interests by exporting its values and culture abroad is known as A)absolute power. B)economic power. C)soft power. D)hard power.
Q4) After the Cold War, the United States stood alone as a military hyperpower. A)True B)False
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