U.S. Government and Politics
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Course Introduction
U.S. Government and Politics offers a comprehensive examination of the structures, functions, and processes of the United States government and the political system within which it operates. This course explores the foundational principles of the U.S. Constitution, the roles and responsibilities of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and the significance of federalism and civil liberties. Students will analyze political parties, electoral systems, interest groups, and the medias impact on policy-making and public opinion. Through case studies, historical documents, and contemporary examples, learners gain insights into how American democracy functions and the ongoing debates that shape the nations political landscape.
Recommended Textbook Government in America 2014 Elections and Updates 16th Edition by by George C. Edwards III
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introducing Government in America
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Sample Questions
Q1) The national debt is currently about $17 billion.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) Free speech and a free press are essential to which principle of traditional democratic theory?
A) inclusion
B) effective participation
C) enlightened understanding
D) equality in voting
Answer: C
Q3) It is a physical impossibility for government to be "by the people" in a nation of over 300 million people.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) __________ can best be defined as a political philosophy supporting the rights of average citizens in their struggle against privileged elites.
Answer: Populism
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) In Texas v. Gregory Lee Johnson,the U.S. Supreme Court decided that anti-flag-burning laws were an unconstitutional violation of __________.
Answer: freedom of speech or freedom of expression
Q2) The Articles of Confederation required __________ consent from the states for ratification.
A) majority
B)three-fifths
C) two-thirds
D) unanimous
Answer: D
Q3) The body whose delegates signed the Declaration of Independence was the __________.
Answer: Continental Congress
Q4) The Constitution was ratified in 1776.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q5) The __________ was added to the Constitution to protect personal freedoms. Answer: Bill of Rights
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) The Constitution says that states are required to return a person charged with a crime in another state to that state for trial or imprisonment,a practice called
A) voir dire
B) sequestration
C) change of venue
D) extradition
Answer: D
Q2) The preemption of state and local laws by federal laws is based on which clause of the U.S. Constitution?
A) supremacy
B) due process
C) equal protection
D) full faith and credit
Answer: A
Q3) All of the powers of the federal government are expressly enumerated in the Constitution.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties and Public Policy
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Q1) Explain the Supreme Court's 1988 decision in which Reverend Jerry Falwell sued Hustler magazine. Why did the Court decide the way it did?
Q2) Wearing armbands,burning flags,and marching in parades are examples of __________ speech.
Q3) Explain the difference between libel and slander. How are these prohibitions applied to cases involving public figures?
Q4) Freedom of assembly is guaranteed by which constitutional amendment?
A) First
B) Second
C) Third
D) Fourth
Q5) Which of the following created the right to privacy?
A) the judiciary
B) the bureaucracy
C) the president
D) the legislature
Q6) Explain how Gideon v. Wainwright changed how the courts interpreted the Sixth Amendment.
Q7) Why did the Supreme Court suspend capital punishment in 1972?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights and Public Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) The passage of the Equal Rights Amendment has helped ensure women's equality in the workplace.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The admissions office at a public university could likely establish a permissible affirmative action policy that awards minority students by bumping up their SAT score by 100 points.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The freedom riders used civil disobedience to help end which form of discrimination in the South?
A) lynchings by the Ku Klux Klan
B) racial segregation
C) racial quotas
D) voter discrimination
Q4) A school district might attempt to overcome __________ segregation by adopting a busing system that increases schools' diversity.
Q5) What progress has been made in achieving rights for American Indians? What events have helped to improve their status?
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Chapter 6: Public Opinion and Political Action
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Q1) Sampling error depends on the __________ of the sample.
Q2) Which of the following is unconventional political participation?
A) running for an unopposed office
B) signing a petition in a school parking lot
C) gathering signatures for a proposed ballot measure
D) staging a sit-in
Q3) According to Russell Neuman,the "paradox of mass politics" is that the American political system works as well as it does despite __________.
A) the public's lack of knowledge about politics
B) the public's lack of consensus on matters of public policy
C) the growing polarization of public opinion
D) politicians' overreliance on public opinion polls
Q4) Generally,the United States has a culture that values political participation.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Aging increases strength of party attachment and political participation (until the infirmities of old age make it harder to participate).
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda
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Q1) Epstein's News From Nowhere suggests which of the following about newsworthiness?
A) TV networks define news as what is entertaining to average viewers.
B) The media strive for quality of story rather than ratings.
C) The media tend to report only the most important stories.
D) The media tend to pitch stories to a relatively high level of viewer sophistication.
Q2) How does the increasing focus of media conglomerates on making a profit affect television news?
A) The quality of news reporting has increased considerably in an attempt to sway more viewers and more advertisers.
B) A study of a set of major newspapers found that the total number of foreign news stories in U.S. newspapers doubled between 1985 and 2014.
C) Media organizations have cut back on their foreign bureaus and on international news.
D) Television news is increasingly viewed as a public service that benefits the media conglomerate by generating goodwill with viewers.
Q3) Press conferences are meetings of __________ with reporters.
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Chapter 8: Political Parties
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Q1) Minor parties have played a more important role in the United States than in virtually any other democracy.
A)True
B)False
Q2) According to the responsible party model,political parties should explain to voters what they intend to do and,once elected,follow through on those promises.
A)True
B)False
Q3) President Obama has encountered resistance to his policies from the congressional caucus known as the __________,which favors a more conservative approach to economic policy than do traditional Democrats.
A) Congressional Black Caucus
B) Congressional Progressive Caucus
C) Blue Dog Democrats
D) Yellow Dog Democrats
Q4) Explain the concept of political parties as "three-headed political giants."
Q5) The Founders were wary of having any political parties at all.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: Campaigns and Voting Behavior
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Q1) If there is no majority winner in the Electoral College,then the president is selected by the __________.
Q2) Because states are the key battlegrounds of presidential campaigns,candidates often find themselves __________.
A) avoiding battleground states in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety
B) unable to connect with voters on a national basis
C) visiting every state in the union multiple times
D) tailoring their appeals to the particular interests of a state
Q3) What is the mandate theory of elections? How can winning presidential candidates use the notion of a mandate to achieve public policy success?
Q4) What is party identification? How has it changed over time? How does party identification among younger voters differ from the party identification of other citizens?
Q5) Under most circumstances,it is the __________,not the popular vote,that actually determines who becomes president of the United States.
Q6) What are "wedge issues" and why would they be important in a tight campaign?
Q7) __________ simplifies politics for many voters by enabling them to select candidates without researching each candidate individually.
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Chapter 10: Interest Groups
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Q1) Despite the fact that members of Congress often lack specialized expertise in particular policy areas,they are prohibited by law from accepting information or policy proposals from registered lobbyists.
A)True
B)False
Q2) PACs make more contributions to the campaigns of incumbents than they do to challengers.
A)True
B)False
Q3) 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) Members of Congress are better listeners when hearing from interests that supported their campaign.
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.
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Chapter 11: Congress
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Q1) For a bill to become law,it must be passed by both the House and the Senate. This gives each chamber the power to veto the policies of the other.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Explain how often Congress reapportions its membership and how such reapportionment can affect the reelection of incumbent members of Congress.
Q3) In the 2011-2012 election cycle,how much money did the average winning House candidate spend?
A) $1.6 million
B) $23 million
C) $200 million
D) $1 billion
Q4) Which incumbency advantage involves efforts to highlight an incumbent's service to individuals and to the district?
A) visibility
B) credit claiming
C) lobbying
D) position taking
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Page 13
Chapter 12: The Presidency
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Q1) Why is most news coverage of the president described as "body watch"? What advantages and disadvantages does the president face in regard to dealing with the press?
Q2) Which institutional resource is closest and most loyal to the president?
A) Executive Office of the President
B) White House staff
C) armed forces
D) National Security Council
Q3) Which of the following is one way in which the White House staff differs from the president's cabinet?
A) The White House staff is more loyal to the president.
B) The cabinet is more loyal to the president than is the White House staff.
C) The cabinet works more closely with the president than does the White House staff.
D) The White House staff must perform their job duties in accordance with congressional legislation, while the cabinet has no such restraints.
Q4) Presidents may claim the ability to withhold information from Congress under the doctrine of __________.
Q5) What is the role of executive agreements in foreign policy? When are they used?
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Chapter 13: The Budget: the Politics of Taxing and Spending
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Q1) The __________ is responsible for helping the president produce budgetary policy.
Q2) The fact that 43 percent of people filing income tax returns in 2013 paid no income tax at all is partly explained by the fact that the income tax is __________.
A) regressive
B) progressive
C) proportional
D) flat
Q3) A(n)__________ is an act of Congress that attempts to bind Congress to a total expenditure level for all programs in a given year.
A) authorization bill
B) appropriations bill
C) continuing resolution
D) budget resolution
Q4) What is incrementalism? Describe one area of the budget where incrementalism tends to occur and one area where it has not occurred.
Q5) Authorization bills establish or modify government programs; __________ bills allocate money for authorized programs.
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Q1) Bureaucrats often have considerable discretion in the implementation of federal laws.
A)True
B)False
Q2) __________ refers to the authority of administrators in the federal bureaucracy to make choices concerning the best way to implement policies.
A) Adjudication
B) Discretion
C) Division of labor
D) Executive control
Q3) Current students who are convicted of __________ lose their federal financial aid for a year or more.
A) arson
B) drug offenses
C) robbery
D) any federal crime
Q4) Discuss the potential advantages and disadvantages of privatization.
Q5) The __________ led to the creation of a merit-based civil service system.
Q6) How does Congress exercise control over the federal bureaucracy?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: The Federal Courts
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Q1) Who is in charge of the federal government's appellate court litigation?
A) the attorney general
B) the chief of staff
C) the solicitor general
D) the White House counsel
Q2) For a case to be heard in the Supreme Court,a minimum of how many justices must vote to hear the case?
A) one
B) four
C) five
D) six
Q3) What are class action lawsuits?
Q4) The Constitution sets the terms of district court judges at 10 years and court of appeals judges at 20 years.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What do presidents look for in selecting a Supreme Court justice?
Q6) Judicial __________ encourages deference to the policy judgments of elected branches of government.
Q7) Describe the different types of federal constitutional courts.
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Chapter 16: Economic and Social Welfare Policymaking
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Q1) How does American social welfare policy compare to those of European democracies?
A) Americans have a much lower tax rate than do Europeans, and social welfare benefits are much less generous in the United States.
B) American tax rates are much higher than those of European nations, but the social welfare benefits are higher as well.
C) Social welfare programs are about the same in the United States as in European countries.
D) The United States is truly a "welfare state" by European standards.
Q2) What is fiscal policy? What are the primary tools of fiscal policy?
Q3) Which of the following most accurately describes the recent financial crisis in the United States?
A) a depression
B) an inflationary cycle
C) a mild recession
D) a severe recession
Q4) What is the concern regarding the Social Security Trust Fund?
Q5) How does American social welfare policy compare to that of European democracies?
Q6) Why do adjustments to interest rates by the Federal Reserve Board matter?
Page 18
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Chapter 17: Policymaking for Health Care, the Environment, and Energy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the following countries,which has the lowest infant mortality rate and the highest life expectancy?
A) the United States
B) France
C) Canada
D) Japan
Q2) Describe the use of coal and nuclear power for generating electricity in the United States. Choose one and explain why it is the better source of energy for meeting America's electricity needs.
Q3) Despite concerns about the number of uninsured Americans,studies suggest that the uninsured and the insured have an approximately equal chance of dying.
A)True
B)False
Q4) About 50 million Americans are currently covered by Medicare.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The __________ strongly opposed President Truman's call for national health insurance.
Q6) Medicare is designed primarily to help the __________ population.
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Chapter 18: National Security Policymaking
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Q1) What is a tariff? Why has the world economy moved from high tariffs and protectionism to lower tariffs and nontariff barriers?
Q2) Which of the following constrained Pakistan's efforts to fight terrorists who have emerged in some areas of Pakistan?
A) Pakistan is a poor nation and lacked international assistance to fight the terrorists.
B) There was substantial sympathy for the Taliban among many Pakistani military and intelligence officials.
C) The terrorists took over large cities and were beyond the government's control.
D) The terrorists had shown no sign of being dangerous, so the Pakistani government was not concerned about them.
Q3) What is interdependency and how is it related to globalization? What do citizens around the world think about globalization? How do these attitudes differ between younger and older citizens in the United States and Western Europe? What explains this difference? How does this manifest in different attitudes about immigration among the young and the old? Overall,do you think that globalization is good or bad for the United States? Why?
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