U.S. Political Systems
Final Exam
Course Introduction
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the political systems of the United States, examining the structure and functions of the federal government, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and the complex interplay between national, state, and local authorities. Students will explore the development of constitutional principles, political parties, electoral processes, and major policy issues, as well as the influence of interest groups, media, and public opinion on governance. Through critical analysis of historical and contemporary case studies, the course fosters a nuanced understanding of how American democracy operates and evolves in a changing domestic and global landscape.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Institutions and Policies 14th Edition by James Q. Wilson
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Chapter 1: The Study of American Government
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Q1) A modern example of the Aristotelian ideal of the rule of the many is a New England town meeting.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Representative democracy is sometimes referred to as the "elitist theory of democracy."
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Log-rolling is when a legislator supports a proposal favored by another in return for support of his or hers.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) Marx argued that governments were basically dominated by business owners.
A)True
B)False Answer: True
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Q1) During the ratification debate, the supporters of the U.S. Constitution called themselves Federalists.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Which of the following statements most accurately characterizes the motives behind the support that different Framers gave to the U.S. Constitution?
A) Most Framers acted out of a mixture of motives, with economic interests playing only a modest role.
B) Those Framers who did not hold government debt but who did own slaves tended to support the U.S. Constitution.
C) Those Framers who held debt but who did not own slaves tended to oppose the U.S. Constitution.
D) The support that different Framers gave to the U.S. Constitution tended to divide along class lines.
E) The Framers acted in a manner that reflected the religious convictions of their respective states.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) In a confederation, the national government derives its power from
A) the people.
B) the states.
C) the Congress.
D) the courts.
E) None of the above is True.
Answer: B
Q2) In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that
A) states could form banks and tax them.
B) the national government could charter banks and the states could not tax those banks.
C) the national government's power was dependent on the states.
D) Congress erred when it created a national banking system.
E) states could not charter banks.
Answer: B
Q3) The police power is generally recognized as a state power.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: American Political Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) In our society, government officials should be accountable to the people. This principle is known as
A) liberty.
B) equality.
C) civic duty.
D) democracy.
E) capitalism.
Q2) The text argues that the democratic political culture of Sweden differs from that of the United States because the Swedes
A) integrate religion more successfully into their politics.
B) insist on greater citizen participation in government.
C) allow greater economic inequalities to exist.
D) resist tendencies toward socialism.
E) are more deferential than participatory in their politics.
Q3) Americans are more willing to tolerate economic inequality than political inequality.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Compare and contrast political culture in America and in Japan.
Q5) Discuss the four sources of American political culture mentioned in the text.
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Chapter 5: Civil Liberties
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Q1) Explain how the U.S. Supreme Court through "incorporation" has applied most of the Bill of Rights to the states.
Q2) The Supreme Court denied the Hazelwood High School student newspaper the right to print certain stories, using the argument that A) young people do not have First Amendment protection against libel.
B) the exercise of free expression by students is in violation of state educational codes. C) schools that allow free expression by students can legally be denied federal funding. D) incitement is never protected speech, even if it originates in a school newspaper. E) the exercise of free expression by students cannot impede the educational mission of the school.
Q3) If officers have probable cause to search an automobile, they can also search things that are being carried by passengers.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss five key provisions of the USA Patriot Act.
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Chapter 6: Civil Rights
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Q1) Summarize the two forms of sexual harassment defined in rulings by the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission.
Q2) The origin of the movement to give more rights to women was probably the A) Rights Manifesto.
B) Seneca Falls Convention.
C) Nineteenth Amendment.
D) "Rosie the Riveter" worker.
E) Equal Rights Amendment.
Q3) George H.W. Bush signed affirmative action related legislation in 1991 that had the effect of
A) removing incentives for employers to hire minorities.
B) giving special preference to quota systems that lay off workers.
C) shifting the burden of proof in discrimination claims to employers.
D) granting special status to state quota programs that are required by law.
E) discouraging the use of voluntary preference systems.
Q4) The federal government withholding federal aid to segregated schools in the 1970s led many schools to integrate.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Q1) When researchers compare how identical twins (who are genetically the same) think about politics with how fraternal twins (who share only half of their genes) think about politics, they found
A) that both groups held similar political opinions.
B) fraternal twins held similar political opinions to one another, compared to identical twins.
C) identical twins are much more likely to have similar political views than fraternal twins.
D) the partisan view of the parents make up more than genes.
E) None of the above is True.
Q2) One way in which the family forms and transmits political beliefs is by its religious tradition.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A person's age tends to not have much effect on that individual's political opinions.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Describe how polls are conducted.
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following participation groups avoids both elections and community groups in its political activity?
A) Voting specialists
B) Campaigners
C) Communalists
D) Parochial participants
E) Inactives
Q2) Which of the following statements regarding the Australian ballot is incorrect?
A) It is printed by the government.
B) It appeared first in the states.
C) It appeared in the late 1800s.
D) It is cast in secret.
E) It eliminated vote fraud.
Q3) Americans typically have higher rates of political participation than citizens in other democracies.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Identify the most important changes in elections and, where relevant, indicate associated constitutional amendments.
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) The Bull Moose and La Follette Progressive parties probably encouraged the major parties to pay more attention to
A) business regulation.
B) desegregation.
C) civil service reform.
D) slavery.
E) restricting the Supreme Court.
Q2) The Hatch Act allows federal civil service employees to
A) serve as party officers.
B) solicit campaign donations.
C) make campaign contributions.
D) serve as a delegate to a party convention.
E) endorse partisan candidates.
Q3) Beginning in the 1960s, the __________ became more bureaucratized, whereas the __________ became more factionalized.
A) Republican Party; Democratic Party
B) major parties; minor parties
C) Democratic Party; Republican Party
D) minor parties; major parties
E) Republican Party; minor parties
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Chapter 10: Elections and Campaigns
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Q1) When a district is drawn in a bizarre or unusual shape to assist a candidate, it is
A) malapportioned.
B) reapportioned.
C) regressed.
D) gerrymandered.
E) disbarred.
Q2) Democrats could be predicted to win every presidential election if the only factor were
A) candidate appeal.
B) campaign issues.
C) debate performance.
D) money spent.
E) party identification.
Q3) To be a member of the House of Representatives, a person must be
A) 20 years old.
B) 25 years old.
C) 30 years old.
D) 35 years old.
E) 40 years old.
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) PACs are created by __________ groups.
A) business
B) labor union
C) trade association
D) ideological
E) All of the above are True.
Q2) Identify and explain three types of incentives that are offered by mass-membership organizations.
Q3) Today, only about __________ of American workers are covered by unions.
A) 12 percent
B) 25 percent
C) 35 percent
D) 45 percent
E) 55 percent
Q4) Civil rights is an issue on which the labor movement followed the attitudes of the rank and file in its lobbying activities.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What new regulations were applied to lobbyists as of March 2007?
Q6) What four factors account for the increase in interest groups in recent years?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Media
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Q1) During the 2010 midterm elections, more than half of all Americans used __________ to get political news about the elections.
A) the Internet
B) newspapers
C) radio
D) NPR
E) the BBC
Q2) Discuss how news stories differ in the opportunity for bias.
Q3) According to the text, the first president to raise cultivation of the media to an art form was
A) Theodore Roosevelt.
B) Woodrow Wilson.
C) Herbert Hoover.
D) Franklin Roosevelt.
E) William McKinley.
Q4) Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post played a key role in the downfall of the administration of Richard Nixon.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Congress
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Q1) Today, sixty senators must agree to invoke cloture to close off debate in the Senate.
A)True
B)False
Q2) To the Framers of the Constitution, the Congress was intended to be the most important branch of government.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Most scholars agree that the legislative output of Congress declined during the 1980s and 1990s.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Compare and contrast membership in Congress with membership in a parliament, like that of Great Britain.
Q5) Which of the following statements about revenue bills is correct?
A) They must originate in the House.
B) They must originate in the Senate.
C) They must originate with the president.
D) They can originate in either the House or the Senate.
E) They must originate in the Senate Finance Committee.
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Chapter 14: The Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) In most parliamentary systems, voters can choose a member of parliament but not the chief executive.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The most important power of presidents is the power of persuasion because of their A) limited staffs.
B) opponents within the party.
C) lack of ensured legislative majorities and opponents within the party.
D) vague constitutional powers and lack of ensured legislative majorities.
E) imited staffs .
Q3) A trend in recent cabinet appointments has been to
A) include those with independent followings.
B) appoint both Democrats and Republicans.
C) include those without political followings.
D) appoint party leaders and workers.
E) appoint former judges and lawyers.
Q4) Explain the constitutional roles of the vice president.
Q5) Explain what signing statements have been used to do and what the trends have been with respect to their use throughout history.
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Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy
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Q1) The National Performance Review, led by Vice President Al Gore, argued that the problem with bureaucracy was that
A) it had become too centralized.
B) too rule-bound.
C) too little concerned with making programs work.
D) too much concerned with avoiding scandal.
E) All of the above are True.
Q2) One bureaucratic pathology described by the text is conflict, meaning the tendency of agencies to
A) grow, irrespective of the benefits and costs of their programs.
B) work at cross purposes with one another.
C) spend more than is necessary to buy some product or service.
D) generate complex and sometimes overlapping rules.
E) complicate matters that are better left to commonsense solutions.
Q3) What are some examples of bureaucratic pathologies discussed in the text?
Q4) Compare the United States bureaucracy to the United Kingdom bureaucracy.
Q5) As president, Richard Nixon set up a system of price and wage controls.
A)True
B)False
Q6) What are some of the effects of constraints on bureaucratic agencies?
Page 17
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Chapter 16: The Judiciary
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Q1) In Federalist paper No. 78, Hamilton described the Supreme Court as a branch of government that, if not checked my Congress, may be "dangerous."
A)True
B)False
Q2) Among the current members of the U.S. Supreme Court there is (are) __________ woman (women).
A) no
B) one
C) three
D) four
E) five
Q3) Discuss two reasons why the principle of precedent is so important.
Q4) The Supreme Court is in session for 48 weeks out of each year.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The Constitution specifies that the number of justices on the Supreme Court should be between six and nine.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 17: Domestic Policy
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Q1) The text describes the nation's political agenda as being A) easier to understand than other democracies.
B) dated.
C) the primary puzzles about public policy.
D) more difficult to understand than other democracies.
E) modern.
Q2) The passage of the Medicare bill was made possible by
A) a marked shift in public opinion.
B) the strong support of the American Medical Association (AMA).
C) the watering down of the bill to remove the more controversial provisions.
D) a Democratic landslide in the 1964 elections.
E) a shift in voting patterns on the United States Supreme Court.
Q3) The environmental movement was launched, in part, in reaction to A) the appearance of dead whales on the West Coast.
B) the overpopulation of deer in Oregon.
C) an outbreak of diseases among birds in the Northeast.
D) an oil spill on the beaches of Santa Barbara, California.
E) a natural-gas eruption in Destin, Florida.
Q4) List the five reasons why the consumer and environmental protection agencies may not be as vulnerable to capture as some critics contend.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: Economic Policy
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Q1) A progressive tax is one that requires those who are better off to pay more as a percentage of their income.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Identify the machinery of economic policymaking-sometimes called the "troika." Explain their roles.
Q3) Discuss how economics affects the way people vote.
Q4) The most important part of the economic policymaking machinery is Congress.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Wage-price controls are most likely to be advocated by supply-side economists. A)True
B)False
Q6) Keynes was skeptical of the notion that the market would automatically operate at a full-employment, low-inflation level.
A)True B)False
Q7) Describe the membership, tenure, and structure of the Fed.
Q8) What tools does the Fed use to implement its monetary policy?
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Chapter 19: Foreign and Military Policy
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Q1) In 1946, __________ delivered the famous "iron curtain" speech in Fulton, Missouri, in which he summed up Soviet policy in Eastern Europe.
A) Winston Churchill
B) George Kennan
C) Charles Lindbergh
D) President Truman
E) Dwight Eisenhower
Q2) The text includes the Weather Underground, a radical leftist organization active in the 1960s and 1970s, as an example of a legitimate political organization.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When Bill Clinton came into office in 1992, he brought
A) an apprehension for foreign policy.
B) a lack of appreciation for policy.
C) a disinterest in foreign policy.
D) a lack of understanding of foreign policy.
E) considerable foreign policymaking experience and interest.
Q4) Describe the constitutional powers held by the president and Congress in the area of foreign policy.
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Chapter 20: American Democracy, Then and Now
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Q1) Numerous rights have been applied to the states via the __________ clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
A) takings
B) due process
C) equal protection
D) establishment
E) fairness
Q2) Power was more decentralized under the Old System of American politics.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In 1935, Congress debated whether the nation should have
A) a Social Security system.
B) Medicare.
C) Medicaid.
D) protections for Americans with disabilities.
E) an interstate highway system.
Q4) The federal government actively sought to address the issue of drug abuse before the mid-twentieth century.
A)True
B)False
Page 22
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