U.S. Politics
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Course Introduction
This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the institutions, processes, and dynamics of the United States government and political system. Students will examine the foundational principles of American democracy, the role and structure of the Constitution, federalism, and the separation of powers. The course also explores the impact of political parties, interest groups, the media, and public opinion on policy making and governance. Key topics include elections and voting behavior, civil rights and liberties, and current political issues, equipping students with the analytical tools to critically assess the complexities of U.S. politics in historical and contemporary contexts.
Recommended Textbook
Politics in America 2014 Elections and Updates Edition 10th Edition by Thomas R. Dye
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Chapter 1: Politics: Who Gets What,When and How 1
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Q1) Which of the following is a component of the "when and how" of politics?
A)the news media
B)law enforcement
C)labor unions
D)think tanks
Answer: A
Q2) Civil disobedience is never justified in a democracy.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) According to the Heritage Foundation,what is the freest economy in the world?
A)Switzerland
B)Brazil
C)the United States
D)Hong Kong
Answer: D
Q4) The underlying value of democracy is the __________ of the individual.
Answer: dignity
Q5) The meaning of the word __________ is "rule by the many."
Answer: democracy
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Chapter 2: Political Culture: Ideas in Conflict
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Sample Questions
Q1) Class consciousness can be eroded by __________.
A)class conflict
B)economic stratification
C)political parties
D)social mobility
Answer: D
Q2) Which of the following is an example of equality of results?
A)making sure all those who retire have the same income
B)making sure disabled children are accommodated in public schools
C)providing assistance for those injured in war
D)providing federal grants for scholarships
Answer: A
Q3) The idea of natural law is diametrically opposed to the idea of capitalism.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 granted __________ to illegal aliens who had lived in the Unites States since 1982.
Answer: amnesty
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Chapter 3: The Constitution: Limiting Governmental Power
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what year was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A)1776
B)1801
C)1797
D)1789
Answer: A
Q2) As described in Table 3.1,Constitutional Compromise,the Virginia Plan had a two-house legislature,whereas the __________ Plan had only one.
A)New Jersey
B)Massachusetts
C)North Carolina
D)Delaware
Answer: A
Q3) The New Jersey Plan proposed a one-house legislature with one vote for each state.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q4) The __________ Amendment gave some former slaves the right to vote. Answer: Fifteenth
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Chapter 4: Federalism: Dividing Governmental Power
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Q1) In a(n)__________ system,local and regional governments derive authority from the national government.
A)unitary
B)bi-cameral
C)confederate
D)federal
Q2) Dual federalism is an interpretation of federalism in which the states and the national government separate jurisdictions and responsibilities.
A)True
B)False
Q3) __________ powers are shared by the federal and state governments.
A)Concurrent
B)Implied
C)Delegated
D)Enumerated
Q4) Because the Constitution was created by states entering into a compact,the national constitution and government are equal partners with the states.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Opinion and Participation: Thinking and Acting in Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Generally,the Founders believed the only group with a sufficient stake in society to exercise their vote responsibly were __________.
A)white and African American shopkeepers
B)white men and women
C)property-owning white men
D)married white and African American men
Q2) In the United States,women are more likely than men to oppose __________.
A)restrictions on firearms
B)affirmative action
C)U.S.military intervention
D)restrictions on abortion
Q3) What is the essential link between opinion and policy?
A)party affiliation
B)personal persistence
C)political knowledge
D)political participation
Q4) How informed is public opinion?
Q5) __________ are generally designed to call attention to an issue and to motivate others to apply pressure on public officials.
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Chapter 6: Mass Media: Setting the Political Agenda
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Q1) How does political polarization of the media impact our political system?
Q2) The Daily Show is an example of soft news.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When the media report on which candidate is ahead or behind in the polls,they are providing what kind of coverage?
A)horse-race
B)character-issue
C)policy
D)partisan
Q4) Political conflict is mostly carried out in __________.
A)Congress
B)caucuses
C)local political debate
D)the mass media
Q5) Media influence over values and opinions is reduced by selective perception,mentally screening out __________ with which we disagree.
Q6) Although the new forms of media are challenging it,___________ is still the most powerful communication medium.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Political Parties: Organizing Politics
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Q1) In most state party primary elections,a __________ electoral system determines the winner.
A)majority
B)plurality
C)multi-party
D)polarized
Q2) Why does the United States have a two-party system?
A)The Framers wanted competition between political parties.
B)It developed in the struggle between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans.
C)It was a compromise between a unitary system's efficiency and a multi-party system's diversity.
D)It developed in the struggle between slave owners and abolitionists.
Q3) The year 1968 in the United States brought the beginning of a new political era and __________.
A)dealignment
B)evenly matched parties
C)"good feelings"
D)realignment
Q4) Assess whether dealignment in the American party system has actually occurred.
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Chapter 8: Campaigns and Elections: Deciding Who
Governs
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Sample Questions
Q1) In terms of campaign finance,House races are usually __________.
A)unfinanced
B)not financially competitive
C)financed by taxpayers
D)more expensive than Senate races
Q2) If a candidate felt confident of being able to raise enough money for a campaign,he or she might choose not to accept __________ money from the Federal Elections Commission in order to maintain freedom to spend as much as desired.
Q3) In order to garner support from voters,candidates must state political themes in concise and catchy ___________ that attract media coverage and will register in the voters' minds.
Q4) The only major party presidential nominee in the past century who had not previously held public office was __________.
A)Ronald Reagan
B)George H.W.Bush
C)Lyndon Johnson
D)Dwight Eisenhower
Q5) A(n)____________ is a small number of people brought together to respond to particular topics and issues.
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Chapter 9: Interest Groups: Getting Their Share and More
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Sample Questions
Q1) The most viable commodity a lobby firm can offer its clients is a __________.
A)retired federal judge
B)former member of Congress
C)CEO of a major corporation
D)well-known celebrity or spokesperson
Q2) According to the Ethics in Government Act,former members of Congress are not permitted to lobby Congress for __________ after leaving that body.
A)one year
B)two years
C)five years
D)ten years
Q3) As shown in Figure 9.1,membership in labor unions has increased over the last several decades.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If James Madison were alive today,he would most likely view the rapid growth of interest groups over the past several decades as a positive development.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Congress: Politics on Capitol Hill
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Sample Questions
Q1) __________ is a good example of Congressional casework.
A)Analysis of an incumbent's policy positions prior to a debate
B)Analysis of police force effectiveness
C)Analysis of water quality within a district
D)Assistance to a constituent in obtaining a Social Security check
Q2) A special joint committee created to reconcile differences in bills passed by the House and Senate is called a(n)__________ committee.
A)arbitration
B)conference
C)joint
D)select/special
Q3) Which example best demonstrates a legislator acting as a trustee of his or her constituency?
A)considering public opinion,then using his or her own best judgment about what is good for the nation as a whole
B)doing whatever is best for reelection
C)following the public opinion of the constituency,regardless of his or her personal viewpoint
D)heeding public opinion in every case,except in matters of personal conscience
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Page 12
Chapter 11: The President: White House Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1957,Dwight Eisenhower used military force in domestic affairs to enforce a federal court's __________ order.
Q2) Article II,Section 4 of the Constitution says,"The President,Vice President,and all Civil Officers of the United States,shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for,and Conviction of,Treason,Bribery,or other high crimes and Misdemeanors." Explain what this means.What would your criteria be for impeachment?
Q3) Why was the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the Constitution adopted?
A)to clear up ambiguities over the constitutional provisions surrounding presidential powers to conduct war
B)to clear up ambiguities over the constitutional provisions surrounding the role of the vice president should the president die or become incapacitated
C)to clear up ambiguities over the constitutional provisions surrounding the president's powers to negotiate treaties
D)to clear up ambiguities over the constitutional provisions surrounding the separate election of the vice president
Q4) As a result of the __________ scandal,Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment and a Senate trial.
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Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy: Bureaucratic Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which civil service system was introduced in the Pendleton Act of 1883?
A)the agency system
B)the General Schedule
C)the merit system
D)the Social Security system
Q2) How did the Pendleton Act reform the system of hiring federal employees?
A)It required hiring decisions to be based on partisan loyalty rather than merit.
B)It required hiring decisions to be based on merit rather than partisan loyalty.
C)It continued to allow hiring on the basis of partisan loyalty,but made firing federal employees easier.
D)It continued to allow hiring on the basis of partisan loyalty,but made firing federal employees more difficult.
Q3) What is implementation?
A)the process by which a law or policy is put into practice
B)the development of rules governing the operation of a government program
C)a set of procedures executive branch agencies must follow when issuing rules
D)the process by which government agencies settle legal disputes
Q4) The president appoints,but cannot dismiss,officials who serve on __________.
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Page 14
Chapter 13: Courts Judicial Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Explain the significance of Marbury v.Madison.
Q2) According to Marbury v.Madison,which clause implies the power of judicial review?
A)necessary and proper
B)due process
C)precedential
D)supremacy
Q3) The Supreme Court,circuit courts,and district courts are all types of __________.
A)U.S.Courts of Appeal
B)appellate courts
C)federal constitutional courts
D)U.S.Courts of Federal Claims
Q4) According to the doctrine of __________,a court should not overturn precedent unless it is absolutely necessary.
A)original intent
B)judicial review
C)stare decisis
D)prior restraint
Q5) The circuit courts hear appeals from the __________ courts.
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Chapter 14: Politics and Personal Liberty
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Supreme Court,under Chief Justice __________,strengthened Fifth Amendment protections.
A)William Rehnquist
B)Warren Burger
C)John Roberts
D)Earl Warren
Q2) Incorporation makes the protections from the Bill of Rights applicable to the states through which of the following amendments?
A)Fourth
B)Fifth
C)Sixth
D)Fourteenth
Q3) Although not specifically discussed in the Constitution,birth control has been interpreted as an extension of the right to which of the following?
A)press
B)assembly
C)religion
D)privacy
Q4) Discuss the evolution of abortion rights.
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Chapter 15: Politics and Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) 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
Q2) In Regents of the University of California v.Bakke (1978),the Supreme Court determined that __________ were unconstitutional.
A)poll taxes
B)grandfather clauses
C)all forms of affirmative action
D)racial quotas
Q3) Reconstruction was the era of racial healing that followed the civil rights movement.
A)True
B)False
Q4) When did women win the guaranteed right to vote?
A)when the Constitution was adopted
B)during the Civil War
C)immediately after the Civil War
D)decades after black males won the right to vote
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Chapter 16: Politics and the Economy
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Q1) Which of these statements best describes the influence of interest rate adjustments by the Federal Reserve?
A)They always lead to lower rates of marginal taxes.
B)They can lead to higher unemployment in years of budget deficits.
C)They can spur economic growth by increasing the cost of money for business.
D)They can spur economic growth by increasing the available money supply.
Q2) Which type of taxation takes a larger share of the income of low-income groups?
A)regressive taxation
B)progressive taxation
C)proportional (flat)taxation
D)retroactive taxation
Q3) Which of the following is a tax expenditure?
A)a deductible contribution to an IRA
B)the estate tax
C)an excise tax
D)the Social Security payroll
Q4) The federal government relies on a ___________ tax to fund the Social Security program.
Q5) The money supply __________ when the Federal Reserve Board increases interest rates.
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Chapter 17: Politics and Social Welfare
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Sample Questions
Q1) Social Security payments have ___________ since the program was created.
Q2) Most Americans believe that the main cause of poverty is a shortage of jobs.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following is necessary information to determine eligibility for a means-tested program?
A)the number of years a person has worked before retirement
B)the number of years a person has been on Social Security
C)the number of years a person has been in the military
D)the income level of the person in question
Q4) ___________ is a social welfare program for the elderly that all qualifying individuals receive at a certain age.
Q5) What is the name for benefits of social welfare programs for which individuals are eligible by law?
A)social insurance
B)public assistance
C)entitlements
D)social assistance
Q6) Temporary Assistance to Needy Families replaced the federal program
Q7) Medicare is designed to help the __________ population.
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Chapter 18: Politics and National Security
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Q1) The Cold War strategy of __________ was intended to prevent nuclear warfare by having a large enough nuclear arsenal that the Soviet Union would not dare challenge the United States.
Q2) One of the reasons President George W.Bush provided for Operation Iraqi Freedom was to eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.Why did the United States fail to meet this goal?
A)because they did not have enough troops on the ground to achieve this goal
B)because they could not obtain accurate information on their location
C)because the Iraq military surrounded the weapons with civilians
D)because Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction
Q3) During the Cold War,the term "Iron Curtain" was used to refer to the way the Soviets divided Europe into Eastern and Western portions,with Eastern Europe under communist rule.
A)True
B)False
Q4) __________ has the constitutional power to declare war.
Q5) The policy of containment is evident in the United States' response to the __________,which involved U.S.efforts to prevent the further spread of Soviet influence to North America.
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