American Government Exam Practice Tests
Course Introduction
American Government offers a comprehensive overview of the structures, functions, and processes of the United States federal government. The course explores the foundations of American democracy, the Constitution, the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, federalism, political parties, elections, public opinion, interest groups, and civil liberties. Through analysis of key concepts, landmark Supreme Court cases, and current political events, students gain a deeper understanding of how government policies are formulated, implemented, and challenged in the context of American society.
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American Government 2014 Election 12th Edition by Karen OConnor
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18 Chapters
1611 Verified Questions
1611 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Government: Roots, context, and Culture
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50 Verified Questions
50 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Members of which of the following groups are most likely to be social conservatives?
A) evangelical Protestants
B) African Americans
C) the elderly
D) single mothers
Answer: A
Q2) Which of the following expanded Americans' conceptions of personal liberty?
A) indirect democracy
B) the Fourteenth Amendment
C) the American Dream
D) political ideology
Answer: B
Q3) Which of the following is a true statement about moderates?
A) They created the Tea Party movement.
B) They comprise over half of the U.S. population.
C) They largely support an overhaul of the welfare system.
D) They believe that a centrist approach to politics is best.
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: The Constitution
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90 Verified Questions
90 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) In what year was the Declaration of Independence signed?
A) 1776
B) 1787
C) 1797
D) 1801
Answer: A
Q2) Article I of the Constitution describes the powers of the president.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) Which of the following can be used to help determine the intent of the Framers?
A) the Equal Rights Amendment
B) The Federalist Papers
C) checks and balances
D) Full Faith and Credit
Answer: B
Q4) Under the Articles of Confederation,the president levied all taxes.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 4
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Chapter 3: The Federal System
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91 Verified Questions
91 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) New Federalism most favors which type of government grant?
A) block grants
B) unfunded mandates
C) categorical grants
D) programmatic requests
Answer: A
Q2) The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 attempts to prevent Congress from
A) creating expensive federal mandates and requiring the states to pay the cost
B) increasing taxes to pay for unpopular programs
C) using money from the Social Security Trust Fund for general revenue purposes
D) fully funding state-level mandates
Answer: A
Q3) Explain the privileges and immunities clause.
Answer: An ideal response will:
1.Explain that the privileges and immunities clause is part of the Constitution.
2.Explain that individual states must give citizens of all other states the privileges and immunities they grant to their own citizens,including the protection of law,the right to engage in peaceful occupations,access to the courts,and freedom from discriminatory taxes.
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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101 Verified Questions
101 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Supreme Court has interpreted the __________ Amendment to protect an individual's right to own a firearm for self-defense.
Q2) Which amendment protects the right to bear arms?
A) Second
B) Third
C) Fourth
D) Fifth
Q3) Why does the plight of the Guantanamo detainees raise concerns about civil liberties?
Q4) One part of the __________ test asks whether the law has a legitimate secular purpose.
Q5) While enemy combatants have a reduced right to habeas corpus,they have the same right to a jury trial as other accused criminals.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Explain the evolution of the selective incorporation doctrine.
Q7) Why did the Supreme Court briefly end capital punishment in 1972?
Q8) How does the Lemon test examine the constitutionality of religious establishment issues?
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Chapter 5: Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)define a disabled person? What rights are guaranteed to disabled people under the ADA? What infrastructure must be created to ensure these rights?
Q2) The __________ Amendment guarantees African Americans the right to vote.
Q3) The passage of the Equal Rights Amendment has helped ensure women's equality in the workplace.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The NAACP is most likely to fight to reduce which of the following?
A) racism
B) affirmative action
C) sexism
D) sodomy
Q5) What did the Supreme Court determine was unconstitutional in Brown v.Board of Education?
A) school integration
B) poll taxes
C) school segregation
D) unequal school funding
Q6) What are grandfather clauses? Why were they enacted?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Congress
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88 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The increasing partisanship and unproductivity of Congress have contributed to its low approval ratings.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The Supreme Court has prohibited the practice of gerrymandering.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following contributes to the incumbency advantage?
A) the desire to "throw the bums out"
B) surge and decline
C) property taxes
D) name recognition
Q4) A rise in party unity is indicative of __________.
A) cooperation across party lines
B) cooperation between Congress and the executive branch
C) high bipartisanship
D) low bipartisanship
Q5) __________ committees include members from both houses of Congress and are set up to conduct investigations or special studies.
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Q6) What is the function of the House Committee on Rules? Why is it so important?
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Chapter 7: The Presidency
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87 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The president is not allowed to encourage specific members of Congress to vote for or against a particular bill.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is executive privilege?
A) the ability of the president to refuse to spend money appropriated by Congress
B) the ability of the president to veto programmatic requests in a bill
C) the power of the president to declare war or initiate a police action
D) the implied power of the president to keep communications confidential
Q3) In order to avoid going to the Senate for approval,recent presidents have started to rely more heavily on __________ rather than treaties.
Q4) How has the role of the vice president changed over time?
Q5) Explain when and how presidents can be removed from office mid-term.Which presidents have been subject to this process and under what circumstances? Explain the circumstances under which you believe that the president should be impeached.
Q6) Compare the White House staff and the Cabinet.
Q7) What precedents did George Washington set for future presidents?
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Chapter 8: The Executive Branch and the Federal
Bureaucracy
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90 Verified Questions
90 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) When did the largest growth in the federal workforce occur?
A) Johnson's Great Society
B) FDR's New Deal
C) the Civil War
D) World War II
Q2) One purpose of the Administrative Procedures Act is to __________.
A) ensure opportunities for public participation in the rule-making process
B) give federal agencies greater discretion in the rule-making process
C) streamline bureaucratic activities in the rule-making process
D) give the president greater control over the rule-making process
Q3) How does the Administrative Procedures Act (APA)influence rule making by departments and agencies?
Q4) Which of the following is an example of an independent executive agency?
A) the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
B) the Department of Health and Human Services
C) the Consumer Product Safety Commission
D) the Tennessee Valley Authority
Q5) Federal agencies are prohibited from engaging in any quasi-judicial processes.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: The Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) How and whether judicial decisions are translated into actual policy is known as judicial __________.
A) implementation
B) execution
C) legislation
D) intention
Q2) Of the following,who was appointed by President George W.Bush?
A) Justice Alito
B) Justice Kagan
C) Justice Thomas
D) Justice Ginsburg
Q3) A writ of __________ is a request submitted to the U.S.Supreme Court to review a lower court decision.
A) mandamus
B) prohibition
C) attachment
D) certiorari
Q4) Describe the role of stare decisis in Brown v.Board of Education.
Q5) __________ believe that courts should interpret the Constitution as the Framers wrote and originally intended it.
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Chapter 10: Public Opinion and Political Socialization
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90 Verified Questions
90 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The value of hard work and personal responsibility are rooted in America's
A) emphasis on economic and social equality
B) communitarian instincts
C) two-party system
D) Protestant heritage
Q2) According to Andrew Kohut,founding director of the Pew Research Center,why has the public played a more important role in national and international politics over the last three decades?
A) the sophistication of modern polling techniques
B) the rise in the number of public opinion polls
C) the advent of the Internet
D) the speed with which computers can process election data
Q3) Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues are known as what?
A) deliberative polls
B) exit polls
C) push polls
D) straw polls
Q4) How does the president attempt to mold public opinion?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Political Parties
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85 Verified Questions
85 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Members of which of the following groups are most likely to prefer the Democratic Party?
A) Jews
B) Protestants
C) moderates
D) men
Q2) When can a party officially change its platform?
A) after a federal census
B) at the start of each fiscal year
C) during the national party convention
D) every two years
Q3) Members of which of the following demographic groups are most likely to identify with the Democratic Party?
A) African Americans
B) Catholics
C) Hispanics
D) Protestants
Q4) What is political polarization and what causes it?
Q5) Describe how the New Deal realignment transformed American political parties.
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Q6) Members of which demographic groups tend to support each of the major parties?
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Chapter 12: Elections and Voting
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105 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Women gained the right to vote with the passage of the __________ Amendment in 1920.
Q2) Why would the congressional district plan be easier to implement?
A) It addresses the problem of the incumbency advantage.
B) It does not require a constitutional amendment.
C) It minimizes the influence of special interest money.
D) It reduces the number of states in play.
Q3) Describe liberal and conservative ideologies.How does ideology affect the choices voters make?
Q4) __________ is the process of redrawing district lines to reflect population shifts after a census.
Q5) Modern American political liberals generally believe that __________.
A) the government should provide social programs
B) a lower tax rate stimulates the economy
C) charities are more effective than government programs
D) government is a necessary evil
Q6) Conventional participation relies heavily on unusual or extreme methods of influencing the political process.
A)True
B)False
Page 14
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Chapter 13: The Campaign Process
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are some of the duties of a campaign manager?
Q2) In the 2012 election,the state of __________ could not certify its election for days owing to polling glitches and the prolonged process of counting absentee and provisional ballots.
Q3) Super PACs can make __________ on campaign activities so long as they are not coordinated with a particular candidate's campaign.
Q4) The "horse-race" coverage of a campaign tends to focus on the candidate's schedule.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Most national campaigns prefer not to use social media to interact with prospective voters because it creates a permanent record of conversations.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Describe the impact on a candidate of a long nomination and general election campaign.What physical and mental stresses result from such a campaign? How might these impacts ultimately affect the election?
Q7) What is a political action committee?
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Chapter 14: The News Media
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89 Verified Questions
89 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was the penny press,and why was it important?
Q2) None of the three traditional news networks is independently owned.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The U.S.Supreme Court receives less media coverage than does Congress or the president.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The press has the greatest impact on public opinion regarding __________.
A) national disasters
B) events in foreign countries
C) elections and campaigns
D) immigration policy
Q5) The process by which a news organization defines a political issue and consequently affects public opinion of the issue is called __________.
Q6) Explain the differences between source attributions on the record,off the record,on background,and on deep background.Why is it important for reporters to attribute their sources correctly?
Q7) Define the muckraking of the 1920s.Does muckraking exist today?
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Chapter 15: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) The freedom of association is guaranteed in the __________ Amendment to the Constitution.
Q2) Discuss the relationship between lobbyists and members of Congress in terms of what each offers the other.
Q3) Which of the following conditions would provide support for the theory of pluralism?
A) The number of interest groups in Washington, D.C., has decreased over the past several decades.
B) Elected officials rarely take into account the views of interest groups.
C) Economic interests have more lobbyists in Washington, D.C., than do other types of organizations.
D) Elected officials seek out the opinions of multiple interest groups when creating policy.
Q4) Which of the following is a way that interest groups seek to influence elections?
A) filing lawsuits
B) submitting amicus curiae briefs
C) running candidates for office
D) recruiting and training candidates
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Chapter 16: Domestic Policy
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84 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following policies was recently enacted in order to help ensure that students are not saddled with too much student loan debt?
A) mandatory tuition waivers for all students maintaining a 3.8 GPA or better
B) requirements that all colleges and universities that accept federal funds must create programs that allow undergraduate students to complete their degree in three years
C) guaranteed employment for the first three years after graduation
D) a cap on repayments at 10 percent of income with the entire balance forgiven after 20 years
Q2) Describe the role of the state,local,and federal governments related to education policy.
Q3) Which of the following is an example of federal involvement in K-12 education?
A) Providing diversity awareness training for teachers.
B) Funding pro-education candidates at the state level.
C) Funding school renovation in economically disadvantaged areas.
D) Providing monetary incentives for state compliance with standardized goals.
Q4) What federal environmental laws were passed in the early 1970s?
Q5) Discuss health care spending in the United States.What contributes to health care costs in the United States?
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Imagine the economy is slipping into a recession.What would a Keynesian advocate and why? Compare this approach to adjusting the discount rate to affect the money supply.
Q2) Social Security is a(n)__________ program because it provides benefits to all qualifying individuals.
Q3) The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (TANF)requires that mothers provide information about a child's father to receive full benefits.
A)True
B)False
Q4) One reason for the increase in health care costs is the aging population in the United States.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The federal government relies on a(n)__________ tax paid by employers to fund unemployment insurance.
Q6) What is fiscal policy?
Q7) What was the purpose of TARP,and how was it designed to work?
Q8) What are the proposed benefits of deregulation,and who in general supports this position?
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Chapter 18: Foreign and Defense Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Because of NAFTA,an American business owner may be able to save money through which of the following?
A) setting up a shell corporation in the Cayman Islands to avoid U.S. taxes
B) moving a manufacturing plant from the United States to Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor
C) purchasing cheap goods from China without paying taxes or tariffs
D) purchasing government-issued bonds to cover basic business expenses
Q2) Who is the largest trading partner with the United States?
A) China
B) Canada
C) Germany
D) Japan
Q3) Which of the following is a critique of the military-industrial complex?
A) Ordinary citizens are generally uninformed about how the military-industrial complex works.
B) Defense industry interest groups have too much influence over defense policy.
C) The military decision-making process is too slow and complex.
D) The president should have more influence over defense policy because the Constitution puts him or her in charge of the military-industrial complex.
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