Federal Government Test Questions
Course Introduction
This course offers an in-depth examination of the federal government of the United States, focusing on its foundational principles, structure, and functions. Students will analyze the relationships among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, the system of checks and balances, and the federal-state dynamic. Topics include the Constitution, federalism, the policy-making process, civil liberties and rights, and the roles of political parties, interest groups, and the media. The course enables students to better understand the operations of national government and its impact on American society and democracy.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Institutions and Policies 14th Edition by James Q. Wilson
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Study of American Government
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following statements about political power, or "who governs?" is most accurate?
A) The key to understanding power is to understand the monetary costs of different political decisions.
B) Political power can usually be inferred by knowing what laws are on the books.
C) Political power can usually be inferred by knowing what administrative actions have been taken.
D) Power cannot be realized without institutional arrangements.
E) Most power derives from psychological and social factors such as friendship, loyalty, and prestige.
Answer: E
Q2) The interest on the national debt is well over $300 billion a year.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Representative democracy requires that most public officials be elected.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 3
Chapter 2: The Constitution
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Constitutional Convention attracted __________ delegates.
A) 74
B) 55
C) 39
D) 30
E) 12
Answer: B
Q2) In 1776, one important reason that colonists regarded independence as a desirable alternative was that they
A) no longer had confidence that the British government would protect their liberties.
B) could no longer afford the price of British exports.
C) had come to reject the philosophy of John Locke.
D) had come to reject British ideas of individual rights.
E) were struggling economically.
Answer: A
Q3) Identify the three parts of the original Constitution that deal with slavery.
Answer: -The Three-Fifths Compromise
-Agreement to allow no prohibitions on slavery until at least 1808
-Guarantee that escaped slaves would be returned to their owners.
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Federalism
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Sample Questions
Q1) In United States v. Morrison, the Supreme Court ruled that violence against women
A) was not an appropriate focus of punitive damages.
B) did not substantially affect interstate commerce.
C) could not be made the responsibility of distant relatives.
D) was nonjusticiable.
E) could not be regulated by law.
Answer: B
Q2) The first form of grant-in-aid from the national government to the states was
A) cash grants-in-aid.
B) block grants.
C) revenue sharing.
D) categorical grants.
E) land grants.
Answer: E
Q3) The American experience suggests that many of the Antifederalists' primary concerns were not unwarranted.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Page 5
Chapter 4: American Political Culture
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Sample Questions
Q1) The text suggests that Americans have a "preoccupation" with A) law.
B) rights.
C) order.
D) conflict.
E) commerce.
Q2) What was the Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal referring to when he spoke of "America's dilemma"?
A) Affluence
B) Race relations
C) Corporate dominance
D) Political ignorance
E) Economic disparities
Q3) Today, Americans have less trust in government than they once did.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Most Americans believe that people should not be allowed to vote if they cannot read or write or vote intelligently.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Writing for the Supreme Court, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes proclaimed that the Congress could punish dangerous speech when that speech
A) represented a "clear and present danger" to the United States.
B) incited citizens to commit a lawless action.
C) was False.
D) Options A, B, C, and D are True.
E) None of the above is True.
Q2) Usually, the Supreme Court has reacted to wartime curtailments of civil liberties by A) upholding them.
B) rejecting them.
C) upholding them at first, limiting them later.
D) rejecting them at first, reinstating them later.
E) avoiding rulings on constitutionality and consigning such issues to the lower federal courts.
Q3) Discuss how the Supreme Court's interpreted the freedom of speech provision of the Bill of Rights in Schenck v. United States.
Q4) Summarize the facts of the case and the Supreme Court's ruling in Miranda v. Arizona.
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Page 7
Chapter 6: Civil Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 1955, the Supreme Court ruled that desegregation should be
A) implemented with due concern for public safety.
B) monitored by local school officials.
C) implemented "with all deliberate speed."
D) monitored by civil rights groups.
E) delayed until there were significant shifts in population.
Q2) The NAACP was formed by a group consisting of both whites and blacks.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A 1992 Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the necessity of busing to achieve full school integration regardless of housing patterns.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Women were first given the right to vote in states that were A) more highly populated and economically advanced.
B) part of the original thirteen colonies.
C) in the South.
D) in the Midwest.
E) in the West.
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) James Madison felt that direct popular participation in the decisions of government was
A) a recipe for disaster.
B) an eventual goal of the new republic.
C) to be achieved by amending the Constitution.
D) the problem with the British form of government.
E) the desire of his political enemies.
Q2) Discuss the manner in which elite opinion influences (or is not likely to influence) public opinion.
Q3) Political activism is correlated most closely with
A) political conservatism.
B) libertarian politics.
C) gender.
D) class differentiation.
E) ideological consistency.
Q4) Most blue-collar workers in America think of themselves as "working class."
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss how social class affects public opinions in America.
Q6) What factors influence a person's political opinions (political socialization)?
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) The rise of the Internet will have little effect on political participation.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Identify and describe the six different kinds of U.S. citizens characterized in the classic study by Verba and Nie.
Q3) Keeping informed about government and politics would be an example of political participation.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A 2008 study found get-out-the-vote drives have demonstrated statistically significant results when they involved
A) door-to-door canvassing and phone calls; although even most prospective voters touched by these tactics did not turn out.
B) leaflets and election day festivals.
C) direct mail and phone calls.
D) phone calls and social media.
E) None of the above is True.
Q5) What view of history do scholars take that believe that there has been a real decline in voter turnout?
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Jefferson viewed his party as a temporary arrangement for the purpose of defeating John Adams.
A)True
B)False
Q2) National convention delegates, compared with their respective party members, tend to be
A) more liberal if they are Democrats and more conservative if they are Republicans.
B) more liberal regardless of party.
C) more conservative regardless of party.
D) more conservative if they are Democrats, more liberal if they are Republicans. E) quite similar in most respects, but not so much in terms of occupational prestige.
Q3) The attachment of voters to political parties is weaker today than it was a century ago.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Discuss the effect of the Civil War and sectionalism on the development of political parties in the United States.
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Page 11
Chapter 10: Elections and Campaigns
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the 1800s, most people voted straight party ticket.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In a(n) __________ primary, you can vote for candidates of either party.
A) blanket
B) open
C) closed
D) runoff
E) static
Q3) The text argues that the U.S. constitutional system was designed to make the adoption of radical departures in policy
A) efficient.
B) easy.
C) impossible.
D) unnecessary.
E) difficult.
Q4) Discuss how presidential candidates have to fundraise more today than in the past. Be sure to reference the 2012 election.
Q5) Summarize the qualifications for members of the House and Senate.
Q6) Identify and explain four types of primary elections.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups
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Sample Questions
Q1) What four factors account for the increase in interest groups in recent years?
Q2) Which of the following is True of most people who are sympathetic to the aims of a mass-membership interest group?
A) They do not join it.
B) They join it but do not pay dues.
C) They join it, pay dues, but do not participate in its activities.
D) They join it, pay dues, and participate in its activities.
E) They join it but participate without paying dues.
Q3) In a classic study, Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba found that citizens in Germany and Great Britain were more likely to state that they would protect an unjust regulation than citizens in the United States.
A)True
B)False
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) Describe three types of feminist organizations.
Q6) What new regulations were applied to lobbyists as of March 2007?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) The __________ is responsible for regulating radio and television broadcasting.
A) National Public Radio
B) American Broadcast Organization
C) Federal Communications Commission
D) Federal Exchange Commission
E) Office of Television in the Department of Commerce
Q2) Discuss some of the changes in society and technology that transformed the partisan press of the early 1800s.
Q3) When it comes to news, the Internet is dominated by a few sites and should not be considered a free market of news coverage.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Nation, the Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's were
A) mass-circulation magazines founded during the early 1900s.
B) magazines specializing in yellow journalism during the mid-1800s.
C) newspapers sponsored by the political parties of the early 1800s.
D) the first magazines to present public policy issues during the mid-1800s.
E) newspapers specializing in party news and election reports founded during the early 1900s.
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Chapter 13: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) How many members are there in the U.S. House of Representatives?
A) 400
B) 435
C) 535
D) 100
E) 200
Q2) __________ decide(s) the outcome of disputed congressional elections.
A) Congress alone
B) Congress and the Supreme Court
C) The Supreme Court
D) State legislatures
E) Governors
Q3) A discharge petition is used by the House to
A) make revisions and additions to a bill before it is voted on.
B) get a bill that is stalled in committee onto the floor.
C) amend a bill that has already passed one house but not the other.
D) override a presidential veto.
E) amend a bill in a manner that will make it quite unpopular.
Q4) Identify three major staff agencies in Congress. Explain their work.
Q5) Identify and define the four types of congressional committees.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: The Presidency
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Sample Questions
Q1) In this method of White House staff organization, used by Carter, cabinet secretaries and assistants reported directly to the president.
A) Ad hoc structure
B) Pyramid structure
C) Circular structure
D) Tubular structure
E) Intuitive structure
Q2) The popularly elected president is
A) an American invention, and our nation is one of a few democracies that have elected presidents.
B) common in European democracies.
C) a key feature of a parliamentarian system.
D) a powerful figure in the Japanese government.
E) the same as a prime minister.
Q3) Customarily, the members of the president's cabinet are
A) close friends.
B) campaign aides.
C) representatives of important constituencies.
D) experts on various policy issues.
E) All of the above are True.
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Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the early years of the federal government, this department held most of the power.
A) Department of the Interior
B) War Department
C) Post Office Department
D) State Department
E) Treasury Department
Q2) An "iron triangle" is a strong coalition comprised of
A) an issue network, a policy committee, and an international group.
B) an agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group.
C) the president, a congressional committee, and an interest group.
D) the secretary of defense, the president, and the secretary of state.
E) an issue network, a congressional committee, and an agency.
Q3) Using what the text refers to as the "buddy system," an agency can circumvent the usual Office of Personnel Management (OPM) search process by
A) blanketing in a job candidate.
B) issuing a merit dispensation.
C) asking the president to appoint a specific candidate.
D) tailoring a job description to a specific candidate.
E) limiting the scope of a search to a specific region.
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Chapter 16: The Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) __________ is a legal concept that refers to who is entitled to bring a case.
A) Standing
B) Free shifting
C) Certiorari
D) Mandamus
E) Habeas corpus
Q2) Democratic judges are more likely to make __________ decisions than Republican judges.
A) quick
B) timely
C) traditional
D) conservative
E) liberal
Q3) The Supreme Court is in session for 48 weeks out of each year.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Great Britain has a strong tradition of judicial review.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss the structure of the federal court system.
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Chapter 17: Domestic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) It took thirteen years, from 1977 to 1990, to agree on a congressional revision of the Clean Air Act.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The type of politics best illustrated by auto-emission-control regulations is
A) entrepreneurial politics.
B) majoritarian politics.
C) interest group politics.
D) client politics.
E) reciprocal politics.
Q3) By 2010, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid together accounted for _________ of the federal budget.
A) 5 percent
B) 10 percent
C) 20 percent
D) 30 percent
E) 40 percent
Q4) The federal government spends more on foreign aid than it does Medicaid.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) During his presidency, Kennedy mostly picked __________ to fill key economic positions.
A) supply-siders
B) monetarists
C) keynesians
D) central planners
E) libertarians
Q2) The president's adviser who provides estimates of government revenues and who recommends tax changes is the
A) chairperson of the CEA.
B) secretary of the Treasury.
C) director of the OMB.
D) chairperson of the Fed.
E) deputy director of the OMB.
Q3) What tools does the Fed use to implement its monetary policy?
Q4) Keynesianism argues that lower taxes will provide incentives for people to work, save, and invest.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Discuss the procedures for Congress in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
Page 20
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Chapter 19: Foreign and Military Policy
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Q1) The U.S. response to the placement of Soviet offensive missiles in Cuba is an example of client politics.
A)True B)False
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) Alexis de Tocqueville suggested that the proper conduct of foreign affairs requires
A) an equal balance of majoritarian, client, and interest group politics.
B) power that is shared among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
C) sensitivity to culture and the courage to act forcefully.
D) precisely those qualities most lacking in democratic nations.
E) unmitigated allegiance and a stoic disposition.
Q4) Identify and discuss the four worldviews discussed in this chapter.
Q5) What are some examples of the majoritarian component of foreign policy?
Q6) Discuss Tocqueville's opinion of conducting foreign policy in a democracy.
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Chapter 20: American Democracy, Then and Now
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Sample Questions
Q1) The interstate highway system was built during the administration of Dwight Eisenhower.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Relaxed constraints on federal action means all of the following EXCEPT
A) a citizen can use the federal courts to alter state policy.
B) people began demanding federal policies regarding civil rights and consumer safety.
C) the number of interest groups has decreased.
D) political resources have become more widely distributed.
E) All of the above are True.
Q3) One perhaps ironic result of an activist government is
A) an increase in public trust of government.
B) a decline in interest group activity.
C) a decline in voter turnout.
D) an increase in party-related activity.
E) an increase in the role of courts.
Q4) Discuss the restraints on the growth of government that existed until the mid-1930s.
Q5) Describe some of the primary features of the New System of American politics.
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