Introduction to American Government Pre-Test Questions
Course Introduction
Introduction to American Government offers students a comprehensive overview of the structures, principles, and processes that define the political system of the United States. The course examines foundational concepts such as the Constitution, federalism, civil rights and liberties, and the roles of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Students will explore the development of political institutions, the influence of public opinion and interest groups, and the functioning of elections and policymaking. Through critical analysis, the course encourages an understanding of how government decisions impact society and the challenges faced in contemporary American politics.
Recommended Textbook
American Government Stories of a Nation 1st Edition Scott F. Abernathy
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Page 2
Chapter 1: American Political Stories
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Sample Questions
Q1) The first permanent settlement in North America was at ______.
A)Plymouth
B)Philadelphia
C)New York
D)Jamestown
Answer: D
Q2) Thomas Paine challenged the legitimacy of the British monarchy and refuted arguments in favor of reconciling England and the Colonies by calling King George a ______.
A)"royal brute"
B)"royal fool"
C) "royal usurper"
D)"royal imitator"
Answer: A
Q3) Thomas Paine was the founder of the Sons of Liberty.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 2: The Constitution of the United States
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Q1) Madison's immediate concern in the spring of 1786 was preparing for the convention in
A)Annapolis.
B)Philadelphia.
C)Boston.
D)Baltimore.
Answer: A
Q2) According to Madison, only through a ______ could factions be prevented from organizing.
A)democratic government
B)tyrannical government
C)constitutional republic
D)authoritarian monarchy
Answer: B
Q3) Federalists called for
A)supporting the new Constitution and a strong national government.
B)including a Bill of Rights and a strong state government.
C)strong restrictions on branches of government.
D)controls against the tyranny of the minority.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) Dual federalism
A)evenly divided the people's sovereignty between the nation and the states
B)focused the people's sovereignty entirely on the states
C)placed the sovereignty of the people primarily on the national government
D)was designed to placate the demands of the federalists and antifederalists alike
Answer: A
Q2) In order to operate, local governments get their power from the ______.
Answer: state, states
Q3) Following the Civil War, the Supreme Court emerged as a defender of African American Civil Rights.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) During the entire decade of the 1930s, America's heartland experienced
A)a period of agricultural prosperity.
B)the worst drought in American history.
C)social and political unrest.
D)transition from agriculture to industrialism.
Answer: B
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Chapter 4: Civil Liberties
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Sample Questions
Q1) The case through which Fourth Amendment protections were incorporated to the states was
A)Mapp v. Ohio.
B)Georgia v. Randolph.
C)Illinois v. Gates.
D)Katz v. United States.
Q2) The period of the 1950s in which fears of Communist Party infiltration of the United States government resulted in investigations and accusations from Hollywood to Washington, DC, was called the ______.
Q3) The current test for the restriction of political speech or action is
A)posing a clear and present danger.
B)promoting or inciting immanent lawless action.
C)threatening the dignity of the political process.
D)calling for the overthrow government institutions.
Q4) According to Edward Snowden, the NSA collects personal data on practically every U.S.citizen.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Civil liberties are often called ______ because they restrict the actions of the government.
6
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Chapter 5: Securing Civil Rights
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Q1) By 1970, slightly more than ______ of African American children in the South were attending integrated schools.
A)3%
B)10%
C)50%
D)80%
Q2) The main worry of Thurgood Marshall and his team was that the Court would find
A)segregation had taken place without discrimination
B)black schools were unequal to white schools but not segregated
C)the schools in question were racially segregated but not seriously
D)no segregation or discrimination had taken place in the schools
Q3) Unlike civil liberties, civil rights require
A)positive action.
B)negative action.
C)positive accountability.
D)negative accountability.
Q4) Describe and analyze the problem of "intersectionality" with regard to the rise of multiracial identification in recent census surveys.
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Chapter 6: Political Participation
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Sample Questions
Q1) On what basis did Anthony Downs consider the decision not to vote a "rational one"?
A)financial cost and physical effort
B)time commitment and intellectual effort
C)intellectual effort and financial cost
D)physical effort and time commitment
Q2) According to recent data, which of the following countries has the highest percentage of respondents who reported they participated in a political campaign?
A)Poland
B)Spain
C)the United Kingdom
D)the United States
Q3) In a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers ______.
A)advocated for carrying guns on college campuses
B)challenged the effectiveness of self-defense gun use
C)advocated for open-carry gun use in public buildings
D)found that self-defense gun use is an effective deterrent to crime
Q4) Institutional voting factors usually act as barriers to voting.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 7: Public Opinion
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Q1) For the majority of questions of public policy with which elected officials will have to contend, elections are too ______ to reveal useful information.
A)narrow in scope
B)focused on candidates
C)broad a tool
D)focused on voter preferences
Q2) This chapter focused on American public opinion in which of the following specific areas?
A)successful election of ethnic minorities in governmental situations
B)treatment of young African American men by law enforcement officials
C)educational pursuits of young men and women on college campuses
D)public reaction to large social movements such as Black Lives Matter
Q3) On August 9, 2015, demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, rallied to the slogan
A)"Hands up, don't shoot."
B)"Black lives matter."
C)"All lives matter."
D)"Police brutality."
Q4) How does the story of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, demonstrate the need for and value of information?
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Chapter 8: The Media
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following technologies first allowed the instantaneous transmission of news over long distances in the mid to late 19th century?
A)the telegraph
B)the telephone
C)the Internet
D)the Pony Express
Q2) A major limiting factor of early newspaper readership was the
A)overall lack of literacy.
B)public disinterest in political information.
C)cost of a yearly subscription.
D)intense amount of competing media.
Q3) The collective group of news providers that people increasingly depend upon is called
A)mass media.
B)social media.
C)news media.
D)radical media.
Q4) What challenges do new media communications technologies pose to the ability of the federal government to regulate traditional and nontraditional media?
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Chapter 9: Political Parties
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Q1) In terms of drama, 2016 was different because many of the major candidates were seen as too extreme to pose a legitimate threat to the political establishment.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The inability to compromise and enact legislation driven by sharp polarization is known as
A)gridlock.
B)polarization.
C)partisanship.
D)front-loading.
Q3) Many Republicans blasted Donald Trump's promises to cut deals in order to benefit the U.S.economy as contradicting their philosophy of A)conservatism.
B)elitist leadership.
C)constitutionalism.
D)limited government.
Q4) What do you see as the future of third parties in the American political system?
Q5) The third-party system saw the issue of ______ as its most important cause for realignment.
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Chapter 10: Campaigns and Elections Multiple Choice
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Q1) Before declaring him/herself as a candidate for party nomination, most potential candidates form a(n)______.
Q2) Two challenges faced by Senators Cruz and Rubio as they reached out to Latina and Latino voters were their
A)identity as "Hispanics" and the diversity of their viewpoints. B)ethnic roots and their ability to connect with other Hispanics.
C)Cuban American heritage and their connection with Mexican Americans. D)misidentification as truly "Hispanic" and their lack of connection with the Cuban American community.
Q3) Latino and Latina voters express connections to their common Hispanic heritage rather than their individual nations of origin.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In the 2016 elections, approximately ______ million Latinos and Latinas will be eligible voters.
A)12
B)18
C)27
D)35
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Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Q1) Alexis de Tocqueville was struck by Americans' passion for A)direct democracy.
B)republican ideals.
C)joining groups.
D)rugged individualism.
Q2) In evaluating the membership of groups, most of the evidence points to
A)the declining influence of elitist memberships and increased democratization.
B)an increasing movement toward balanced membership within the groups.
C)rising influence of minority groups, particularly Hispanics and African Americans.
D)a continued overrepresentation by the elite, powerful, and wealthy.
Q3) What is a collective action? How do interest groups overcome the major challenges that collective action problems pose?
Q4) Members of interest groups and social movements often resort to ______ to achieve their goals.
A)membership dues
B)recruitment efforts
C)GOTV activities
D)different tactics
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Chapter 12: Congress
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Q1) While the Constitution did not prohibit women from holding office, most of the states did.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How does the structure of Congress demonstrate the intended differences that the framers devised in separating between the House and the Senate?
Q3) The most important power of Congress is its
A)representative responsibility.
B)governance and organization.
C)oversight power.
D)legislative authority.
Q4) Which of the following presidents have faced successful House resolutions of impeachment?
A)John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison
B)William Henry Harrison and Richard M. Nixon
C)Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton
D)Andrew Jackson and Warren G. Harding
Q5) What obstacles do first-time candidates for Congress face? How can they overcome those obstacles?
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Chapter 13: The American Presidency
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Q1) Which of the following general powers were placed in the hands of the president?
A)expressed, implied, and delegated
B)legislative, executive, and judicial
C)lawmaking, law enforcement, and legal interpretation
D)policymaking, policy implementation, and policy enforcement
Q2) Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were greatly divided as to whether the new government should be more powerful than that under the Articles of Confederation.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When a president issues a policy directive to the executive branch bureaucracy, it is called an executive ______.
A)confidentiality
B)agreement
C)privilege
D)order
Q4) In his two years in office, Thomas Jefferson vetoed hundreds of bills.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The ______ remains the bloodiest and costliest conflict in the nation's history.
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Chapter 14: The Federal Bureaucracy
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Q1) Shifting control over the provision of certain governmental functions from the federal bureaucracy to the private sector is defined as
A)privatization.
B)devolution.
C)industrialization.
D)retrenchment.
Q2) Unlike Congress, the president, and the Supreme Court, the federal bureaucracy differs in that it ______.
A)lacks the powers vested in the three branches of government.
B)is more complicated and less effective.
C)is not considered a part of American government.
D)has a more direct impact on American lives.
Q3) In addition to the federal bureaucracy, an additional category of public bureaucracies exists through
A)state and local bureaucracies.
B)legislative acts of Congress.
C)presidential executive orders.
D)judicial review and oversight.
Q4) Define bureaucracy and describe its defining characteristics.
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Chapter 15: The Federal Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) Actions determined to harm the community itself, such as committing an act of violence against another person, are considered the jurisdiction of A)civil law.
B)Constitutional law.
C)criminal law.
D)appellate law.
Q2) A judicial decision that guides future courts in handling similar cases is known as A)precedent.
B)jurisdiction.
C)mandamus.
D)corpus juris.
Q3) What does the Constitution say about the structure and the power of the federal judiciary? What does it leave out?
Q4) Marbury v.Madison (1803)was the Supreme Court decision that established A)judicial review over federal laws.
B)the U.S. district court system.
C)the authority of U.S. courts of appeal.
D)the supremacy of U.S. laws over state laws.
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Chapter 16: The Politics of Promoting the General Welfare
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Q1) The first step in the stages of policy making is
A)setting the political agenda.
B)policy formation and adoption.
C)problem definition.
D)budgeting and implementation.
Q2) Under the old system of dual federalism, social welfare policies were thought to lie within the scope of the police powers of the state and, therefore, mostly under state control and administration.
A)True
B)False
Q3) According to John Chubb and Terry Moe, in their critique entitled Politics, Markets, and America's School (1990), the failures of American public education are rooted in
A)an inefficient bureaucratic organization.
B)the unintended consequences of bad laws.
C)the failure of school districts and administrators to implement new policies.
D)the overall failure of the policy-making process with regard to public education.
Q4) In 1965, the FHA was folded into the Department of ______.
Q5) Policy experts call counties without adequate access to supermarkets "______."
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Chapter 17: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Except for a time during the Civil War under President Abraham Lincoln's administration, individual incomes
A)have always been taxed.
B)were not measured.
C)were taxed at a flat rate.
D)were not taxed until 1913.
Q2) Fearing a backlash against his administration's continuing bailout of Wall Street in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008, President Obama was force to adopt
A)a more populist tone.
B)more conservative fiscal policies.
C)policies that decreased taxes.
D)social welfare programs.
Q3) Under the monetarist theory, a policy of "easy money" will inevitably lead to increases in the consumer price index.
A)True
B)False
Q4) If the federal government takes in more money than it spends, it runs a ______.
Q5) When the federal government takes in less money than it spends, it runs a ______.
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Chapter 18: Foreign Policy
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Q1) Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration adopted a policy of preemptive war in order to prevent future terrorist attacks.What do you see as the justification for as well as major challenges and controversies that might arise from a national defense strategy of preemptive war?
Q2) For the more than the first century of America's history, its pattern of global involvement was defined by
A)global economic involvement but a lack of military action with wars and conflicts outside of the Western Hemisphere.
B)little economic involvement but an expansion of military action in wars and conflicts outside of the Western Hemisphere.
C)economic involvement only in the Western Hemisphere and no military involvement in Europe or areas outside of the Western Hemisphere.
D)global economic and military involvement with wars and conflicts outside of the Western Hemisphere.
Q3) Should the United States maintain a policy of economic protectionism, or should it continue to make international economic agreements and treaties such as NAFTA and the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership)?
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