AP Government Unit 5 Practice Questions

Which of the following quotes from the Federalist Papers best supports the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)?

"Liberty is to faction what air is to fire. . . . But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."

Which of the following scenarios best represents an example of straight ticket voting?

A citizen casts votes for all Republicans based solely on the candidates' affiliation with the Republican Party.

Which of the following represents a consequence of candidate-centered electoral campaigns?

A decrease in the role of political parties in campaign management

Voter Registration Rates by Race (%), 1965 and 2004 Which of the following is the most likely result of the changes in voter registration rates illustrated in the table?

An increase in the number of African American members of Congress from Georgia

Which of the following is an accurate comparison between the relative functions and electoral success of the two major political parties (Democratic and Republican) and third parties?

B Major Parties: The rules of the electoral college favor the major-party candidates in presidential elections. Third Party: Winner-take-all voting districts hinder the electoral success of third-party candidates.

Voter Registration Rates by Race (%), 1965 and 2004 Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the table?

Barriers to registration existed in all of the states in the table but were most significant in Mississippi.

Source: NBC News and Survey Monkey poll, 2016 Based on the data in the bar graph and your knowledge of presidential elections, how should Hillary Clinton's campaign have responded if Jill Stein's support in the polls had increased significantly as Election Day approached?

By adopting positions on issues similar to Stein's in an attempt to win over those voters before the election

Increases in the amount of money spent on national defense and security contracts, such as those that occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would most likely have which of the following consequences?

Defense contractors would increase their lobbying efforts in order to improve their chances of winning a contract.

Which of the following scenarios best represents the model for straight ticket voting?

Despite not recognizing the name, a candidate votes for the Democratic Party candidate because he is a Democrat.

Source: Opensecrets.org, 2014. Which of the following describes a visual limitation of the bar graph?

Even though the bar graph contains data from 1998 to 2014, there is no illustration of how spending is broken down by specific years or elections.

Source: NBC News and Survey Monkey poll, 2016 Which of the following explanations describes the impact of Jill Stein's candidacy on the 2016 election as depicted by the data in the bar graph and your knowledge of presidential elections?

Jill Stein's supporters preferred Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, hurting the Clinton campaign.

Based on the data in the chart, which of the following strategies would best help third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson increase their chances of winning elected office?

Lobbying state legislatures to shift from a winner-take-all system to a proportional voting system

A Pentagon contractor named Daniel Ellsberg stole a report, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers. The report had classified information about the conduct of the war in Vietnam. He gave this report to several major media outlets. The government tried to use prior restraint to prevent the outlets from publishing these excerpts. The Court allowed the media outlets to publish the excerpts in which of the following cases?

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

A popular news website obtains transcripts of confidential discussions in the White House regarding how the National Security Agency should collect private data of citizens. Even though the president urges the website not to publish the story, the website does so anyway because it believes the conversation does not reveal information that poses a risk to national security. Which of the following cases would the news website most likely cite if it had to argue the case that it can publish the story without permission from the president?

New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 Which of the following amendments to the United States Constitution addresses the grievance that a woman is not permitted "to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise"?

Nineteenth Amendment

Which of the following best demonstrates how political parties serve as linkage institutions?

Parties may organize activities to identify supporters, increase registration, and get out the vote.

Which of the following best explains the role of parties in Congress?

Parties organize government by selecting chamber leadership and determining committee membership.

Source: John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel, Party On! Political Parties from Hamilton and Jefferson to Trump, 2017 Which of the following examples best illustrates how the trend in political communications described in the passage will most likely affect campaigns?

Political candidates will seek more data on voters so that their campaigns can create messages designed to attract different demographics.

Which of the following best explains how most candidates are recruited to run for office?

Political parties usually recruit and train people at the local level they believe are most fit to run for office.

A citizen cast her vote for the candidate in a congressional election based on the candidate's promise to reform the health care system. Which voting behavior model best characterizes the citizen's choice?

Prospective voting

Pew Research Center, 2015. Which of the following statements can best be supported by the survey data displayed in the bar graphs?

Republicans with a low level of political efficacy are the most likely group to say that government needs major reforms.

A voter has seen his income increase by 3% over the past four years. He is encouraged that unemployment is down and the price of gas has remained relatively low. On Election Day, by voting for the incumbent presidential candidate, he has engaged in which type of voting?

Retrospective voting

Using social media, individuals are increasingly able to communicate their political views to a wide audience. However, some messages over social media have led to certain individuals being arrested for making credible threats. This issue is most related to which of the following cases?

Schenck v. United States (1919)

For decades, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has worked closely with members of Congress to successfully curtail the capacity of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate firearms and track gun crimes. Which of the following statements best explains how the NRA maintains its influence in Washington?

The National Rifle Association outspends its competitors in all elections and stages of policy making.

Voter Registration Rates by Race (%), 1965 and 2004 Which of the following conclusions is most supported by the data in the chart?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has significantly reduced disparities in voter registration between Whites and African Americans.

Source: NBC News and Survey Monkey poll, 2016 What do the data in the bar graph indicate about how Gary Johnson's candidacy affected the 2016 election?

The data in the bar graph show that since Gary Johnson's supporters were split between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, his candidacy did not have an impact on the outcome of the election.

If voters are acting according to the retrospective model of voting, which of the following will be the most important consideration in their decision?

The effect of recent economic conditions on the voters

Which of the following best explains how political parties use party platforms?

The platform is used to define the party's stance on political issues.

Source: John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel, Party On! Political Parties from Hamilton and Jefferson to Trump, 2017 The new developments in campaigning described in the passage have the greatest impact on which of the following trends?

The rise of candidate-centered campaigns

Based on the data in the chart, which of the following best explains a likely impact of third-party votes in the 2016 election?

The third-party vote in the three states depicted in the chart helped Donald Trump acquire enough electoral votes to win the election.

A political science professor is researching the effects that the Fifteenth and Twenty-Sixth Amendments have had on the American political system. Which of the following is the most likely reason the professor is researching these amendments?

To study the expansion of voting rights

Source: John Kenneth White and Matthew R. Kerbel, Party On! Political Parties from Hamilton and Jefferson to Trump, 2017 Given the evolution of campaign communication described in the passage, which of the following is a way that political candidates most likely would use these tools to reach the broadest possible base of supporters?

Using social media tools to target different demographic and political groups with messages designed to appeal to them

Which of the following scenarios explains how demographic factors affect voter participation in elections?

Wealthier individuals are more likely to become involved in campaigns because they believe that their actions may influence the candidates.

Source: Opensecrets.org, 2014. If one were interested in showing how much certain industries spend on lobbying, the best way to change the visual would be to

categorize the data by industry group and combine the data so that a bar represents each group

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 after running on the Democratic Party platform that included an expansion of federal programs aimed at pulling the United States out of the Great Depression. The expansion plan, known as the New Deal, substantially increased the voting base of the Democratic Party. As a result, the Democratic Party dominated Congress and many state governments for the next half century. The election of 1932 is considered a critical election because it

changed the base of support in each party

The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) led to the creation of super PACs that can legally raise unlimited amounts of money and engage in electioneering with few limits. Madison argued in The Federalist 10 that factions, like super PACs, would not be detrimental to society because the Constitution

created a large republic with many factions that would cancel each other out

Source: Opensecrets.org, 2014. Which of the following features of the data displayed make the use of the bar graph less helpful for a comparison?

The bar showing the spending for the Chamber of Commerce makes comparisons with the other groups more difficult.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and labor unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising. Which of the following was the basis for the Court's ruling?

The freedom of speech in the First Amendment