AHTG test 1, 2, and quiz questions
Claim: The overarching goal for this course is to help you to take charge of your own learning and to build collaborative learning skills
False
Claim: According to the readings, voting is a virtuous act, not a self-interested one. True False
True
In Israel, the Knesset (the legislature) is made up of members of many different parties. Claim: This means that Israel is much more likely to have a proportional representation system than single-member representative districts. True False
True
In one day, Australia can produce either 18 units of rice or 9 units of cars. In the same amount of time, New Zealand can produce either 15 units of rice or 5 units of cars. Claim: According to the Law of Comparative Advantage, New Zealand should specialize in producing rice. True False
True
In the United States, Democratic candidates' strongest supporters are on the left of the political spectrum, and Republican candidates' strongest supporters are on the right. Claim: Based on the readings' analysis of American politics, when a Democratic Party candidate opposes a Republican Party candidate in an election, both candidates will focus on winning middle-of-the-road voters, and neither candidate will focus on her or his strongest supporters. True False
True
Journalists have to write articles quickly. Professors can take years to deliberate over, and write, a single article. Claim: According to the Founders' views concerning the different characters of the US House and Senate, journalists resemble members of the House of Representatives, and professors resemble Senators. True False
True
Since the 1970's, real income per person has tripled, and the average life has lengthened by 30%, all while population has doubled. Claim: The sharing of ideas among humans has played a key role in making our world more prosperous and more populace at the same time.
True
Starting in 1890, some Southern states effectively denied many blacks from voting by requiring them to pass literacy tests. Claim: This practice violates one of the key principles mentioned in the Declaration of Independence. [As with Question 2, just consider what the Declaration says, not what views people in the 1770s might have had.] True False
True
Suppose that, while campaigning for the presidency, Joe Biden goes out and shoots a deer to show that he knows how to connect with the common man. Claim: This style of politics matches the type of politics that emerged during Andrew Jackson's time as President. True False
True
Suppose the US Congress passes a law that bans coal mining in Utah for one year and that many Utah citizens object to this. Claim: According to the Declaration of Independence, this single Congressional act does not justify Utah seceding from the United States. True False
True
The 14th Amendment says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." Claim: Susan B. Anthony uses this sentence from the 14th Amendment to argue that no state has the right to deny women the vote. True False
True
The Bull Moose Party was not one of the two major parties but won a lot of votes in the 1912 Presidential Election. The Bull Moose Party evaporated soon thereafter and was absorbed into the Republican Party, one of the two major parties. Claim: According to our analysis of the United States political system, this short life of the Bull Moose Party is what we would expect. True False
True
The Declaration of Independence says: "[W]henever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government". Claim: This statement represents one of the principles that John Locke argued for in his Second Treatise on Government. True False
True
Claim: Constitutional structure made civil war in the United States more likely. True False
True
Test 2
*
A series of news stories is published about judges being involved in accidents as a result of driving drunk. Because of public outrage caused by the stories, the legislature passes a law that public servants convicted of drunk driving will be dismissed from their jobs. The judges named in the stories are then dismissed from office. Claim: Among the rule of law principles, this situation most clearly violates Due Process.
False
Article II of the Constitution outlines the qualifications for becoming President of the United States. Claim: All natural born United States citizens who are at least 35 years old are eligible to become President. True False
False
Claim: A Good Society will emerge as long as people can establish a government that protects people from each other
False
Claim: A market system promotes the ideals of the Magna Carta by making it easier for people to pursue happiness while enjoying liberty.
False
Claim: Abraham Lincoln showed virtue by emancipating all slaves on 1863 January 1. True False
False
Claim: According to Elder Oak, the separation of powers is not a divinely inspired Constitutional principle because sometimes one branch of government has inhibited the powers delegated to another branch. True False
False
Claim: According to Ellis, the American republican experiment defeated monarchies of the 19th century but did not defeat despotisms of the 20th century. True False
False
Claim: According to Frederick Jackson Turner, the most important effect of the American frontier was to promote the acquisition of wealth for ordinary Americans. True False
False
Claim: According to Madison in Federalist 51, checks and balances are the primary control on government. True False
False
Claim: According to Thomas Paine, while one honest man brings great benefits society, kings as a whole - even those who are ruffians - benefit society more because of their ability to mobilize vast resources to help many people. True False
False
Claim: According to our analysis of the Law of Comparative Advantage, the best volleyball player in history will in fact make a career out of playing volleyball. True False
False
Claim: According to the 12th Amendment, someone who comes in third in the Electoral College balloting cannot be elected President. True False
False
Claim: According to the Richards reading, the colonists' first questioning of slavery arose from its inhumanity. True False
False
Claim: Adam Smith argued that free markets cannot function well unless altruism motivates more strongly than self-interest.
False
Claim: Adam Smith did not argue that individuals should be considered sovereign.
False
Claim: Ben Franklin says that government taxes impose larger burdens on people than their own laziness, pride, and folly.
False
Claim: Colonial landowners turned to slavery in order to avoid having to negotiate with the many free workers who wanted to be hired.
False
Claim: Having shared moral values does not make it easier for societies to escape the Human Predicament.
False
Claim: If the narrator in "I, Pencil" is correct, knowledge of the wonder of the Invisible Hand helps to maintain a well-functioning market system but such knowledge does not help to prevent the erosion of freedom in society. True False
False
Claim: In "Circular to the States", Washington did not refer to God's role in helping the Americans to set up a Good Society. True False
False
Claim: In a market economy in which the Law of Demand and the Law of Supply operate, the number of exchanges is not maximized at the equilibrium price. True False
False
Claim: In a market economy, allowing industries with negative profits to fail hurts economic well-being for society as a whole. True False
False
Claim: In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln called upon his fellow countrymen to strive on to finish the work that they were in, with malice towards none and charity for all. True False
False
Claim: Large markets - Adam Smith would use the term "extensive markets" - reduce exchange by making specialization more complicated and thus rarer. True False
False
Claim: Lincoln's 1860 election victory did not make civil war in the United States more likely. True False
False
Claim: Madison believed that direct election of all leaders would preserve popular sovereignty while checking the excesses of democracy. True False
False
Claim: Of the four Rule of Law principles, taxation without representation most directly violates due process. True False
False
Claim: One reason why the Framers of the Constitution did not want to include a Bill of Rights was that none of the state constitutions had a bill of rights, which implies that the Federal constitution does not need one either. True False
False
Claim: Slaves had shorter life expectancies than Philadelphia residents. True False
False
Claim: Societies cannot use structure to harness self-interest for the common good.
False
Claim: The English did not think that the Glorious Revolution met the requirements of a Founding.
False
Claim: The Federalists opposed creating a national bank because they believed that Constitutional powers should be interpreted narrowly. True False
False
Claim: The Great Compromise divided sovereignty between the people and the national government. True False
False
Claim: The Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison was important because it reaffirmed the judicial review that had been written into the Constitution. True False
False
Claim: The abundance of land in the colonies helped to shift the power away from the lower classes and toward the upper classes.
False
Claim: The following is NOT a reason why some Congressmen in the 1780s wanted the territories in the West to be colonies instead of states: A nation can have too much democracy. True False
False
Claim: The insights gained from studying the American Founding will definitely make one a better citizen.
False
In mid-20th century China, two competing groups arose: the Communists and the Nationalists. After a struggle for power, the Nationalists fled for Taiwan, leaving the Communists in charge. Suppose that Communist rule in China today fits the definition of tyranny, since the rulers do not allow free speech or free elections. Claim: The Human Predicament Cycle predicts that competing groups will be the immediate successors of the Chinese Communists.
False
In the 1780s, the founders discovered that designing effective constitutions was tricky. Claim: One manifestation of this was that state legislatures were too weak. True False
False
In the 1970s, OPEC greatly reduced oil exports, which significantly reduced the quantity of gasoline in the US. Many politicians were alarmed at this reduction because it appeared that the US would run out of gasoline. Claim: The politicians were justified in this concern, due to the Law of Demand. True False
False
In the United States, when someone is found not guilty of an offense in a criminal trial, he or she is almost never retried in a criminal court for the same offense. Claim: This is because of the Sixth Amendment. True False
False
Paris Hilton, a famous model/heiress, was sentenced to jail for driving while intoxicated. A short time into her sentence, Hilton was released for "medical conditions". A judge ordered her back to jail to serve out the remainder of the sentence, claiming that her release was due to her celebrity status. Claim: Among the rule of law principles, this judge was most clearly upholding Publicity.
False
Recall our dating parable from class, involving Fred and Lance. Let's call the young woman Sarah. Suppose that, if Sarah goes out on that date with Fred, Fred will pay for the whole date. Also, suppose that, if they do not go out, he will choose to study economics for three hours. Claim: Fred's opportunity cost of going on the date with Sarah equals the money he spends on the date. True False
False
Suppose that Leo is an American grandfather with 12 grandchildren, all of whom are in their 20s, and that Leo has five siblings. Also, suppose that the following three facts apply to Leo and his family:One of Leo's siblings died as an infant, while Leo has had no grandchildren who died as an infant. Leo and his siblings grew up in a rural area, while just two of Leo's grandchildren grew up in rural areas.Leo was the only one of his siblings to get a high school diploma, while 11 of Leo's grandchildren have high school diplomas.Claim: Exactly two of the three "facts" above fit with a deep change in America as a whole between 1900 and 2000. (Hint: for a fact to "fit", the change in the percentage for the relevant variable between Leo's generation and is grandchildren's generation should go in the same direction as the change in the percentage for the relevant variable for America as a whole between 1900 and 2000.) True False
False
Suppose that the North Koreans manage to overthrow their dictatorship and have a chance to set up a free society. Suppose also that the economy is in shambles. Claim: The people designing a new government for North Korea should first decide the details of the political structure; only after they do that should they focus on what role the economy will play in their new society.
False
Suppose the following: 1) Voting currently happens on Tuesdays; 2) Voting on Saturday would cost governments who run the voting the same as on any other day; and 3) People have lower opportunity costs on Saturdays, mainly because they are less busy. Claim: Moving voting to Saturday will decrease wealth for society. True False
False
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a group of 28 sovereign nations who have come together under a treaty to safeguard the freedom and security of its members. All of NATO's decisions require consensus, which means no opposition by any member. Claim: NATO is not similar in structure to the form of government in the United States under the Articles of Confederation. True False
False
Thomas Jefferson famously wrote in the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men ... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Claim: This was the first time that anyone had expressed in writing that people have a right to life, liberty, and property.
False
"New Immigrants" came to the United States in large numbers from 1905 till 1915. Claim: Most of these "New Immigrants" did not speak English. True False
True
Americans rallied around George Washington, which contributed to the United States winning freedom and working out a successful founding. Claim: Washington's personal virtue contributed more to this happy outcome than did his military and political success. True False
True
Article I of the Constitution outlines the procedure for a bill to become a law. (The Constitution uses the word "returns" for "vetoes".) Claim: According to Article I, if the President neither signs nor vetoes a bill, it can still become a law. True False
True
Claim: "Self-sufficiency" is another word for "poverty".
True
Claim: A church that consists of people who have promised to bear one another's burdens and to strive to do God's will resembles the Plymouth settlement more than the Jamestown settlement.
True
Claim: According to Crevecouer, America offered more chances for people to pursue their righteous goals, and thus established liberty to a greater degree, than did Europe
True
Claim: According to Lockean liberty, governments have a single purpose: to protect citizens' natural rights.
True
Claim: According to our reading, the Good Society that Winthrop envisioned, described by the phrase "city upon a hill", helped motivate the Founders to strive to write a constitution and helps us to understand subsequent American participation in various wars around the world.
True
Claim: According to the reading assignment, the development of better contraceptives, more women working outside the home, and urbanization have all contributed to the large decline in the number of births per woman in the United States. True False
True
Claim: According to the textbook, for Lincoln and like-minded people, the Civil War reaffirmed the following two fundamental propositions: 1) equality before the law, and 2) government by the people. True False
True
Claim: According to the textbook, in today's democracy, citizens participate in the governing process through political activity, which contrasts with the democracy of the ancient world, in which citizens participated in the daily business of government. True False
True
Claim: All of the following illustrate mercantilist tendencies: Vietnam places a tariff on automobile imports. Congress passes a law prohibiting Ford, an American-based company, from opening up new automobile factories overseas. The United Kingdom government gives certain firms funding that they can use to invest in opportunities to sell their goods overseas.
True
Claim: Both of the following match what we predict would happen based on the readings' analysis of American politics: 1) During the 2012 Presidential campaign, Barack Obama said that Mitt Romney had locked himself into "extreme positions" on the economy and social issues; 2) Howard Kurtz of CNN lamented the trivial nature of the 2012 Presidential campaign, with its focus on things like Mitt Romney's dog, Big Bird, Etch-a-sketch, and Ann Romney's horse. True False
True
Claim: Deep change has caused the size of government to expand at a faster rate than the expansion of the economy as a whole. True False
True
Claim: Each of the following is a reason why the Anti-Federalists opposed the Constitution: 1) The "extended republic" would actually become an empire. 2) The Constitution gave too much power to Congress. 3) The Constitution lacked a Bill of Rights. True False
True
Claim: Elder Oaks believes that those who advocate for religious freedom and those who advocate for nondiscrimination can unite and create laws that do both. True False
True
Claim: In the United States political system, third parties have virtually no chance of winning the Presidential election but have changed the outcome of Presidential elections. True False
True
Claim: Madison's studies led him to conclude that a state-based confederation could not fulfill the full promise of the American Revolution. True False
True
Claim: Money is one of the most important inventions in history because money expands the scope of exchange.
True
Claim: One way that slavery supporters sought to justify it was by arguing that poor working classes in Great Britain were more miserable and degraded than American slaves. True False
True
Claim: Plato's four virtues of courage, wisdom, temperance, and justice generally applied to the delegates to the Constitutional Convention. True False
True
Claim: The "republican problem" refers to the difficult task of designing government by the people that preserves liberty without incurring the problems inherent in such government. True False
True
Claim: The Cherokee removal treaty violated both an 1832 Supreme Court decision and Cherokee law. True False
True
Claim: The Virginia Colony legislature, called the House of Burgesses, contributed to liberty in Virginia.
True
Claim: The colonists knew that they wanted liberty from British tyranny, but, even in the midst of the Revolution, they had also considered broader meanings for the word "liberty". True False
True
Claim: The compromise on slavery at the Constitutional Convention did not call for the abolition of the slave trade. True False
True
Claim: The textbook and the class write-up list each of the following as causes of increased life spans (longevity) in the United States since 1800: higher incomes, better sanitation, better health care, and cleaner water. True False
True
Claim: Three of the reasons why the Americans won the Revolutionary War, despite being huge underdogs, were: they had home field advantage, geography worked in their favor, and they had a deep commitment to independence. True False
True
Claim: Two of the key principles that the Declaration of Independence argues for are equality of all and individual rights for all. [Just consider what the Declaration says, not what views of people in the 1770s might have had.] True False
True
Claim: We are richer than Louis XVI because we have millions of people working to supply our goods, while he only had a few hundred or, at most, a few thousand.
True
Claim: We rarely see milk shortages or surpluses at retail stores in our market economy because the interaction of supply and demand keeps the milk price close to its equilibrium. True False
True
Claim: What has happened since the Arab Spring 10 years ago shows that the Human Predicament Cycle continues to frustrate attempts to establish good societies.
True
Ellis describes two different interpretations of the Revolution. Claim: The Hamiltonian interpretation depicts the Revolution as a collectivistic and national movement. True False
True
Suppose that John gets a personal revelation that he interprets to mean that God has chosen him to be saved and that he should enter a monastery and cultivate his own personal purity the rest of his life. Claim: This illustrates neither the Puritan concept of God's Elect nor the Puritan concept of Christian Calling.
True
Suppose that increasing the minimum wage to $20 per hour would reduce wealth and thus harm society. Claim: According to Madison's definition of faction, a group of people united for the purpose of fighting a minimum wage increase to $20 per hour would not be considered a faction. True False
True
When one crab is placed into a bucket, it can easily climb out. When many crabs are placed into a bucket, every time one of them starts climbing the side of the bucket, the other crabs prevent that one crab from escaping. Suppose that crabs represent factions, the number of crabs represents the size of a republic, and escaping from the bucket represents imposing harm on society. Claim: This illustrates how extended republics can keep factions in check. True False
True
Senator X believes that the government should closely regulate financial firms to keep them from exploiting the masses and threatening the economy. Claim: Of the four types of government discussed in Chapter 1 of the text, Senator X's views fit most closely with those of Autocracy.
True/false