True False
When the president announces a decision to use executive orders to require government contractors to increase the minimum wage they pay their employees, it's an example of the use of executive orders to enact public policy.
T
To be eligible to serve in the U.S. Senate and individual must be 30 years old, a citizen for at least 9 years, and a resident of the state in which they were elected.
T
To win a presidential election, a candidate must win a majority of the Electoral College vote.
T
Under the "three-fifths compromise" three-fifths of all slaves were counted towards determining representation in Congress.
T
When a numerical majority of a group holds the power to make decisions binding on the whole group, the decision making process is by majority rule.
T
Functionally, government serves society as a distributor of goods and services.
F
If Sam believes the government should have few regulations of moral or economic behavior, his political ideology is most likely to be communitarian.
F
If a bill has been given a closed rule in the House of Representatives, only the party leadership may offer amendments to the bill from the House floor.
F
If a unanimous consent agreement cannot be negotiated on a bill in the Senate, the Vice-President is authorized to establish the length of debate and whether or not amendments can be offered to the bill on the Senate floor.
F
If two-thirds of Congress approves a Constitutional amendment, two-thirds of the states must also ratify it.
F
In Federalist #10 James Madison wrote that the fundamental cause of faction is tyranny.
F
According to John Locke, property rights did not exist until governments granted them to individuals.
F
After the Constitution was ratified, the hardening of various factions into two distinct parties was, in large part, due to the political and personal differences between George Washington and Patrick Henry.
F
Article IV of the Constitution grants the Secretary of State the power to admit new states into the union.
F
Campaigns & elections serve the democratic process by disguising the policy, ideological, and personality differences between various candidates running for office.
F
Cicero was the first person in Western political thought to classify systems of government.
F
Committee chairs have very little power over which legislation will be reported out of their
F
Compulsory voting laws and weekend voting have both been cited as reasons other democracies have lower voter turnout than the United States.
F
In Federalist #51 James Madison described a "compound republic" as a government in which the legislative, executive, and judicial powers were consolidated under on institution - the judiciary.
F
In a city manager system of municipal (city) government the mayor directly manages the day-to-day operations of city government.
F
Self-government anticipates each individual governing their neighbor.
F
The Constitution grants federal judges 20-year terms of office.
F
The Constitution makes it easier to create public policy.
F
The Constitution names the Secretary of Defense as the "Commander-in-Chief" of the U.S. military forces.
F
The Declaration asserts that a government's "just powers" are derived from the will of the sovereign.
F
The commerce clause authorizes state governments to determine the regulations over interstate commerce.
F
The invisible primary favors political newcomers.
F
The primary difference between state governments and the national government is the election of state legislators.
F
The principal author of the Declaration of Independence was George Washington.
F
The reason the Democrat and Republican Parties have remained dominant for so long is that they have consistently ignored new issues and have insisted on being ideologically consistent.
F
The term of office for a member of the U.S. Senate is 4 years.
F
The two goals of a political party are to create a party platform and to identify potential political candidates.
F
There are currently 535 members of the House of Representatives.
F
To win a presidential election an candidate must win a majority of the national popular vote.
F
To win an election in the U.S., a candidate must always gain a majority of votes - not just win more votes than her opponents.
F
Under the Articles of Confederation, the U.S. had a unitary system of national government.
F
Under the Constitution, states have very little authority to establish their own laws governing elections within their states.
F
When the House and Senate pass different bills on the same topic they are usually sent to the Attorney General who will reconcile the differences before submitting the legislation to the President for signature.
F
When the writers of the Declaration of Independence stated that the people are "endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights...", they were establishing the idea that Religion and government are inseparable.
F
While most local governments have three distinct and clearly identifiable branches of government, few have some sort of executive.
F
While the president is authorized by the Constitution to issue line-item vetoes, most governors do not have this power over state legislation.
F
The writers of the Declaration of Independence asserted that individual rights are "unalienable."
T
A campaign manager is the individual within a campaign organization responsible for ensuring that the day-to-day operations of the campaign are carried out successfully.
T
A recall election allows citizens to remove an elected official from office prior to the expiration of that official's term.
T
According to the Declaration of Independence, "free and independent states" were entitled to levy war, make alliance, and establish commerce.
T
According to the writers of the Declaration of Independence, governments are created to secure individual rights.
T
An initiative petition allows citizens to place proposed laws directly on the ballot if they get enough voters in their state to sign a petition requesting it.
T
Battleground states are states that major-party presidential candidates believe they can win and in which both candidates spend time and resources in attempting to win.
T
In Federalist #51 James Madison wrote that the legislative branch needed to be divided into two chambers so it wouldn't completely dominate the other two branches of government.
T
Individualism, capitalism, and egalitarianism are all concepts important to American political culture.
T
Oklahoma's executive branch would be described as a divided ("weak") executive.
T
Political parties fill an essential need in the U.S. political system by shaping the choices that voters face in elections.
T
Political parties formed around a powerful personality rarely survive after the personality they formed around leaves the political stage.
T
Presidential prediction models have been created by political scientists in an attempt to yield specific estimates of candidate vote shares in presidential elections and are used to provide a general understanding of who wins and why.
T
Prior to the passage of the 17th Amendment, U.S. Senators were appointed by each state's legislature. The 17th Amendment authorized the election of senators by the people of each state.
T
Superdelegates are a delegates to the national nominating convention by virtue of their position in government and are free to support the presidential nominee of their choice.
T
The Democratic-Republican Party won every presidential election from 1800 to 1824, and dominated Congress during that time as well.
T
The Framers of the Constitution expected the House of Representatives to be reflective of the populations within the states.
T
The New Jersey Plan would have given greater influence over the national government to the least populous states.
T
The Rules Committee in determines the length of debate and whether or not amendments may be offered on bills from the floor of the House of Representatives.
T
The U.S. Constitution was designed to protect liberty and to create order.
T
The Virginia Plan would have given greater influence in the national government to the most populous states.
T
The Voting Rights Act was amended in 1982 to specifically prevent redistricting efforts that attempted to prevent the election of racial minorities in Congress.
T
The biggest benefit of a federal system is that it combines the best elements of unitary and confederal systems.
T
The fact that only 5% - 10% of proposed laws are actually passed illustrates the reality that the legislative process is designed to weed out those ideas that do not have broad support rather than to actually pass laws.
T
The median voter theorem states that if voters select candidates on the basis of ideology and everyone participates equally, then, in a two-party race, the party closer to the middle will win.
T
The presidential nominating caucus is less formal and more personal than the primary election system and is used by approximately 30% of the states.
T
The professionalization of political campaigns has contributed to the increasing costs of campaigns and a greater reliance on technology.
T
The purpose of the Declaration of Independence was to explain why the colonies decided to separate from Great Britain.
T
The term of office for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives is 2 years.
T
