ap gov test

Federalism is

A system in which power is divided between the national and state governments

The Framers adopted a federal system for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

Americans had weak allegiance to their states.

The President can do which of the following with out seeking the consent of either the House or the Senate? a. Appoint ambassadors

Deploy troops.

In the Constitution as originally ratified in 1788, the provisions regarding which of the following most closely approximate popular, majoritarian democracy?

Election of members of the House of Representatives

Which of the following accurately characterizes the main difference between elite theories and pluralist theories of politics in the United States?

Elite theories argue that a single minority dominates politics in all policy areas; pluralist theories argue that many minorities compete for power in different policy areas.

Which of the following statements accurately describe the system of check and balances? I. The system of checks and balances prevents the rule of the majority, because one institution cannot gain total power over the others. II. The power to veto bills allows the president to check Congress. III. The system of checks and balances grew out of a long political tradition but is not defined by the Constitution. IV. Congress checks the power of the judicial branch by nominating justices.

I and II only

in which of the following ways does the constitution protect the rights of individuals?

It prevents Congress from passing bills of attainder.

Which of the following is true about divided party control of the presidency and Congress?

It reflects a frequent election pattern over the past three decades.

the principle of the supremacy of federal law over state law was affirmed in

McCulloch v. Maryland.

Which of the following provisions of the Constitution best supports the elitist theory of representative democracy?

Members of the judicial branch are not elected by citizens.

The expansion of the right to vote through various amendments best supports which of the following models of representative democracy?

Participatory democracy

Which of the following statements reflects a pluralist theory of American politics?

Public policies emerge from compromises reached among competing groups

Which of the following actions by the federal government best illustrates the concept of unfunded mandates?

Requiring states and municipalities to provide certain services for their citizens without providing resources to pay for those services

In McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court established which of the following principles?

States cannot interfere with or tax the legitimate activities of the federal government.

The Tenth Amendment most often comes into conflict with which section of the Constitution?

The "necessary and proper" clause

Which of the following is true under the system of checks and balances?

The Senate must ratify treaties negotiated by the President before they become law.

Of the following, which has been used most to expand the power of the national government?

The commerce clause of the Constitution

The procedure for formally amending the United States Constitution best illustrates which of teh following?

The federal structure of the United States

The procedure for formally amending the United States Constitution best illustrates which of the following?

The federal structure of the United States

Which of the following is an example of checks and balances, as established by the Constitution?

The requirement that presidential appointments to the Supreme Court be approved by the Senate

Which of the following statements would best support the assertion that the United States is a participatory democracy?

Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the right to vote was expanded to more citizens in the United States.

Which one is NOT a presidential role authorized by the Constitution?

To lead the political party of the President

In which of the following scenarios would a presidential veto most likely be upheld?

Two-thirds of the representatives and senators are members of the same party as the president.

The United States has increasingly relied on the national government to solve problems primarily because:

a problem or policy often requires the authority and resources of the national government.

All of the following are consequences of the federal system in the United States EXCEPT

a strict division of power among levels of government

The Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution

after the ratification process was complete, and partly to fulfill a promise to those who supported ratification

The practical effect of the necessary and proper clause has been

allow the national government to extend its powers beyond those enumerated in the Constitution

Shays' Rebellion was

an uprising by farmers to prevent judges from foreclosing on farms.

in The Federalist papers, James Madison expressed the view that political factions

are undesirable but inevitable in a free nation

The legislative process at the national level reflects the intent of the framers of the Constitution to create a legislature that would

be cautious and deliberate

States and localities have the most discretion in establishing policy when federal funding is derived from

block grants

The Supreme Court in Marbury v. Madison (1803) asserted the power of the Court to

check the actions of the other branches through judicial review

The Madisonian requirement that each branch of government acquire the consent of the others for many of its actions created a system of

checks and balances.

informal changes to the Constitution have come about as a result of all of the following EXCEPT

constitutional amendments

Informal changes to the Constitution have come about as a result of all of the following EXCEPT

constitutional amendments.

The federal system

decentralizes our politics.

In Marbury v. Madison (1803), the Supreme Court assumed the power to

decide whether internal congressional procedures are constitutional

in a federal system of government, political power is primarily

divided between the central government and regional governments

The "wall of separation" doctrine refers to the

division of church and state

Which of the following principles protects, a citizen from imprisonment without trial?

due process

Cooperative federalism includes each of the following EXCEPT

federal funding with no strings attached.

the terms "fiscal federalism" and "cooperative federalism" refer to situations in which

federal, state, and local governments work together to complete a project, with the federal government providing much of the project funding

The Congress shall have the power ... to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by the Constitution in the government of the United States, or any department or officer thereof." Intepretations of this clause have been central to attempts to define the nature of which of the following aspects of the United States political system?

federalism

A consequence of separation of powers and checks and balances has been

fragmented policymaking processes.

A birth certificate issued in one state is valid in all states under the constitutional provision of

full faith and credit.

The Framers adopted the Three-Fifths Compromise in order to

garner support from Southern delegates at the Constitutional Convention.

Federal policies to regulate food and drugs are examples of:

implied powers

Congress would be required to use the "elastic clause" of the Constitution to

impose workplace safety standards

As originally ratified, the United States Constitution included provisions designed to

increase the economic powers of the central government

The importance of Shays' Rebellion to the development of the United States Constitution was that it

indicated that a strong, constitutionally designed national government was needed to protect property and maintain order

The author of Brutus No. 1 wrote that a "that a free republic cannot succeed over a country of such immense extent." This quote argues that the United States

is too large to govern as a single entity.

Anti-Federalists argued against adoption of the Constitution for all the following reasons EXCEPT

it failed to centralize power

All of these are advantages of federalism EXCEPT:

it reduces the amount of experimentation on public policy

All of the following are specifically mentioned in the Constitution EXCEPT

judicial review

Madison believed that in order to prevent a "tyranny of the majority" the new government should include all the following EXCEPT

limiting the president's term of office

Pluralist theory contends that in the United States

many groups vie for power with no one set of groups dominating.

In The Federalist No. 10, James Madison argued that factions in a republic are

natural but controllable by institutions

The reserved powers of the state governments can best be described as those powers

not specifically granted to the national government or denied to the states

the government designed at the Constitutional Convention allowed the voters to directly elect

only the House of Representatives.

One way Congress can respond to a Supreme Court ruling that declares a law unconstitutional is to

pass new legislation that addresses the issues raised by the Court

The framers of the Constitution all believed that one of the primary functions of government is

protecting individual property rights

The Connecticut Compromise at the Constitutional Convention

resolved the impasse over the issue of representation in Congress.

Federal mandates impose burdens upon:

state and local governments.

The primary intent of the Tenth Amendment is that

states have certain powers that are reserved for them.

A constitutional amendment would be required to ban flag burning because that activity is currently protected by the right to

symbolic free speech

On the issue of slavery, the Constitution specified

that three-fifths of the slaves would count for population in determining the number of House seats to which each state would be entitled.

In 2001, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, which President George W. Bush signed. This act required states to administer regular standardized exams to students starting in the third grade. States that refused to do this would not receive federal education funds. This is an example of

the national government using the grant process to influence state behavio

Which of the following is one of the central concerns of the First Amendment?

the right of citizens to petition the government for redress of grievances

Under the Articles of Confederation, most governmental power rested in

the state governments.

Political parties are an important example of the

unwritten constitution.

All of the following issues were decided at the Constitutional Convention EXCEPT

voting qualifications of the electorate

the new Republican majority in Congress in the 1990s preferred block grants to categorical grants because it:

wanted the federal government to exercise less authority over the states.