AP Government Review

During a presidential election, the tendency of journalists to limit coverage of campaign events to coverage of the candidate who leads in the polls at the time is known as

horse race journalism

The Framers guessed that the _______ would reflect public opinion, especially on the crucial issues of taxes and government spending.

house of representatives

In January, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the following way concerning campaign contributions:

It was illegal for corporations to contribute any money to candidates. The government may not restrict corporations from spending money in candidate elections. Campaign finance is not protected by the First Amendment. Corporations are limited to donating $1000 per election to any candidate. None of the above

Separation of power and federalism were two key principles in the framing of the Constitution. These two principles are related in that each

involves a system of checks and balances in which power is dispersed

MOST lobbyists believe that public testimony before congressional committees

is less important than are private one-on-one meetings.

CBS News regularly features stories on health-related issues and prescription drugs because

it has the oldest viewing audience among all network television news programs.

The case of Marbury v Madison (1803) established which principle?

judicial review

Which characteristic of the Constitution most angered Anti-Federalists?

lack of a bill of rights

Lobbyists often have degrees in

law

Which metaphor best describes dual federalism?

layer cake

How likely are voters to participate in state and local elections compared with national elections?

less likely

The most common form of grassroots lobbying involves

letter writing

The principal goal of the American Revolution was

liberty

According to John Locke, the fundamental purpose of government is the protection of

life, liberty, property

Characteristics frequently associated with nonvoters are

low education, low income, and being relatively young.

The power of the people--popular majority rule--was limited by the Constitution in several ways, including

making the amending of the Constitution relatively difficult.

Which metaphor best describes cooperative federalism?

marble cake

In the United States, the vast majority of citizens regard themselves a

middle class

One impact of the Internet on political campaigns is that _________.

more people are making political donations.

Most new registrations for voting are done through

motor voter provisions

The following groups have in general become more Democratic than Republican today:

non whites

Where in the Constitution are political parties discussed?

nowhere in the constitution

According to Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, the proper objective of government is to ensure

order

The term ________ refers to the tendency of journalists to adopt similar viewpoints toward news simply because they hang around together.

pack journalism

The concept of liberty is most closely associated with

personal freedom

Who contributed most to the writing of the Constitution?

Madison

What role do interest groups play in educating policymakers about political issues?

They are an important source of political information

Federalism is a combination of which two ideas?

Unitary government and a confederation

he central issue in the framing of the Constitution was that of

how strong to make the central government.

James Madison, writing in the Federalist papers, suggested that relief from the self-interested advocacy of factions would be provided by:

a democratic republic in which government would mediate among opposing factions.

If the U.S. system of single-member districts with plurality voting were replaced with a system of proportional representation, one possible consequence would be

a movement toward a multiparty system

When did the U.S. Constitution become a source of legitimate authority?

after 1787, gradually

The last major expansion of suffrage in the United States involved the criterion of

age

Most democratic theorists agree that a modern nation-state cannot practice democracy without

at least two political parties regularly contesting elections.

In recent years, rural voters have

become decidedly more Republican

The following have an advantage of being able to use institutional financial resources to support their lobbying and do not need to rely on voluntary contributions.

big individual corporations

Money awarded for broad, general purposes is called a _____ grant.

block

Which of the following is an informal way of amending the Constitution?

changes in social and cultural attitudes that lead to substantive changes in how people interpret the Constitution

The presidential elections of 1860, 1896, 1932, and 1968 are considered _____ elections because those elections marked a sharp change in the existing patterns of party loyalty among groups of voters.

critical

Which of the following concepts became a major objective of government after industrialization and urbanization?

equality

A lobbyist has a better chance of convincing a lawmaker to support or oppose a particular bill if the group the lobbyist represents has a large membership in the lawmaker's district. This makes the following interest group influential in Washington given they have a membership of 40 million:

AARP

The single most important factor leading to the Constitution Convention was

inability of the national or state governments to maintain order under the Articles.

Because the Founders believed they were creating a government of limited powers, they felt it unnecessary to

include a bill of rights

The original Constitution provided that US senators were to be elected by

state legislatures

The New Jersey Plan was a reaction by some states primarily to the fear that

the Virginia plan gave too much power to the populous states.

The basic definition of public opinion is

the collected attitudes of citizens on a given issue or question.

James Madison examined historical data on republics, confederations, and aristocracies to learn about the formation of a government. His conclusions are found in

the federalist papers

If the United States were operating today under the Articles of Confederation, issues like the effect of acid rain on the environment would be handled by

the individual states.

"Enumerated" powers are those given to

the national government

The Antifederalists attacked the proposed Constitution on the grounds that

the national government it created was too strong.

The framers of the Constitution left the issue of voter enfranchisement to

the states

The key to attracting new members to a group through direct mail solicitation is

to concentrate on a carefully targeted audience

The basic premise of federalism is that

two or more governments share power and authority over the same land and people.

Sovereignty is synonymous with

ultimate governing authority

Federalism, or the division of power between a national government and regional units, stands in contrast to

unitary government.

In the eyes of most Americans today, the power of the federal government, compared with that of state governments, seems

vastly powerful

Suffrage and franchise refer to the right to

vote

Compared to Federalists, Antifederalists tended to favor a

weak decentralized government as a protection of liberty.

The primary source of legitimate political authority in the United States is the

will of the people

The primary goal of Federalist, No. 10 was to demonstrate that the new government

would not fall under the dominance of any one faction.

Since the present two-party system was established, how many minor-party candidates have been elected to the presidency?

zero

The complexity of the American federal system encourages

pluralism

The division of authority in the U.S. Constitution among competing branches and levels of government has encouraged the development of

pluralism

Each citizen having one vote demonstrates

political equality

The set of values and beliefs that a person holds about the purpose and scope of government is called

political ideology

The process whereby one becomes aware of politics, learns political facts, and forms political values is called

political socialization

In the current American context, a liberal would tend to

promote economic equality ahead of freedom, and freedom ahead of social order.

In a democracy, the mass media perform the function of

promoting communication between government and citizens

Originally, the Constitutional Convention's purpose was to

revise the Articles of Confederation

Which of the following activities requires the MOST initiative?

running for office

Most politicians and many scholars believe that the media's greatest influence on politics is its ability to

set the political agenda

The _____ Amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

15th

The amendment granting women's suffrage is

19th ammendment

The ____ Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging freedom of the press.

1st

More than ____ percent of the senators and representatives who leave Congress become employed as lobbyists

40

The Great Compromise led to which of the following?

a bicameral legislature

Which of the following expresses a traditional American political ideal?

"all men are created equal"

The following percent of surveyed adults indicated that they learned about the 2008 political campaign from comedy shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or Saturday Night Live.

30%

About ____ percent of all Americans adopt their parents' party.

60

The method for choosing the president was designed to address which of the following concerns?

Distrust of the judgment of the people and the small states' fears that the large states would dominate the selection process

Supporters of the Constitution named themselves

Federalists.

Those who supported the new Constitution were called ______, and those who opposed it were called _______.

Federalists; Antifederalists

The Founding Fathers designed a system of checks and balances for the national government. Which of the following best illustrates that concept? I. Congress overrides a presidential veto II. The Supreme Court declares a law unconstitutional. III. The president issues an executive order reducing the size of the bureaucracy. IV. The House and Senate cannot agree on a Conference Committee report.

I and II

Critics of representative democracy have pointed out all of the following EXCEPT

It is unresponsive to majority opinion.

Who said that to devise a proper government is "to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain free as before?"

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Which of the following statements BEST characterizes the motives of the Framers of the Constitution?

Most framers acted out of loyalty to their state, not out of personal business interests.

How does education affect voter turnout?

Well educated people are more likely to vote than are their less educated counterparts.

Which of the following statements concerning gender and political beliefs is INCORRECT?

Women are more likely to favor going to war.

In the discipline of political science, party identification refers to

a sense of psychological attachment to a party.

Conflict in the practice of America's ideals occurs because these ideals

a. all of the above b. are only one source of political action. c. are general principles, not precise rules. d. conflict somewhat, one with another. e. are all seen as equally important but hard to reach.

Third parties were the original policy advocates for

a. female suffrage. b. the graduated income tax. c. direct election of senators. d. All of these

The idea that each American should be economically self-reliant is most closely associated with the principle of

capitalism

Under separation of powers, the U.S. system keeps power among branches balanced by enabling one branch to counter the actions of another by the use of

checks and balances

The framers of the Constitution intended _______ to be the strongest branch(es) of government.

congress

The rise of television as a source of political information has

contributed little to citizen's knowledge of public affairs.

Close to nine out of every ten dollars that unions give goes to

democrats

Private ownership of the media in the United States makes the American news industry

dependent on advertising revenues.

Compared to citizens in other nations, Americans

do not value order very much

A libertarian is most likely to exhibit the characteristics of

high income and high education.

Generally, the first agent of political socialization that people are exposed to is

family

The major agents of early socialization in the United States are

family, school, community, and peers.

The Founding Fathers had successfully rebelled against a unitary form of government. They had tried a confederation which was not working. Thus they developed a _______ form of

federal

If James Madison were alive today and heard of demands to make American government more libertarian by decentralizing its power, he would probably

flatly disagree

A state must honor the public acts and records of any other state under the

full faith and credit clause

George Washington, generally considered sympathetic to the Federalist Party, felt that political factions

had negative effects on democracy

With regard to PAC contributions and congressional votes, political scientists

have not been able to document any consistent link between the two.

The power of Congress to enact laws by which the national government assumes complete or partial responsibility for a state government function is known as:

preemption.

A direct primary is a

preliminary election to choose party candidates.

The political knowledge of many young adults changes from high school to college if the college student's education includes

questioning established values

The accuracy of the population sample used for public opinion polls depends on

randomness of selection, size of sample, and variation in the population.

In states with caucuses__________________.

supporters of candidates attend a series of open meetings to express presidential preferences.

If a state's drinking laws allowed eighteen-year-olds to drink alcoholic beverages in violation of the federal government's age requirement of twenty-one, the federal government's age restriction would supersede the state's law based upon the

supremacy clause

The notion that when state and federal laws conflict, the national laws will prevail is the

supremacy clause.

An example of a concurrent power is

tax

The _____ is not a national political party because it does not nominate its own candidates.

tea party

When elections are competitive, or close, voter turnout

tends in increase

For the United States, the core substantive principles of democracy are embedded in

the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the Constitution.

A shift away from dual federalism and toward cooperative federalism was a response to the problems associated with

the Great Depression

Larger states benefited most under what plan?

the virginia plan

Public opinion polls can be criticized on the grounds that

the way a pollster words a question can determine the answer.