Government Exam
What important event occurred three weeks before the Second Continental Congress met?
"The shot heard 'round the world'
The framers relied on the writings of which Enlightenment philosophers as they decided how to best protect economic freedom and rights to property
Adam Smith
Republican ideas can be traced back to which of the following?
Ancient Greece and Rome
The New Jersey Plan was designed to stay closer to which document
Articles of Confederation
The forms of government in which one perosn controls most of the governing decisions is a(n)
Autocracy
The first ten amendments to the constitution are traditionally called the
Bill of Rights
The right to a speedy trail is guaranteed by the
Bill of Rights
What is the main responsibility of the executive branch agencies?
Carrying out Programs assigned by congress
Thomas Jefferson argued in the Declaration of Independence that, if a government disregards the will of the people, the people are free to do which of the following?
Change their government
The petition of Right resulted from a conflict between which two groups?
Charles I and Parliament
Which type of colony enjoyed the most independence from the Crown?
Charter
What principle of american democracy is exemplified when people vote, obey the law, serve on juries, keep informed about current issues
Citizen participation
What principle of American democracy is at work when two opposing groups relax some of their demands in an attempt to reach an agreement
Compromise
Which type of government system did the united states have in its earliest days?
Confederal
which system of government gives the least power to the national government
Confederal
Which of the following was a weakness of the Articles of Confederation
Congress lacked the power to tax
Which of the following is an example of legislative action?
Congress passes a law to create a new government agency
"My political curiosity... leads me to ask, who authored them to speak the language of 'We the people,' instead of 'We, the states?'" - Patrick Henry, June 4, 1788 What document is Patrick Henry talking about in the quote?
Constitution
According to the Three-Fifths Compromise acceptable to the smaller states?
Counted when determine representation in Congress
According to the Three-Fifths Compromise, three-fifths of a state's slave population would be
Counted when determine representation in congress
One of the purposes of the New England Confederation was to
Defend against threats posed by Native Americans
The chinese concept of " Mandate of heaven" is an example of rule by
Divine Right
Why did our nation founders believe deeply in safeguarding economic freedom
Economic freedom allows people to build wealth
Under the Constitution who holds the actual power to elect the president
Electoral college
Which document was passed by Parliament in the Glorious Revolution
English Bill of Rights
Which of the following is a basic function of the government
Ensuring national security
The president heads which part of the government
Executive
The power of the president to enter agreements with foreign leaders or governments is an example of which of the following
Executive Implementation
In a presidential system, the president is in charge of the
Executive branch of government
The power to carry out, enforce, and administer the law is known as
Executive power
Which system of government is largely an American invention?
Federal
which of the following factors led to the passage of the twenty-second amendment limiting presidents to two terms
Franklin Roosevelts stay in office
In the early days of the American republic, people generally thought of liberty as
Freedom
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedoms of speech, or of the press; or the rights of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government Forna redress of grievances" - First Amendment to the US Constitution, 1791 Which phrase in the First Amendment specifically relates to an individual's right to ask the governemnt to correct an injustice?
Freedom of the press
Which of the following was a set of laws that limited the power of government and gave all free men the right to choose judges
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut
Which colony did not send delegates to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia?
Georgia
For which reason is James Madison hailed as the Father of the Constitution
He greatly influenced the outcome of the convention
Parliament imposed a series of taxes on the colonies beginning in 1764 in order to
Help pay Britain's debts resulting from the French and Indian War
What ideal did the Antifederalists find the Constitution lacked?
Individual right's
"all men are created equal" reflects the founders commitment to which principle
Individual worth
What did the Constitution do about Atlantic slave trade?
It bared congress from banning the slave trade for 20 years
Which philospher believed that the formation of societies and governmet corrupted the human condition and introduced inequality
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Which power involves the authority to interpret the laws and to settle disputes between members of society
Judicial
The Supreme Court applies the Constitution to modern-day cases in a process called
Judicial Interpretation
The 1803 landmark Supreme Court case Marbury v Madison established the principle of
Judicial review
What three basic types of power do people in government exercise?
Legislative, Executive, Judicial
What two ideals of democracy did Alexis de Tocqueveille think must be kept in balance in order to prevent democratic despotism
Liberty and equality
What is the function of a government in a free enterprise system?
Limiting its interference
Which of the following is an example of providing for the public good?
Maintaing an army
Which form of government has been the most common throughout world history?
Monarchy
The Framers took the idea of separation of powers from which philosopher?
Montesquieu
For the Confederation Congress to pass any major legislation, how many states had to agree?
Nine
Magna carta was originally intended to protect the rights of which group
Nobles
The Executive and legislative branches of government are fused in which type of government?
Parliamentary
Which of the following was the Confederation of Congress's greatest success?
Passage of the Northwest Ordinance
Which of the following was the most pressing challenge facing the Confederation Congress
Paying off the war debt
Integral to the idea of self government is the notion that ultimate government authority comes from
People
Civic virtue is the idea that people should do which of the following?
Place the common good over private interest
Which of the following are a characteristic of a state?
Population and Sovereignty
The main purpose of the Bill of Rights is to
Protect individual freedoms
Americans believe strongly that a balance should be struck between majority rule and
Protecting minority rights
Which of the following is another name for the term general welfare
Public good
Why did large states favor the Virginia Plan?
Representation in the legislature would be based on population
The people are the ultimate source of authority in which governmental system
Republic
What form of democracy are most democracies in large, industrialized nations?
Republic
Which system of government is an indirect form of democracy, placing political decision making at least one step away from the people?
Republic
Delegates gathered in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to do what?
Revise the Articles of Confederation
What event showed how feeble the Confederation Congress was and hastened moved to revise the Articles of Confederation
Shay's Rebellion
Which of the following authorized the federal government to collect an income tax?
Sixteenth Amendment
In an oligarchy, who runs the government
Small group of peole
Which theory holds that the first governments formed as a result of people agreeing among themselves to submit to authority of state
Social Contract Theory
Why did the Civil War amendments have little effect in the South until 1965?
Southern States passed Jim Crow laws
The supreme power of a state to act within its territory and have absolute authority over its internal and external affairs is callled
Sovereignty
The U.S. federal system consists of a national government and what other government level
State
In order for a national convention to be called to propose an amendment to the Constitution, who must take action
State legislature and Congress
What is the purpose of the preamble of the constitution
State the goals for the new government
Under the Articles of Confederation, most government power was retained by which?
States
Why was the Great Compromise acceptable to the smaller states?
States would be represented equally in the Senate
In the preamble what does the phrase "form a more perfect union" mean
Strengthen the relationship among the state
Who has the ultimate authority to decide whether or not a federal law or action is constitutional
Supreme Court
The Stamp Act marked Parliament's first attempt to
Tax the colonists directly
How did the Northwest Ordinance differ from the Constitution on the issue of slavery?
The Northwest Ordinance banned slavery in the territory, while the Constitution temporarily protected the slave trade
Which of the following descirbes a confederal system?
The central government has only the power given to it by the states
Why did the colonist resent the taxes imposed by Parliament beginning in 1764?
The taxes were excessive and unfair
How did the Framers bypass Congress and state legislatures in the process of ratifying the new Constitution?
They called for voters in each state to elect representatives to a state ratifying convention
Why did colonial assemblies reject the Albany Plan of Union?
They feared that the plan gave too much power to the Crown
Why did Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison write the Federalist Papers?
They wrote the articles in dense of the new Constitution
Which philosopher argued that government must have great power to force obedience to its laws and to defend itself?
Thomas Hobbes
Who said the life without a government was like a war ptiing each individual against the other
Thomas hobbes
Which of the following is one way an amendment to the Constitution can be ratified
Three-fourths of State legislature
What does an authoritarian regime become at its most extreme?
Totalitarian
The vast majority of the world's nations have which system of governemnt
Unitary
Antifederalists believed that representative government
Was less important than state sovereignty
For ideas on how to use the law to protect people's natural rights to life, liberty and property, the Framers looked to
William Blackstone
which of the following is one of the goals that populists supported in the late 1800s
bank regulation
What is the name of the group of executive department heads who advise the president?
cabinet
One way political parties influence how the Constitution is interpreted is by
helping determine canidates
Rulers who are seen as right and proper by key segments of thier nations population have
legitimacy
which political movement influenced congress to give women the right to vote
progressives
Why did strict constructionists argue that the government should not create a national bank?
there is no provision for the bank in the constitution