AP Gov Exam #1
Which of the following is an example of checks and balances?
A rule issued by a bureaucratic agency may be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Which of the following is the correct pairing of powers found in the Articles of Confederation and powers found in the Constitution?
Articles of Confederation- United States Constitution Unicameral legislature- Bicameral legislature
The next most palpable defect of the subsisting Confederation, is the total want of a SANCTION to its laws. The United States, as now composed, have no powers to exact obedience, or punish disobedience to their resolutions, either by pecuniary [fines], by a suspension or divestiture of privileges, or by any other constitutional mode. There is no express delegation of authority to them to use force against delinquent members; and if such a right should be ascribed to the federal head, as resulting from the nature of the social compact between the States, it must be by inference and construction... There is, doubtless, a striking absurdity in supposing that a right of this kind does not exist. . . Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist 21 Based on The Federalist 21, which of the following arguments about government would Hamilton likely agree with?
As a practical matter, the laws of the national government ought to have supremacy over state laws.
Which of the following policies would the states most likely prefer according to the political cartoon?
Block grants.
Too often, we take our form of government for granted, not fully appreciating its unique and exceptional qualities. The framers of our Constitution, having revolted against tyranny, bequeathed to the nation, and to us as its citizens, a form of government with checks and balances intended to assure that we would never, as a nation, be subject to the abuses we experienced as a colony under a monarchy. . . . We should appreciate that the separation of powers enshrined in our Constitution was modeled on the constitutions and declarations of the states, where the separation of powers was equally observed. Mirroring our U.S. Constitution, 40 state constitutions now specify that government is to be divided into three branches: legislative, executive, and judicial. The separation of powers at the state level, with an independent executive, legislature, and judiciary, is also one of the fundamental tenets of our democracy. What often gets lost in translation is how dynamic the competition among the branches of government has been, and how much stronger we are as a country because of that ongoing debate. It has been said that the Constitution is not just a historic document, but a living participant in who we are as a nation. Out of the continuing effort to assure the separation of powers, we have built a system of government that functions remarkably well. Although the powers ascribed to each of the three branches may sometimes appear to swing like a pendulum, we have continuously reconsidered and recentered our understanding of the authority and limitation of each of these branches. Linda Leali, "Reflecting on the Great Gift of the Separation of Powers," Daily Business Review, 2018 Which of the following best explains how the view of the author of the passage compares with The Federalist 51 regarding separation of powers and checks and balances?
Both the author of the passage and The Federalist 51 assert that the structure of government helps control ambitions among the branches in such a way as to promote effective government.
In The Federalist 10, James Madison argued that the new constitution would help control faction by doing which of the following?
By creating a large republic, the new constitution made it less likely that a faction could gain enough power to completely dominate.
In many places, classrooms are overcrowded and curricula are outdated. Most of our qualified teachers are underpaid, and many of our paid teachers are unqualified. So we must give every child a place to sit and a teacher to learn from. Poverty must not be a bar to learning, and learning must offer an escape from poverty. But more classrooms and more teachers are not enough. We must seek an educational system which grows in excellence as it grows in size. This means better training for our teachers. It means preparing youth to enjoy their hours of leisure as well as their hours of labor. It means exploring new techniques of teaching, to find new ways to stimulate the love of learning and the capacity for creation. . . . . . . While our Government has many programs directed at those issues, I do not pretend that we have the full answer to those problems. But I do promise this: We are going to assemble the best thought and the broadest knowledge from all over the world to find those answers for America. I intend to establish working groups to prepare a series of White House conferences and meetings . . . on the quality of education, and on other emerging challenges. And from these meetings and from this inspiration and from these studies we will begin to set our course toward the Great Society. The solution to these problems does not rest on a massive program in Washington, nor can it rely solely on the strained resources of local authority. They require us to create new concepts of cooperation, a creative federalism, between the National Capital and the leaders of local communities. President Lyndon B. Johnson, May 22, 1964 Which of the following actions did President Johnson suggest he would take to address problems in public schools?
Calling on experts to advise the federal government in finding ways to improve public education.
Which of the following pair of Supreme Court cases best illustrates how views of federalism have shifted in the United States?
Case 1- Case 2 McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)- United States v. Lopez (1995)
South Carolina passed a law to increase the state tax on gasoline to help fund repairs on highways and bridges. The state tax is in addition to the federal tax on every gallon of gasoline that is sold. Which of the following constitutional provisions does this scenario illustrate?
Concurrent powers.
Which of the following powers allows both the federal and state governments to make policies involving taxation?
Concurrent powers.
In 2005, the Utah legislature passed a law that allowed school districts to ignore parts of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a law passed by Congress in 2001 that supported standards-based education reform. Utah did this despite the fact that it endangered losing $76 million in federal aid to Utah public schools. Which of the following statements best explains why Utah took this action?
Educational policy is not mentioned in the Constitution, which has created debate about the proper role for the national government in educational policy.
Which of the following characteristics best explains the data on the map?
Federalism creates differences between states on the implementation of health-care policy.
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of the checks held by the legislative and judicial branches?
Legislative checks to the judicial branch- Judicial checks to the legislative branch Impeaching and removing federal judges - Declaring an entire law unconstitutional
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government . . ." ". . . Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men. . . . Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 Which of the following amendments to the United States Constitution addresses the grievance that a woman is not permitted "to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise"?
Nineteenth Amendment.
The vice of the groupist theory is that it conceals the most significant aspects of the system. The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent. Probably about 90 percent of the people cannot get into the pressure system. The notion that the pressure system is automatically representative of the whole community is a myth fostered by the universalizing tendency of modern group theories. Pressure politics is a selective process ill designed to serve diffuse interests. The system is skewed, loaded, and unbalanced in favor of a fraction of a minority. E. E. Schattschneider, The Semisovereign People, 1960 Which of the following best captures the author's argument regarding the forms of democracy?
Pluralist democracy, though it involves groups at different stages of the process of developing policy, excludes a significant portion of the population.
Which of the following is the most accurate interpretation of the political cartoon?
State governments prefer federal funding but do not want federal oversight over how the money is spent.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government . . ." ". . . Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men. . . . Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 The language in the first paragraph of the selection most closely parallels that of which of the following documents?
The Declaration of Independence.
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of the arguments made in The Federalist 10 and Brutus 1 ?
The Federalist 10 - Brutus 1 Factions are most dangerous at the local level - Small republics are best for stable governments
Which of the following is an accurate description of the decision in United States v. Lopez (1995) ?
The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 was struck down as unconstitutional because it exceeded the commerce clause.
The next most palpable defect of the subsisting Confederation, is the total want of a SANCTION to its laws. The United States, as now composed, have no powers to exact obedience, or punish disobedience to their resolutions, either by pecuniary [fines], by a suspension or divestiture of privileges, or by any other constitutional mode. There is no express delegation of authority to them to use force against delinquent members; and if such a right should be ascribed to the federal head, as resulting from the nature of the social compact between the States, it must be by inference and construction... There is, doubtless, a striking absurdity in supposing that a right of this kind does not exist. . . Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist 21 In the passage, Hamilton is concerned that under the Articles of Confederation, the federal government does not have sufficient constitutional powers to gain compliance from state governments. Which of the following is a way that the Constitution allows the federal government to address this problem?
The federal government can pass laws that allow it to fine or tax individuals directly.
The next most palpable defect of the subsisting Confederation, is the total want of a SANCTION to its laws. The United States, as now composed, have no powers to exact obedience, or punish disobedience to their resolutions, either by pecuniary [fines], by a suspension or divestiture of privileges, or by any other constitutional mode. There is no express delegation of authority to them to use force against delinquent members; and if such a right should be ascribed to the federal head, as resulting from the nature of the social compact between the States, it must be by inference and construction... There is, doubtless, a striking absurdity in supposing that a right of this kind does not exist. . . Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist 21 Which of the following scenarios illustrates a solution for the problem of getting states to comply with federal government policies, as described in the passage?
The federal government can withhold highway funds from states that do not raise the age to drink alcohol to 21.
Which of the following is an accurate description of the decision in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) ?
The federal government had the authority to establish a national bank, and Maryland's tax was unconstitutional.
In the early part of the twenty-first century, public opinion polls showed that a majority of Americans believed it should be illegal to burn the American flag. As a result, many members of Congress introduced amendments to make it illegal to burn or desecrate the American flag. However, these efforts have been unsuccessful. Which of the following statements best explains why these efforts have been unsuccessful?
The framers made the amendment process difficult in order to protect individual rights.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of those who suffer from it to refuse allegiance to it, and to insist upon the institution of a new government . . ." ". . . Such has been the patient sufferance of the women under this government, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to demand the equal station to which they are entitled. The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. He has never permitted her to exercise her inalienable right to the elective franchise. He has compelled her to submit to laws, in the formation of which she had no voice. He has withheld from her rights which are given to the most ignorant and degraded men. . . . Having deprived her of this first right of a citizen, the elective franchise, thereby leaving her without representation in the halls of legislation, he has oppressed her on all sides. He has made her, if married, in the eye of the law, civilly dead. He has taken from her all right in property, even to the wages she earns." Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Seneca Falls Convention, 1848 Which of the following best captures a portion of the author's argument?
The government has made women subservient by denying them the right to vote.
Which of the following was a direct outcome of the Three-Fifths Compromise?
The number of representatives in the House of Representatives from slaveholding states increased.
Which of the following is true based on information on the map?
The poverty rate in the United States varies by state and region.
Which of the following features of the United States Constitution would most concern the author of Brutus 1?
The supremacy clause, which gives the federal government supremacy over states.
Which of the following is a method by which Congress is likely influencing state policy being depicted in the cartoon? education resources vs education standards
Unfunded mandates.
Brutus was an example of an Anti-Federalist because he...
believed a centralized government posed a major threat to individual rights.
Throughout most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, most African Americans were prevented from voting in many Southern states despite the Fifteenth Amendment, which extended the right to vote to African American males. Southern states were able to take this action because...
the framers allowed the individual states to create voting processes and voter qualifications.
