Unit 5 AP GOV
A popular news website obtains transcripts of confidential discussions in the White House regarding how the National Security Agency should collect private data of citizens. Even though the president urges the website not to publish the story, the website does so anyway because it believes the conversation does not reveal information that poses a risk to national security. Which of the following cases would the news website most likely cite if it had to argue the case that it can publish the story without permission from the president?
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
Which of the following statements about political action committees (PACs) is true?
PAC spending makes up a higher percentage of congressional campaign funds than of presidential campaign funds.
Which of the following best demonstrates how political parties serve as linkage institutions?
Parties may organize activities to identify supporters, increase registration, and get out the vote.
Which of the following best explains the role of parties in Congress?
Parties organize government by selecting chamber leadership and determining committee membership.
In which of the following ways do political parties primarily rely on to finance their election activities?
Parties solicit funds from private donors who oftentimes contribute large sums of money.
Which of the following examples best illustrates how the trend in political communications described in the passage will most likely affect campaigns?
Political candidates will seek more data on voters so that their campaigns can create messages designed to attract different demographics.
Which of the following describes a fundamental difference between political parties and interest groups?
Political parties represent broad arrays of issues, whereas interest groups are more likely to focus on narrow sets of issues.
Which of the following conclusions is most supported by the data in the chart?
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has significantly reduced disparities in voter registration between Whites and African Americans.
What do the data in the bar graph indicate about how Gary Johnson's candidacy affected the 2016 election?
The data in the bar graph show that since Gary Johnson's supporters were split between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, his candidacy did not have an impact on the outcome of the election.
Which of the following is the most accurate statement about political parties in the United States?
The percentage of voters identifying themselves as either Democrats or Republicans has been declining since the 1970's.
Which of the following is true of amicus curiae briefs?
They are used by interest groups to lobby courts.
Which of the following is true of political action committees (PACs) ?
They make campaign contributions to gain access to legislators.
Interest groups engage in all of the following activities EXCEPT
using the franking privilege
Which of the following explanations describes the impact of Jill Stein's candidacy on the 2016 election as depicted by the data in the bar graph and your knowledge of presidential elections?
Jill Stein's supporters preferred Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, hurting the Clinton campaign.
An election involving more than two candidates in which the person who receives the most votes is the winner is called
a plurality election
In 1987 the cooperation among the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Organization for Women (NOW), and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to defeat Robert Bork's nomination to the United States Supreme Court was an example of
coalition building
A state has 11 electoral votes. In a presidential election, the Democratic candidate receives 48 percent of that state's popular vote, the Republican candidate receives 40 percent of the vote, and an independent candidate receives 12 percent of the vote. If the state is similar to most other states, how will the electoral votes most likely be allocated?
The Democratic candidate will receive all 11 electoral votes.
The new developments in campaigning described in the passage have the greatest impact on which of the following trends?
The rise of candidate-centered campaigns
Which of the following explains how The Federalist 10 relates to the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) ?
In both, a limited approach to government regulation was argued for.
All of the following contribute to the success of incumbent members of Congress in election campaigns EXCEPT:
Incumbents tend to understand national issues better than do their challengers.
The animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) urges its members to take action in support of what they term "animal friendly" legislation through their website. In addition to providing information about important issues that legislators may vote on, the nonprofit organization also describes the best ways to contact a legislator and tips on how best to interact with lawmakers. Which of the following is being illustrated in the scenario?
Interest groups sometimes form around a narrow set of issues with the goal of impacting policy making.
The National Education Association (NEA) is an organization of teachers, administrators, and other educators who work together to advance the interests and impact of public education. One of the NEA's goals is to support public education by ending government funding of voucher programs that promote school privatization. Vouchers give parents financial incentives to send their children to private schools rather than having children attend local public schools. Which of the following strategies would be the most effective way to achieve the NEA's goal of furthering the interest of public education?
Lobby members of congressional committees to vote against all legislation that would support school voucher programs.
Which of the following best explains how most candidates are recruited to run for office?
Political parties usually recruit and train people at the local level they believe are most fit to run for office.
Which of the following scenarios reflects the most direct effect of the practice described in the passage on the electoral process?
Political parties will rely increasingly on social media advertising to reach different coalitions of voters.
An advertisement airs on television attacking a candidate running for office. The advertisement was produced and distributed by a group that was not affiliated with nor funded by any political campaign. Which of the following statements explains why this expenditure is not prohibited by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 ?
Political spending by groups not directly affiliated with a campaign is a form of protected speech.
Using social media, individuals are increasingly able to communicate their political views to a wide audience. However, some messages over social media have led to certain individuals being arrested for making credible threats. This issue is most related to which of the following cases?
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Which of the following statements best describes the organization of the two major political parties in the United States?
Separate and largely independent party organizations exist at national, state, and local levels.
There is an ongoing debate over the role of money in elections. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA) of 2002 banned soft money and restricted advertisements in the weeks before an election. Parts of this act were challenged and struck down in the Supreme Court case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010). Which of the following was a consequence of that ruling?
Super PACs may spend unlimited funds on advertisements that are not coordinated with the campaign because they are protected by the freedom of speech.
Which of the following features of the data displayed make the use of the bar graph less helpful for a comparison?
The bar showing the spending for the Chamber of Commerce makes comparisons with the other groups more difficult.
In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and labor unions could spend unlimited amounts of money supporting political candidates under certain circumstances. Which of the following was the basis for the Court's ruling?
The freedom of speech in the First Amendment
Which of the following statements about political parties and the United States Constitution is true?
The issue of political parties is not addressed in the Constitution.
Which of the following is an example of how the innovation of social media can influence presidential behavior?
The president announces the nomination of a cabinet secretary on the Internet.
Based on the data in the chart, which of the following best explains a likely impact of third-party votes in the 2016 election?
The third-party vote in the three states depicted in the chart helped Donald Trump acquire enough electoral votes to win the election.
Which of the following took place after presidential candidates Truman in 1948, Nixon in 1968, and Clinton in 1992 won only pluralities of the popular vote?
The winning candidate took office after receiving less than 50% of the popular votes cast.
Based on the data in the chart and your knowledge of presidential elections, which of the following is the best strategy that Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump could have used to pull votes away from the third-party candidates, Jill Stein and Gary Johnson?
Trump or Clinton could have adopted issues that were popular with Stein's and Johnson's voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin as part of their campaigns.
Given the evolution of campaign communication described in the passage, which of the following is a way that political candidates most likely would use these tools to reach the broadest possible base of supporters?
Using social media tools to target different demographic and political groups with messages designed to appeal to them
Which of the following quotes from the Federalist Papers best supports the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) ?
"Liberty is to faction what air is to fire. . . . But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."
A corporate lobbyist would be LEAST likely to have an informal discussion about a pending policy matter with which of the following?
A federal judge in whose court a case important to the corporation is being heard
If a researcher were interested in understanding how much the NRA spent in each state, what visual could be created to accurately display this information in the bar graph?
A map showing the dollar amounts spent by the NRA in each state since 1992
Which of the following is the most likely result of the changes in voter registration rates illustrated in the table?
An increase in the number of African American members of Congress from Georgia
Based on the data in the bar graph and your knowledge of presidential elections, how should Hillary Clinton's campaign have responded if Jill Stein's support in the polls had increased significantly as Election Day approached?
By adopting positions on issues similar to Stein's in an attempt to win over those voters before the election
Which of the following is NOT a way in which the federal government regulates campaigns?
By prohibitions on negative advertising
Which of the following provides the most accurate explanation of how consumer-driven media increases partisan polarization?
Consumer-driven media reinforces existing political biases in individuals.
For which of the following tasks would using the bar graph as currently designed be the LEAST helpful?
Calculating the election cycle spending based on the intervals shown on the vertical axis
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC, has raised over $50 million dollars, which it plans to spend on advertising in the next midterm election. It plans to target its spending in competitive districts in the days leading up to Election Day. Which of the following court cases decision is most likely to protect the right of the group in the scenario?
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
Increases in the amount of money spent on national defense and security contracts, such as those that occurred after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and during the subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, would most likely have which of the following consequences?
Defense contractors would increase their lobbying efforts in order to improve their chances of winning a contract.
Which of the following describes a visual limitation of the bar graph?
Even though the bar graph contains data from 1998 to 2014, there is no illustration of how spending is broken down by specific years or elections.
Which of the following form an "iron triangle"?
Executive department, Congressional committee, interest group
A chief executive officer (CEO) of a corporation believes that the Republican candidate for president will enact policies that are more beneficial to her business. The CEO donated the maximum amount allowed by law directly to the candidate's campaign fund. To increase the candidate's chances for election, the CEO also directed her corporation to donate funds to an independent political action committee to create ads criticizing the opposing candidate. According to the decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which provision of the Constitution protects her actions?
Freedom of speech in the First Amendment
The data displayed in the table above best support which of the following statements?
House seats are safer from election turnover than are Senate seats.
The primary election system of selecting presidential candidates has had which of the following effects?
It has loosened the hold of party leaders over the nomination process.
A Pentagon contractor named Daniel Ellsberg stole a report, which later became known as the Pentagon Papers. The report had classified information about the conduct of the war in Vietnam. He gave this report to several major media outlets. The government tried to use prior restraint to prevent the outlets from publishing these excerpts. The Court allowed the media outlets to publish the excerpts in which of the following cases?
New York Times Co. v. United States (1971)
In 2002, Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act in an effort to regulate campaign finance by limiting the ability of corporations and unions to spend their general treasury funds on election communications. In 2010, the Supreme Court invalidated this provision of the act. Which of the following statements accurately describes the majority decision of the case?
The First Amendment allows corporations and unions to make independent expenditures regarding candidates for office.
How is a president chosen when none of the candidates receives a majority of the electoral college vote?
The House chooses a new president by a majority vote of its state delegations.
For decades, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has worked closely with members of Congress to successfully curtail the capacity of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to regulate firearms and track gun crimes. Which of the following statements best explains how the NRA maintains its influence in Washington?
The National Rifle Association outspends its competitors in all elections and stages of policy making.
The decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) led to the creation of super PACs that can legally raise unlimited amounts of money and engage in electioneering with few limits. Madison argued in The Federalist 10 that factions, like super PACs, would not be detrimental to society because the Constitution
created a large republic with many factions that would cancel each other out
In the last thirty years, the single most important variable in determining the outcome of an election for a member of the House of Representatives has been,
incumbency
All of the following are commonly used by interest groups to influence the political process EXCEPT
nominating candidates
The concept of "critical elections" is most closely associated with
party realignment
Based on the data in the chart, which of the following strategies would best help third-party candidates like Jill Stein and Gary Johnson increase their chances of winning elected office?
Lobbying state legislatures to shift from a winner-take-all system to a proportional voting system
