AP Government Unit 5 Progress Check: MCQ

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. > The bar graph shows that Jill Stein's supporters preferred Hillary Clinton by a wide margin, which hurt the Clinton campaign by siphoning away voters.

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) > The ruling in Schenck created the clear and present danger rule regarding free speech and held that the government could regulate speech that places the public in danger.

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. > The Chamber of Commerce spent more than three times the next highest contributor, making the scaling and comparison among the groups difficult.

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 > African American candidates tend to have greater electoral success when more African Americans are registered to vote.

A voter has seen his income increase by 3% over the past four years. He is encouraged that unemployment is down and the price of gas has remained relatively low. On Election Day, by voting for the incumbent presidential candidate, he has engaged in which type of voting?

Retrospective voting > The voter is basing his vote on the performance of the economy during the candidate's previous term.

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 NRA outspends all of its competitors in lobbying and campaign contributions to gain more influence over policy makers and the policy making process, giving it substantial sway.

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. > The Voting Rights Act of 1965 addressed barriers that prevented African Americans from voting, and its effects are evident in the table.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president in 1932 after running on the Democratic Party platform that included an expansion of federal programs aimed at pulling the United States out of the Great Depression. The expansion plan, known as the New Deal, substantially increased the voting base of the Democratic Party. As a result, the Democratic Party dominated Congress and many state governments for the next half century. The election of 1932 is considered a critical election because it

changed the base of support in each party > The election caused a realignment or significant shift of voter support from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.

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 > Madison argued in The Federalist 10 that a large republic would have a multitude of factions, thereby limiting their impact. This would apply to super PACs in modern times.

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. > While the graph provides specific information on how much money each corporation has given to political candidates, it does not provide a breakdown of how much money each corporation gave every year during the period indicated in the graph.

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. > The passage states that the evolution of social media tools makes it possible for campaigns to be more personalized and customizable, enabling candidates to target different parts of the electorate with different messages.

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." > The quote is about the dangers of trying to abolish the liberty of a faction. The quote suggests that allowing the abolishment of any kind of liberty is a threat to everyone. The issue in Citizens United was about whether the speech of factions like those in the case could be limited by the current campaign laws or regulated by the executive bureaucracy. The decision in Citizens United held that campaign advertisement was a form of speech for factions like a corporation that is protected by the First Amendment.

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. > Candidate-centered campaigns benefit from the ability of technology to strengthen the relationship between candidates and voters, enabling these campaigns to gain power without the candidate's party serving as intermediary.

Which of the following conclusions can be drawn from the table?

Barriers to registration existed in all of the states in the table but were most significant in Mississippi. > The gaps in African American and White registration were likely due to barriers to registration. Mississippi had the largest gap in voter registration.

Which of the following best explains how political parties use party platforms?

The platform is used to define the party's stance on political issues. > Party platforms are statements about principles and policy issues that are supported by a political party.

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. > Major-party candidates gain more votes by adopting positions on issues that successful third-party candidates are using.

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. > Increases in discretionary spending on contracts oftentimes lead to increased lobbying activity by groups placing bids on those contracts.

Which of the following scenarios best represents the model for party-line voting?

Despite not recognizing the name, a candidate votes for the Democratic Party candidate because he is a Democrat. > Party-line voting indicates that a citizen votes based on his or her party identification.

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) > The New York Times case dealt with the issue of prior restraint and censorship of the media. The Court ruled against the United States when they tried to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

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) > The New York Times v. United States case dealt with the issue of prior restraint or censorship. The Court ruled against the United States when they tried to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers.

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. > By organizing election activities to increase participation, parties can link citizens to the government and allow them to communicate their preferences to policy-makers.

Which of the following best explains the role of parties in Congress?

Parties organize government by selecting chamber leadership and determining committee membership. > Parties meet in caucus and vote on the leadership and committee structure prior to the first session of each newly elected Congress.

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. > The passage does not suggest that the rise of Internet communication in political campaigns will strengthen the role of political parties but instead notes that these new methods enable candidate-centered campaigns to gain strength and momentum independent of a party's endorsement.

A citizen cast her vote for the candidate in a congressional election based on the candidate's promise to reform the health care system. Which voting behavior model best characterizes the citizen's choice?

Prospective voting > Prospective voting is based on predictions of how a party or candidate will perform in the future. In this scenario, the voter's choice is based on what the challenger will do in the future if elected.

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. > The data in the bar graph show that Gary Johnson's supporters favored Clinton, but the difference was likely insignificant in its effect on the election.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and labor unions could spend unlimited amounts of money on political advertising. Which of the following was the basis for the Court's ruling?

The freedom of speech in the First Amendment > The Court ruled in Citizens United that spending on campaign advertisements was a form of speech and that corporations and labor unions had First Amendment speech rights and could engage in these types of campaign spending.

If one were interested in showing how much certain industries spend on lobbying, the best way to change the visual would be to

categorize the data by industry group and combine the data so that a bar represents each group > The individual groups and companies can be combined and categorized. Then the bar graph can be redrawn to show fewer bars and better information about industry type.