GOV 12-14
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of policy positions advocated by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party?
Democratic Party:Favors increases in spending for programs such as Medicare and Medicaid Republican Party: Favors significant increases in defense and military spending in the federal budget
Which of the following policies would an individual who identifies as a Democrat most likely support?
Strengthening anti-discrimination policies for married gay couples
Which of the following statements draws an accurate comparison from the information graphic?
The Ford/Carter "Boomer" generation has voted more consistently Republican than has the Bush/Obama "Millennial" generation.
Just beyond the horizon of current events lie two possible political futures—both bleak, neither democratic. The first is a retribalization of large swaths of humankind by war and bloodshed: a threatened Lebanonization of national states in which culture is pitted against culture, people against people, tribe against tribe—a Jihad in the name of a hundred narrowly conceived faiths against every kind of interdependence, every kind of artificial social cooperation and civic mutuality. The second is being borne in on us by the onrush of economic and ecological forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize the world with fast music, fast computers, and fast food—with MTV, Macintosh, and McDonald's, pressing nations into one commercially homogeneous global network: one McWorld tied together by technology, ecology, communications, and commerce. The planet is falling precipitantly apart and coming reluctantly together at the very same moment. Benjamin Barber, "Jihad vs. McWorld," 1992 Which of the following is the best example of the "McWorld" phenomenon described in the passage?
The United States engages in free trade agreements, which leads to the export of American businesses and influences the culture of foreign countries.
In a public opinion poll, a polling company used an online survey tool to randomly contact respondents who did not have telephone lines in addition to contacting people over the phone. Which of the following best explains this decision?
The company wanted to ensure that the sample of the population was truly random.
Which of the following is the best conclusion a polling group might draw from the results of the two polls?
Using an agree-or-disagree format encourages respondents to agree with the position.
An important change in political culture since 1950 is that United States citizens have become
less trusting of governmental institutions and leaders
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution has been interpreted by the Supreme Court to
make most rights contained in the Bill of Rights applicable to the states
Children are most likely to adopt the party identification
of their parents
Political socialization is the process by which
political values are passed to the next generation
Based on the line graph, what percentage of people surveyed attended church weekly in 1990 ?
35%
Which of the following scenarios best illustrates political socialization?
A young teenager hears her parents discussing politics around the dinner table, which influences her own views.
Which of the following is true about church attendance based on the line graph?
About 54% of people surveyed in 2010 attended church once a year or less.
The primary responsibility for determining monetary policy in the United States rests with the
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
One of the principal effects of 9/11 was instilling in Americans a fear that their personal security was at greater risk than ever before. Many aspects of the post-9/11 world are indeed new, but the fear it evokes echoes that felt by prior generations. At times the country has met those fears while still holding fast to its core democratic principles. Other times, fear has overruled American principles, especially the protection of individual freedoms. The most important legacy of the American experience following 9/11 will not be the novelty of fear, but rather how well the country copes with that fear while adhering to its constitutional framework. Given how searing the 9/11 experience was, it is sometimes hard to remember that prior generations of Americans didn't always sleep soundly either. Pearl Harbor is an often-cited example, but it joins many other moments of intense fear in U.S. history. During the 40-plus years of the Cold War, American school children practiced "duck and cover" drills the way today's kids might practice school lock-downs. As a teenage in the 1980s, I joined Sting in hoping we could avert a nuclear holocaust if "the Russians love their children, too." With the collapse of the Soviet Union, other threats in the United States soon appeared: the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Park bombing, to name just a few. During the 1990s, some in the military liked to refer to the United States as a "homeland sanctuary;" after 9/11, many talk about the end of that sanctuary. True, the country has experienced fewer external threats to its population than have most other nations. But it's a misconception to think that the American sense of external threat is new. Kathleen Hicks, "What Will Americans Do About Their Fear of Terrorism?" The Atlantic Monthly, 2016. The experience of those who lived through 9/11 needs to create which of the following outcomes, according to the author of the passage?
Citizens should not let their fear of another terror attack override the country's ability to adhere to the civil liberties protections outlined in the Constitution.
Which of the following illustrates an economic policy most likely supported by an ideologically liberal individual?
Congress increasing the minimum wage
Which of the following groups would be most likely to support a constitutional amendment banning all abortions?
Conservatives
Which of the following best matches a political ideology with that ideology's position on the proper role of government in regulating the economy?
Conservative—The government should strictly limit its regulation of the marketplace.
Which of the following is likely true about the 2018 midterm elections based on the data in the line graph?
Economic issues are less likely to be discussed in the 2018 midterm elections than in the 2012 presidential elections.
Which of the following is an accurate comparison of an exit poll and a tracking poll?
Exit Poll: Responses can be used to judge election results before the official count is obtained. Tracking Poll: The poll is conducted over time to obtain information about changes in public opinion.
Party identification in the United States is most successfully transmitted by which of the following?
Family
Based on the line graph, which of the following statements about church attendance in 1972 is true?
In 1972, more people surveyed reported attending church weekly than reported attending rarely or never.
A member of Congress who advocates for a more Keynesian approach to solving a recession will likely support which of the following policies?
Increasing federal spending on infrastructure programs
On November 2, 2014, a Gallup poll reported that 51 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, while 47 percent oppose legalization. The reported margin of sampling error was +/- 4 percent. Which of the following inferences can be made from the poll?
It is unclear whether more people support marijuana legalization than oppose it.
Which of the following sets of policies appears to be most influenced by a libertarian ideology?
Legalize the commercial sale of marijuana and reduce government spending on prisons.
Which of the following descriptions is the information on the line graph too limited to support?
Most who identify as very conservative believe that the Federal Reserve should be abolished.
Which of the following public policies would Republicans be most likely to support?
Opening public lands for ranching and oil exploration
Which of the following actions would give opponents of school choice the best chance of preventing the Department of Education from adopting the policy outlined above?
Opponents of school choice could take the Department of Education to federal court and have the school choice policy declared unconstitutional.
Question: We hear a lot of talk these days about liberals and conservatives. I'm going to show you a seven-point scale on which the political views that people might hold are arranged from extremely liberal — point 1 — to extremely conservative — point 7. Where would you place yourself on this scale? (Point 4 not shown on scale.) MY POLITICAL VALUES ARE... The graph above supports which of the following statements?
People with higher incomes are more likely to think of themselves as conservative than are those with lower incomes.
Which of the following most likely explains the difference in result of the two polls?
Question Format
Which of the following political parties would be most likely to oppose reduced sentencing for nonviolent felony offenders?
Republican Party
Which of the following statements is consistent with data shown in the bar graph?
Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe that there should be fewer regulations on businesses to promote economic growth and increase wages.
Which of the following is a limitation of the data when drawing a conclusion about the most important problem facing the country in 2017 ?
The data were collected in a short time frame, which does not reveal full-year trends.
Which of the following best explains the data in the line graph?
The economy is likely the most important issue because it is a broader category that is more open to individual interpretation than both jobs and the budget deficit.
Which of the following is a necessary step for the government to take to protect school choice, based on the article?
The federal government should provide funding to families to pursue schooling options other than the public school system.
Which of the following statements is supported by data in the graph?
The higher the income, the more likely that the person will support smaller government.
Using both of the maps, which of the following best explains the role that ideology has played in the shaping of corporate tax rates?
The maps indicate that states that have high corporate tax rates are more likely to enact liberal policies.
Using both the maps, which of the following best explains how states with the highest corporate tax rates voted in the 2016 election?
The maps show that states with the highest corporate tax rates were more likely to vote for the Democrat, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 election.
A 2013 YouGov poll question asked, "President Obama says the 1975 Public Affairs Act should be repealed. Do you agree or disagree?" The results showed that 13 percent of Democrats agreed and 39 percent of Republicans disagreed. However, the 1975 Public Affairs Act is fictitious. Which of the following is illustrated by the scenario?
The type of information given in a poll question can affect how individuals respond.
Which of the following explains why any attempt to reduce Social Security benefits is difficult?
There are many voters who support Social Security.
The data in the line graph would be least useful to a researcher interested in finding out which of the following?
Whether or not there was a decrease in support for the Federal Reserve after the 2008 financial crisis
A media organization is interested in reporting election results in a congressional election prior to the final tally of votes which will not occur until later in the evening. The organization randomly selects several polling places across the district asking voters whom they voted for. The type of poll being used in this scenario is known as
an exit poll
The activities of the Federal Reserve Board have the most direct influence on
bank interest rates
Candidates for political office use public opinion polls for all of the following purposes EXCEPT to
bring the opposition's opinions into alignment with those of the candidate