PSC 101 Final Exam Review

What is federal preemption?

National standards that require the federal government to take over areas of regulation formerly overseen by the states

One of the reasons the proposed 1863 state constitution failed to be ratified was because it taxed mining property.

True

Executive orders are a tool that presidents have for influencing policy. Their use has varied considerably over time. Each bar in the following graph shows the average number of executive orders each president issued per year in office. Compared with the last five presidents, which statement best characterizes President Trump's use of executive orders?

Trump has used more executive orders than his immediate predecessors.

For decades, participants in public-opinion polls have been asked if they trusted the government to "do the right thing" always, most of the time, only some of the time, or never. Which of the following statements is true regarding trust in government?

Trust in government can move up but generally drops over time.

Which part of the United States government has the reputation of being the more deliberative body?

U.S. Senate

Before achieving territorial status and statehood, the great majority of present-day Nevada was part of which territory?

Utah

A direct democracy is a system in which

citizens are permitted to vote directly on laws and policies.

Reduced pollution is an example of a(n) __________; everyone benefits even if they didn't do anything to achieve it.

collective good

Which of the following roles would the governor be using if they had to call out the national guard to help during a crisis?

commander-in-chief

A power that is held by both the states and the national government (e.g., the power of taxation) best fits which of the following concepts?

concurrent power

What power does the Supreme Court possess that is not expressly given to it by the Constitution?

conducting judicial review

When different bills on the same subject pass both houses of Congress, delegations from both meet to create a joint bill on the subject during a __________ committee.

conference

Governments whose powers are limited through a system of rules and institutions are known as __________ governments.

constitutional

Government agencies are often authorized to use their __________ as a means of encouraging corporations to improve themselves, helping to build up whole sectors of the economy, and encouraging certain desirable goals or behavior, such as equal employment opportunity.

contracting power

Special sessions in the Nevada legislature are used to

deal with budgetary issues that arise when the legislature is out of session, deal with issues that were not resolved in the regular session.

A __________ representative is one who votes directly according to the preferences of his or her constituency.

delegate

Which sort of representation takes place when representatives have the same racial, gender, ethnic, religious, or educational backgrounds as their constituents, under the assumption that this similarity helps to promote good representation?

descriptive representation

The process of amending the Constitution is __________, leading to a __________ proportion of proposed amendments succeeding.

difficult; very small

Under a system of laissez-faire capitalism, the role of government is to

interfere with the market as little as possible.

The United States Supreme Court hears appeals from Nevada state courts...

if a federal (e.g. constitutional) issue is involved.

Powers necessary to allow presidential exercise of specifically written Constitutional powers are called __________ powers.

implied

The struggle over who gets what, when, and how is a definition of

politics.

Which type of legislation specifies a project to be funded within a particular district to help a legislator with re-election even though that project is likely not essential?

pork barrel

Which of the following would be an example of de facto segregation?

A legacy of racially segregated housing that, while no longer legally enforced, results in a school district that is mostly segregated.

What is strict scrutiny?

A test used by the Supreme Court that places the burden of proof on the government rather than challengers to prove a law is constitutional.

Who among the following would be mostly likely considered a digital citizen?

A well-to-do middle-aged person with broadband internet at home and the time to participate in society and politics online.

Which of the following best describes New Federalism?

Attempts by Presidents Nixon and Regan to return power to the states through block grants.

The Nevada political system today is characterized by which of the following characteristics?

Candidate oriented election campaigns

In which of the following ways does Congress exercise the power of oversight?

Committees or subcommittees of the Senate or the House conduct hearings and investigations.

In the context of the principal-agent problem, ________ is the principal and ________ is the agent.

Congress; the bureaucracy

Nevada's Legislative Counsel Bureau

Consists of five divisions with professional staff created to provide information to state legislators

During America's Founding, if you believed in a unified, centralized government powerful enough to defend its interests, you were mostly likely a(n)

Federalist.

The authority to appropriate funds to agencies experiencing a shortfall between meetings of the legislature belongs to the:

Interim Finance Committee

In what way does the privileges and immunities clause seek to promote national unity?

It prevents states from discriminating against someone from another state or giving special privileges to their own residents.

What is one effect of news consumers choosing more and more partisan news outlets?

It tends to decrease the political knowledge of the consumer.

Which of the following statements is true concerning the racial and ethnic composition of the United States?

Latinos make up the second largest ethnic group.

Which of the following were among the national issues that provided Nevada the final impetus toward statehood near the end of the Civil War?

Lincoln sought additional electoral college support for his reelection in the face of strong opposition from John Fremont, Radical Republicans along with Lincoln sought additional support for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, Radical Republicans sought additional support in Congress for their reconstruction agenda.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of the national government to create a national bank and reaffirmed the notion of national supremacy in which landmark case?

McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Which of the following is true regarding terms of office for the members of the Nevada state legislature?

Members of the state Senate serve 4-year, staggered terms, while members of the Assembly serve 2-year terms.

Federal grants-in-aid have varied over the past several decades as program costs and politics have affected the role the national government plays in funding state and local services. The data in this figure show how many billions of dollars in federal grants-in-aid have been spent since 1960. How much larger are federal grants-in-aid in 2019 than they were in 1960?

More than ten times larger

Which organization became increasingly important due to the resurgence of Russia as a military power in 2014?

NATO

What does devolution do?

Remove a program from one level of government by delegating it or passing it down to a lower form of government.

The __________ Committee in the House of Representatives allots the time for House debate and decides to what extent amendments to the bill can be proposed from the floor.

Rules

Who is responsible for keeping the records of the state?

Secretary of State

Which of the following demonstrated the weakness of the Articles of Confederation, leading to the Constitutional Convention?

Shays's Rebellion

The chief presiding officer of the House of Representatives and most important party figure in the House is known as the

Speaker of the House.

What is the defining characteristic of dual federalism?

State governments have more powers granted to them than the local or federal governments.

__________ representation occurs when a representative is held accountable to a constituency and subject to punishment if he or she fails to represent that constituency properly, especially when the representative differs from his or her constituents' demographic characteristics.

Substantive

Which of the following is false?

The Nevada constitution does not guarantee a right to bear arms while the U.S. constitution does.

What is selective incorporation?

The process by which different parts of the Bill of Rights were incorporated into the Fourteenth Amendment, thus guaranteeing their protects at the state level.

Why are knowledgeable citizens more engaged in politics?

They often better understand how politics affects their lives.

What is an unfunded mandate?

a federal law that requires the states to do certain things but does not provide state governments with the funding to implement these policies

To override a presidential veto, which of the following is required?

a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate

The Bill of Rights eased concerns about

an overly powerful central government.

Over the past several decades, a shift in Americans to the Southern and Western states has increased the size of those states' congressional delegations because of a process known as

apportionment.

In order for the state to take private property from an individual for the public good, the state must provide just compensation or at the highest market value at what time?

before taking the property

In a federal system, power is distributed

between the state and national governments.

Nevada's state legislature has an Assembly and a Senate. This is known as a(n)

bicameral legislature

Which type of grant provides the most control to state and local governments in the distribution of federal grants-in-aid?

block

The method of securing, enacting, or maintaining the Constitution's principle of separation of powers is known as

checks and balances.

One of the primary obstacles facing early judges in the Nevada territory was...

disputes over mining claims

Of the powers contained within the U.S. Constitution, which are most clearly articulated?

expressed powers

Although they do not have any official duties, which person typically takes on a visible role in an administration, usually becoming an advocate for an important social cause?

first spouse

As "head of state," the president is the leading actor in __________ policy.

foreign

If a lawsuit were filed that sought to prevent controversial speakers from giving a talk at your school, the constitutional issues at stake is most likely to be which of the following?

free speech

Counties are allowed to exercise powers over "matters of local concern" so long as they do not infringe upon federal and state jurisdiction while doing so. This provision is called _____.

functional home rule

The power delegated by a state to a local unit of government to manage its own affairs is known as

home rule.

If your friend argues that government interferes with freedom of expression, free markets, and society, and thus should be as limited as possible, she is probably a

libertarian.

Real power in the Senate is in the hands of the

majority and minority leaders.

The background of Nevada politics for thirty years was a fight of _____.

mine operators against paying taxes

Which requirement disqualifies cases that are brought too late to the Supreme Court, after the relevant facts have changed or the problem has been resolved by other means?

mootness

Which one is a type of interest group?

non-economic

More than half of Nevada state revenues come from what source?

none of the other answers

In a representative democracy, public policies are determined by

officials regularly chosen by the people.

While parties tend to be more ___ oriented, interest groups are more ___ oriented.

personnel; issue

Powers reserved by state governments to regulate the health, safety, and morals of its citizens are known as

police powers

The belief that citizens can affect government is called

political efficacy.

Civil rights are _______________, while civil liberties are __________________.

positive acts of government to protect people from discrimination; negative restraints on government in the exercise of power

Although American political culture has expressed desire for some form of limited government, it is generally understood that government is needed to provide

public goods.

The term used to denote the attitudes that people have about political issues, events, institutions, and personalities is

public opinion.

What is the voting process in which the people of Nevada accept or reject a law or resolution first proposed by the Nevada legislature?

referendum

A ___ takes a higher percentage of one's income as their income decreases.

regressive tax

The declaration of rights, which is included in the Nevada Constitution, states that citizens of Nevada have which of the following rights?

right to just compensation, right to bear arms, right to trial by jury

The House Committee established to investigate the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, is a type of __________ committee.

select

The Constitution gives the power of advice and consent

solely to the Senate.

Which of the following are expressed powers in the Constitution?

specific powers that are granted in the Constitution to Congress and to the president

These committees are perhaps the most important, and they remain in existence from one congressional session to the next; they also have the power to propose and write legislation.

standing

Most of the rules and regulations Americans face in their daily lives are set by

state and local governments.

Voting for a candidate who is not your preferred choice in order to avoid a worse outcome is called

strategic voting

Which clause in the Constitution makes it illegal for the state of Michigan to decide that its laws take precedence over the federal government's?

supremacy clause

The Nevada Constitution, as ratified in 1864

taxed mining profits but not mining property

Original jurisdiction is

the authority to initially consider a case, whether in state or federal cases.

If you were an Antifederalist, which of the following would most concern you about the central government having too much power?

the elastic clause

Who of the following is likely to have the most power within any committee?

the most senior member on the committee

In a democracy, popular sovereignty is ultimately vested in

the people.

When members of Congress make voting decisions, which interest groups are most likely to be influential?

those that have some connection to constituents in the congressional members' districts

If you believe that government should have unlimited political powers, you most likely believe in a political regime that would best be labeled as:

totalitarian.

A member of Congress who does not pay sufficient attention to the wishes of the constituents, and instead makes decisions as he or she thinks best is known as which type of representative?

trustee

As a _____ form of government, states have _____ power over local governments.

unitary; absolute

Although formally this person only has two official duties (assuming the office in the case of death or departure of the president and presiding over the Senate), an informal, electoral role of the _________ is to provide some regional, gender, ideological, or ethnic balance to the ticket.

vice president