american government quiz questions
Beginning in the 1760's, the American colonists' major complaint against the British government was over
British taxes collected in America.
The belief that free men would choose a limited, moderate, constitutional government to protect, rather than threaten them is associated with
John Locke
The imprint of which political philosopher is heavy on the Declaration?
John Locke
Political thinking of the American eighteenth century was underlain by John Locke's Social Contract theory and
Montesquieu's description of the separation of powers
The First Continental Congress was called in reaction to
Parliament's Intolerable Acts.
In which system do members of the majority party in the legislature select the executive and Cabinet officers from among themselves?
Parliamentary
A mixed state, in which monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic principles are mixed, usually with a strong executive and participation both by the few wealthy and the many poor in the legislative power, is known
Republic
Both members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate must be what?
Residents of the state from which they are elected
One key difference between Rome and Athens was that
Rome was a world-empire while Athens was a much smaller city-state.
What has turnout averaged in the last three presidential elections?
Slightly more than 60%
In the 1920s, what expansion of the electorate occurred?
The enfranchisement of women
Article 1, Section 10 of the Constitution denies which of the following powers to the states
The power to coin their own money
The structure of colonial governments included which of the following?
The separation of powers
The commitment to science and progress that came to dominate thinking in Western Europe and later America was best represented by men like
Thomas Hobbes John Locke Francis Bacon
What statesman championed a state-centered view of federalism
Thomas Jefferson
The Continental Congress established by the Articles of Confederation worked more like
a league of states
The Virginia Plan envisioned
a powerful national government.
Which portion of the Constitution enumerates the powers of Congress in seventeen specific clauses?
article I, section 8
As voter attachments to the parties have declined, candidates increasingly have
avoided taking positions on issues
In the later half of the 20th century, the process of running for president has shifted to
candidates, their handlers, and voters
A device making federal funds available to the states and local governments for specific, often narrow activities in compliance with federal requirements for program design, service delivery, and reporting is
categorical grants
Which of the following is organized as a set of small-scale, face-to-face meetings, in which voters debate the merits of the candidates before selecting among them?
caucus
A written constitution allows for
citizens to ensure that powers neither expand nor move within the system, a precise distribution of power, and a limitation of power between the institutions of government.
What are the principal vehicles through which the House and Senate do most of their legislative work?
committees
Which committees are composed of members from both houses charged to resolve the differences between bills on the same topic passed in separate chambers?
conference
The Constitution grants the power to declare war to:
congress
In the early nineteenth century, how were presidential candidates nominated?
congressional caucuses
The return of political authority from the national government to the states beginning in the 1970s and continuing today is known as
devolution
In contrast to the demands of the large states, the small states wanted
each state to have one vote in each house
Compared to most of the advanced industrial countries in the world, the U.S. fails to employ
either mandatory or automatic voter registration
In the Electoral College, each state is assigned
electors equal to the number of their congressional delegation
The Founders based their understanding of legislatures on the theory and practice of what nation?
england
The power to tax, to regulate commerce and coinage, to declare war, and to raise armies and navies, are all classified in the Constitution as
enumerated powers
Traditionally, the service a congressperson has been most likely to perform for a constituent has been to invervene on their behalf with unresponsive:
federal agencies
The 1960s and early 1970s witnessed the greatest expansion of
federal regulation of state and local governments in American history
The Declaration of Independence makes the argument that
free men create governments.
The confederal form of government leaves individual republics
fully sovereign
In which of the following are all states equally in play at the same time and throughout the process?
general election
The Founders took from Polybius and Cicero the lesson that the mixed constitution would
generate great power and stability
Adam Smith argued that when unregulated by the state, commerce and markets
have a natural order.
Turnout depends heavily upon whether the candidates are popular and
how competitive the main election is
Among voters who could name only one candidate in a race, most often the person they named was the what?
incumbent
Low turnout is a problem for the American political system because
it has occurred despite improvements in education, income, and other factors that traditionally have increased turnout and other forms of participation
The concept that the lawmaking power is supreme is known as
legislative supremacy
It was widely assumed that the core of the new federal government would be the
legislature
The Supreme Court case of Buckley v. Valeo ruled that
limiting the amount of money candidates could spend on their own campaigns was a violation of their right to free speech
The implied powers grant Congress the right to
make all laws, which shall be necessary and proper for executing the enumerated powers
The stage after committee hearings have been held is referred to as:
markup or bill-rewriting
Federal systems are found in
most of the countries than have become democratic
To the Founders of the Constitution, the lesson of Christian Middle Ages was
negative and it showed them ways of thinking about politics that they did not wish to emulate.
The Founding Fathers agreed with Plato and Aristotle that
neither democracy nor oligarchy were adequate forms of government.
The idea that a state could suspend the operation within its borders of a law passed by Congress that the state did not agree with is known as
nullification
The basis of John Locke's Social Contract theory is that
only reasoned consent can produce governmental legitimacy.
The population of all of the colonies in America was
overwhelmingly rural and agrarian.
One fundamental idea behind federalism is that
particular powers are best assigned to a particular level of the federal system
The Greeks believed that the main obstacles to be overcome in the formation of the political community were
political instability and injustice
The Anti-Federalists argued that
popular governments could exist only in "small republics."
Which of the following is a statewide election in which the voters select from among the available candidates for their party's nomination?
primary
A citizen who goes to another state has the same freedom as the citizens that live in that state through the Constitutional provision known as the
privileges and immunities clause
As the cost of elections has increased, candidates have had to rely increasingly on
raising funds from national sources
Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could not
regulate trade and commerce.
When new voters are given the franchise, turnout of the eligible electorate usually
remains unaffected
The word "democracy" in Ancient Greek can be translated as
rule by the people
Under current House rules, which of the following determines whether and how a bill will reach the floor for debate?
rules committee
What norm used to provide that the majority party member with the longest continuous service on the committee be given the opportunity to chair the committee?
seniority
The McCain-Feingold Act prohibited what kind of contributions to national political parties?
soft cash
In the government created by the Articles of Confederation, the reality was that the states remained
sovereign
The idea that in any political system, final political authority must rest somewhere specific is known as
sovereignty
What Committees with fixed jurisdictions automatically continue from one Congress to the next?
standing
Until well into this century up to two-thirds of government spending was accounted for by
state and local governments
One key difference between the Constitution and the earlier Articles of Confederation was that
the Constitution was an act of the people themselves whereas the Articles of Confederation had been an agreement among states.
The Declaration of Independence argued that the King of England had violated
the Social Contract
The statement that powers not delegated to the national government nor prohibited to the states are reserved to the states is found in
the Tenth Amendment
The delegates to the Constitutional Convention were aware of the new nation's problems and they shared a sense that
the central government had to be strengthened.
The states are required to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state in the Constitution by what is known as
the full faith and credit clause
The theorists of the Protestant Reformation acknowledged the importance of
the individual but were unwilling to accept the political implications of individualism.
In all of the state constitutions of 1776, most of the power was held by
the legislature.
Who has the job of holding together opposition to the majority's agenda in the House?
the minority whip
The powers reserved to the states do NOT include
the power to regulate interstate commerce
What person or group serves as the chief executive in the parliamentary system?
the prime minister
The enumerated powers listed in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution include all of the following EXCEPT
the right of the Supreme Court to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional
The hierarchical views developed by the medieval Christians were dissolved by
the rise in individualism.
The Constitution specifies that the responsibility to try impeachments belongs to whom?
the senate
During the period between 1890 and 1910 who held the dominant power in the House of Representatives?
the speaker
The drama of American federalism has been the struggle for power between the national government and
the states
In a parliamentary system, the strength of the government depends on:
the strength and cohesion of the majority party
According to the Constitution, who presides over the Senate?
the vice president
The medieval Christian vision held that the goal of politics should be
to enforce strict order so that religious life could proceed in peace.
Most colonists came to America
to establish societies in a particular form and for particular purposes.
The Federalists argued that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary primarily because
to list some rights might suggest that rights not listed were not retained or claimed by the people
An example of a concurrent power is the power
to tax
A nation with a single centralized government under one authority is classified as a
unitary government
The United States was the first nation to adopt
universal manhood suffrage
The Senate's president pro tempore is:
usually the most senior member of the majority party
The basic idea behind the notion of the separation of powers
was argued for in the writings of Locke and Montesquieu.
The views of Plato and Aristotle
were well known and deeply respected by the American Founders.
The first American electorate was restricted to
white males
The last expansion of the right to vote in the United States has been to
young people between the ages of 18 and 21
Unlike Plato, Aristotle differed in his view of government, in that
Aristotle was much less interested than Plato in describing the best conceivable government.
The Christian view of political life was most forcefully stated by
Augustine
