AP Government Review
During a presidential election, the tendency of journalists to limit coverage of campaign events to coverage of the candidate who leads in the polls at the time is known as
horse race journalism
The Framers guessed that the _______ would reflect public opinion, especially on the crucial issues of taxes and government spending.
house of representatives
In January, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the following way concerning campaign contributions:
It was illegal for corporations to contribute any money to candidates. The government may not restrict corporations from spending money in candidate elections. Campaign finance is not protected by the First Amendment. Corporations are limited to donating $1000 per election to any candidate. None of the above
Separation of power and federalism were two key principles in the framing of the Constitution. These two principles are related in that each
involves a system of checks and balances in which power is dispersed
MOST lobbyists believe that public testimony before congressional committees
is less important than are private one-on-one meetings.
CBS News regularly features stories on health-related issues and prescription drugs because
it has the oldest viewing audience among all network television news programs.
The case of Marbury v Madison (1803) established which principle?
judicial review
Which characteristic of the Constitution most angered Anti-Federalists?
lack of a bill of rights
Lobbyists often have degrees in
law
Which metaphor best describes dual federalism?
layer cake
How likely are voters to participate in state and local elections compared with national elections?
less likely
The most common form of grassroots lobbying involves
letter writing
The principal goal of the American Revolution was
liberty
According to John Locke, the fundamental purpose of government is the protection of
life, liberty, property
Characteristics frequently associated with nonvoters are
low education, low income, and being relatively young.
The power of the people--popular majority rule--was limited by the Constitution in several ways, including
making the amending of the Constitution relatively difficult.
Which metaphor best describes cooperative federalism?
marble cake
In the United States, the vast majority of citizens regard themselves a
middle class
One impact of the Internet on political campaigns is that _________.
more people are making political donations.
Most new registrations for voting are done through
motor voter provisions
The following groups have in general become more Democratic than Republican today:
non whites
Where in the Constitution are political parties discussed?
nowhere in the constitution
According to Thomas Hobbes, author of Leviathan, the proper objective of government is to ensure
order
The term ________ refers to the tendency of journalists to adopt similar viewpoints toward news simply because they hang around together.
pack journalism
The concept of liberty is most closely associated with
personal freedom
Who contributed most to the writing of the Constitution?
Madison
What role do interest groups play in educating policymakers about political issues?
They are an important source of political information
Federalism is a combination of which two ideas?
Unitary government and a confederation
he central issue in the framing of the Constitution was that of
how strong to make the central government.
James Madison, writing in the Federalist papers, suggested that relief from the self-interested advocacy of factions would be provided by:
a democratic republic in which government would mediate among opposing factions.
If the U.S. system of single-member districts with plurality voting were replaced with a system of proportional representation, one possible consequence would be
a movement toward a multiparty system
When did the U.S. Constitution become a source of legitimate authority?
after 1787, gradually
The last major expansion of suffrage in the United States involved the criterion of
age
Most democratic theorists agree that a modern nation-state cannot practice democracy without
at least two political parties regularly contesting elections.
In recent years, rural voters have
become decidedly more Republican
The following have an advantage of being able to use institutional financial resources to support their lobbying and do not need to rely on voluntary contributions.
big individual corporations
Money awarded for broad, general purposes is called a _____ grant.
block
Which of the following is an informal way of amending the Constitution?
changes in social and cultural attitudes that lead to substantive changes in how people interpret the Constitution
The presidential elections of 1860, 1896, 1932, and 1968 are considered _____ elections because those elections marked a sharp change in the existing patterns of party loyalty among groups of voters.
critical
Which of the following concepts became a major objective of government after industrialization and urbanization?
equality
A lobbyist has a better chance of convincing a lawmaker to support or oppose a particular bill if the group the lobbyist represents has a large membership in the lawmaker's district. This makes the following interest group influential in Washington given they have a membership of 40 million:
AARP
The single most important factor leading to the Constitution Convention was
inability of the national or state governments to maintain order under the Articles.
Because the Founders believed they were creating a government of limited powers, they felt it unnecessary to
include a bill of rights
The original Constitution provided that US senators were to be elected by
state legislatures
The New Jersey Plan was a reaction by some states primarily to the fear that
the Virginia plan gave too much power to the populous states.
The basic definition of public opinion is
the collected attitudes of citizens on a given issue or question.
James Madison examined historical data on republics, confederations, and aristocracies to learn about the formation of a government. His conclusions are found in
the federalist papers
If the United States were operating today under the Articles of Confederation, issues like the effect of acid rain on the environment would be handled by
the individual states.
"Enumerated" powers are those given to
the national government
The Antifederalists attacked the proposed Constitution on the grounds that
the national government it created was too strong.
The framers of the Constitution left the issue of voter enfranchisement to
the states
The key to attracting new members to a group through direct mail solicitation is
to concentrate on a carefully targeted audience
The basic premise of federalism is that
two or more governments share power and authority over the same land and people.
Sovereignty is synonymous with
ultimate governing authority
Federalism, or the division of power between a national government and regional units, stands in contrast to
unitary government.
In the eyes of most Americans today, the power of the federal government, compared with that of state governments, seems
vastly powerful
Suffrage and franchise refer to the right to
vote
Compared to Federalists, Antifederalists tended to favor a
weak decentralized government as a protection of liberty.
The primary source of legitimate political authority in the United States is the
will of the people
The primary goal of Federalist, No. 10 was to demonstrate that the new government
would not fall under the dominance of any one faction.
Since the present two-party system was established, how many minor-party candidates have been elected to the presidency?
zero
The complexity of the American federal system encourages
pluralism
The division of authority in the U.S. Constitution among competing branches and levels of government has encouraged the development of
pluralism
Each citizen having one vote demonstrates
political equality
The set of values and beliefs that a person holds about the purpose and scope of government is called
political ideology
The process whereby one becomes aware of politics, learns political facts, and forms political values is called
political socialization
In the current American context, a liberal would tend to
promote economic equality ahead of freedom, and freedom ahead of social order.
In a democracy, the mass media perform the function of
promoting communication between government and citizens
Originally, the Constitutional Convention's purpose was to
revise the Articles of Confederation
Which of the following activities requires the MOST initiative?
running for office
Most politicians and many scholars believe that the media's greatest influence on politics is its ability to
set the political agenda
The _____ Amendment to the Constitution prohibits states from denying the right to vote "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
15th
The amendment granting women's suffrage is
19th ammendment
The ____ Amendment prohibits Congress from abridging freedom of the press.
1st
More than ____ percent of the senators and representatives who leave Congress become employed as lobbyists
40
The Great Compromise led to which of the following?
a bicameral legislature
Which of the following expresses a traditional American political ideal?
"all men are created equal"
The following percent of surveyed adults indicated that they learned about the 2008 political campaign from comedy shows like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, or Saturday Night Live.
30%
About ____ percent of all Americans adopt their parents' party.
60
The method for choosing the president was designed to address which of the following concerns?
Distrust of the judgment of the people and the small states' fears that the large states would dominate the selection process
Supporters of the Constitution named themselves
Federalists.
Those who supported the new Constitution were called ______, and those who opposed it were called _______.
Federalists; Antifederalists
The Founding Fathers designed a system of checks and balances for the national government. Which of the following best illustrates that concept? I. Congress overrides a presidential veto II. The Supreme Court declares a law unconstitutional. III. The president issues an executive order reducing the size of the bureaucracy. IV. The House and Senate cannot agree on a Conference Committee report.
I and II
Critics of representative democracy have pointed out all of the following EXCEPT
It is unresponsive to majority opinion.
Who said that to devise a proper government is "to find a form of association which will defend and protect with the whole common force the person and goods of each associate, and in which each, while uniting himself with all, may still obey himself alone, and remain free as before?"
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Which of the following statements BEST characterizes the motives of the Framers of the Constitution?
Most framers acted out of loyalty to their state, not out of personal business interests.
How does education affect voter turnout?
Well educated people are more likely to vote than are their less educated counterparts.
Which of the following statements concerning gender and political beliefs is INCORRECT?
Women are more likely to favor going to war.
In the discipline of political science, party identification refers to
a sense of psychological attachment to a party.
Conflict in the practice of America's ideals occurs because these ideals
a. all of the above b. are only one source of political action. c. are general principles, not precise rules. d. conflict somewhat, one with another. e. are all seen as equally important but hard to reach.
Third parties were the original policy advocates for
a. female suffrage. b. the graduated income tax. c. direct election of senators. d. All of these
The idea that each American should be economically self-reliant is most closely associated with the principle of
capitalism
Under separation of powers, the U.S. system keeps power among branches balanced by enabling one branch to counter the actions of another by the use of
checks and balances
The framers of the Constitution intended _______ to be the strongest branch(es) of government.
congress
The rise of television as a source of political information has
contributed little to citizen's knowledge of public affairs.
Close to nine out of every ten dollars that unions give goes to
democrats
Private ownership of the media in the United States makes the American news industry
dependent on advertising revenues.
Compared to citizens in other nations, Americans
do not value order very much
A libertarian is most likely to exhibit the characteristics of
high income and high education.
Generally, the first agent of political socialization that people are exposed to is
family
The major agents of early socialization in the United States are
family, school, community, and peers.
The Founding Fathers had successfully rebelled against a unitary form of government. They had tried a confederation which was not working. Thus they developed a _______ form of
federal
If James Madison were alive today and heard of demands to make American government more libertarian by decentralizing its power, he would probably
flatly disagree
A state must honor the public acts and records of any other state under the
full faith and credit clause
George Washington, generally considered sympathetic to the Federalist Party, felt that political factions
had negative effects on democracy
With regard to PAC contributions and congressional votes, political scientists
have not been able to document any consistent link between the two.
The power of Congress to enact laws by which the national government assumes complete or partial responsibility for a state government function is known as:
preemption.
A direct primary is a
preliminary election to choose party candidates.
The political knowledge of many young adults changes from high school to college if the college student's education includes
questioning established values
The accuracy of the population sample used for public opinion polls depends on
randomness of selection, size of sample, and variation in the population.
In states with caucuses__________________.
supporters of candidates attend a series of open meetings to express presidential preferences.
If a state's drinking laws allowed eighteen-year-olds to drink alcoholic beverages in violation of the federal government's age requirement of twenty-one, the federal government's age restriction would supersede the state's law based upon the
supremacy clause
The notion that when state and federal laws conflict, the national laws will prevail is the
supremacy clause.
An example of a concurrent power is
tax
The _____ is not a national political party because it does not nominate its own candidates.
tea party
When elections are competitive, or close, voter turnout
tends in increase
For the United States, the core substantive principles of democracy are embedded in
the Bill of Rights and other amendments to the Constitution.
A shift away from dual federalism and toward cooperative federalism was a response to the problems associated with
the Great Depression
Larger states benefited most under what plan?
the virginia plan
Public opinion polls can be criticized on the grounds that
the way a pollster words a question can determine the answer.
