US Government Test 1 Study Guide
Most Americans of African descent were not officially citizens in the United states until
1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment conferred citizenship on the formerly enslaved people.
GRAPH Which of the following statements is true regarding trust in government
Trust in government can move up but generally drops over time
Procedures for amending the Constitution are found in Article
V
At the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, the proposed plan to create a congress where representation was distributed according to population was called the _____ Plan
Virginia
The privileges and immunities clause of Article IV is also referred to as the ________ clause.
comity
The ability to charter banks is an example of a ________ power.
concurrent
A _____ is a system of government in which member states retain almost all of their sovereign authority and delegate limited powers to a weak central body.
confederation
Politics can be defined as
conflicts over the leadership, structure, and policies of government.
Politics can be defined as
conflicts over the leadership, structure, and policies of the government.
A government that is formally limited by laws and rules is called
constitutional
Balancing the desires of the majority of the population against the freedoms of the minority of the population is part of which trade-off?
democracy versus liberty
Balancing the desires of the majority of the population against the freedoms of the minority of the population......
democracy versus liberty
The size fo the Supreme Court is
determined by Congress
When radicals won control of Pennsylvania 's government and redistributed land from large landowners to small farmers, the national government under the Articles of Confederation
did nothing because the government had no powers allowing them to intervene.
Imagine that Congress has recently passed a new law affecting health care coverage for Americans. While the Constitution does not specifically mention health care, members of Congress might argue that their ________ powers include regulating health care coverage
implied
The belief that political authority should rest with the people themselves is called
popular sovereignty
Since 1900, the percentage of Americans over the age of 65 has _____ while the percentage of Americans under the age of 18 has _____
increased, decreased
GRAPH In 1992, trust in government was at about ______ percent
25
Citizenship refers to
informed an active membership in a political community
A government that recognizes no former limits on its power and also seeks to eliminate any challenges to its authority is known as a(n) _______ government
totalitarian
If a government that previously had no limits on what it could do its citizens was overthrown and replaced with a government that had substantive and procedural limits on what it could, this change would best be characterized as a shift from a(n)
totalitarian government to a constitutional government
Beginning in 1970, British tax and trade policies
undermined the support for British rule among the colonial elite by threatening the economic interests of New England merchants and Southern planters.
As a result of each state having two senators, Americans living in urban areas are
underrepresented within the national political system
Colonial Protestors of the Stamp Act and the Sugar Act rallied around which slogan?
" No taxation without representation"
Daniel Shay was
a former army captain who led a rebellion against the Massachusetts government
The constitutional idea of states' rights was strongest during which historical period?
the years immediately preceding the Civil War
The American population has grown from approximately ______ million people in 1790 to approximately _______ million people in 201..
4; 327
GRAPH According to polling data in 1964, roughly ________ percent of American adults said they trusted the government to "do the right thing" always or most of the time
75
Which statement best describes American federalism since the 1930s?
Although the federal government has grown significantly more powerful since the 1930s, the basic framework of American federalism has not been altered, and state governments remain important.
In the debates over ratification, which label was given to those who thought the powers of the federal government should be "confined to certain defined national objects" so that it did not " swallow up all the power of the state governments?"
Antifederalists
The inclusion of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution was most strongly supported by the
Antifederalists.
The Boston Tea Party was largely in response to the
British government's decision to eliminate the lucrative colonial tea trade
Which of the following states requires unlicensed gun sellers to perform the most background checks?
Colorado
Regulated federalism is a form of federalism in which
Congress imposes legislation on states and localities, requiring them to meet national standards.
How does regulated federalism differ from cooperative federalism?
Cooperative federalism often involves using funds to incentivize states, whereas regulated federalism imposes requirements on states.
"Due process of law" is generally defined by the ________ amendments.
Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth
In which 1939 case did the Supreme Court declare that the government may not prohibit speech-related activities such as demonstrations or leafleting in public areas traditionally used for that purpose?
Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization
_________ described politics as "who gets what, when, and how"
Harold Lasswell
Which of the following statements best characterizes the relationship between government action, liberty, and equality?
In contrast to liberty, which requires limits on the role of government, equality implies an obligation of the government to act on behalf of the people
Which of the following statements best characterizes the relationship between government action, liberty, and equality?
In contrast to liberty, which requires limits on the role of government, equality implies the obligation of the government to act on behalf of the people.
What is the significance of the Bill of Rights
It ensured certain rights and liberties to the people
What is the main function of the privileges and immunities clause of Article IV?
It prevents states from discriminating against nonresidents.
______ defended the British soldiers who were involved in the Boston Massacre
John Adams
A majority of the foreign- born population living in the united States today come from
Latin America and the Caribbean
Laissez-faire capitalism is most closely related to which core American value?
Liberty
______ are three core values in American politics
Liberty, equality, and democracy
GRAPH What impact did the creation of the federal Medicaid program have on federal grants-in-aid?
Medicaid has a significant effect; federal grants-in-aid more than doubled in the decade following its enactment and were five times higher by 2005.
The foreign-born population in the United States reached an all-time low of 5% in 1970 because the
National Origins quota system strongly restricted the number of immigrants who could enter the United States
What did the New Jersey Plan propose for Congress?
Representation would be equal for each state
Who orchestrated the Boston Tea Party?
Samuel Adams
In response to which of the following events did George Washington say, " I am mortified beyond expression that in the moment of our acknowledged independence....in the eyes of all Europe"
Shay's Rebellion
GRAPH Which statement is best supported by the information in the graphic?
Since 2009, federal grants-in-aid have been higher than in previous years and consistently above $500 billion per year.
In 2020, President Trump signed an executive order limiting the ability of social media companies to restrict speech on their platforms. On what grounds might these companies challenge the order?
Social media companies are private organizations and can regulate speech as they see fit.
Which of the following statements bets describes British rule of the American colonies during the first half of the eighteenth century?
The British ruled with a light hand and exerted a strong influence only in the largest colonial cities
What was the overall importance of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)?
The Court allowed Congress to use the necessary and proper clause to broadly interpret its delegated powers
Why did the delegates at the Philadelphia Convention turn down the idea of including a list of citizens' rights in the Constitution?
They believed that such a list would be unnecessary because the federal government was already limited to its expressed powers.
Which of the following statement about how the Constitution has changed over time is most accurate?
While most amendment efforts failed because they attempted to address a specific public problem, successful amendments changed the structure or composition of government
The profound change in America's racial and ethnic profile since the 1970s was primarily the result of
a 1965 Congressional decision to lift immigration restrictions
The Boston Massacre occurred when
a small number of colonists were killed by British soldiers outside the Town House in Boston
The Antifederalists argued that the powers of the national government should be limited by
adding a bill of rights to the Constitution to limit the government's power.
In the 70 years following the Civil War, the Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution in a way that
allowed entrepreneurs to benefit from policies promoting commerce but shielded them from regulations that protected consumers and workers.
Consider a system of government in which some formal and effective limits are placed on the powers of the government, yet most government.. are controlled by a small group of wealthy people. Which of the following would best describe such a system?
an oligarchy
The Sultan of Brunei serves as a monarch of his country and has the ultimate control of the government. Brunei is an example of a(n)
autocracy
"Heartbeat bills" mandate that women
cannot get an abortion if the physician detects a fetal heartbeat.
In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court ruled that
children cannot be required to salute the flag if it violates their religious faith.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 was significant because it
established the principles of surveying and ownership that governed westward expansion.
The United States, Canada, and Switzerland are all ________ systems of government, while France is a ________ system of government.
federal; unitary
The 1996 Defense of Marriage Act was most closely related to which of the following constitutional clauses?
full faith and credit clause
The fact that state governments are required to enforce restraining orders placed on stalkers and batterers in other states is a result of the
full faith and credit clause of the Constitution.
A representative democracy (also known as a republic) is a system of government that
gives citizens a regular opportunity to elect government officials
While the framers designed a system based on checks and balances, they intended which branch to be the most powerful?
legislative
In 1900, Americans who traced their origin to Latin America or Asia each accounted for
less than 1% of the entire population
The decline in political efficiency in the United States is
likely to have negative effects on American democracy because it will lead to less citizen participation in government.
Potholes and issues with sidewalks are most often considered a(n)
local issue
Compared with the Articles of Confederation, federalism under the Constitution meant
more local autonomy, at the expense of the states.
GRAPH How much larger are federal grants-in-aid in 2019 than they were in 1960?
more than ten times larger
The idea of general revenue sharing is most consistent with
new federalism
According to Article II of the U.S. Constitution, the president has the power to
officially recognize other nations
In a(n) _______ power is held by a group of people, whereas in a(n) ______ power is held by only one
oligarchy; autocracy
In America, much of our politics result from a pattern of struggles among interest groups for influence. This is fundamental to the theory of
pluralism
Maria believes that through her actions, her voice can be heard in government and that she can change ... Maria has high levels of
political efficacy
The belief that citizens can influence what government does is called
political efficacy
The principle of ________ gives the federal government the power to override any state or local law in one particular area of policy.
preemption
States are required to return fugitives to other states from which they have fled by the Constitution's
privileges and immunities clause.
Which of the following civil liberties is NOT included in Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution?
prohibition of government "taking" private property "without just compensation"
According to historian Charles Beard, the framers of the Constitution were mostly concerned with
promoting their own economic interests.
The political significance of the Great Compromise and the Three-Fifths Compromise was to
reinforce the unity of the New England merchants and the southern planters.
Although the United States is a(n) ______ at the federal level, there are provision for ____ democracy at the state and local levels.
representative democracy; direct
The 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act
required the government to prove a "compelling interest" before forcing individuals to obey a law that violates their religious beliefs.
New England merchants hoped to accomplish which of the following by supporting the radicals who staged the Boston Tea Party?
revocation of the Tea Act
During the last 50 years, the American population has
shifted as a result of people leaving the Northeast and Midwest and moving to the South and Southwest.
Which level of government writes the majority of criminal laws?
state governments
The United States first written Constitution was called
the Articles of Confederation
All of the following constitutional provisions were a result of the Founders' desires to create a federal government strong enough to promote commerce and protect property from radical state legislatures EXCEPT
the Fifth Amendments eminent domain provision
Which of the following statements about the House of Representatives and the Senate is true?
the House has the power to originate revenue bills but the Senate does not.
Which of the following laws passed by the Congress of the Confederation compelled states to surrender their western land claims?
the Northwest Ordinance of 1787
The separation of powers best describes
the division of power among several institutions that must cooperate in decision making.
Which clauses of the U.S. Constitution involve the relationships between and among the various states?
the full faith and credit clause and the privileges and immunities clause
Bicameralism is a constitutional principle that represents the division of
the legislatures into two chambers
Antifederalists bitterly attacked which two parts of the Constitution as unlimited and dangerous grants of power to the national government?
the supremacy clause and the elastic clause