American Government CLEP

First Amendment

The U.S. Constitution guarantees the protections of minority rights even while allowing the majority to rule. Which amendment to the Constitution most supports the protection of minority rights?

Pollsters

All of the following are major agents of political socialization except:

The Court issues a writ of certiorari to lower courts.

What is the first formal step in the hearing of a case by the U.S. Supreme Court?

Political realignment

All of the following features of U.S. politics support the dominance of the two-party system except:

Democratic Republicans and Federalists

Which two political parties were the first to emerge in the United States?

delay or prevent the passage of laws.

The purpose of the filibuster is to

Checks and balances

"The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment."

Schenck v. United States

Which Supreme Court case created the "clear and present danger" rule to test the limits of free speech?

Suspend habeas corpus

Which of the following is NOT a power granted to Congress?

Normal distribution

Which term best describes a polling distribution in which a graph of responses resembles a bell curve?

Executive Office of the President.

The chief of staff and national security advisor are both part of the

the national and state governments.

The U.S. Constitution introduced the idea of federalism to divide power between/among

By not signing the bill, Lincoln exercised the pocket veto.

On July 2, 1864, Congress passed the Wade-Davis Bill. Congress adjourned, and Lincoln did not sign the bill. Why did the bill fail to become law?

In 2011, 94% of Americans said that they had "some" or "a great deal" of confidence in the military.

Which of these gives an example of a consensus opinion? (Source: All figures from Gallup)

By granting equal protection under the law to African Americans

What was one way that the Fourteenth Amendment expanded rights in the United States?

lobbying.

The act of seeking to influence members of government to support certain issues or policies is known as

Campaign finance laws prevent individuals from giving large amounts of money directly to candidates.

What is the main reason that the use of political action committees (PACs) has grown since the 1970s?

Dual federalism

Which type of federalism is closest to that laid out in the Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?

Bill of Rights.

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution are known collectively as the

otherwise people may decide not to reelect them.

Politicians must pay attention to public opinion primarily because

It allowed for the direct election of senators.

How did the Seventeenth Amendment change the process of U.S. government?

Equal protection

On which concept of U.S. government did the Supreme Court overturn the doctrine of "separate but equal" established in Plessy v. Ferguson?

Income taxes

Which of the following is an example of progressive taxation?

making rules and regulations.

Offices of the federal bureaucracy are often concerned with

separation of powers.

This structure of government established in the U.S. Constitution is known as

(Legislative, Executive, Judicial)

How do different members of the U.S. government work together to make and approve treaties?

The president makes treaties, and the Senate approves them.

nominating candidates for public office.

Historically, major political parties have been able to exercise their authority mostly by

By encouraging the passage of laws the president supports

High approval ratings can benefit a president in which of the following ways?

The U.S. Senate denies confirmation of a presidential appointee.

Which of the following is an example of the system of checks and balances set up by the U.S. Constitution?

Internet voting

All of the following forms of voting are in use in the United States except:

U.S. cynicism about the federal government increased noticeably.

Which of these was an effect of the Watergate scandal?

It stated that the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government.

How did the ruling in Barron v. Baltimore affect the United States?

The U.S. Constitution favors majority rule in lawmaking.

Which statement best explains why this bill eventually became law? (58 Democrat voted yes. 0 No. 39 Republicans voted no, 0 yes. 2 independents votes yes, 0 no.)

High-stimulus elections tend to generate greater voter interest and raise turnout.

Which statement best explains the voter turnout rates shown in this chart?

open primary.

An election in which Republicans can help choose Democratic nominees and vice versa is known as a/an

House of Representatives and Senate

Which of the following two U.S. institutions have the formal power to legislate?

Marbury v. Madison

Which Supreme Court case affirmed the power of judicial review?

High level of education

Which of the following is most closely associated with a tendency to vote for liberal Democratic candidates and issues?

A member of the Electoral College who votes for a candidate other than the one he or she has pledged to vote for

What is a faithless elector?

English Bill of Rights.

Those who argued for the inclusion of a series of defined individual liberties as a condition for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution drew inspiration largely from the

Serving as president of the Senate

Which of these is the original constitutionally assigned duty of the vice-president?

Speaker

Which of the following positions is at the top of the leadership of the House of Representatives?

527 committee.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are an example of a/an

The U.S. Constitution sought to correct the problems caused by the Articles' limitations on the powers of the national government.

Which statement best describes the relationship between the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution?

cannot be imprisoned without a fair trial.

In the United States, the use of due process of law most directly assures that citizens

party membership and seniority.

The chairperson of a standing congressional committee is generally determined by

Engaging in mainstream governance

In the United States, third parties often serve all of the following functions except:

The practice of bureaucrats becoming lobbyists to the agencies for which they once worked

In politics, to what does the term revolving door refer?

He sought to limit the influence of factions so that they could not put their own interests ahead of the national interest.

How did James Madison try to address the issue of pluralism while framing the U.S. Constitution?

issuing executive orders.

Presidents can create policies that carry the force of law without congressional approval by

ordered the racial desegregation of public schools

The Supreme Court's Brown vs. Board of Education decision of 1954

engaging in prospective voting

A person who votes based on what a candidate says he or she will do in the future is said to be

the House of Representatives

Should presidential candidates receive an equal number of electoral votes, the election is decided by

The murder rate remained fairly steady between 2000 and 2005.

The graph above MOST suggests which of the following?

Democracy

"A form of government in which the people (defined broadly to include all adults or narrowly to exclude women and slaves, for example) are the ultimate political authority." These words best define what political arrangement?

direct democracy

New England's town meetings are examples of

The Federalist Papers

Under the pen name "Publius," Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote

The Mayflower Compact

In the seventeenth century, the signers of which of the following documents agreed to live under the colony's recognized authority and to wait for a royal charter, such as the Virginians had?

majoritarianism

A person who believes that the government should do what the majority of people in the country want to do is advocating

choose the U.S. president

The purpose of the electoral college is to

interest groups

In the debates over the Constitution, federalists and anti-federalists spoke of factions the way we today speak of

the separation of powers

The U.S. Constitution requires that political authority be divided among the three branches of government. This is referred to as

John Locke

The English philosopher whose words are heavily drawn on in the Declaration of Independence was

the U.S. Treasury

Insofar as the Constitution is concerned, members of Congress receive payment for their work from

Senate

The vice president of the United States is the president of what government body?

25

What is the minimum age specified in the Constitution for members of the House of Representatives?

enumerated powers

The Constitution specifically empowers Congress to coin money, declare war, and admit new states into the Union. These powers are referred to as

The Constitution

In which of the nation's founding documents could one point to an "elastic clause" to justify the existence of large government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services?

state legislatures and the people

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution states that government powers "not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States," are reserved for the

Congress sets guidelines for government agencies to follow.

The term administrative discretion refers to which of the following?

an unfunded mandate

The Real ID Act of 2005 was an example of

Filibuster

Senators have the power to "talk a bill to death." What is the formal term for this procedure?

a bill

A piece of legislation proposed to Congress is called

They end debate in the Senate.

What do unanimous consent agreements accomplish?

indirect democracy

When voting for presidential candidates, residents of the states are saying that they want their state's Electoral College votes to go to that candidate. This is an example of

paying a legislator in exchange for a vote in favor of the interest group

An interest group perceives a problem and then works to encourage legislation that addresses the problem. Interest groups can legally promote their agendas by doing all of the following EXCEPT

A two-thirds vote must occur in both Congressional chambers.

When a bill has passed through a subcommittee, a full committee, and both Congressional houses, the president can still kill the bill via veto. What must happen for a presidential veto to be overturned?

It becomes law.

If a president neither signs nor vetoes a piece of legislation within 10 days and Congress remains in session, what becomes of the bill?

creation of a Congressional district to ensure the election of a person from a certain political party or ethnic or racial group

Gerrymandering refers to the

Members of the House of Representatives

Which of the following can most easily practice home style?

official mail

A Congressperson's franking privileges pertain to

two-thirds of the Senate alone

Agreements between the United States and foreign nations can be made by a president's administration, but for the agreement to go into effect it must have the concurrence of

have power that could check, but also could be checked by, other branches of government

Through the years, different presidents have held different levels of power vis-à-vis Congress, but the Constitution's framers wanted the U.S. president to

U.S. president

The highest person in the military's chain of command is the

the combined number of the state's U.S. representatives and senators

A state's representation in the electoral college most directly reflects

requiring the vice president, as president of the Senate, to participate in Senate votes

Presidents can shape the nation's legislative agenda in all of the following ways EXCEPT

Recent immigrants have a higher dropout rate than native-born Americans.

The above graph showing high school dropout rates suggests which of the following?

Delegated them to the president

In times of national emergency, or when the government needs to act quickly and flexibly, Congress has done what with its federal powers?

The speaker of the House of Representatives

According to the Constitution, the vice president gains the presidency if the president dies or is incapacitated. According to the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, if both the president and vice president are incapacitated, who rises to the presidency?

Passing legislation

The item above is taken from a Library of Congress Web page (2008). To what general political process does the information refer?

should be understood to apply to individuals and their right to possess firearms

According to a Supreme Court decision in 2008, the Second Amendment

prohibits the federal government from promoting one religion as the religion of the state

The Bill of Rights' establishment clause

eliminated prayer organized by public schools

The Supreme Court case Engel v. Vitale (1962)

Schenck's speech and action had presented a public danger in a time of war, and his conviction was upheld.

Charles Schenck was arrested and charged with the federal crime of trying to inhibit military recruitment in a time of war. What was the Supreme Court's decision in the resulting case, Schenck v. United States (1919)?

Balanced Budget Act

Which of the following acts, signed by President Bill Clinton, resulted in a balanced budget and a surplus for the first time since the end of the 1960s?

strengthen federal power at the expense of state power

The effect of the Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland was to

Random selection, sample size, and variation

The theory of sampling relies on which of the following key factors?

a verification party

Each of the following is a kind of third party EXCEPT

senatorial courtesy

By tradition, before a president nominates a person to serve as a federal judge, the president ensures that the senators from the candidate's home state support his or her nomination. This is referred to as

Republican

The Grand Old Party (GOP) is a lesser-used name for what political party?