Ap Gov 2nd Semester Exam

Oil refineries

Most of the debate surrounding the 1970 Clean Air Act centered on the issue of pollution from which source?

Great Society

Medicare became a cornerstone of which program promoted by Lyndon Johnson?

Medicaid

What is the shared federal and state health insurance program for low-income persons called?

Majoritarian politics

Welfare policies in which nearly everyone benefits and nearly everyone pays are characterized by which kind of politics?

Silent Spring

Which book raised public awareness about DDT?

Medicare

Which of the following is the federal health care program that covers U.S. residents over the age of 65?

Entrepreneurial politics

Consumer and environmental protection laws are considered which type of politics?

Client politics

Agriculture subsidies are an example of which type of politics?

Whether beneficiaries of government aid “deserve” it

On the subject of social welfare, a key difference between Americans and citizens of many European democracies is that Americans are more worried about which issue?

Earned Income Tax Credit

Which program involves a cash subsidy to poor working families?

Majoritarian politics

Which type of politics tends to discourage any truly far-reaching reforms in American domestic policy?

Pressures from lobbyists and interest groups

Which factor primarily determines the nature and degree of federal antitrust enforcement efforts?

The National Labor Relations Board

Which body adjudicates disputes between labor and management over the interpretation of labor laws?

Helvering v. Davis

In this landmark case, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress has broad discretion to tax and spend “in the aid of the ‘general welfare.’”

It provides medical assistance to the general public

How is Medicaid different from Medicare?

The Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Which organizations have the primary responsibility of implementing the Endangered Species Act of 1973?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs

What are the two main federal bureaucracies responsible for social welfare policies and programs?

Upton Sinclair

Which author’s book, The Jungle, dramatized the frightful conditions in meat-packing plants in the early 1900s and helped pave the way for the Meat Inspection Act of 1906?

Acid rain

Which form of pollutant is thought to be caused by the burning of high-sulfur coal by midwestern power and industrial plants?

An oil spill on the beaches of Santa Barbara, California

The environmental movement was launched, in part, in reaction to which event?

Domestic

When the federal government addresses issues such as poverty and health care, it is concerned with which of the following types of policy?

In 2009, people packed town halls to protest its enactment, and in 2017, people packed town halls to protest its repeal

Which of the following accurately reflects public opinion on Obamacare?

Interest-group politics

Much of the nation’s laws governing labor and occupational health and safety can be considered which type of politics?

Social welfare, business regulation, and environmental protection

What are the three primary domestic policy domains?

Ralph Nader

Which policy entrepreneur’s book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile led to new regulations on the safety of automobiles?

It tends to be more adversarial

How does environmental policymaking in the United States compare with that in European countries?

Affordable Care Act

What is the name of the recent major health care law mandating that individuals have health insurance?

The Court’s decision in Marbury v. Madison

The Supreme Court’s power of judicial review was established by which of the following?

The authority of a court to hear a particular class of cases

Jurisdiction refers to which of the following

An amicus curiae brief

In many cases, a third party to a court case will file which of the following to support a particular outcome?

Marbury v. Madison

In which case did the Supreme Court hold that the Court could declare an act of Congress unconstitutional?

Judges often believe they have an obligation to rule consistent with public opinion

Public opinion can serve as a check on the judiciary in which of the following ways?

State law cannot prevail over federal law

What principle did the Supreme Court use to overturn Fulton’s monopoly on a New York steamboat operation?

Congress

Which entity creates legislative courts?

A lower court to send up the record of a case for review

A writ of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court orders which of the following to occur?

John Jay

Who was the first chief justice of the Supreme Court?

Announcing its decision to the public and the reasons for it

Which of the following is the last step of the Supreme Court decision-making process?

Only if a federal question is involved

When can the U.S. Supreme Court review a state supreme court decision?

Star decisis

The legal concept of precedent---that, all else being equal a court case today should be settled in accordance with prior decisions on similar cases---is expressed by which term?

Citizens of different states

A diversity case involves which of the following?

The Supreme Court

If California and Arizona sue each other over water usage from the Colorado River, the case can be heard only by which entity?

State and federal courts

The United States has a dual court system which means which of the following?

Class action

A lawsuit filed by one person on behalf of that person and all similarly situated individuals is known as which of the following kinds of suit?

A concurring opinion

An opinion prepared by a judge who supports the court’s decision, but wishes in some way clarify, emphasize, or offer different reasons is known as which of the following?

It is almost entirely at the Court’s discretion

Which of the following is true of someone’s right to have their case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court?

As the least dangerous branch

How did Alexander Hamilton characterize the Supreme Court in Federalist No.78?

They are the trial courts of the federal system

Which of the following statements regarding U.S. district courts is true?

Only the state mandate to expand Medicaid coverage

When the Supreme Court ruled on President Obama’s health care plan in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012), which part of the legislation was found unconstitutional?

Law clerks

One unintended consequence of the Supreme Court’s heavy caseload is an increase in the influence wielded by whom?

Such behavior did not affect interstate commerce

When Congress passed a law that forbade anyone from carrying a gun near a school, why did the Supreme Court declare the law invalid?

Majority opinion

The opinion of a court laying out the official position of the court in the case is known as which of the following?

The federal government could pass any laws necessary and proper to the attainment of constitutional ends

What did the Supreme Court hold in McCulloch v. Maryland?

Precedent

If a judge rules a certain way on a case because prior cases of similar nature were subject to the same rule, that judge could be said to be relying on which of the following?

Freedom of Information Act

In 1966, what legislation established a procedure by which ordinary citizens can request documents and reports form the federal government directly by paying a nominal fee, so long as the documents are not classified?

Appropriation

Which of the following terms refers to Congress formally setting aside money for a specific use?

Bureaucrats who report fraud, waste, or abuse in their agencies

The Whistle Blower Protection Act of 1989 is designed to protect whom?

Cabinet

There are 15 major service organizations of the federal government which include Treasury, Agriculture, Education, and more. What kind of departments are these?

The excepted service

A Post Office worker or Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent would typically be part of the federal bureaucracy known as what?

The president’s cabinet

What do the secretaries who head the departments in the executive branch also make up?

Reduce the amount of politics in awarding government jobs

The civil service system was created to do which of the following?

Pendleton Act of 1883

What legislation created the civil service system and placed limits on the spoils system?

Underrepresented at the executive level

Which of the following describes the representation of African Americans and other minorities in the federal civil service?

There are many more important people and coalitions

Why has the growth of subcommittees in Congress reduced iron triangles of government?

Merit

What is the basis for hiring decisions made under the civil service system?

The cabinet

What is the key set of a president’s advisers who are responsible for the areas under their jurisdiction?

Congress

If it were necessary to create a new cabinet-level department today, which of the following has the authority to do that?

The statutes that create and define them

Congress can exercise authority over agencies through which of the following?

A bureaucracy is a large organization, structured hierarchically, that carries out specific functions

Which of the following statements best describes bureaucracy?

Competitive service

A person appointed to a government position after passing an examination is probably joining what?

15

Today, the federal government contains how many cabinetT departments?

To reduce patronage by creating a civil service

What was the purpose of the Pendleton Act of 1883?

A bureaucracy

A large, complex organization in which employees have specific job responsibilities and work within a hierarchy of authority is called which of the following?

Congress alone

In the First Congress, it was decided that appointed federal officials would be removable by whom?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Which of the following is an example of a bureaucracy?

Reduce spending

Bureaucratic inefficiency might be desirable in that it might help do what?

Senior Executive Service (SES)

Which of the following was created in 1978 in an attempt to give the president more flexibility in dealing with high-level bureaucrats?

Growing number of people who work indirectly for the government

The number of civilians working for the federal bureaucracy has not increased much since 1960. This observation fails, however, to account for which of the following?

An agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group

An iron triangle is a strong coalition comprised of what?

A political appointee

A federal employee who was appointed by the president with the explicit task of carrying out the president’s political and partisan agenda would be known as which of the following?

Elected officials

By definition, a bureaucracy must have all but which of the following?

Tailoring a job description to a specific candidate

Using what the text refers to as the “buddy system,: an agency can circumvent the usual Office of Personnel Management (OPM) search process by doing what?

Issue network

Which of the following is a type of alliance described as Hugh Heclo that consists of people in Washington-based interest groups, on congressional staffs, in universities and think tanks, and in the mass media, who regularly debate a particular government policy?

The political context

The text argues that many of the problems of the bureaucracy in government rise from what?

Merit-based, nonpolitical employment and promotion

What is the central feature of the civil service system?

In the United States, the federal government regulates privately owned enterprises to a degree not found in many other countries

What is one major difference between the United States and other countries with respect to private industries?

The election is decided by the House of Representatives

When no presidential candidate receives a majority of the electoral vote, which occurs?

Twenty-Fifth

Which of the following amendments to the U.S. Constitution establishes procedures for filling presidential and vice presidential vacancies and makes provisions for presidential incapacity?

The president was impeached and convicted

In the history of the United States which of the following has never occurred?

They are part of a president’s executive power

Which of the following is true of executive orders?”

“Take care that the laws be faithfully executed”

Which elastic phrase has become a significant source of presidential power?

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

The president has the power to appoint all of the following positions with the exception of which of the following?

Pocket

What kind of veto causes a bill to not become a law because the president does not sign the bill within ten days and Congress has adjourned within that time?

Franklin Roosevelt

George Washington limited himself to two terms, and no president served more until whom?

It has decreased except at election time

From the time of winning office to the time of leaving it, what can be said about the popularity of most recent presidents?

35

The Constitution requires that the president be at least how many years old?

Speaker of the House

If the president should die in office, the vice president is next in line. When there is no vice president, the next successor in line is which of these?

Acts as the ultimate decision maker in military matters

As commander-in-chief, the president has which of the following roles?

The job of presiding over the Senate and voting in case of a tie

The Constitution gives the vice president which of the following?

Treasury Department

Which department, under the direction of Alexander Hamilton, was “the principal federal office”?

The major executive departments

Cabinet officers are the heads of what?