American Government CLEP 2022 College Board (Test mode)

Which of the following statements best reflects the pluralist theory of American politics?

Public policies emerge from compromises reached among competing groups.

Which of the following is generally the most significant influence on an individual's identification with a particular political party?

Family

Which of the following committee assignments would confer the most power and influence on members of the House of Representatives?

Ways and Means

Which of the following statements about Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka is correct?

It declared segregation by race in the public schools unconstitutional.

Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, literacy tests were used by some southern states to

prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote

The practice whereby individual senators can veto federal judicial nominations in their respective states is called

senatorial courtesy

Differences between House and Senate versions of a bill are resolved

in a conference committee

Which of the following principles protects a citizen from imprisonment without trial?

Due process

The passage of legislation in Congress often depends on mutual accommodations among members. This suggests that, to some extent, congressional behavior is based on

the principle of reciprocity

Which of the following statements accurately describes the president's veto power?

I. A president sometimes threatens to veto a bill that is under discussion in order to influence congressional decision making.

II. A president typically vetoes about a third of the bills passed by Congress.

III. Congress is usually unable to override a president's veto.

I and III only

All of the following issues were decided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 EXCEPT

voting qualifications of the electorate

The principle of stare decisis refers to which of the following?

The judicial principle of following precedents that were established in previous court decisions

The usefulness to the president of having cabinet members as political advisers is undermined by the fact that

the loyalties of cabinet members are often divided between loyalty to the president and loyalty to their own

All of the following are constitutional rights that neither the federal government nor the states can restrict EXCEPT the right to

be indicted by grand jury

In the electoral history of the United States, third parties have been effective vehicles of protest when they

dramatized issues and positions that were being ignored by the major parties

Which of the following best defines the term "judicial activism"?

The attempts by judges to influence public policy through their case decisions

High levels of political participation have been found to be positively associated with which of the following?

I. A high level of interest in politics
II. A sense of political efficacy
III. A strong sense of civic duty

I, II, and III

In the past 30 years, the single most important variable in determining the outcome of an election for a member of the House of Representatives has been

incumbency

Which of the following best describes the concept of federalism embodied in the United States government?

The Constitution divides power between a central government and its constituent governments, with some powers being shared.

The power of the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives primarily stems from its authority to

limit the time for debate and determine whether amendments to a bill can be considered

Which of the following is a function of the White House Office?

Advising the president on political decisions

A major difference between political parties and interest groups is that interest groups generally do NOT

occupy a place on the ballot

An election is a realigning or critical election if

there is a lasting change in party coalitions

Which of the following Supreme Court cases involved the principle of one person, one vote?

Baker v. Carr

The passage of broad legislation that leaves the making of specific rules to the executive branch is an example of

delegated authority

The redrawing of congressional districts in such a way as to give special advantage to one political party is referred to as

gerrymandering

The details of legislation are usually worked out in which of the following settings?

A subcommittee

A theoretical explanation of the operation of diverse interests in American politics is found in

The Federalist papers

The framers of the original Constitution thought that which of the following would best protect judicial independence?

Life tenure during good behavior

According to the table above, which of the following statements is true?

In the 1996 election, women between the ages of 18 and 29 were more likely to identify themselves as Democrats than were men between the ages of 18 and 29.

Which of the following activities of American labor unions is permissible by law?

Engaging in strikes

Which of the following best describes the relationship between socioeconomic status and participation in politics?

The higher one's socioeconomic status, the greater the probability of active involvement in the political process.

According to the information in the chart above, which of the following statements is true?

The most recent presidents held fewer press conferences per year than presidents in the 1920s and 1930s.

One important change in political culture since the Second World War is that United States citizens have become

less trusting of governmental institutions and leaders

All of the following statements correctly describe judicial appointments at the federal level EXCEPT:

Congress nominates and confirms all appointments to the federal judiciary.

Which of the following agencies determines the domestic monetary policy of the United States?

The Federal Reserve Board

Under which of the following conditions are interest groups most likely to influence policymaking?

When the issue is a highly technical one requiring very detailed legislation

All of the following help to explain the president's difficulty in controlling cabinet-level agencies EXCEPT:

The president cannot dismiss appointees after they have been confirmed by the Senate.

In the Constitution as originally ratified in 1788, the provisions regarding which of the following most closely approximate popular, majoritarian democracy?

Election of members of the House of Representatives

The most likely and often the most powerful policy coalition of interests is likely to include a federal agency plus which of the following?

An interest group and a congressional subcommittee

Throughout most of the twentieth century, which of the following was most likely to occur in midterm congressional elections?

The party of the president typically lost seats in Congress, regardless of whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat.

Delegates to the Republican and Democratic national conventions are primarily chosen

in primaries

The chart above supports which of the following statements?

I. Both Republicans and Democrats have more trust in the federal government to do a better job than state governments.
II. Most groups trust their own state governments more than the federal government.
III. Democrats trust the federal government more than Republicans.
IV. Liberals believe in big government.

II and III only

Which of the following political philosophers most influenced the writing of the United States Constitution?

Locke

The concept of responsible party government emphasizes which of the following about elections?

Political parties will take clear, unambiguous positions.

Which of the following is a difference between the House of Representatives and the Senate?

The Senate has the exclusive power to ratify treaties.

Which of the following was a consequence of the New Deal legislation passed during the Great Depression under the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt?

The federal government became a more important agent of change than in previous presidential administrations.

Congressional oversight is best described as

monitoring the federal bureaucracy

The differences between the political attitudes of men and women are referred to as

the gender gap

According to the Constitution, which of the following decides the presidential election outcome in the event that a single candidate does not get a majority of electoral votes?

The House of Representatives

If the vice presidency of the United States is vacated, the Constitution stipulates that the president must

appoint a new vice president with the approval of both houses of Congress

James Madison's goal of setting power against power to minimize the concentration of authority in any one branch of government is outlined in the Constitution as a system of

checks and balances

The declining number of marginal seats in Congress means that

fewer seats are won by 55% or less of the vote

The ability of the media to define the importance of particular events and issues is called

agenda setting

The power of judicial review was established in

Marbury v. Madison

Which of the following is true of both the House of Representatives and the Senate?

Both chambers employ a complex system of permanent committees to assist them in carrying out their legislative duties.

The authority of a chief executive to withhold approval from specific parts of appropriations bills passed by the legislature is known as

a line-item veto

The weakening of political parties is most often traced to

Progressive Era reforms

Which of the following contemporary political ideologies posits that government power should be used to promote individual economic security and redistribute resources, but rejects the notion that government should favor a particular set of social values?

Liberalism

Which of the following best describes a referendum?

Citizens vote directly on laws proposed by a state legislature.

Which of the following is true of federal administrative agencies?

They have substantial influence over public policy through administrative discretion.

Which of the following is a check on the power of the United States Supreme Court?

Congress controls the number of justices who may sit on the Court.

States, according to the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution

must honor public records, acts, and judicial proceedings of every other state

Which of the following is most likely to weaken party leadership in the Senate?

The use of filibuster by individual senators

The principal source of presidents' political influence is their

constitutional authority to execute public policies

Among the expressed powers of the federal government enumerated in the Constitution of the United States is the power to

regulate interstate trade and commerce

Which of the following accounts for the greatest percentage of expenditure for state and local governments in the United States?

Elementary and secondary education

The use of initiative and referendum illustrates which of the following theories of governance?

Direct democracy

Which of the following best accounts for the inability of third parties to challenge the dominance of the Republican and Democratic parties in United States elections?

The ability of the Republican and Democratic parties to co-opt popular third-party policy ideas

In The Federalist paper number 10, James Madison argued that

the growth of factions was inevitable in a democracy

The constitutional redistribution of House seats after the census every ten years is known as

reapportionment

Which of the following is true of the Articles of Confederation?

They created a national government with a legislature but no executive or judiciary.

According to the United States Constitution, who has the right to create inferior courts?

The Congress

Which of the following is an example of monetary policy?

Increasing the reserve requirement

Congress has the least discretion to change spending for which of the following?

Interest on the national debt and entitlement programs

Which of the following statements is historically true of the electoral college?

The winner of the electoral college also usually wins the popular vote.

Which of the following actions gives the president an advantage over Congress in promoting policy?

Utilizing the media through the bully pulpit

Which of the following is true of political parties?

They try to gain control of government by winning elections.

Which of the following best defines political culture?

It is the shared attitudes of a people regarding government.

Which of the following is the strongest determinant of an individual's voting behavior?

Political party affiliation

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court establish the precedent that a right to privacy stems from several amendments in the Bill of Rights?

Griswold v. Connecticut

Each of the following is a power of Congress EXCEPT

recognizing foreign governments

Individuals who identify themselves as conservative would most likely support which of the following?

Lowering personal income taxes

The phrase "divided government" refers to

one political party controlling the presidency while another political party controls one or both houses of Congress

Which of the following factors has most contributed to the persistence of the two-party system in the United States?

Plurality rules for determining election outcomes

As compared with Republicans and Democrats, Independents in the United States are typically

less likely to vote in elections

Which of the following best describes the relationship between the media and citizens?

Citizens tend to seek out media that reinforce rather than challenge existing ideological views.

The Supreme Court's decision in Arizona v. United States (2012), which held that Congress, not the states, has the sole authority to regulate immigration, best illustrates which of the following features of the Constitution?

Federalism

When judicial nominees come before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify, the Senate is fulfilling which of its roles?

Advice and consent

If a party to a federal civil lawsuit loses the case and chooses to appeal, it would take the appeal to the

United States Courts of Appeals

The United States Supreme Court has used the equal protection clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to overturn legislation that

allows for race-based segregation in schools

Which of the following protections is found in the Bill of Rights?

Freedom to practice any religion

The Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago (2010), which upheld the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for self-defense, best exemplifies the doctrine of

selective incorporation

Which of the following techniques has been used as an attempt to reform the bureaucracy?

The privatization of public goods and services

Which of the following best describes the impact that public policy issues have on campaigns and elections in the United States?

A candidate's ability to relate to voters has a greater impact on the candidate's success than does command of policy issues.

Which of the following is a consequence of the increase in the number of political action committees (PACs)?

There has been an expansion of corporate influence in elections.

Social Security and Medicare are considered entitlement programs because

citizens who meet the criteria are legally able to receive these benefits

During the Civil Rights era, when the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was unsuccessful at traditional lobbying techniques, they turned to which of the following strategies to influence public policy?

Litigation in the federal courts

When the Supreme Court grants a writ of certiorari, it means the Court will

review a case decided by a lower court

Which of the following is considered a government corporation?

The United States Postal Service