Government Midterm

What are the two fundamental questions that allow us to find patterns and order in the chaos of politics?

What do we observe? and Why?

What is the general term used to describe the formal political arrangement by which a land and its people are ruled?

government

A form of government in which a single individual—king, queen, or dictator—rules is known as:

an autocracy

If the populace has some influence over decision making, the government is most likely:

democratic

On the small island nation of Tamazia, the small but elite group of purple-spotted Tamazians, who own most of the land on the more fruitful north side, have invaded the less productive southern sections of the island. Now, they have taken control of all political institutions. Consequently, the pink-spotted and green-spotted Tamazians who make up the majority of the island inhabitants have to submit to the will of the purple-spotted Tamazians. This new government on the island nation of Tamazia would most correctly be classified as:

oligarchic

Which term describes a system of rule in which formal and effective limits are placed on the powers of government?

constitutional government

The kind of rule in which the power of government has only minimal legal limits but is effectively restrained by other social, religious, or economic institutions is called:

authoritarian

Political scientists would most accurately classify a governing system that recognizes no formal limits on its power and seeks to absorb or eliminate other social institutions that might challenge it as:

totalitarian

The conflicts and struggles over the leadership, structure, and policies of government are called:

politics

A state legislature is considering legalizing same-sex marriage in its state. Each legislator must decide whether or not he or she is going to support this bill, which has polarized public opinion in the state. The legislator from the Seventh district is particularly concerned about the consequences of her vote since her constituents are about equally divided for and against the bill. If the legislator votes for the bill, she will gain future electoral support from supporters of the bill, but will likely also face a tough reelection campaign as bill opponents may mobilize to try and defeat her. If the legislator votes against the bill, she still faces the same situation as bill supporters will mobilize against her in the next election. In either case, the legislator will benefit from her decision, but also face some uncertain costs. This description of the legislator's decision making is an example of which principle of politics?

the rationality principle

A politician who helps a constituent navigate through the federal bureaucracy to find a misplaced Social Security check is engaging in \________ politics.

retail

The designated domain over which institutional actors have the authority to make decisions is referred to as:

jurisdiction

A large number of members of the House of Representatives have co-sponsored legislation that amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to change the federal minimum wage. However, the bill must pass through the Education and the Workforce Committee before being brought to the floor for a vote. The chair of the committee opposes the bill and refuses to bring it up for discussion. The committee chair's decision is an example of:

agenda power

Because individuals involved in the decision-making process often have different goals and preferences, it can be very difficult to orchestrate:

collective action

Your instructor has organized the class into groups of three students each and assigned each group a research project on different aspects of the workings of Congress. Regardless of the individual contributions of each member of the group, all three students of each group will receive the same grade based on the quality of the project. After numerous attempts to organize the group to work on the project, you realize the third student in your group will not participate. Instead, you and the second student get together to finish the project since both of you are very concerned about your final grade in the class. However, you are both angry that the third student is going to benefit from your hard work without contributing. Had the instructor told each group that each student's grade on the project would be based on their individual contributions, which problem would the instructor have avoided?

a free-rider problem

When each individual seeks to maximize his or her use of the common pool of resources without regard to their degradation or depletion because no one owns them, political scientists speak about a:

tragedy of the commons

A congressman who enthusiastically supports subsidies for home heating oil but opposes regulation to control its price because some of his closest friends own heating-oil distributorships is basing his policy preferences on:

personal interests

A senator from Wyoming depends on private contributions to fund his reelection campaigns since public campaign financing is not available. While he is personally concerned about the environmental impact of burning coal, he accepts large campaign contributions from powerful coal companies in his state. This senator also sits on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee and uses his position to protect the interests of the coal industry to ensure he receives future campaign contributions. The policies promoted by this senator best reflect which motivations?

electoral ambitions

A congressional representative promises a vote and delivers a rousing speech on the House floor supporting a particular legislative measure because the Speaker also supports the measure. The representative hopes that the Speaker will remember this enthusiastic support of a critical measure when the time comes for handing out prestigious committee assignments in the next legislative year. In this instance, the representative is acting in accordance with:

institutional ambitions

Which term describes the idea that certain possibilities are made more or less likely because of decisions made in the past?

path dependency

A government may be as simple as a tribal council.

True

Governments that are generally unrestrained by law but in which leaders are kept in check by other political or social institutions are called authoritarian governments.

True

A public good is any service provided by the government.

False

The tragedy of the commons shows that self-interest usually leads to better outcomes than the pursuit of noble and altruistic goals.

False

The fact that America's single-member district plurality voting rules, established in the eighteenth century, continue to shape the nation's party system today supports the notion of path dependence.

True

Why did the British government impose taxes such as the Stamp Act specifically on the American colonies instead of in England only?

The British government had spent large sums of money on defending the colonies and sought to recapture that revenue from the colonists.

To show their displeasure with the Stamp Act of 1765, colonists in Boston:

organized demonstrations, parades, and mass meetings

In the absence of an amendment, any power not specifically enumerated in the Constitution is conceived to be reserved to the national government.

False

The Stamp Act of 1765 and the Sugar Act of 1764 created incentives for which two groups to engage in collective action?

New England merchants and Southern planters

On March 5, 1770, nervous British soldiers opened fire on the mob surrounding them, killing five colonists and wounding eight others. News of this event spread quickly throughout the colonies and was used to fan anti-British sentiment by radicals who called the incident the:

Boston Massacre

Staggered terms of service in the Senate were intended to make that body even more politically responsive to popular opinion.

False

Delegates from all thirteen colonies attended the Annapolis Convention

False

Why did the British government impose taxes such as the Stamp Act specifically on the American colonies instead of in England only?

The British government had spent large sums of money on defending the colonies and sought to recapture that revenue from the colonists.

The colonists organized and participated in the Boston Tea Party of 1773 as a response to:

the British granting the East India Company a monopoly on the export of tea from Britain

The Declaration of Independence was remarkable for its assertion that there are certain unalienable rights including

life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness

In November of 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the United States' first written constitution. It was known as the:

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union

The one positive result of the Annapolis Convention was a resolution calling for:

a later meeting in Philadelphia to reform the Articles of Confederation

According to historian Charles Beard, the framers of the Constitution were motivated primarily by:

personal enrichment

Under the Articles of Confederation, each state was represented in the Continental Congress in proportion to its population.

False

In 2020, the five smallest states held roughly 0.5 percent of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 10 percent of the seats in the U.S. Senate. These differing levels of representation of the five small states was the result of which decision during the Constitutional Convention?

the Great Compromise

Prior to the Revolutionary War, British policies harmed the economic interests of which two large sectors of colonial society that previously supported British rule?

Southern planters and New England merchants

The question of counting slaves for purposes of representation was ultimately resolved by counting:

every five slaves as three people for purposes of representation

Article I of the U.S. Constitution provides for the:

legislative branch

The Constitution makes no direct mention of judicial review.

True

Under the unamended Constitution of 1787, what were U.S. senators selected by?

state legislatures

Under the American Constitution, the part of elected government designed to be directly responsible to the people was the:

House of Representatives

A legislative assembly such as the Congress that is divided into two chambers (or houses) is best described as:

bicameral

Which branch of government has the power to create inferior (lower) courts, change the jurisdiction of federal courts, add or subtract federal judges, and even change the size of the Supreme Court?

Congress

The framers intended an active and powerful government, so they included language to signify that the enumerated powers were meant to be a source of strength to the national government, not a limitation on it. This "elastic clause" is most commonly known as the:

necessary and proper clause

The framers of the Constitution sought to insulate the president from excessively democratic pressures through:

an indirect election through the Electoral College

Why did the smaller states object to the Virginia Plan?

The Virginia Plan provided greater representation in the national legislature for larger and/or wealthier states, which disadvantaged the small states.

During the 1750s, the British crown's North American colonies on the whole paid remarkably little in taxes to the mother country.

True

In order to protect federal judges from political influence from citizens and other branches, the framers:

granted federal judges lifetime appointments to their offices

Article VI of the Constitution states that all laws passed by the national government and all treaties are superior to laws adopted by any state. This has come to be known as the:

supremacy clause

No principle was more widely shared among the framers of the American Constitution than the principle espoused by Baron de Montesquieu that:

power must be used to balance power

The principal advantage of the Articles of Confederation was that the central government could prevent one state from discriminating against other states in the quest for foreign commerce.

False

Compared to the confederation principle of the Articles of Confederation, federalism was a step toward:

greater centralization of power

Why might the delegates to the Constitutional Convention reject a motion to include a bill of rights in the Constitution?

The delegates thought that the federal government was already limited to its expressed powers, so a bill of rights was unnecessary.

The Constitution grants the president the unconditional power to accept ambassadors from other countries.

True

The best-known arguments supporting ratification of the Constitution were the eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay under the name of "Publius." These essays are collectively known today as:

The Federalist Papers

Which of the following statements describes the attitudes of Federalists and Antifederalists toward representation as it would likely be observed under the proposed constitution?

Antifederalists thought that representation was critical and could best be achieved in small republics, while Federalists thought representatives did not need to perfectly represent the views of their constituents.

The First Continental Congress called for a total boycott of British goods.

True

In order for Congress to send a proposed amendment to the Constitution to state legislatures or ratifying conventions for approval, it must pass:

in both the House and Senate with a two-thirds majority

Which amendment or set of amendments provides important safeguards against the arbitrary exercise of governmental power, especially within the judicial branch?

Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth

Why did Shays's Rebellion enable collective action among those who wanted to revise the Articles of Confederation?

The rebellion provided politicians who were already convinced of the inadequacy of the Articles with the ammunition they needed to convince a broader public of their inadequacy.

The income tax represented the single most important source of government revenue for the British regime prior to the American Revolution.

False

The system of government in which a constitution divides power between a central government and regional governments is known as:

federalism.

Why did the framers establish a system in which the states retained significant powers instead of a system in which ultimate political authority was vested in a single national government?

State government officials acted rationally and had no desire to lose their power and autonomy to a new national government.

Powers derived from the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution are called:

implied powers.

In addition to expressed and implied powers, the Constitution affirmed the power of the national government in the:

supremacy clause.

Separation of powers means that within the national government there is a clear decision-making hierarchy.

False

Powers derived from the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution that are not specifically delegated to the national government or denied to the states are known as \________ powers.

reserved

In essence, the fifty individual American states are agencies of the national government.

False

The power to levy taxes is an example of a(n) \________ power.

concurrent

In a federal system, the fifty state governments retain sovereignty, which prevents the federal government from interfering in the financial matters of states. However, state governments can become involved in the fiscal matters of local governments, which is most recently evident in the state takeover of the city finances of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Detroit, Michigan. Why can state governments interfere in the fiscal matters of local governments, but the federal government cannot interfere in the fiscal matters of state governments?

Local governments are not recognized by the U.S. Constitution.

Powers not granted to the federal government in the Constitution are reserved to the states or to the people.

True

The framers considered the presidency to be the most important branch in American government.

False

The power of eminent domain refers to:

the right of state governments to take private property for public use with compensation for the loss.

There were no Supreme Court reviews of congressional acts in the fifty-plus years between Marbury v. Madison (1803) and Dred Scott (1857).

True

The system of government that prevailed in the United States from the writing of the Constitution to approximately the Great Depression could be most accurately characterized as \________ federalism.

dual

Over the course of American history, how has the Supreme Court interpreted the interstate commerce clause of Article I, Section 8?

The Supreme Court was supportive of the federal government early on, then limited the scope of federal power and consented to large-scale central regulation of the economy.

In the late nineteenth century, why was the Supreme Court willing to allow federal regulation of railroads and waterway transportation but less willing to allow regulation of factory and workplace safety?

The workplace is inherently local because the goods produced there have not yet passed into commerce and crossed state lines.

The first and most important Supreme Court case favoring national power over the economy was:

McCulloch v. Maryland.

When the Supreme Court ruled that a state could not tax the Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland, it said that when a state law conflicts with a federal law, the state law should be deemed invalid. This ruling exemplifies application of the:

supremacy clause.

Which clause in the Constitution prevents a state such as Florida from prohibiting legal residents of other states from buying property in Florida?

privileges and immunities clause

The Supreme Court case that firmly defined interstate commerce was:

Gibbons v. Ogden.

A type of federalism existing since the New Deal era in which grants-in-aid have been used strategically to encourage states and localities (without commanding them) to pursue nationally defined goals is known as \________ federalism.

cooperative

A kind of bribe or a "carrot" that Congress gives in the form of money to state and local governments with the condition that the money will be spent for a particular purpose as designed by Congress is called a:

grants-in-aid.

The obligations imposed on state government by the national government without any funding at all have come to be known as:

unfunded mandates.

Which presidents advocated converting federal programs into block grants as a strategy labeled the "New Federalism"?

Nixon and Reagan

The federal government created block grant programs to:

give states more discretion over how to use federal money.

Throughout much of the nineteenth century, the Supreme Court continued to strike down laws that it thought exceeded national power by referencing constitutional language contained in the:

Tenth Amendment.

The legal doctrine holding that states cannot be sued by private persons or groups claiming that the state violated a statute enacted by Congress is known as state:

sovereign immunity.

Federalism means that the national government is the only significant decision-making body in America.

False

The first Supreme Court decision since the New Deal that limited claims of federal authority under the commerce clause was:

United States v. Lopez.

In the 2006 Supreme Court decision Gonzales v. Oregon, the Supreme Court held which of the following?

The federal government cannot overrule state laws determining how legal drugs should be used.

The separation of powers sought to limit the power of the government by:

dividing national government against itself.

Within the system of separated powers, the framers provided for supremacy by the:

legislature.

Wherever there is a direct conflict of laws between the federal and the state levels, the issue will most likely be resolved in favor of states' rights.

False

Mechanisms through which each branch of government participates in and influences the activities of the other branches are referred to as:

checks and balances.