American Nation Government Final

What do political experts refer to as the invisible primary?

the year leading up to the Iowa contest

Political scientist Aaron Wildavsky's "two presidencies" thesis holds that a president is likely to be most successful with Congress on initiatives involving

foreign policy.

How did Theodore Roosevelt change the conception of the presidency?

He cast aside the Whig theory in favor of the stewardship theory.

How many presidents have been impeached in U.S. history?

3

In 2020, Joe Biden considered a number of candidates for the vice presidency before giving the nod to

Kamala Harris from California.

The use of the primary system to select delegates to the presidential nominating convention began in

the early 1900s.

Which phrase in the Constitution establishes the president as chief executive?

"He shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States."

Which of the following has become a significant challenge for modern-day presidents?

maintaining control over what is done in their name

A president's power has largely depended on

whether circumstances favor strong presidential leadership.

If the U.S. House of Representatives chooses to impeach a president, who conducts the trial?

the U.S. Senate

The president is able to appoint more than________ people to top positions in the administration.

2,000

Which of the following statements about the president's National Security Council is accurate?

Its staff of nearly 400 people includes many foreign and defense policy experts.

Which of the following units is NOT included in the organization of the EOP?

DHS

The presidential advisory unit that, as a whole, has declined significantly as an advisory resource for the president in the last century is the

cabinet (as a whole).

The president's success is most dependent on winning over

Congress.

Which of the following patterns emerged in the travel behavior of Donald Trump during his first three years in office?

He predominantly visited states that had narrow margins of victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Which of the following is typical of post-World War II presidents with respect to public popularity?

leaving office with less than 50 percent approval ratings

In the 1970s, a reform of the nominating process required all states to choose their delegates through

popular voting.

Which of the following is a formal constitutional requirement for becoming president?

must be a natural-born citizen

A president is likely to propose the most new programs

during his or her first year in office.

The term stare decisis refers to

adherence to precedent.

The merit plan applies to

selection of judges in some states' systems.

The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in legal disputes involving

foreign diplomats.

In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court

actively substituted its judgment for that of elected officials.

What term describes whether the legal claim in a case is real and significant rather than speculative or based on future conditions that might not materialize?

ripeness

Which of the following Supreme Court justices was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower?

Earl Warren

Federal judges are

all of these: nominated by the president, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and appointed for an indefinite period providing they maintain "good behavior."

Of the following Supreme Court justices, which has been or was the most conservative?

Clarence Thomas

Opposition to the judiciary's creative policy-making role is a consistent tenet of judicial

restraint.

The Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison is significant

for the establishment of judicial review.

The U.S. courts of appeals

review district court decisions.

In its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court

lifted restrictions in corporate and union spending in federal election campaigns.

Of the 13 courts of appeals in the United States,

eleven have jurisdiction over a "circuit" comprised of the district courts in anywhere from three to five states.

A judicial decision that establishes a rule for settling subsequent cases of a similar nature is a

precedent.

Less than________ of the cases heard by federal appeals courts are later reviewed by the Supreme Court.

1 percent

Which of the following Supreme Court justices was appointed during the administration of George H. W. Bush?

Clarence Thomas

In selecting judges, the states rely on what method?

All these answers are correct.

More than________ of the nation's legal cases are decided in state or local court systems.

95 percent

When asked if he had made any mistakes as president,________ replied, "Yes, two, and they are both sitting on the Supreme Court."

Dwight Eisenhower

The Supreme Court is likely to grant a hearing when a case involves

an issue that is being decided inconsistently by the lower federal courts.

________ is/are most likely to understand trade issues in the United States.

Career bureaucrats in the Department of Commerce and the Federal Trade Commission

Which of the following steps in the federal budgetary process occurs latest?

Congress completes work on the appropriations bills.

An administrative law judge

can gather evidence and take testimony.

The majority of federal employees have a(n)________ job ranking.

Graded Service

Regulatory agencies have

administrative, legislative, and judicial functions.

What is the congressional equivalent of the Office of Management and Budget?

Congressional Budget Office

The administrative concept of neutral competence holds that the bureaucracy should

be staffed by people chosen on the basis of ability and do its work fairly on behalf of all citizens.

Upon reaching Congress, what first happens to the president's budget proposal?

It goes to the House and Senate budget committees.

The Department of________ was created in 2002.

Homeland Security

Which of the following is true of the federal government's demographic representativeness?

If all employees are taken into account, the federal bureaucracy comes reasonably close to being representative of the nation's population.

The National Performance Review addressed which of the following issues about the bureaucracy?

All these answers are correct.

Which of the following agencies or departments is likely to have strong allies from a group of particular states in Congress?

the Department of Agriculture

How has the Government Accountability Office's role changed?

It has moved from a limited role of keeping track of agency spending to also monitoring whether the agency is implementing policies in the way Congress intended.

What is the chief way administrative agencies exercise control over policy?

rule-making for legislation

The federal bureaucracy today is

a mix of the patronage and merit systems, with the vast majority of positions being filled by merit.

When an individual believes that he or she was improperly disadvantaged by a bureaucrat's decision and contests the decision, the dispute is usually handled by

an administrative law judge.

The________ established a merit system for certain federal positions.

Pendleton Act

The Senior Executive Service (SES)

is composed of civil employees that can be assigned by the president to any position within the bureaucracy.

Which of the following statements does NOT correctly describe independent agencies?

Their heads are appointed by an independent commission.

The Senior Executive Service was established in________ and consists of about________ career civil servants.

1978; 7,000

The citizens of________ are most likely to take an active part in campaigns during an election.

the United States

What factors impact whether a person is likely to vote?

All of these answers are correct.

Women gained the right to vote

early in the 20th century.

One's sense of civic duty and sense of apathy are attitudes that are usually acquired from one's

parents.

Voting

All of these answers are correct.

1) is a limited form of political participation.

2) provides citizens with a regular way to express themselves politically.

3) is the most widespread form of political participation.

4) does not offer as full an opportunity for political participation as some other activities.

Which of the following best explains why many American citizens might not be registered to vote?

They lack education, don't own a car, and are poor.

Voter turnout is LOWEST in which age group?

young adults

Political protests

are seen by most Americans as something to be accepted but not admired.

As distinct from alienation, apathy is

a general lack of interest in politics.

Which of the following movements reached a new peak in response to the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota in 2020?

Black Lives Matter

Although "independents" are idealized in high school civics classes, their lack of partisanship makes it less likely that they have

political interest.

Which of the following states had its voter ID law upheld by the Supreme Court despite the Court's admission that the law was created with partisan intentions?

Indiana

Compared with U.S. citizens of higher incomes, those of lower incomes are

much less likely to vote in elections.

Eighteen-, nineteen-, and twenty-year-old Americans were granted the right to vote by the passage of the________ Amendment.

Twenty-Sixth

In which of the following countries is the rate of protest the LOWEST?

the United States

Voter identification cards find the most support among

Republicans.

When democratic governments came into existence, tax and food riots and other forms of protest greatly diminished. Why?

People had less disruptive ways to express themselves.

One of the reasons voter turnout is lower in the United States than in Western European countries is that

U.S. registration laws place a greater burden on the individual.

Which of the following is a reason that Americans are more likely to work for a political campaign than are citizens in Europe?

America's federal system provides more campaign opportunities.

Volunteer activity in the United States is LOWEST in the

South.

The social insurance program Social Security was established in the

1930s.

In 2018, the poverty line was about________ in annual income for a family of four.

$26,000

All of the following are true of the Head Start program EXCEPT that it

is fully funded at the present time.

Of the following countries, which has the lowest educational performance, as based on standardized tests?

United States

________ was called "the great leveler" when it began in the early nineteenth century.

Public education

The widespread use of means testing in the United States tends to match what cultural trait of Americans?

individualism

What benefit was provided for veterans through the GI Bill?

cash for college and vocational training; and nearly interest-free loans

Social insurance programs have high levels of public support because

of the perception that recipients have earned the benefits.

Which of the following is true of Social Security and Medicare?

Families in the top fifth of the income population receive more in Social Security and Medicare benefits than the government spends in total on TANF, SSI, food stamps, and housing subsidies for the poor.

Americans are most likely to support equality of

opportunity.

The best predictor of how well schools perform on standardized tests is the

community's wealth.

The passage of TANF has resulted in which of the following?

a dramatic reduction in the size of the welfare rolls

In which of the following ways does education in the United States differ from education in western European countries?

Per-pupil spending is much higher.

Which of the following has led to wage stagnation among lower- and middle-income workers in recent decades?

changes in the nation's job market

Why are Social Security and Medicare considered highly efficient programs?

They do not require a large bureaucracy to administer them.

More than 90 percent of the funding for public education comes from

state and local governments.