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Intro to American Govt
CSCC
121
Political Studies
Undergraduate 1
07/25/2014
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Term
What is the "Rose Garden strategy"?
 Definition
the presidential strategy of controlling communications by making nearly all pronouncements from the same location
Term
The media perform the signaling role by
 Definition
Correct
informing the public of breaking events and new developments
Term
The most fully organized interests are those that have which of the following as their primary purpose?
 Definition
economic activity
Term
The news provides a refracted version of reality because it
 Definition
emphasizes dramatic and compelling news stories.
Term
Objective journalism is based on the idea that the reporter's job is to
 Definition
Correct
report the facts and cover alternative sides of a partisan debate.
Term
The term "framing" is used to describe
 Definition
the process of selecting certain aspects of reality and making them the most salient part of the communication, thereby conveying a particular interpretation of a situation.
Term
Economic groups have an advantage over non-economic groups because
 Definition
they have greater access to financial resources.
Term
Citizens' interest groups are distinguished from economic interest groups by the fact that
 Definition
their members receive no direct economic benefit from attainment of the group's goals.
Term
In comparison with today's newspapers, early American newspapers
 Definition
could not have survived without political party support.
Term
Some groups pursue collective goods. A collective good is one that
 Definition
cannot be selectively granted or denied to individuals; it must be shared.
Term
One of the reasons the reporting of national news is relatively uniform among news sources is that
 Definition
a small number of news organizations and news services generate most of the news.
Term
The theory that society's interests are most effectively represented through group action is
 Definition
pluralist theory.
Term
The situation in which individuals are tempted not to contribute to a cause because they will get the benefits even if they do not participate is called
 Definition
the free-rider problem.
Term
The Watergate scandal illustrates the
 Definition
power of the media to serve as watchdog to safeguard against abuses of power.
Term
If a minor party gains a large following, it is almost certain that
 Definition
Correct
one or both major parties will absorb its issue, and the minor party will lose support.
Term
The first American political parties emerged from the conflict between
 Definition
small farmers and states' rights advocates, and those favoring commercial and wealthy interests.
Term
The issue of slavery gave birth to the ________ party as a major political party.
 Definition
Republican
Term
Democrats and Republicans have endured as the two major U.S. parties primarily due to
 Definition
Correct
their ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
Term
Prospective voting is characterized by
 Definition
Correct
choices based on what candidates promise to do if elected.
Term
Most states conduct ________ primaries.
 Definition
closed
Term
Proportional representation systems encourage the formation of smaller parties by enabling parties to
 Definition
win legislative seats even though they do not receive a majority of votes in elections.
Term
Political parties serve to
 Definition
All these answers are correct.
Term
Which of the following is an indication of strong party loyalty?
 Definition
straight-ticket voting
Term
Which of the following is NOT an example of an ideological party?
 Definition
Greenback Party
Term
Political parties in the United States originated partly as a political feud between
 Definition
Hamilton and Jefferson.
Term
American party organizations
 Definition
are still important, but their role in campaigns is secondary to that of candidates
Term
The major reason for the persistence of the American two-party system is
 Definition
the existence of single-member election districts.
Term
Which of the following ideological types favor government activism in the economic realm?
 Definition
liberals and populists
Term
A member of Congress who wants to act on what the majority of his or her constituency thinks on a particular issue would be advised to respond to which of the following indicators?
 Definition
a poll based on a random sample of constituents
Term
Which of the following is true of the relationship between public opinion and shifts in major government policies?
 Definition
On high-profile issues particularly, public opinion tends to affect policy to a greater degree than policymakers' agendas affect public opinion.
Term
The process of political socialization in the United States is
 Definition
normally cumulative; political beliefs attained earlier in life tend to be retained to a substantial degree.
Term
Which of the following defines "political culture"?
 Definition
Correct
the characteristic and deep-seated beliefs of a particular people about government and politics
Term
The process by which individuals acquire their political opinions is called
 Definition
political socialization.
Term
The accuracy of a poll is usually expressed in terms of
 Definition
sampling error.
Term
Dramatic change in party identification is uncommon and is almost always a consequence of
 Definition
major upheaval.
Term
All of the following ideological types are prevalent in the United States EXCEPT
 Definition
communists.
Term
What are the two distinguishing characteristics of political socialization?
 Definition
Political socialization is cumulative, and is most heavily developed during childhood.
Term
A consistent pattern of opinion on particular issues that stems from a coherent set of political beliefs is called
 Definition
an ideology.
Term
The term "public opinion" is frequently used in reference to all of American society. This perspective is
 Definition
less accurate than the idea that Americans form many publics, which differ greatly in such things as the level of attention they pay to politics.
Term
Each of the following statements could be considered true of either economic or social liberals, EXCEPT that
 Definition
they believe that government should be used to promote traditional values.
Term
Which of the following statements about Americans and ideology and political thinking is true?
 Definition
Only a minority of Americans can be classified as true ideologues.
Term
A judicial decision that establishes a rule for settling subsequent cases of a similar nature is a
 Definition
precedent.
Term
The long-serving chief justice that established the principle of judicial review was
 Definition
John Marshall.
Term
The U.S. courts of appeals
 Definition
review trial court decisions.
Term
The term stare decisis refers to
 Definition
adherence to precedent.
Term
Senatorial courtesy refers to the tradition whereby
 Definition
senators are consulted on the nomination of lower-court federal judgeships in their state.
Term
The Supreme Court is most likely to grant a hearing when a case involves which of the following?
 Definition
an issue that is being decided inconsistently by the lower courts
Term
The judiciary's status as an independent branch of national government depends on judicial review, which grants the judiciary the authority to
 Definition
invalidate the actions of other institutions when judges believe they have acted unconstitutionally.
Term
The "federal court myth" overlooks the fact that
 Definition
most cases arise under state law, not federal law; nearly all cases that originate in state courts are never reviewed by federal courts; and federal courts must normally accept the facts of a case as determined by a state court when reviewing its decision.
Term
According to the doctrine of judicial restraint, the judiciary should
 Definition
defer to precedent and to decisions made by legislature.
Term
According to the Constitution, the federal courts can issue a decision
 Definition
only in response to a case presented to it.
Term
With regard to the lower courts, the Supreme Court's primary responsibility is
 Definition
establishing legal precedents that will guide their decisions
Term
A writ of certiorari is
 Definition
a request to a lower court to submit to the Supreme Court a record of the case it has been requested to hear.
Term
The power of the Supreme Court is most apparent in its ability to
 Definition
declare another institution's action to be unconstitutional.
Term
A president's accomplishments have largely depended on
 Definition
whether circumstances favor strong presidential leadership.
Term
The Whig theory holds that the presidency
 Definition
is a limited office whose occupant is confined to the exercise of expressly granted constitutional powers.
Term
________ has the most votes in the Electoral College in presidential elections.
 Definition
California
Term
The presidential advisory unit that, as a whole, has declined significantly as an advisory resource for the president in the twentieth century is the
 Definition
the Cabinet (as a whole).
Term
The selection of the vice presidential nominee at the national convention is based on
 Definition
the presidential nominee's choice of a running mate
Term
The president's role in foreign policy increased largely because
 Definition
America became more of a world power.
Term
The president's constitutional roles, such as chief executive and commander in chief,
 Definition
have expanded in practice to be more powerful than the writers of the Constitution intended.
Term
The presidency was created by Article ________ of the U.S. Constitution
 Definition
II
Term
Candidate strategy in the early presidential nominating contests (such as New Hampshire's primary) is designed chiefly to gain
 Definition
momentum.
Term
Which of the following is a reason that the nation did not routinely need a strong president during most of the nineteenth century?
 Definition
Correct
all of these factors: the small policymaking role of the federal government; the sectional nature of the nation's major issues; and the U.S. government's small role in world affairs
Term
Which of the following is true of the vice presidency?
 Definition
The Constitution assigns no executive authority to the vice president.
Term
According to the U.S. Constitution, if no one candidate receives a majority vote of the Electoral College, who chooses the president?
 Definition
the U.S. House of Representatives
Term
Which of the following is true of the president's veto power?
 Definition
The veto is as much a sign of presidential weakness as of strength, because it arises when Congress refuses to accept the president's ideas.
Term
The presidency is
 Definition
an office in which power is conditional, depending on whether the political support that gives force to presidential leadership exists or can be developed.
Term
One must be ________ years of age to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, and ________ years of age to serve in the U.S. Senate.
 Definition
25; 30
Term
Most of the legislative work of Congress is performed by
 Definition
the standing committees and their subcommittees with jurisdiction over particular policy areas.
Term
Legislation whose tangible benefits are targeted solely at a particular legislator's constituency is
 Definition
pork-barrel legislation.
Term
Compared to House incumbents, Senate incumbents are more likely to face the problem of
 Definition
a strong challenger.
Term
Through a vote for cloture, the Senate
 Definition
can end a filibuster.
Term
The second most powerful federal official (after the president) is often said to be
 Definition
the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Term
The modern Congress is different from the nineteenth century Congress in that most members
 Definition
are now professional politicians who want to stay in Congress
Term
Because of the inherent tension in Congress between the need for strong leadership at the top and the individual congressional member's need to act according to local concerns,
 Definition
senators think of themselves as being equals and are only willing to be led by persuasion.
Term
When the House and Senate pass different versions of a bill, the differences are resolved by a
 Definition
conference committee.
Term
Congressional staffers spend most of their time on
 Definition
constituency service and public relations.
Term
Campaign fundraising tends to be a much greater challenge for
 Definition
challengers and nonincumbents than for incumbents.
Term
Viewed in historical terms, federalism has been a
 Definition
contentious and dynamic system that has adapted to the needs of the time.
Term
The enumerated powers in Article I of the Constitution were intended to
 Definition
establish a government strong enough to forge a union that was secure in its defense and stable in its economy.
Term
Fiscal federalism refers to
 Definition
the expenditure of federal funds on programs run in part through state and local governments.
Term
Which of the following is NOT an enumerated power?
 Definition
public education
Term
Sovereignty refers to
 Definition
supreme and final governing authority.
Term
The Tenth Amendment addressed the concerns of Anti-Federalists about
 Definition
the powers of state governments
Term
A public policy program on which national, state, and local policymakers collaborate is an example of
 Definition
cooperative federalism.
Term
National authority has greatly expanded in the twentieth century in large part because
 Definition
local, state, and federal governments have become increasingly interdependent.
Term
According to the Anti-Federalists, too strong of a national government meant
 Definition
eventual encroachment upon the sovereignty of the states.
Term
Dual federalism held that
 Definition
a precise separation of national and state authority was both possible and desirable
Term
The writers of the Constitution established a federal system of government in part because
 Definition
the states already existed as established entities and had to be preserved.
Term
Which of the following is most closely related to the concept of implied powers?
 Definition
necessary and proper clause
Term
From 1789 to 1865, the most significant issue of federalism was
 Definition
whether the states would accept the lawful authority of the national government.
Term
The idea that government should be restricted in its lawful uses of power and hence in its ability to deprive people of their liberty is expressed by the term
 Definition
limited government.
Term
The words of the Declaration of Independence reflected
 Definition
Locke's philosophy of inalienable rights.
Term
Through the grants of power in the Constitution, the framers sought to
 Definition
both define the powers of the national government and limit them.
Term
The principle of checks and balances is based on the notion that
 Definition
power must be used to offset power.
Term
The origin of the concept of separation of powers is most associated with
 Definition
Montesquieu.
Term
To the framers, the great danger of democratic government was the risk of
 Definition
tyranny of the majority.
Term
The writers of the Constitution used the term ________ to describe a form of government that consists of carefully designed institutions that are responsive to the majority but not captive to it.
 Definition
republic
Term
The framers entrusted the selection of U.S. senators to
 Definition
state legislatures.
Term
The writers of the Constitution justified different methods of selection and varying terms of office for the president, Senate, and House as a means of
 Definition
protection against rapid control by an impassioned majority.
Term
The first plan of government for the United States was a
 Definition
confederation.
Term
Progressive reforms included
 Definition
All these answers are correct.
Term
In his criticism of the Constitution, the economist Charles Beard argued that
 Definition
the Constitution's elaborate systems of power and representation were designed to protect the interests of the rich.
Term
Which of the following was not provided for by the Articles of Confederation?
 Definition
an independent federal executive
Term
The inalienable rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence are
 Definition
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Term
The process by which a society settles its conflicts and allocates the resulting benefits and costs is called
 Definition
politics.
Term
A totalitarian government
 Definition
admits to no limits on its power.
Term
The Bill of Rights added to the Constitution, among other things,
 Definition
a guarantee of freedom of speech.
Term
________ is the ability of persons, groups, or institutions to influence political developments.
 Definition
Power
Term
In an oligarchy,
 Definition
control rests with a small group, such as military officers or a few wealthy families.
Term
What is a major limit on majoritarianism suggested by the authors?
 Definition
The public as a whole takes an interest in only a few of the hundreds of policy decisions that U.S. officials make each year.
Term
The Greek words demos and kratis together mean
 Definition
the people rule.
Term
What is the major barrier to political thinking?
 Definition
unwillingness of citizens to make the effort
Term
Which of the following has democracy come to mean in practice?
 Definition
majority rule through the free and open election of representatives
Term
In which of the following ways is the U.S. free-market system distinct from the European economies?
 Definition
the extent to which private transactions determine the allocation of economic costs and benefits
Term
Pluralism contends that, on most issues,
 Definition
it is the preference of the special interest that largely determines what government does.
Term
The United States has certain rules in place to keep politics within peaceful bounds. These rules include all of the following EXCEPT
 Definition
autocracy.
Term
In a constitutional system,
 Definition
there are lawful restrictions on a government's power.
Term
As described by the authors, "political thinking"
 Definition
involves the careful gathering and sifting of information in the process of forming a knowledgeable view about a political issue.
Term
A government's authority
 Definition
is evidenced when government officials use their right to exercise power.
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