Get documents about "The Go Po Po Po
Shared by: dandanhuanghuang
-
Stats
- views:
- 23
- posted:
- 12/10/2011
- language:
- English
- pages:
- 10
Document Sample
The Go Po Po Po
Created in 2011 by:
Central Organizer: Dana Clem
Multiple Choice coordinator: Priya Krishnaprasad
Multiple Choice researcher: Selby Seador
Short Answer Questions coordinator: Caylee Conner
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Section I
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
SECTION I
Time – 45 minutes
Directions: You have 45 minutes to answer all 60 of the following questions. Please choose the best
response to each question and fill it in your answer sheet. Any work written in this test booklet will not be
counted toward your grade.
1. The Framers of the U.S. constitution 5. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 was a triumph
favored: of entrepreneurial politics because
a. direct democracy a. it made tax laws "fairer" and cut out tax "cheats."
b. participatory democracy b. key Democratic legislators wanted lower taxes.
c. representative democracy c. key Republican legislators wanted higher taxes.
d. Marxism d. Many Republican legislators wanted to overcome
e. Socialism criticism of favoring higher taxes.
e. special interests had little or no impact
2. A coherent and consistent set of beliefs on the development of the Act.
about who should rule and how is referred to
as: 6. Compared to the Senate of the 1950s and 1960s,
a. political efficacy today's Senate can best be described as
b. public opinion a. less party centered, less leader oriented,
c. pragmatism. more hospitable to freshmen, more heavily
d. realism. staffed, and more subcommittee oriented
e. political ideology. b. more party centered, more leader
oriented, more hospitable to freshmen,
3. The central issue in the framing of the U.S. more heavily staffed, and less
Constitution was that of subcommittee oriented
a. how strong to make the central c. less party centered, more leader
government. oriented, more hospitable to freshmen,
b. how best to divide powers among the less heavily staffed, and more
branches of government. subcommittee oriented
c. how best to break with Great Britain. d. more party centered, less leader
d. how to adopt liberty but still allow oriented, less hospitable to freshmen,
slaveholding. less heavily staffed, and less
e. how to create a truly independent subcommittee oriented
judiciary. e. more party centered, more leader
oriented, less to freshmen, more heavily
4. What effect does attending college have on staffed, and less subcommittee oriented
political attitudes?
a. Students generally become more liberal. 7. Probably the best measure of an interest
b. Students generally become more group's influence is its
conservative. a. age
c. College has only a minimal effect on b. wealth
students' attitudes c. organizational skills
d. Students' political attitudes depend on d. contacts
their socioeconomic status e. issue dexterity
e. Students tend to become more moderate.
8. A block grant is essentially a d. attitudinal
a. grant that benefits a single, local unit (or e. relational
block).
b. group of categorical or project grants 14. In recent years, American voters have
c. reverse grant-in-aid—money flows from political beliefs that are
states back to the federal government. a. very liberal
d. project grant with tighter restrictions b. very conservative
e. a project grant with less federal support c. close to the center of the political
spectrum
9. Restrictions on the powers of federal d. similar to members of Congress
administrators tended to be set aside during e. similar to members of the federal courts
times of
a. economic emergency 15. Which of the following is most clearly
b. war affected by the personal popularity of the
c. prosperity President?
d. national expansion a. how well members of his part do in the
e. social stability House Elections
b. how Congress treats his legislative
10. The litmus test is perhaps of greatest proposals
importance in nominations to c. how well members of his party do in the
a. constitutional courts Senate elections
b. district courts d. how he conducts foreign policy
c. courts of appeal e. how he wields the clemency power
d. legislative courts
e. the Supreme Court 16. The War Powers Act of 1973 requires that
a. Congress not interfere with the
11. Which of the following involves cash President’s role as commander-in-chief
payment to aged, blind, or disabled people b. the President not spend money for
whose income is below a certain level? military engagements without the prior
a. Old Age, Survivors and Disability approval of Congress
Insurance (AOSDI) c. the President consult with Congress
b. Medicare when sending troops into a new conflict
c. Unemployment Insurance d. Congress declare war whenever the
d. Temporary Assistance for Needy President sends troops into a conflict
Families e. troops be removed from conflicts within
e. Supplemental Security Insurance 120 days of the beginning of the
operation
12. Fiscal policy attempts to affect the economy
through 17. A “council of revision” for acts of the
a. money and bank deposits national legislature was proposed in the
b. the price of money (interest rate) a. Connecticut Plan
c. taxes b. New Jersey Plan
d. expenditures c. Maryland Plan
e. C and D d. Virginia Plan
e. Great Compromise
13. The reason a member of Congress votes for
or against a bill or amendment may be any 18. Which of the following statements about
of the following except mandates is not true?
a. representational a. They are reasonable enough, stated in
b. conventional the general terms
c. organizational b. They are the result of court orders
c. They are tied to specific federal grants a. claiming certain inherent powers by
d. They are open to interpretation by virtue of his position
federal officials b. using the militia to overpower state
e. A and B governments
c. using his position to shape public
19. Which of the following was not a device opinion
intended to prevent blacks from voting? d. powers to appoint select Supreme Court
a. the grandfather clause justices without congressional approval
b. the poll tax e. powers to pardon
c. the literacy test
d. the Australian ballot 24. The _______ Amendment for the U.S.
e. the white primary Constitution appeared to guarantee equal
rights for blacks
20. Brown v. Board of Education is an example a. First
of: b. Fourteenth
a. taxpayer suit c. Twenty-first
b. class-action suit d. Twenty-fifth
c. Section 1983 suit e. Twenty-sixth
d. reapportionment suit
e. client participatory suit 25. 25. Compared with the early years of the
republic, the powers and autonomy of
21. Because defense contractors must bid newspaper editors and reporters in the
competitively for contracts, and because the United States today is
military must have its annual budget a. greater
approved by Congress, there is a tendency to b. about the same.
a. delay the acquisition of costly new c. less.
hardware d. supreme.
b. overestimate costs and acquire new e. insignificant.
hardware as quickly as possible
c. pad the contracts with various 26. Congress and the president both complain
nonessential items that they are too weak to control political
d. All of these events. Another way of looking at this issue
e. underestimate the probable costs is to note that
a. the federal government as a whole has
22. The main reason the cabinet is a weak entry become more constrained
is that b. the powers of both branches is the same
a. the secretaries are inherently jealous of as it was at the time of the Framers
one another c. the judicial branch has assumed the
b. not all agencies are members of the dominant role in legislative decision
cabinet making
c. the secretaries defend, explain, and d. national issues are less complex than
enlarge their own agencies they once were
d. they are all personal friends of the e. few politicians are risk-takers and see
president little benefit in unnecessary political
e. tubular organizations schemes inevitably conflict
could the ability of members to
communicate efficiently 27. Which of the following statements is
incorrect?
23. One of the fears expressed by the Founders a. In order to win an election, a candidate
about aspects of the Presidency was the fear must receive at least half of the votes of
of a president’s the electoral college
b. Each state receives an electoral vote for 32. Which of the following statements is
each member it has in the House and the incorrect?
Senate a. Representatives must be 25 years of age
c. In some states, electoral votes can be b. Senators must be 35 years of age
split c. Representatives must be a citizen of the
d. State electors assemble in the state U.S. for 7 years
capitals to cast their ballots d. Senators must be citizens of the U.S. for
e. Electoral ballots are opened before 9 years
members of the U.S. Supreme Courts e. Representatives and senators must live
during the first week in January in the state in which they are elected
28. Each of the following was an objective of 33. The growth of numerous public interest
the Framers expect lobbies in the 1960s was an example of
a. to make Congress accountable to the interest groups forming as a result of
executive a. government policy
b. to oppose concentration of power in a b. the emergence of talented leadership
single institution c. the enlargement of governmental
c. to balance large and small states responsibilities
d. to have Congress be the dominant d. broad economic developments
institution e. legislative capitulation
e. C and D
34. The small, intensely motivated groups
29. Until the 1960s, the civil-rights movement protected by the Bill of Rights are the sort
did not have we would normally expect to be protected
a. public support for radical integration by
b. any white allies among politician a. client politics
c. access to the courts b. majoritarian politics
d. widespread support among blacks c. interest group politics
themselves d. entrepreneurial politics
e. an agenda that was plausible e. reciprocal politics
30. Which of the following were major issues in 35. One reason Social Security looked like a
the three clearest cases of critical or free lunch for much of its history was that
realigning periods? a. Medicare costs were underestimated
a. crime b. there were many payers and few
b. slavery beneficiaries
c. war c. most workers’ immediate benefits
d. economics exceeded their immediate payments
e. B and D d. benefits were paid out by states but
taxes were paid to the federal
31. The goal of the Framers of the U.S. government
Constitution was to create a e. most of the benefits were pro-rated
a. political system in which majority rule
was supreme 36. Several factors have contributed to the
b. pure democracy modeled after the New emphasis on themes over details in recent
England town meeting elections. One of these factors is
c. pluralist democracy ruled by a political a. increased use of computer-targeted
elite direct mail
d. an autonomous collective b. rise in prospective voting
e. republic based on a system of c. increase in the number of televised
representation. debates and visuals
d. campaign finance reform of 1974
e. growing strength of political parties 41. When we say that a powerful presidency has
been institutionalized, we mean that its
37. Unlike other types of mass-membership power is no longer dependent on
organizations, public-interest lobbies a. Congress
principally benefit b. personality
a. legislative leaders c. legitimacy
b. local chapters d. the U.S. Constitution
c. individual clients e. Executive Orders
d. government employees
e. nonmembers 42. The Senate, not the House, became the
crucial forum for debating the issue of
38. Burning a flag is protected by the First slavery because
Amendment whereas burning a draft card is a. the House at the time was dominated by
not. The difference between these two acts is the executive branch
that b. the Senate had the larger black
a. government has a right to run a military representation
draft and so can protect draft cards c. senators were picked by the state
b. burning a draft card falls directly under legislatures
the provisions of the Sedition Act of d. House rules favored incumbents over
1918 challengers
c. burning a flag is not necessarily a e. the House was too decentralized
political act
d. burning a flag represents symbolic 43. The validity of public opinion may be
speech and is therefore protected by the affected by several factors, including
First Amendment a. poll overrepresentation of the views of a
e. government cannot regulate speech political elite
which involves symbolism b. the fact that public opinion tends to be
relatively stable over time
39. Which of the following statements about c. rapid shifts in public opinion
laws intended to protect the privacy of d. poll overrepresentation of political
citizens is correct? culture factors such as liberty and civic
a. They do not really inhibit newspapers duty
b. They exert strong pressure on e. excessive polling in certain parts of the
newspapers to check all stories country
c. They apply to public officials only
d. They apply to newspapers but not to 44. In most states, candidates for office are
other media chosen by
e. They apply to newspapers and radio, but a. the people
not television b. party leaders
c. primary elections
40. Historically, the Supreme Court has been d. conventions
especially activist when e. delegations
a. Congress was in transition from control
by one party to control by the other 45. One effect of the growth in congressional
b. the political system was undergoing staff has been to
considerable change. a. speed up legislation
c. the president was weak and indecisive b. give members of Congress more control
d. Congress was weak and the President over legislation
was strong c. shift the advocacy of new programs to
e. the states’ were without power staff members
d. decrease reliance on lobbies as sources d. If illegally admitted, they cannot obtain
of information a Social Security card
e. increase the influence of corporate e. Their children cannot be excluded from
lawyers the public school system
46. Which of the following statements about the 50. One way to reduce the separation of powers
impact of television advertising is probably called for in the Constitution would be to
true? a. allow the president to serve two
a. It is greater for clarifying issues than for consecutive terms in office
projecting an image b. make the president and congressional
b. It is more pronounced in congressional candidates run as a team in each district
than it is presidential races c. forbid the president from appointing
c. It is greater on primary elections than on members of Congress to serve in the
general elections cabinet
d. It is greater on general elections than on d. reduce the term of office for members of
primary elections the House of Representatives from four
e. It is greater on strong partisans years to two years
e. increase the terms of office for Senators
47. An example of an informal congressional to eight years
control over agencies is when
a. Congress refuses to appropriate funds 51. The small, intensely motivated groups
for agency spending protected by the Bill of Rights are the sort
b. Congress authorizes funds for agency we would normally expect to be protected
spending, but refuses to appropriate by
them a. client politics
c. Congress refuses to authorize funds for b. majoritarian politics
agency spending c. interest group politics
d. the House Appropriations Committee d. entrepreneurial politics
chairperson uses a legislative veto e. reciprocal politics
e. individual members of Congress seek
privileges for constituents 52. Having a strong agency culture can help an
agency by motivating its employees to work
48. Which of the following statements regarding hard, but it can also hurt it by
the warrant requirement is incorrect? a. increasing the numbers of highly
a. The Fourth Amendment protects against structured roles
unreasonable searches and seizures b. making the agency resistant to change
b. A warrant must be signed by a neutral c. reducing cooperation among employees
magistrate, or judge. d. encouraging whistle-blowing
c. A Judge must be convicted there is e. promoting individuals who are patently
probable cause before signing a warrant unqualified
d. A warrant must describe what is to be
search and seized 53. If you wanted to know what a member of
e. None of these Congress really thought about a bill, you
would be best advised to look at how he or
49. Which of the following statements regarding she voted
aliens is incorrect? a. on the final passage of a bill
a. They can vote and run for office b. in the previous section
b. They must pay taxes and, if legally c. during the quorum call of the bill
admitted, are entitled to welfare benefits d. on the referral of the bill
c. They can be barred by states for serving e. on amendments to the bill
on juries
54. One explanation for the adversarial
relationship that has developed between 58. Which of the following statements about
government officials and the media since Americans’ ideological thinking is correct?
Watergate is a. Most Americans describe themselves as
a. the ideological gap that exists between either liberal or conservative
the media and officials b. Ideological thinking may be greater in
b. the use of news releases some years than in others
c. the pressure on the media to retain their c. People’s opinions and their ideological
sources of information labels are consistent on most issues
d. the growing power of local media d. Most Americans take ideologically
e. the use of canned news consistent views on political issues
e. Very few Americans classify themselves
55. Perhaps the most obvious effect of as moderate
federalism in the United States has been to
a. centralize the government 59. Which of the following statements about the
b. prevent states from blocking national U.S. political party system is true?
interests a. It has remained largely stable, with the
c. increase conflict among elites Democratic and Republican parties
d. raise the cost of organized political dominating since the founding of the
activity country
e. mobilize political activity b. It has experienced broad changes, with
parties rising and declining over the
56. A president who is uncertain whether a years
policy he is considering will be controversial c. It all but ceased to exist by the 1980s
would be most likely to d. It has grown steadily stronger as the
a. shift the decision to state leaders power of the presidency has grown
b. leak parts of the policy to the media stronger
c. commission a public-opinion poll e. It has rarely been strong and has never
d. ask opposition leaders for advice truly mobilized voters.
e. shift the decision to local leaders
60. Marbury v. Madison had both legal and
57. The difference between a mandate and a political significance. Which of the
condition of aid is that following rulings was of political
a. with a mandate the federal government significance?
tells a state government what it must do a. Congress may not add to the original
if it wants grant money jurisdiction of the Supreme Court
b. a mandate applies to a block grant, a b. The Supreme Court may declare void
condition of aid applies to a categorical any laws repugnant to the U.S.
grant Constitution
c. a mandate applies to a categorical grant; c. Persons seeking writs of mandamus
a condition of aid applies to a block must go to a lower court.
grant d. The Supreme Court will try to avoid
d. with a mandate the federal government direct confrontations with other
allows the state to do as it pleases if its branches of government
action are in accordance with federal e. Congress can expand or contract the
law appellate jurisdiction of the Court
e. with a mandate it makes no difference
who is paying the costs of a program
END OF SECTION I
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
SECTION II
Time – 100 minutes
Directions: You have 100 minutes to answer all four of the following questions. Unless the directions
indicate otherwise, respond to all parts of all four questions. It is suggested that you take a few minutes
to plan and outline each answer. Spend approximately one-fourth of your time (25 minutes) on each
question. In your response, use substantive examples where appropriate. Make certain to number each
of your answers as the question is numbered below.
1. Assume you have been elected president. Your goal is to enact a legislative program. Discuss the best
way to achieve this objective. Point out the strengths and weaknesses of presidential power, focusing
on the factors a president can influence and manipulate.
2. Over the last several decades, the composition of the Democratic and Republican parties has
changed in many important ways. A major partisan shift has occurred in the South, but other
demographic changes have also been identified. Changes in party composition are reflected at
different rates in presidential elections than in congressional elections.
(a) Identify one specific trend evident in the figure above.
(b) Choose two of the following and use each to explain why southern voters from 1948 to
2000 were electing Democratic candidates to Congress more frequently than choosing
Democratic candidates for the presidency.
- Incumbency advantage
-Gerrymandering
-Differences between state and national parties
3. All presidents complain about their inability to control the bureaucracy. Are these complaints
justified? Discuss the problems a president encounters in obtaining bureaucratic cooperation. Be sure
to point out the causes of these problems.
4.
Viewers’ Ages and Frequency of Viewing of Network Nightly
News: 1974 and 2002 Combined
1974 Frequently (%) Rarely (%)
18-29 45 13
30-44 50 12
45-64 68 8
65 and older 71 5
2002 Frequently (%) Rarely (%)
18-29 19 22
30-44 22 17
45-64 40 11
65 and older 53 8
One of the most important ways the news media influence politics is through agenda
setting.
(a) Define policy agenda.
(b) Explain how the national news media engage in agenda setting.
(c) Explain the primary reason the president tends to have an advantage over Congress
in gaining media attention.
(d) Consider the table above.
• Describe the difference in the viewing patterns of older and younger age-groups.
• Describe the change from 1974 to 2002 in viewing habits that exists for all age
categories.
(e) Given the information in the table, describe one implication for presidents in their
use of the media to promote their political and policy objectives to the American public.
END OF EXAMINATION
