POLS 101 – Straighterline Questions And Answers With Complete Solutions

Which of the following is a difference between communism and socialism, as described by the text? correct answer: b. Under communism, the government assumes total management of the economy, whereas under socialism, the government does not try to manage the overall economy. In a constitutional system, correct answer: b. there are lawful restrictions on a government's power. Which of the following is NOT one of the core values of American political culture? correct answer: c. cooperation French philosopher Michel Foucault referred to politics as:"________." correct answer: d. war by other means What new policy was established by the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Gideon v. Wainwright ruling? correct answer: d. government provision of free legal counsel to the accused if they are too poor to hire a lawyer Pluralism contends that, on most issues: correct answer: c. it is the preferences of special-interest groups that largely determine what government does. In a democratic society, who or what is responsible for personal development? correct answer: d. the individual As described in the text, "political thinking" correct answer: c. involves the careful gathering and sifting of information in the process of forming a knowledgeable view about a political issue. West West Virginia, the state with the lowest percentage of college graduates in the United States, correct answer: e. has a higher proportion of college graduates than most European countries. To the framers, the great danger of democratic government was the risk of correct answer: a. tyranny of the majority. In practice, the most significant restraint imposed by Congress on the president is its: correct answer: c. power to make the laws and appropriate money, for these determine the programs the executive can implement. The direct election of U.S. senators came about due to correct answer: b. political pressure from the Progressives. A contemporary legislator who voted for a bill because of a belief in its benefit, even though his constituents back home overwhelmingly opposed the bill, would be performing the Edmund Burke role of: correct answer: a. trustee. Where is the Bill of Rights found in the Constitution? correct answer: c. the first ten amendments Marbury v. Madison is a landmark Supreme Court decision because it correct answer: b. set the precedent for judicial review. Which of the following aspects of U.S. government might be used as part of an argument that the U.S. is less democratic than some other democracies? correct answer: e. its staggered terms of office of members of the legislature In his criticism of the Constitution, the economist Charles Beard argued that: correct answer: a. the Constitution's elaborate systems of power and representation were designed to protect the interests of the rich. In 1787, most countries in the world had a(n) __________ form of government. correct answer: c. unitary ________ opposed the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. correct answer: b. Patrick Henry Fiscal federalism refers to the correct answer: b. expenditure of federal funds on programs run in part through state and local governments. The only counterforce that was potentially strong enough to control the business trusts of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was: correct answer: a. government. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act correct answer: b. decreased state control over health insurance. Which decision is indicative of how the Supreme Court interpreted the Fourteenth Amendment and state discretion in civil rights matters in the decades after the Civil War? correct answer: c. Plessy v. Ferguson The "separate but equal" standard was created by correct answer: b. the Supreme Court. In Lochner v. New York (1905), the Supreme Court ruled that correct answer: b. state regulation of labor practices violated firms' property rights. The individual right that is widely regarded as the most basic of individual rights is: correct answer: b. freedom of expression. Which of the following, relative to the others, is typically more protective of individual rights? correct answer: e. the judiciary In its 1969 Brandenburg v. Ohio ruling, the Supreme Court established the ________ test. correct answer: a. Imminent Lawless Action In Mapp v. Ohio, the selective incorporation process was extended to include correct answer: a. criminal proceedings in the states. In the Constitution, procedural due process is protected by the correct answer: e. All these answers are correct. Which country has the highest proportion of women serving in its national legislatures? correct answer: a. Sweden In 2010, the greatest percentage of immigrants to America came from correct answer: c. Latin America. The Supreme Court concept of suspect classifications suggests that correct answer: c. laws that classify people differently on the basis of their race or ethnicity are presumed to have discrimination as their purpose. The Fourteenth Amendment applies to discriminatory action by correct answer: a. government only. Which of the following groups is MOST likely to identify with the Democratic Party? correct answer: b. African Americans Regarding same-sex marriage, it is true that correct answer: c. younger people are more likely to approve of it than older people are. Which of the following states is solidly Democratic? correct answer: d. Washington To accurately poll the citizens of the United States as opposed to the citizens of a single state, correct answer: b. the sample requirements will be nearly the same. Americans who attend religious services at least once a week are most likely to vote for which political party? correct answer: c. Republican Each of the following statements could be considered true of either economic or social liberals, EXCEPT that correct answer: e. they believe that government should be used to promote traditional values. The Tea Party's key initial issue was correct answer: d. opposition to high taxes. Compared with U.S. citizens of higher incomes, those of lower incomes are correct answer: a. much less likely to vote in elections. The citizens of ________ are MOST likely to participate as campaign volunteers during an election. correct answer: c. the United States Women gained the right to vote correct answer: c. early in the twentieth century. Which of the following is an accurate representation of the public's opinion about leaders and their accountability? correct answer: c. Most citizens have a low opinion of Congress as a whole but say they have confidence in their local representative in Congress. Proportional representation systems encourage the formation of smaller parties by enabling parties to correct answer: a. win legislative seats even though they do not receive a majority of votes in elections. Negative campaigning in presidential elections was first used in correct answer: a. the early years of the country. Which institution receives the most news coverage from the national press? correct answer: a. the presidency Of the following television networks, which is typically considered the MOST partisan? correct answer: a. Fox News One of the reasons the reporting of national news is relatively uniform among news sources is that correct answer: c. the network newscasts are brief and the day's top stories tend to dominate. Which of the following has democracy come to mean in practice? correct answer: e. majority rule through the free and open election of representatives What type of government suppresses individuality, forcing people to think and act in prescribed ways or risk punishment? correct answer: c. authoritarian _______ described politics as a conflict over "who gets what, when, and how." correct answer: c. Harold Lasswell U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Gideon v. Wainwright determined correct answer: c. if an individual is too poor to afford an attorney one must be appointed. Enormous concentrations of wealth and power exist in the U.S. private sector, primarily in the hands of: correct answer: e. large corporations. One example of an authoritarian regime is: correct answer: d. China. Which of the following is an accurate description of the prevalence of college education in the United States? correct answer: b. Among adults twenty-five years of age and older, roughly one in four is a college graduate. The words of the Declaration of Independence reflected correct answer: d. Locke's philosophy of inalienable rights. The Articles of Confederation correct answer: a. Created a weak national government subordinate to the states. The Bill of Rights correct answer: c. are also known as the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. The Constitution prevents the government from suspending the writ of habeas corpus, meaning that the government cannot correct answer: d. jail a person without a court hearing to determine the legality of his or her imprisonment. Marbury v. Madison was an ingenious decision because it correct answer: c. asserted the power of the judiciary without creating the possibility of its rejection by either the executive or the legislative branch. A federal system is one where correct answer: c. constitutional authority is divided between a national government and state governments. The doctrine of nullification is most closely associated with correct answer: d. John C. Calhoun All the following countries have a unitary or modified unitary form of government EXCEPT: correct answer: a. Canada. At the worst depths of the Great Depression, approximately ________ percent of workers were unemployed. correct answer: c. 25 Through its Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court correct answer: e. ruled that Congress could not outlaw slavery anywhere in the United States. In Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court ruled that a woman has a constitutional right to choose abortion. This ruling was based on which implied Constitutional right? correct answer: c. the right to privacy What is the greatest restriction on appeals in the United States? correct answer: b. a federal law that bars in most instances a second federal appeal by a state prison inmate How did the Supreme Court's position on the rights of the accused in state courts change in the 1960s? correct answer: c. The Supreme Court began to protect the rights of the accused from action by the states. Which of the following amendments contains a due process clause? correct answer: d. Fourteenth In the 2014 case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, the Supreme Court ruled that correct answer: b. companies with only a few owners can refuse, on religious grounds, to include contraceptives in employees' health coverage. The "Patriot Act" passed after 9/11 was correct answer: c. expanded the federal government's surveillance power The Bill of Rights at first applied only to the federal government. Which amendment changed this? correct answer: c. 14th Today there are approximately _____ African Americans serving as mayors, and ____ serving as members of Congress. correct answer: c. 500, 40 Which type of household has the LOWEST percentage of families living in poverty? correct answer: a. Two-Parent Family The focus of civil liberties is the ________ and the focus of civil rights is the ________. correct answer: c. individual; group and individual The first woman ever to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court was appointed by correct answer: d. President Reagan. Which ethnic group tends to be underrepresented the most politically, in comparison with other minority groups? correct answer: c. Asian Americans The country with the largest percentage of legislative seats held by women is: correct answer: c. Sweden Public support for same-sex marriage has correct answer: b. increased significantly since the 1990s. Friedrich Engels believed that communism would not take root in the United States because correct answer: b. American workers lacked sufficient class consciousness. The general belief about the role and purpose of government is known as: correct answer: c. Political ideology The country with the highest degree of national pride is correct answer: c. United States Which of the following statements about Americans and ideology and political thinking is true? correct answer: d. Only a minority of Americans can be classified as true ideologues. Society in Northern Ireland is presented by the text as a demonstration of what difference with U.S. society? correct answer: e. the lack of crosscutting between groups A conservative is opposed to government intervention correct answer: b. in the economic but not the social sphere. In the United States, the primary responsibility for registration of the individual voter rests with the correct answer: d. individual. Alexis de Tocqueville described the United States correct answer: c. as a nation of joiners. When democratic governments came into existence, tax and food riots and other forms of protest greatly diminished. Why? correct answer: a. Citizens had less-disruptive ways to express themselves. African American men technically gained suffrage with the passage of the ________ Amendment. correct answer: a. Fifteenth Political parties in the United States originated partly as a political feud between correct answer: e. Hamilton and Jefferson. Prospective voting is characterized by correct answer: d. choices based on what candidates promise to do if elected. The largest share of campaign spending in a Presidential election goes to correct answer: c. media The FCC's equal time requirement correct answer: b. prohibited broadcasters from selling or giving time to political candidates while denying it to their opponents. James Madison argued correct answer: c. for regulation of interests through a governing system of checks and balances. In acknowledging the dilemma inherent in group activity, James Madison correct answer: c. worried that government would be overly dominated by groups, but recognized that a free society is obliged to permit the advocacy of self-interest. Theodore Lowi's theory of interest-group liberalism correct answer: e. deals with the tendency of officials to support the policy demands of the interest group or groups that have a special stake in a policy. ________ wrote that "Liberty is to faction what air is to fire." correct answer: a. James Madison The term iron triangle refers to correct answer: c. a small and informal but relatively stable set of bureaucrats, legislators, and lobbyists who are concerned with promoting a particular interest. Grassroots lobbying is based on the assumption that officials will respond to correct answer: e. pressure from constituents. A main difference between iron triangles and issue networks is that correct answer: c. issue networks are generally less stable than iron triangles, in that the members of an issue network may change as the issue develops. Why have issue networks become more prevalent? correct answer: e. the increasing complexity of policy problems Another name for an interest group is correct answer: a. pressure group. The Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) correct answer: a. allows corporations and labor unions to spend unlimited funds on campaigns. Which of the following groups primarily uses litigation as its lobbying method? correct answer: b. ACLU The most fully organized interests are those that have which of the following as their primary purpose? correct answer: b. economic activity PACs tend to contribute the most money to correct answer: a. incumbents. Congressmen are focused on local issues and the concerns of their constituents. Funding secured by congressmen for their districts is called: correct answer: c. Pork-barrel spending What percentage of state legislators are women? correct answer: b. more than 20 percent What is the procedural tactic employed in the Senate to prevent a bill from coming to a vote? correct answer: b. filibuster "Mark up" of a bill means that correct answer: e. None of these answers is correct. 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. correct answer: c. 25; 30 Since the founding of the United States, the debate over the representation function of Congress has centered on whether correct answer: b. the primary concern of a representative should be the interests of the nation or of his or her constituency. Congressional oversight is MOST likely to occur when it involves correct answer: a. White House activities with the opposition party in control of one or both chambers of Congress. In midterm elections, correct answer: a. the president's party usually loses seats. A pocket veto differs from a regular presidential veto, in that the pocket veto correct answer: d. can take effect only when the Congress is not in session. In 2014, the average Senate race had to raise about ________ dollars in campaign spending. correct answer: d. 5 million Which of the following groups is overrepresented in Congress? correct answer: e. lawyers In initiating broad legislative proposals, the president enjoys all of the following advantages over Congress EXCEPT correct answer: b. being granted more authority by the Constitution in the area of lawmaking. The Whig theory holds that the presidency correct answer: b. is a limited office whose occupant is confined to the exercise of expressly granted constitutional powers. If the U.S. House of Representatives chooses to impeach a president, who conducts the trial? correct answer: c. the U.S. Senate Which of the following presidents failed to win an electoral majority, but still won the presidency by decision of the Electoral College? correct answer: a. John Quincy Adams Why did President Obama sign the 2014 farm bill? correct answer: d. He recognized he had no chance of getting a better farm bill. Which of the following states is MOST likely to vote Republican in the next presidential election? correct answer: e. Texas Congress oversees the bureaucracy by using correct answer: d. all of these: sunset provisions, the Government Accountability Office, and oversight hearings. Bureaucrats tend to follow correct answer: c. their own agency's point of view. Which of the following is true of federal employees and labor unions? correct answer: b. Federal employees can form labor unions, but their unions by law have limited authority. Modern bureaucracy in America is BEST characterized in terms of correct answer: b. hierarchy, specialization, and rules. A written Supreme Court opinion that describes what the majority of the justices decided is a(n) correct answer: a. majority opinion. The Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison is significant correct answer: c. for the establishment of judicial review. When asked if he had made any mistakes as president, ________ replied, "Yes, two, and they are both sitting on the Supreme Court." correct answer: e. Dwight Eisenhower Precedent, while not an absolute constraint on the courts, is needed to correct answer: b. maintain legal consistency over time, so confusion and uncertainty about the law can be avoided. During what has become known as the Great Recession, the Fed began to purchase the assets of member banks. This new monetary control mechanism used by the Fed was known as correct answer: c. quantitative easing. The ________ established minimum wages. correct answer: d. Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 If the Fed wanted to act to increase borrowing by firms and consumers and thus hopefully reduce unemployment, it would correct answer: c. decrease the interest rate on loans to member banks. Passed in 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act correct answer: c. empowers government to more closely oversee financial activities. The GI Bill, passed after WWII, helped middle-income families build wealth through correct answer: c. cash for education and low interest loans for businesses & homeownership The Social Security benefits that today's retirees receive are funded primarily by correct answer: b. payroll taxes on people who are currently working. The Welfare Reform Act of 1996, passed by President Clinton, correct answer: c. placed a five-year limit on welfare eligibility and requires able-bodied recipients to take job training and apply for work. Which of the following is true of American unions in the 1950s? correct answer: e. A third of America's workers were unionized. The foundation of U.S. policy toward the Soviet Union after World War II was correct answer: c. containment. The ________ was created to coordinate domestic efforts to protect the United States against terrorist attacks and threats. correct answer: a. Department of Homeland Security The idea that major nations should act together in response to problems and crises is called correct answer: c. multilateralism. The European Union produces about ________ of the world's goods and services. correct answer: c. one quarter