REA CLEP American Government Study Exam Questions with Correct Answers

REA CLEP American Government Study Exam Questions with Correct Answers The Constitution of the United States was written in the year ________________. - answer1787 A(n) ______________ is a form of government in which the people (defined broadly to include all adults or narrowly to exclude women and slaves, for example) are the ultimate political authority. - answerdemocracy List the three qualifications of suffrage for citizens of the United States. 1. at least _________ years of age 2. is not a felon serving time in prison 3. has not, by reason of ________, been placed under the supervision of another person - answereighteen felon insanity Before 1870, only _______ ___________ had the right to vote. - answerwhite men In what year was African Americans granted suffrage? - answer1870 Women did not receive nationwide suffrage until _______. - answer1920 For the most part, the United States is a(n) ____________ democracy, meaning that voters elect the people who represent them in governmental bodies. - answerrepresentative In some instances, Americans exercise _________________ democracy, meaning citizens vote directly on political issues, and the majority wins. - answerdirect The first direct democracy we know of was in the Greek city-state of _____________. - answerAthens Direct democracy in the United States today can be seen in ___________ _____________ __________ ______________, where citizens of a town make decisions about local matters. - answerNew England town meetings Other manifestations of direct democracy came in the form of ____________ , __________, and ___________. - answerinitiatives referenda recall A(n) _______________ is the proposal by a specified number of voters of a statute, constitutional amendment, or ordinance to compel a popular vote on its adoption; also known as a proposition. - answerinitiative A(n) ____________ is the submission of a piece of legislation (intended or actual) directly to voters for approval. - answerreferendum In 2006, voters in Michigan voted on an initiative to eliminate ___________ _____________ programs in public universities and in state employment. - answeraffirmative action ___________ __________________ programs seek to compensate for past discrimination by giving special attention in hiring and college or university admissions to people from groups discriminated against. - answerAffirmative action A ____________ is the direct action of voters to remove a political figure from office. - answerrecall The Constitution's framers put in place a _____________ democracy because they worried that the "passions" of the people, which sometimes were driven by political fads, could derail good government. - answerrepresentative A(n) ___________ is a political system without a monarch. - answerrepublic A republic is a political system in which the people have political power - that is, they exercise __________ ______________. - answerpopular sovereignty The United States is best described as a __________ ______________. - answerdemocratic republic According to the theory of ________________________, the government should do what most people in the country want it to do. - answermajoritarianism According to the ___________ theory, elites run for office, pay for campaigns, scratch their friends' backs, and accumulate power - all while singing the praises of popular sovereignty. - answerelite Because even after the American Revolution, most of the country's leaders argued that only men who owned a certain amount of property should have the vote, one can deduce that the Constitutional framers seemed to advocate a form of ____________ theory. - answerelite Many see the United States operating on the theory of political ______________, meaning that different interest groups argue for different things; they are then willing to make political compromises and accommodations, which is considered the art of politics. - answerpluralism A(n) _________ group is a group of people acting together in support of common concerns that often seek to influence politics. - answerinterest ______________ ________________ wrote during debates about how to frame the Constitution that "factions" (his word for interest groups) could put their own causes ahead of the national good. - answerJames Madison The English king empowered the settlers in the colony of tobacco-growing Virginia to establish a ______________ ____________ in Jamestown for the purpose of promoting the general good. - answerrepresentative assembly The Puritans aboard the Mayflower intended to land in territory under the Virginia Company's jurisdiction but instead came ashore at _____________ in Massachusetts. - answerPlymouth The Puritans drew up their own governing document called the __________ _____________. In this document, the signers agreed to live under the colony's recognized authority and wait for a royal charter similar to Virginia's. - answerMayflower Compact In the Mayflower Compact, we see the emergence of two important concepts: 1. ________________________ and 2. _______________________ - answergovernment by consent a willingness to live under the rule of law The _____________ __________________ were laws passed by the British government that sharply restricted American trade with the Dutch, French, and Spanish, with the goal of keeping as much wealth as possible in British hands. - answerNavigation Acts ____________ ___________________ was the policy of the British, who were trying to manage a global empire, of not enforcing parliamentary laws in the American colonies before the French and Indian War. - answerSalutary neglect The Americans benefited from Britain's ____________ ____________ in that it taught them how to manage their own affairs in a self-governing manner. - answersalutary neglect Following the costly French and Indian War in America, the era of _____________ _______________ was over, in that Britain wanted the Americans to become more obedient to the mother country and better contributors to the empire. - answersalutary neglect The Revolutionary War is deemed as a civil war because it pitted _____________, Loyalists living in America who did not see that revolution was justified, against others who wanted to achieve independence from Britain. - answerTories The ___________ ______________ was a 1764 British law that imposed taxes on colonists for the importation of foreign sugar, wine, coffee, and other goods, and was designed to help pay the costs of the French and Indian War as well as to fund the British government's operations. - answerSugar Act The Sugar Act established ____________ ________________, in which smugglers were tried without the benefit of a jury of their peers. - answeradmiralty courts The __________ _____________ was a 1765 British law that imposed taxes on the colonists for many paper goods, such as newspapers, marriage announcements, playing cards, and so on. - answerStamp Act Against the Stamp Act did the colonists raise the slogan "___ _____________ ___________ ____________________." - answerno taxation without representation To the slogan "no taxation without representation" did the British preach ____________ ________________, the notion that every member of Parliament had the whole British Empire's interests at mind. - answervirtual representation The __________________ ______________/________________ were 1767 British laws that imposed taxes on the colonists for goods directly imported from England, such as tea. - answerTownshend Acts/Duties The _____________________/________________ ______________ were 1774 British laws, passed in response to the Boston Tea Party, that imposed greater British control of the government of Massachusetts, prevented British officials accused of crimes from being tried in Massachusetts, and provided for the housing of British soldiers in private homes. - answerCoercive/Intolerable Acts The _____________ _____________ _____________ was a 1773 act of political and economic protest against the authority of the British government to impose taxes upon American colonies, in which a mob of colonists cast British tea into Boston Harbor. - answerBoston Tea Party. Place the following events in order from earliest to latest in history: 1. Boston Tea Party 2. Coercive Acts 3. Stamp Act 4. Sugar Act 5. Townshend Duties - answer1. Sugar Act 2. Stamp Act 3. Townshend Duties 4. Boston Tea Party 5. Coercive Acts In the twelfth century, the Englishman ___________ of ___________ argued that law a gift from God and that if a monarch placed himself above the God-given law, then his subjects could revolt against him - even kill him. - answerJohn of Salisbury ___________ _____ was the King of England from 1760 to 1820; his changes in English policies created many conflicts with American colonists, which eventually led to the American Revolutionary War. - answerGeorge 111 Using John of Salisbury's ideas, the colonists suggested that the king of England had placed himself above the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," in the __________________ ___ _________________. - answerDeclaration of Independence The __________ ________ was a thirteenth-century British document that limited the English monarch's power - answerMagna Carta List the three important principles of the Magna Carta. 1. The king could not levy taxes without the consent of his _____________.