The Basics of American Politics By Gary Wasserman

Lesson 2

1. Which of the following men did NOT attend the Constitutional Convention?

a. Benjamin Franklin

b. George Washington

c. John  Adams

d. Thomas  Jefferson

2. The Great Compromise:

a. Established representation based population in the Senate.

b. Allowed state legislatures to choose House members.

c. Solved the problem of representation by big and small stated through proportional representation in the House and equal state representation in the Senate.

d. Created the mechanism to end slavery

3. Which of the following is a true statement about the Federalists and Anti-Federalists?

a. Both factions distrusted the power of state governments.

b. The Anti-Federalists preferred a nonelected judiciary and indirectly elected president.

c. Both factions did not fear foreign threats.

d. Federalists were pessimistic about human nature, and Anti-Federalists were more optimistic about human nature.

4. The Federalist Papers:

a. Were written to persuade the public to support ratification of the Constitution.

b. Both A and C are correct

c. Were attack against the Framers and supported continuation of the Articles of Confederation.

d. Were written by three of the Framers under the pseudonym Publius and published in the New York newspaper.

5. Which of the following was NOT an author of the Federalist Papers?

a. John Jay

b. John Adams

c. James Madison

d. George Washington

6. Which of the following issues was NOT a major concern of the Ant-Federalists concerning the Constitution?

a. Ensuring that state criminal law would continue to be enforced by state courts

b. The new powers granted to the national government

c. Ensuring that individual rights and liberties would be protected

d. Preserving the powers of the states

7. Despite the principle of separation of powers, which of the following is an example of the presidents's (the executive) legislative powers?

a. The power to set tariffs on imported goods

b. Executive review of Supreme Court decisions

c. The power to remove cabinet secretaries

d. The power to recommend measures to Congress

8. The U.S. Constitution is approximately:

a. 30,000 words

b. 1,000 words

c. 7,000 words

d. 17,000 words

9. Why was the division of power among the three branches of government an insufficient means to balance their powers?

a. Congress has more members than the other two branches.

b. The legislature, as the only initiator of laws, could dominate the other two branches.

c. Supreme Court judges are impeachable.

d. The president could become a dictator.

10. Judicial review is the practice of:

a. Periodic review of presidential foreign policy by individual justices.

b. Review of Supreme Court decisions by Congress.

c. Systematic evaluation of lower court decisions by the Supreme Court

d. Determination by the federal courts of the constitutionality of state and federal law and of actions by Congress and the president.

11. Which of the following relationships is NOT an example of the system of checks and balances built into the Constitution?

a. A Supreme Court decision can be overturned by an amendment to the Constitution.

b. House committee decisions can be overturned on the floor of the House by a majority vote.

c. A presidential veto can be overridden by a supermajority of Congress.

d. Presidential use of the military is limited by the appropriations power of Congress.

12. Under the system of federalism;

a. Power is unlikely to be concentrated in one level of government.

b. Only the federal government has exclusive powers

c. Only the state government have exclusive powers

d. Only state government act directly upon the people.

13. The Constitution can be amended by:

a. A national referendum.

b. A two-thirds vote of each house of Congress and three-fourths of the state legislatures.

c. A majority of the Supreme Court and Congress, with the president's signature.

d. A three-fourths vote of state legislatures and the president's signature.

14. Public education involves the federal government in which of the following ways?

a. Overseeing local school boards

b. Ensuring equal funding for all schools

c. Providing funding for school construction

d. Forbidding racial discrimination

15. Backers of a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution might consider the following strategy;

a. Mounting a federal court case and seeking appeals to the Supreme Court.

b. Pursuing approval of an amendment in the House and Senate, to then be sent to state legislatures.

c. Collecting signatures to mount the proposal as a national referendum.

d. Seeking support for such an amendment through approval by at least 34 state conventions, as almost occurred in the 1980s.

16. The primary motivation of the Framers, according to Charles Beard, was to:

a. Provide opportunities for political advancement for the Framers.

b. Protect their property rights through creation of a strong national government.

c. Strengthen states' rights in order to allow more effective resolution of property disputes.

d. Create an egalitarian system of property distribution.

17. Which of the following presidents is credited with creation of the New Federalism?

a. Bill Clinton

b. Ronald Reagan

c. George W. Bush

d. Jimmy Carter

18. The Twenty-seventh Amendment;

a. Lowered the voting age to 18

b. Reinforced the due-process clause

c. Specifies parameters for congressional pay raises.

d. Liberalizes illegal searches and seizures

19. Realistic application of constitutional principles depends on:

a. The hypocrisy of politicians

b. Current political relationships

c. The absolutist language of the document

d. An understanding of the motives of the Framers.

20. Some might suggest that the Constitution favored placing power in the hands of economics elites. Which of the following does NOT fit this argument?

a. The Electoral College

b. The Tenth Amendment

c. The election of senators

d. The presidential veto