a. American citizens | ||
b. British citizens | ||
c. New York citizens | ||
d. Attendees of the Constitutional Convention |
a. A president should have a strong vice president to provide advice. | ||
b. Our new government must have a system of checks and balances. | ||
c. The Senate should have 100 members. | ||
d. Presidents should serve a term of four years. |
a. The presidential cabinet | ||
b. The vice president as president of the Senate | ||
c. Presidential appointments | ||
d. The president's role as commander in chief |
a. The Electoral College is a good idea, because small states receive a disproportionately large representation. | ||
b. Members of the Electoral College will have more information and therefore will be more capable of selecting the president than their fellow citizens. | ||
c. Members of the Electoral College are more likely to select a president who is virtuous and non-corrupt than the general public. | ||
d. Although the public does not directly elect the president, they still indirectly choose the president by voting on the members of the Electoral College. |
a. A single president is easier to elect. | ||
b. Multiple presidents would have too much power. | ||
c. Multiple presidents are subject to differing opinions, which is especially dangerous in times of emergency when quick action is required. | ||
d. Multiple presidents would be harder to convince to step down at the end of their terms. |
a. The term is too short for power to be wielded effectively. | ||
b. The term is too long for a single person to sustain the duties assigned to him as president. | ||
c. The term is too short, because the country will be constantly subject to presidential elections. | ||
d. The term is too long for someone endowed with such power to be trusted to relinquish it. |
a. The power to declare war on other nations | ||
b. The power to act as commander in chief of the military | ||
c. The power to nominate Supreme Court judges | ||
d. The power to nominate US ambassadors |
a. all Pentagon activities. | ||
b. the federal judiciary. | ||
c. his party's effort to craft new legislative initiatives. | ||
d. the implementation of laws. |
a. executive privilege. | ||
b. line-item veto. | ||
c. executive order. | ||
d. executive prerogative. |
a. Chief executive | ||
b. Political party leader | ||
c. Commander in chief | ||
d. President pro tempore |
a. A surprisingly independent executive bureaucracy | ||
b. Partisan opposition in the Senate to presidential appointees | ||
c. Judicial review of presidential appointees | ||
d. A more critical media |
a. Presidential nomination of Supreme Court justices | ||
b. The increasingly polarized two-party system | ||
c. The expansion of the executive branch | ||
d. The constitutional indeterminacy of the presidency |
a. Woodrow Wilson | ||
b. William McKinley | ||
c. Theodore Roosevelt | ||
d. Herbert Hoover |
a. Give the president the ability to unilaterally sign treaties with other countries | ||
b. Make the president the "sole organ" who was in charge of foreign affairs | ||
c. Give most of the responsibility over foreign policy to the legislative branch | ||
d. Give the president the ability to declare war without consent from Congress |
a. He made significant contributions to the development and growth of the presidency outside of a period of polarizing conflict or war. | ||
b. He had military experience, meaning Congress was more willing to grant him power over foreign policy. | ||
c. He was not afraid of public speaking and was the first president to deliver the State of the Union address in person. | ||
d. He used the vice president's constitutional role as president of the Senate to his advantage. |
a. by the president alone. | ||
b. by the majority party in Congress. | ||
c. by a large number of actors in the executive and legislative branches of government. | ||
d. by members of the federal government and special interest groups. |
a. Declaring war on a foreign country | ||
b. Negotiating foreign treaties and executive agreements | ||
c. Proposing foreign policy legislation | ||
d. Responding to foreign events |
a. National Security Council. | ||
b. Department of State. | ||
c. Department of Defense. | ||
d. Central Intelligence Agency. |
a. The vice president | ||
b. The national security advisor | ||
c. The White House director of communications | ||
d. The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation |
a. the legislative branch has more foreign policy power than the executive branch. | ||
b. US foreign policy will always be flawed because of the separation of powers and checks and balances established in the Constitution. | ||
c. the executive branch has more foreign policy power than the legislative branch. | ||
d. both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government play a role in foreign policy development. |
a. only the Supreme Court can make this determination. | ||
b. it depends upon how the foreign policy process plays out for any given situation. | ||
c. the Constitution is ambiguous about foreign policy powers. | ||
d. the state department is part of both the executive and legislative branches of government. |
a. All America presidents can be trusted to use this power responsibly. | ||
b. Congress cannot be trusted to use this power responsibly. | ||
c. The Supreme Court has specifically authorized presidents to exercise this power. | ||
d. Congress's only constitutional check on a president's war powers is the power to control the funding of the military. |
a. send troops into combat for up to 60 days, unless Congress votes to approve the action. | ||
b. send troops into combat for an unlimited amount of time, if US national security is at stake. | ||
c. only send troops into combat if Congress votes to approve the action. | ||
d. never send troops into combat without congressional approval. |
a. If information gaps exist in a policy, then the policy is flawed. | ||
b. If information gaps exist in a policy, then it is essential to calculate the risk associated with those gaps. | ||
c. All information gaps must be closed to formulate effective foreign policy. | ||
d. Because all information gaps lead to assumptions, they equally decrease the legitimacy of a foreign policy. |
a. The president | ||
b. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | ||
c. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) | ||
d. The intelligence community |
a. All government institutions are naturally corrupt. | ||
b. Secrecy is the only way for government institutions to function. | ||
c. Secrecy lends legitimacy to government institutions. | ||
d. Secrecy enables power. |
a. It subjected all surveillance to the Supreme Court's oversight. | ||
b. It outlawed all secret surveillance. | ||
c. It made the practice clearly legal. | ||
d. It forced the executive branch to be transparent about all foreign surveillance. |
a. interventionist. | ||
b. belligerent. | ||
c. imperialistic. | ||
d. isolationist. |
a. Native American attacks in the West. | ||
b. slave uprising in the southern states. | ||
c. European intervention in North America. | ||
d. conflict between England and France. |
a. It led to an interventionist and imperialistic foreign policy. | ||
b. It led to a re-emergence of US isolationist foreign policy. | ||
c. It caused regional insecurity that would dominate US foreign policy for over a century. | ||
d. It caused the US to abandon territory in the southern and western parts of North America. |
a. The Treaty of Versailles | ||
b. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization | ||
c. The United Nations | ||
d. The League of Nations |
a. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff | ||
b. The secretary of state | ||
c. The vice president | ||
d. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency |
a. The Central Intelligence Agency | ||
b. The National Security Agency | ||
c. The Department of Homeland Security | ||
d. The Department of Defense |
a. Congress | ||
b. The Supreme Court | ||
c. The Central Intelligence Agency | ||
d. The Department of Homeland Security |
a. the vice president. | ||
b. the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. | ||
c. the national security advisor. | ||
d. the director of central intelligence. |
a. The rise of China | ||
b. The end of the Cold War | ||
c. The war on terror | ||
d. The advent of globalization and interdependence |
a. Diplomacy is the least costly option. | ||
b. Diplomacy is always the most effective option to prevent conflict. | ||
c. Diplomacy is usually more strategically viable than military options. | ||
d. Engaging in diplomacy with the hopes of preventing conflict adheres to US values. |
a. The removal of combat troops from Iraq | ||
b. Setting a deadline for the removal of combat troops from Afghanistan | ||
c. Entering into a military conflict in Libya | ||
d. Using torture as an intelligence-gathering tool |
a. An increased military presence in the Middle East | ||
b. The New START Treaty with Russia | ||
c. Ending the war in Iraq | ||
d. Unprecedented economic sanctions on Iran |
a. He consolidated domestic national security power more than any previous president. | ||
b. He vastly increased the budget for the US military. | ||
c. The US was immensely more powerful at the end of the Cold War. | ||
d. Congress gave President George H. W. Bush more power than any other president. |
a. a catastrophic failure, due to incompetent leadership. | ||
b. a demonstration of the weakness of the presidency relative to military commanders. | ||
c. a successful example of strategic diplomacy from a position of strength. | ||
d. a demonstration of the impotence of strategic diplomacy. |
a. It is not an implied power of the executive branch. | ||
b. It violates the separation of powers. | ||
c. It gives the president too little power over legislative policy. | ||
d. It impinges upon the Supreme Court's judicial review power. |
a. congressional investigation. | ||
b. impounding funds. | ||
c. congressional oversight. | ||
d. the legislative veto. |
a. The different constituencies have gridlocked Washington, DC, to the point of getting nothing done. | ||
b. The results of elections across each constituency are actually similar, which facilitates the passage of legislation. | ||
c. The representation in the Senate is a violation of the Supreme Court's "one person, one vote" doctrine, unlike the House. | ||
d. It is rare that the House, Senate, and president all agree on policy, because they have different constituencies, which is also why the Supreme Court nomination process takes so long. |
a. There is little support for constitutional reform when it comes to representation. | ||
b. A majority of Americans highly support abolishing the Senate and replacing it with another House of Representatives. | ||
c. A majority of Americans would prefer if members of Congress would elect the president from within the Senate or the House. | ||
d. Most Americans are tired of partisan politics and would prefer if a third party won the presidency. |
a. Presidents have no problem convincing members of their own party to support them. | ||
b. Just because the president and the majority in Congress are of the same party does not mean Congress will always support the president's initiatives. | ||
c. Presidents should not try to establish friendships with members of Congress, as doing so puts presidents at risk of political betrayal. | ||
d. Congress defers to the president on Supreme Court nominees regardless of their constitutional obligation to provide "advice and consent." |
a. To vote on the president's nominees, providing 60 "yes" votes to overcome any potential filibuster | ||
b. To provide advice and consent to the president | ||
c. To take a vote in the judiciary committee followed by a vote on the floor for the president's nominees | ||
d. The Senate can select its own nominee if a majority does not like the president's nominee |
a. It involves congressional appointment of a nominee, without presidential involvement. | ||
b. It involves tension between the Senate and the president because both must approve of a nominee. | ||
c. It allows the Senate to approve of a nominee during a congressional recess, without the advice and consent of the House of Representatives. | ||
d. It allows the president to appoint a nominee during a congressional recess, without the advice and consent of the Senate. |
a. William Clinton | ||
b. George W. Bush | ||
c. Gerald Ford | ||
d. Dwight Eisenhower |
a. a presidential order. | ||
b. a gentleman's agreement. | ||
c. an executive order. | ||
d. an executive agreement. |
a. The principle of limited government | ||
b. The principle of the separation of powers | ||
c. The principle of transparency | ||
d. The principle of congressional oversight |
a. By the Supreme Court | ||
b. By the executive branch eventually turning over the evidence requested by Congress | ||
c. By Congress eventually withdrawing its request for the evidence | ||
d. By some compromise between the executive branch and Congress |
a. The foreign-domestic divide in intelligence gathering | ||
b. The Patriot Act | ||
c. The authorized use of torture by the intelligence community | ||
d. The creation of the Department of Homeland Security |
a. Impeachment is an important component of our separation of powers system. | ||
b. Impeachment is unconstitutional. | ||
c. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should not be responsible for presiding over the president's impeachment trial. | ||
d. Impeachments have been overused in our history. |
a. Chief executive powers | ||
b. Legislative powers | ||
c. Agenda-setting powers | ||
d. Implied constitutional powers |
a. The resources available | ||
b. The number of citizens affected | ||
c. The power of the agenda-setter | ||
d. The intensity of the issue |
a. saving US capitalism from collapse. | ||
b. revitalizing the US military. | ||
c. pushing Congress and the Supreme Court to end segregation. | ||
d. supporting the labor movement in an effort to increase wages and working conditions. |
a. ending poverty. | ||
b. racial justice. | ||
c. consumer protection. | ||
d. gender equality. |
a. protect the environment from damaging resource gathering. | ||
b. reduce the size of the federal government. | ||
c. sustain the civil rights progress made in previous administrations. | ||
d. overturn Roe v. Wade. |
a. aid to state governments. | ||
b. the creation of new public sector jobs. | ||
c. middle-class tax cuts. | ||
d. investment in infrastructure. |
a. The president can fire whomever he wants, whenever he wants. | ||
b. The president is commander in chief and has a right to blockade ports as a method of waging war. | ||
c. The court was wrong in its decision in Myers v. United States (1926), and in this case decided that the president should not be allowed to fire anyone. | ||
d. The president can fire some members of the executive branch but cannot fire workers in quasi-legislative positions. |
a. was correct to fire the city of Youngstown's steel mill workers. | ||
b. exceeded his executive power by trying to seize the steel companies. | ||
c. should have created an executive agency to regulate the steel mills. | ||
d. asked too much of steel workers during World War II. |
a. The president does not have the right to fire the head of the INS. | ||
b. The legislative veto is unconstitutional. | ||
c. Enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay are entitled to due process. | ||
d. Presidents cannot use the line-item veto, because it is unconstitutional. |
a. President Clinton's use of the line-item veto was unconstitutional. | ||
b. Having an independent counsel to investigate the executive branch did not violate the separation of powers. | ||
c. Sitting presidents are not immune from civil suits. | ||
d. The legislative veto is unconstitutional. |
a. The president has the power to conduct foreign affairs on behalf of the United States. | ||
b. The president has the power to fire members of the executive branch. | ||
c. The president has the power to appoint Supreme Court justices. | ||
d. The president must be deferent to Congress in establishing foreign policy during times of war. |
a. Prize Cases (1863) | ||
b. United States v. Curtiss-Wright Export Corp. (1936) | ||
c. Dames and Moore v. Regan (1981) | ||
d. Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006) |
a. unconstitutionally suspended habeas corpus. | ||
b. could take over the courts to try Southerners as necessary. | ||
c. had the right to blockade southern ports as commander in chief. | ||
d. should declare war on the South. |
a. Japanese-Americans should all be freed immediately from World War II internment camps. | ||
b. Internment camps are unconstitutional. | ||
c. The need to prevent espionage was more important than the civil rights of the Japanese-Americans who were interned during the war. | ||
d. President Roosevelt violated habeas corpus by interning Japanese-Americans. |
a. Sitting presidents can be held liable for civil suits while in office. | ||
b. The actions of the president surrounding the Watergate scandal were unconstitutional, and therefore, President Nixon had to resign immediately. | ||
c. Although executive privilege exists, it did not apply to the Watergate tapes. | ||
d. President Nixon's use of the line-item veto was unconstitutional. |
a. The president has to consult Congress before firing postmasters. | ||
b. The president has the implicit power to fire people without congressional consent. | ||
c. Presidential decisions to fire government employees should be subjected to a vote in Congress. | ||
d. Presidents should no longer be allowed to appoint or fire postmasters. |
a. President Bush was attempting to free the prisoners, but the court did not allow it. | ||
b. The court ruled that Secretary Rumsfeld should no longer be the secretary of defense. | ||
c. The court ruled that the war in Iraq was unconstitutional. | ||
d. The court issued a number of opinions striking down the administration's policies regarding the rights of enemy combatants. |
a. Presidents almost always appoint federal judges of the same party orientation. | ||
b. Judges rarely identify their political party affiliation, to avoid the appearance of bias. | ||
c. Presidents try to appoint an equal number of judges from their own party and the opposition party. | ||
d. The Supreme Court has ruled that it is unconstitutional to consider political party affiliations when nominating federal judges. |
a. Presidents are not ideologically motivated. | ||
b. Presidents often trade easy confirmations for other legislation that they want made into law. | ||
c. Presidents recognize that long confirmation battles decrease the time and capital for other desired legislation. | ||
d. Presidents usually lose the public perception fight in a Supreme Court confirmation struggle with Congress. |
a. Signing statements | ||
b. The veto | ||
c. Executive agreements | ||
d. Executive orders |
a. an executive order. | ||
b. an executive agreement. | ||
c. a signing statement. | ||
d. a statement of reservation. |
a. Modern vice presidents actually have a chance at becoming president if the president dies. | ||
b. Modern vice presidents are sometimes of a different party than the president. | ||
c. Modern vice presidents have offices in the Capitol building, as opposed to their predecessors who were housed in the White House. | ||
d. Modern vice presidents rarely are involved with the Senate, while early vice presidents were more directly involved. |
a. World War I | ||
b. The New Deal and Great Depression | ||
c. The post-September 11th era | ||
d. The Industrial Revolution |
a. They are established through an executive order by the president. | ||
b. They are created by Congress. | ||
c. They are created through approval of all existing cabinet members. | ||
d. The president can create them without official action, creating a new agency and appointing a leader, who will then appoint his or her subordinates. |
a. Cabinet secretaries, once appointed to office, spend too much time in their home states. | ||
b. Cabinet secretaries put departmental goals ahead of the president's goals. | ||
c. In order to prove loyalty to the president, the secretary will fail to prioritize the department's main goals and will focus too much on the president's agenda. | ||
d. Cabinet secretaries resign and retire after a short period in office, since running a cabinet agency can be too overwhelming, and individuals can only do the job effectively for a short time. |
a. The hub-and-spoke model | ||
b. A circular structure | ||
c. The pyramid model | ||
d. An ad hoc structure |
a. To create the president's schedule | ||
b. To review proposed regulations from various areas of the executive branch | ||
c. To manage the president's White House staff | ||
d. To appropriate funds to various executive agencies after their budgets are approved |
a. Executive agency | ||
b. Regulatory agency | ||
c. Government corporations | ||
d. White House office |
a. An executive order | ||
b. A court ruling | ||
c. A retraction of the rule by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) | ||
d. The implementation of a counter-rule by a different regulatory agency |
a. Government corporations | ||
b. Independent executive agencies | ||
c. Regulatory agencies | ||
d. Cabinet agencies |
a. There is a run-off election, and the winner is based on the popular vote. | ||
b. The state legislatures replace the current Electoral College members with new members. | ||
c. The nine justices on the Supreme Court vote. | ||
d. The House of Representatives votes. |
a. They thought the general public lacked the knowledge necessary to make the right decision about who should become president. | ||
b. They were interested in serving on the Electoral College themselves. | ||
c. They wanted to ensure the president was always selected in Philadelphia, which is where the Constitutional Convention was held. | ||
d. There were concerns that the British would interfere with popular elections. |
a. It gave the presidency to George W. Bush because some electors voted contrary to their respective state's popular vote. | ||
b. It never has and probably never will play a role in the outcome of an election. | ||
c. It gave the presidency to George W. Bush, despite the fact that he lost the overall popular vote. | ||
d. It gave the presidency to George W. Bush because of the disproportionate influence that the larger states have over the smaller states. |
a. Members of the Electoral College are required to vote for one of the two major party candidates. | ||
b. States each have different requirements to get on the ballot. | ||
c. Independents and third parties have to gain a certain amount of support to get on the ballot in many states. | ||
d. The winner-take-all system that most states have for assigning their electors is detrimental to third parties. |
a. Only registered party members are allowed to vote. | ||
b. Any person is allowed to vote so long as they are registered with either party. | ||
c. Primary voters are limited to those who worked on campaigns. | ||
d. Candidates are all listed on a single ballot, regardless of which party they belong to. |
a. Caucuses are more expensive than primaries. | ||
b. Caucuses are too tightly controlled by party elites, causing support to shift to primaries. | ||
c. Third-party candidates are becoming more viable under the caucus system. | ||
d. Closed primaries produce more extreme candidates, which states prefer. |
a. They often have better name recognition than their opponents. | ||
b. They often gain momentum leading up to the elections by going through their party's primaries. | ||
c. Presidents essentially have free publicity that comes with the office. | ||
d. Presidents have the opportunity to claim credit for positive legislation that happened during their previous term. |
a. Gay marriage | ||
b. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan | ||
c. Education reform | ||
d. The economy |
a. Keep his public approval numbers up | ||
b. Go public | ||
c. Use his personality to his advantage | ||
d. Persuade others to do what he wants |
a. Professional reputation directly affects how the public views the president. | ||
b. Professional reputation affects how others will anticipate and react to the president, putting him in either a weak position or a strong position to begin with when bargaining. | ||
c. Presidents with a strong professional reputation have a hard time convincing others, because they are so intimidated by him. | ||
d. None of these choices |
a. Most presidents have similar institutional power, but vary widely on how effectively they wield that power. | ||
b. Success is generally measured by style and not substance. | ||
c. Institutional power varies so widely among presidents that the only way to measure their success is through a common variable, such as leadership style. | ||
d. Leadership style is usually why a president is elected in the first place. |
a. When his party holds a majority in Congress | ||
b. When he has the highest public approval | ||
c. When he and his vice president are united on policy issues | ||
d. When he has been in office for several years |
a. his experience working with members of Congress. | ||
b. whether he is a Washington insider or outsider. | ||
c. psychological factors. | ||
d. his professional reputation. |
a. The enjoyment the president gets from the job and from political life | ||
b. How the president interacts with other Washingtonians | ||
c. How much energy presidents invest into their job | ||
d. The way the public views the president's energy level |
a. Passive-positive | ||
b. Passive-negative | ||
c. Active-negative | ||
d. Active-positive |
a. A president's power to persuade the public can change political and institutional dynamics. | ||
b. Most people respond to style over substance. | ||
c. Rhetoric allows a president to distort reality. | ||
d. The opposing political party might respond to an eloquent speech. |