Chapter 3: Federalism and the Separation of Powers



Chapter 3: Federalism and the Separation of Powers

MULTIPLE CHOICE

1. The division of powers and functions between the national government and state governments is called

|a. |federalism. |

|b. |divided government. |

|c. |checks and balances. |

|d. |separation of powers. |

2. The separation of powers sought to limit the power of the government by

|a. |reserving some powers for the people. |

|b. |dividing national government against itself. |

|c. |forcing states to compete against themselves. |

|d. |encouraging conflict between the national government and the |

| |states. |

3. The great achievement of American politics is the fashioning of an effective constitutional structure of political institutions that while a continuously evolving “work in progress” has so far had only one enormous failure which was over the issue of

|a. |slavery. |

|b. |abortion. |

|c. |gun control. |

|d. |women’s suffrage. |

4. As designed, the American Constitution encourages diversity in the political actors in order to

|a. |promote a strong and healthy political party system. |

|b. |allocate different aspects of policy to a common institutional |

| |arena. |

|c. |concentrate power sufficiently for effective and efficient |

| |policymaking. |

|d. |prevent a small elite group from dominating all government |

| |institutions at the same time. |

5. For nearly a century and a half after the ratification of the Constitution, virtually all of the fundamental policies governing the lives of Americans were made by the

|a. |Congress. |

|b. |the presidency. |

|c. |Supreme Court. |

|d. |state legislatures. |

6. The notion that the Constitution grants to the national government only those powers specifically named in its text is called

|a. |democracy. |

|b. |expressed powers. |

|c. |republican idealism. |

|d. |political fundamentalism. |

7. Powers derived from the necessary and proper clause of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution are called

|a. |implied powers. |

|b. |essential powers. |

|c. |expressed powers. |

|d. |appropriate powers. |

8. The doctrine that allowed the national government to expand considerably the scope of its authority

through the Supreme Court’s expansive interpretation of delegated powers was based upon the

|a. |implied powers clause. |

|b. |reserved powers clause. |

|c. |full faith and credit clause. |

|d. |necessary and proper clause. |

9. In addition to expressed and implied powers, the Constitution affirmed the power of the national

government in the

|a. |reserved powers clause. |

|b. |national supremacy clause. |

|c. |federal ascendancy provision. |

|d. |national establishment provision. |

10. Powers derived from the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution that are not specifically delegated to the national government or denied to the states are known as

|a. |police powers. |

|b. |reserved powers. |

|c. |expressed powers. |

|d. |concurrent powers. |

11. The most fundamental power retained by the states is that of

|a. |coercion. |

|b. |conciliation. |

|c. |competition. |

|d. |cooperation. |

12. Private property exists because laws against trespass are defined by

|a. |state statutes. |

|b. |city ordinances. |

|c. |the U.S. Congress. |

|d. |administrative rules and regulations. |

13. Powers reserved to the government to regulate the health, safety and morals of its citizens are known as

|a. |police powers. |

|b. |implied powers. |

|c. |essential powers. |

|d. |concurrent powers. |

14. The power to levy taxes is considered a

|a. |police power. |

|b. |reserved power. |

|c. |exclusive power. |

|d. |concurrent power. |

15. The power to regulate commerce is considered a

|a. |police power. |

|b. |reserved power. |

|c. |exclusive power. |

|d. |concurrent power. |

16. Article IV of the U.S. Constitution calls for “Full Faith and Credit” meaning that

|a. |each state is expected to honor the public acts of other |

| |states. |

|b. |a state cannot discriminate against someone from another state.|

|c. |the laws passed at the national level are superior to state |

| |laws. |

|d. |states have the power to regulate the health, welfare, and |

| |morals of its citizens. |

17. In Article IV, Section 2 of the Constitution is a section that prohibits a state from discriminating against someone from another state or giving special advantages to its own residents. That section is referred to as the

|a. |establishment clause. |

|b. |general welfare clause. |

|c. |interstate relations clause. |

|d. |privileges and immunities clause. |

18. A prisoner convicted of murder and facing the death penalty in the state of Texas escapes but is later recaptured by authorities in the state of Vermont. Unlike Texas, Vermont does not have the death penalty. In this case, the state of Vermont is required to

|a. |put the prisoner to death. |

|b. |return the convict to Texas. |

|c. |hold a new trial in a Vermont court. |

|d. |incarcerate the prisoner for life without parole. |

19. Two or more states reach a legally binding agreement about how to solve a problem that crosses states lines through

|a. |a treaty. |

|b. |a compact. |

|c. |a multistate pact. |

|d. |interstate accords. |

20. The power delegated by the state to a local unit of government to manage its own affairs is called

|a. |home rule. |

|b. |rule of the interior. |

|c. |decree of authority. |

|d. |jurisdictional decree. |

21. The system of government that prevailed in the United States from the writing of the Constitution until about the Great Depression could be most accurately characterized as

|a. |dual federalism. |

|b. |triple federalism. |

|c. |pancake federalism. |

|d. |marble cake federalism. |

22. The primary constitutional vehicle used by the Supreme Court for favoring national power over state power has been the

|a. |Bill of Rights. |

|b. |commerce clause. |

|c. |full faith and credit clause. |

|d. |privileges and immunities clause. |

23. In terms of power over the economy, the Supreme Court has interpreted the commerce clause over time in favor of

|a. |state governments. |

|b. |the national government. |

|c. |dual federalism approach. |

|d. |a hands-off, laissez-faire approach. |

24. In the McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court recognized and reinforced the

|a. |supremacy clause. |

|b. |establishment clause. |

|c. |full faith and credit clause. |

|d. |privileges and immunities clause. |

25. The important bur relatively narrow issue in the 1824 case, Gibbons, v. Ogden, was whether the state of New York could grant a monopoly to

|a. |Joseph Pulitzer to publish a daily newspaper. |

|b. |Thomas Edison’s new electrical utility to run lines through New|

| |York City. |

|c. |William Henry Vanderbilt to lay railroad tracks to the Hudson |

| |Bay ports. |

|d. |Robert Fulton’s steamboat company to operate between New York |

| |and New Jersey. |

26. The Supreme Court case that firmly established the supremacy of the national government in all matters affecting interstate commerce was

|a. |Hicklin v. Orbeck. |

|b. |Gibbons v. Ogden. |

|c. |Printz v. United States. |

|d. |City of Boerne v. Flores. |

27. Well into the twentieth century, most efforts by Congress to regulate commerce were blocked by

the Supreme Court’s interpretation of federalism, with the primary barrier being the concept of

|a. |free trade. |

|b. |corporate law. |

|c. |command economy. |

|d. |interstate commerce. |

28. The system of supportive relations among national, state, and local governments since the 1930s is often referred to as

|a. |friendly federalism. |

|b. |associative federalism. |

|c. |cooperative federalism. |

|d. |exhortative intergovernmental relations. |

29. A type of federalism existing since the New Deal era in which grants-in-aid have been used strategically to encourage states and localities (without commanding them) to pursue nationally defined goals is known as

|a. |social federalism. |

|b. |welfare federalism. |

|c. |cooperative federalism. |

|d. |commercial federalism. |

30. Federal subsidies of special state and local activities are called

|a. |mandates. |

|b. |grants-in-aid. |

|c. |apportionments. |

|d. |revenue allocations. |

31. A kind of bribe or a “carrot” that Congress gives in the form of money to state and local governments with the condition that the money will be spent for a particular purpose as designed by Congress is called a

|a. |grant-in-aid. |

|b. |funded mandate. |

|c. |reapportionment. |

|d. |line-item appropriation. |

32. In 1973 at the height of the oil shortage, a national speed limit of 55 miles per hour was imposed upon the states by congressional legislation that threatened

|a. |withdrawal of highway funds if state legislatures failed to |

| |lower allowable speeds. |

|b. |to triple the federal fuel tax in states that did not |

| |immediately drop speed limits below 55 mph. |

|c. |states with daily fines up to $10,000 for every mile of road or|

| |highway found not to be in compliance. |

|d. |personal liability for state officials sued by traffic accident|

| |victims on highways with speed limits over 55 mph. |

33. A new federal program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development allows city governments having a population over 250,000 to submit proposals outlining local plans to provide housing assistance for low-income families. The federal agency would then evaluate the proposals and allocate funds on a competitive basis. This kind of funding program would best be classified as

|a. |project. |

|b. |venture. |

|c. |formula. |

|d. |categorical. |

34. The type of federalism that occurs when the national government actually threatens to withhold grant money unless state and local governments conform to national standards is known as

|a. |restricted federalism. |

|b. |regulated federalism. |

|c. |contingent federalism. |

|d. |competitive federalism. |

35. The obligations imposed on state government by the national government without any funding at all have come to be known as

|a. |unfunded mandates. |

|b. |assigned obligations. |

|c. |misdirected indemnities. |

|d. |unchecked authorizations. |

36. President George W. Bush’s program to apply national standards of accomplishment in reading and math when allocating federal educational grants to states is known as,

|a. |“Truth in Testing.” |

|b. |“No Child Left Behind.” |

|c. |“Teaching Benchmarks.” |

|d. |“Accountability Vouchers.” |

37. In terms of fiscal federalism, revenue sharing and block grants represented attempts to

|a. |allow greater variability from state to state. |

|b. |implement more uniform national standards. |

|c. |consolidate the power of the national government. |

|d. |consolidate states and localities into manageable regional |

| |groupings. |

38. A policy to remove a program from one level of government by deregulating it or passing it down to a lower level of government is called

|a. |desistance. |

|b. |devolution. |

|c. |decentralization. |

|d. |democratization. |

39. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Supreme Court continued to strike down laws that it thought exceeded national power by referencing constitutional language contained in the

|a. |Preamble. |

|b. |Tenth Amendment. |

|c. |Implied Powers Provision. |

|d. |National Supremacy Clause. |

40. The principle that states should oppose increasing authority of the national government is known as

|a. |states’ rights. |

|b. |neo-liberalism. |

|c. |fiscal conservatism. |

|d. |state and local preemption. |

41. The legal doctrine that holds that states are impervious to lawsuits by private persons or groups is known as state

|a. |civil exemption. |

|b. |legal supremacy. |

|c. |sovereign immunity. |

|d. |cloak of invulnerability. |

42. Mechanisms through which each branch of government participates in and influences the activities of the other branches is referred to as

|a. |comity. |

|b. |federalism. |

|c. |interstate relations. |

|d. |checks and balances. |

43. A tie vote in the Senate is broken by the

|a. |President. |

|b. |Vice President. |

|c. |Speaker of the House. |

|d. |Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. |

44. The condition in American government in which one party controls the presidency and an opposing

party controls one or both houses of Congress is called

|a. |a split ticket. |

|b. |bipartisanship. |

|c. |divided government. |

|d. |the two-party system. |

45. When President Nixon refused to respond to a subpoena to make available his infamous White House tapes as evidence in a criminal prosecution, the Supreme Court declared his refusal unconstitutional. This court action is an example of

|a. |judicial review. |

|b. |advise and consent. |

|c. |executive privilege. |

|d. |divided government. |

46. The claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisors should not be revealed without the consent of the president is known as

|a. |executive privilege. |

|b. |plausible deniability. |

|c. |presidential prerogative. |

|d. |command confidentiality. |

47. The three principles that make up the primary framework of the Constitution are

|a. |freedom, justice, and the two-party system. |

|b. |representation, equality, and judicial review. |

|c. |direct democracy, liberty, and limited government. |

|d. |federalism, separation of powers, and individual rights. |

TRUE/FALSE

48. Federalism means that the national government is the only significant decision-making body in America.

49. Separation of powers means that within the national government there is a clear decisionmaking hierarchy.

50. In the United States, each of the three branches of government exercises power over the other two.

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