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AP US Government and Politics Medium practice

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Question 1

The United States uses a single-member plurality ('first-past-the-post') electoral system for most federal offices. Which of the following is a predictable consequence of this system compared to proportional representation?

A.Third parties win seats in proportion to their share of the national voteB.Two major parties tend to dominate because candidates who cannot win a plurality in any single district win no representation at allC.Voters are more likely to vote for their sincere first choice since any vote above 50% is wastedD.Coalition governments are common because no single party can win a majority of seats in the House

Question 2

A newspaper reports that a federal agency has been issuing rules without following the notice-and-comment procedures required by the Administrative Procedure Act. The most appropriate remedy for affected parties would be to:

A.Petition Congress to pass a resolution disapproving the rules under the Congressional Review ActB.File a lawsuit in federal court challenging the rules as procedurally invalid under the Administrative Procedure ActC.Request that the president remove the agency head for violating the APAD.Appeal directly to the Supreme Court, which has original jurisdiction over administrative procedural violations

Question 3

Federalist No. 51 argues that the best protection against tyranny in a republican government is to:

A.Rely on the virtue and patriotism of elected officials to restrain their own ambitionB.Structure the government so that each branch's officials have personal incentives to check the ambitions of the other branchesC.Hold frequent elections so that voters can rapidly remove any officials who abuse powerD.Concentrate power in the legislature because it is the branch closest to the people and therefore most accountable

Question 4

Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) balanced the Free Exercise Clause against state compulsory education laws. The Court held that:

A.State interests in education always override religious objections, since education is a compelling state interestB.Amish parents could exempt their children from Wisconsin's compulsory schooling law after eighth grade because their sincere religious practices outweighed the state's interestC.The Free Exercise Clause exempts all religious believers from any law they find religiously objectionableD.States may require religious schools to follow a secular curriculum identical to public school requirements

Question 5

Which of the following best explains the incumbency advantage in congressional elections?

A.The Constitution limits challengers from raising as much money as incumbentsB.Incumbents have higher name recognition, established fundraising networks, and can use official resources like franking privileges to communicate with constituentsC.Voters are legally required to vote for the incumbent unless the incumbent has been convicted of a crimeD.Gerrymandered districts are always drawn to favor incumbents of both parties, making districts safe for whoever currently holds them

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Question 6

In Brutus No. 1, the Anti-Federalist author argued most strongly that the proposed Constitution would:

A.Fail to provide adequate national defense because Congress could not raise a standing armyB.Inevitably consolidate all power in the national government, destroying state sovereignty and individual libertyC.Create an excessively weak executive that would be dominated by a powerful SenateD.Produce financial instability because the national government lacked adequate revenue-raising powers

Question 7

In New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), the Supreme Court allowed the Times to publish the classified Pentagon Papers despite the Nixon administration's request for an injunction. This ruling reinforced which constitutional principle?

A.The government may never restrict the press's ability to publish information obtained from government sourcesB.The government bears an extremely heavy burden to justify prior restraint (pre-publication censorship) of the pressC.Classified government documents are always constitutionally protected from disclosure regardless of their contentD.The First Amendment protects all publication by the press from criminal prosecution after the fact, not only prior restraints

Question 8

The graph shows party identification among Americans from 1970 to 2020. The data shows a trend of growing numbers of self-identified independents, rising from about 25% to about 40%.

Which conclusion is best supported by this trend?

A.American voters have become genuinely non-partisan and split their votes equally between parties in electionsB.Growing numbers of Americans prefer not to formally affiliate with either major party, though many still lean toward and vote for one party consistentlyC.Third-party candidates have won an increasing share of electoral votes as more voters break from the two major partiesD.The Republican and Democratic parties have merged their policy positions, creating an ideologically indistinguishable center

Question 9

Which of the following is an example of elite (top-down) influence on public opinion rather than bottom-up formation?

A.Voters in a rural county shift against a new highway based on firsthand experience with traffic and noise from a test sectionB.Cable news networks use heavy coverage and specific framing of an issue to shift public attitudes toward their preferred positionC.Voters spontaneously organize a petition drive against a proposed tax increase before any politician has taken a public positionD.Farmers oppose a new agricultural regulation because it would increase their operating costs

Question 10

The federal bureaucracy is often called the 'fourth branch' of government. Which of the following best explains why bureaucratic agencies are difficult for elected officials to fully control?

A.Federal employees are guaranteed lifetime tenure and cannot be removed under any circumstances once hiredB.Career bureaucrats possess specialized expertise and institutional memory that elected officials rely on, giving agencies practical autonomy in implementing policyC.The Constitution explicitly prohibits Congress from legislating on matters that fall within agencies' defined regulatory domainsD.Federal agencies are funded entirely by user fees and are therefore insulated from congressional appropriations control

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Question 11

Congress passes a law directing the Environmental Protection Agency to 'issue regulations controlling greenhouse gas emissions as the Administrator deems appropriate.' A manufacturer challenges the resulting regulation as an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power. Which doctrine is the manufacturer most likely invoking?

A.The nondelegation doctrine, which holds that Congress cannot give agencies open-ended legislative authority without an intelligible principle guiding its useB.The vesting clause doctrine, which holds that all executive power is vested solely in the president and cannot be shared with independent agenciesC.The incorporation doctrine, which holds that federal regulations must observe constitutional rights applicable to the statesD.The political question doctrine, which holds that courts cannot review decisions committed to the discretion of political branches

Question 12

A Libertarian argues: 'Government should stay out of both the economy and personal life — protect property and contracts, nothing more.' How does libertarianism differ from traditional conservatism in the United States?

A.Libertarians favor higher taxes than conservatives to fund a strong militaryB.Libertarians oppose government intervention in both economic and social life; traditional conservatives often support government restrictions on social behavior aligned with traditional valuesC.Libertarians are identical to conservatives except they support labor unions and collective bargaining rightsD.Traditional conservatives favor no military; libertarians favor a large standing army for national security

Question 13

Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'Letter from Birmingham Jail' (1963) responded to White moderate clergy who urged him to wait for change through courts and legislation. King's central argument was that:

A.Violence was a necessary last resort when nonviolent protest failed to achieve resultsB.The urgency of justice could not wait; nonviolent direct action was necessary because negotiation and legal channels alone had proven insufficientC.Federal courts had no authority to order desegregation and only Congress could require racial equality by statuteD.The civil rights movement should focus exclusively on economic inequality rather than legal segregation

Question 14

A political science researcher finds that college graduates are 20 percentage points more likely to identify as liberal than adults without a four-year degree. What type of factor is educational attainment in this analysis?

A.A dependent variable, since education is the outcome being explained by political beliefsB.An independent variable, since educational attainment is being used to predict or explain political identificationC.A confounding variable, since education and ideology are not actually related to each otherD.A margin of error, since a 20-point difference falls within normal sampling variation for political surveys

Question 15

A lobbying firm represents a major pharmaceutical company before Congress on a bill regulating drug pricing. Which activity would be legal under current law?

A.Paying a senator $50,000 to vote against the drug pricing billB.Bundling employee contributions totaling $500,000 for a senator's reelection campaign while lobbying that senator on the billC.Providing a senator's staff with a detailed policy brief analyzing the bill's potential effects on drug innovationD.Hiring a retired senator to lobby her former colleagues immediately after she leaves office

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