Government Midterm Study Guide
Chapter 1: Principles of Government
Sec. 1: Government and the State
1. What is the difference between government and the state?
2. What is a state and what are its four main characteristics?
3. Briefly describe each of the four theories on the origins of the state.
4. What theory on the origins of the state was the most influential in the founding of the U.S.?
Sec. 2: Forms of Government
1. What are the three questions used to classify governments?
2. What are two types of democracy? Briefly describe each of them.
3. What is authoritarianism? What is totalitarianism?
4. What are the main differences between the presidential and the parliamentary systems?
Sec. 3: Basic Concepts of Democracy
1. Briefly describe the five basic concepts of democracy.
2. What roles does the minority play in a democracy?
3. What is the significance of compromise in a democracy?
4. Describe the relationship between the rights of the individual and the rights of society.
Chapter 2: Origins of American Government
Sec.1: Our Political Beginnings
1. Describe the three basic concepts of government that influenced governments in the colonies.
2. What were the three landmark English documents that influenced American government?
3. Describe the three types of colonies.
4. What role did these early forms of governments play in the development of a national government?
Sec. 2 The Coming of Independence
1. Describe the relationship between the colonies and the Crown in the mid-1700s.
2. What role did the Stamp Act of 1765 play in the road to the Revolution?
3. What rights are outlined in the Declaration of Independence?
4. How did the Declaration of Independence describe the colonies’ relationship to Britain?
Sec. 3 The Critical Period
1. What powers did the Articles of Confederation did NOT have?
2. Why did the States purposefully create a weak government under the Articles of Confederation?
3. Why is the period during the Articles of Confederation called the Critical Period?
4. What was the effect of the Articles on the purpose of government?
Sec. 4: Creating the Constitution
1. What sources influenced the Framers in the writing of the Constitution?
2. Where did the Constitutional Convention take place and what was its goal?
3. Why did the delegates from smaller states object to the Virginia Plan? What was the main difference between the
Virginia and New Jersey Plans?
4. Why is the Connecticut Compromise also called the Great Compromise? What is its significance?
Sec. 5: Ratifying the Constitution
1. Why did the Federalists want to replace the Articles of Confederation?
2. Why did the Anti-Federalists oppose the ratification of the Constitution?
3. What was the significance of VA and NY in the process?
4. Who wrote the Federalist papers and for what purpose?
Chapter 3: The Constitution
Sec. 1: The Six Basic Principles
1. What is the Constitution, when was it adopted, and what is its basic structure (preamble, amendments)?
2. Why has the Constitution endured for so long?
3. What are the three types of powers the national government, the state governments, or all of them hold at the
same time?
Section 2: Formal Amendment
1. What does it mean to amend and what Article in the Constitution allows for its amendment?
2. How many amendments are there in the Constitution? Why is it so difficult to amend the Constitution?
3. Describe in detail the most common way of amending the Constitution.
4. What roles do federalism and popular sovereignty play in the amendment process?
5. What is the Bill of Rights and what purpose do they serve in the Constitution?
Sec. 3: Constitutional Change by Other Means
1. Describe each of the five informal ways of changing the Constitution.
2. What is an executive agreement? How does it differ from a treaty?
3. What roles do executive agreements play in the informal changing of the Constitution?
Chapter 4: Federalism
Sec. 1: The Division of Powers
1. Define federalism. Why did the Framers settle on federalism as the system of government for our nation?
2. What are the three types of delegated powers does the national government have? Define expressed, implied, and
inherent powers. Give at least two examples of each power.
3. What type of power do States have? Define reserved powers. Give at least two examples of reserved powers.
4. Define concurrent powers. Give two examples.
5. What does the Supremacy Clause state? What is the significance of the Supremacy Clause?
6. What role does the Supreme Court play in our federal system of government? What is judicial review? Why is it
important?
Sec. 2: The National Government and the 50 States
1. What obligations (3) does the national government have toward the States? Give an example of each.
2. What is a republican form of government?
3. What is the procedure for admitting new States into the union? Who can admit new States?
4. What does it mean that the two levels of government fight a tug-of-war between themselves?
5. What are grants-in-aid programs? What are the three types of grants-in-aid programs?
Sec. 3: Interstate Relations
1. What article of the Constitution establishes the relationship among the States?
2. What are interstate compacts? Give an example.
3. Define full faith and credit. What is its significance? Give at least 3 examples.
4. Define extradition.
5. Describe the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Give at least 2 examples.
Chapter 5: Political Parties
Sec. 1: Political Parties and What They Do
1. Define the term political party. What is the main function of parties in the United States?
2. Describe in detail the five functions political parties fulfill in American government.
Sec. 2: The Two-Party System
1. Describe in detail the four main reasons for the American two-party system.
2. Define multiparty system. Where do they occur most frequently?
3. Define one-party system and provide an international, as well as a domestic example for it.
Sec. 3: The Two-Party System in American History
1. What were the nation’s first two parties: names, leaders, party bases, and political views?
2. Describe the emergence of the Democratic Party: when, leader, party base, & accomplishments.
3. Describe the Whig Party: emergence, leaders, party base, accomplishments, & disappearance.
4. Describe the Republican Party: when, significance, leader, and party base.
5. Provide specific examples of how major events in American history influenced the rule of parties.
Sec. 4: Minor Parties
1. Describe in detail the three main reasons for minor parties’ importance in U.S. government.
Sec. 5: Party Organization
1. What does it mean that parties are decentralized in the United States?
2. Describe in detail the three reasons for the decentralization of U.S. parties.
3. What are the four basic elements of the national party machine?
4. How is the local party machine organized? Define the terms ward and precinct.
5. What are the three components of a party AND who belongs to each of the three components?
Chapters 6-7: Voters & Voter Behavior
Ch6/Sec1: The Right to Vote
1. Define suffrage. What is another term that means suffrage?
2. Who could vote in 1789? What is the electorate and who is included today?
3. What restrictions did the Framers of the Constitution place on the States concerning suffrage?
4. When were the following Amendments passed AND how did each of them change voting rights?
a) 15th Amendment
c) 24th Amendment
th
b) 19 Amendment
d) 26th Amendment
Ch6/Sec2: Voter Qualifications
1. What are the four most important qualifications for voting?
2. Does any state use a literacy test as a means to determine if you can vote? What is the poll tax and do
any states use it?
Ch6/Sec3: Suffrage and Civil Rights
1. How did the 15th Amendment affect voting rights?
2. What is gerrymandering?
3. What is the importance of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting
Rights Act of 1965?
Ch6/Sec4: Voter Behavior
1. What is ballot fatigue? What is time-zone fallout?
2. What is the chief reason that most “non-voters” do not vote?
3. How do each of these factors affect the likelihood of whether people do or do not vote: level of income,
age, occupation, gender, education, party identification?
4. Describe the characteristics of people who are likely to vote Democrat or Republican based on:
income/occupation, religion, education, ethnicity, gender/age, and geography.
Ch7/Sec1: The Nominating Process
1. Describe how each of the seven way to nominate candidates for public office.
2. Why is the nominating process particularly important in a two-party system?
2) What are some popular criticisms of the primary process?
Ch7/Sec 2: Elections
1) What voting method do we use in America today?
2) Describe the features, the advantages, and the disadvantages of each of the following voting methods:
party-column ballot, office-group ballot, vote by mail, Australian ballot, and online voting.
3) Define the following terms: absentee voting, polling place, coattail effect, and ballot.
Chapter 10, 11, 12: Congress:
1. What are the historical, practical, and theoretical reasons for the bicameral nature of Congress?
2. Describe the characteristics of the House and the Senate in terms of size, term length, & date of election.
3. Describe the qualifications for Representative and Senator.
4. Describe the five roles a member of Congress may play.
5. What are the expressed and implied powers of Congress? Give examples.
6. Who has the power to declare war?
7. Why has the Necessary and Proper Clause been called the Elastic Clause?
8. Who has the power to propose amendments to the Constitution?
9. What is gerrymandering?
10. Describe the different functions of the four types of Congressional committees.
11. What is a bill? How does it become a law?
12. What are resolutions? Define joint resolution and concurrent resolution.
13. Define: rider, quorum, discharge petition, filibuster, cloture.