Deck 3: Federalism

Question 1

A confederation is a form of government best described as which of the following?

A) Lower level governments possess primary authority.
B) The national-level government monopolizes constitutional authority.
C) Direct votes by the people control the actions of government.
D) There is no central government at all.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Debates over federalism ______.

A) were fully resolved by the Civil War that established the supremacy of the national government over the states
B) were fully resolved in the U.S. Constitution with the broad grant of powers to the national government
C) have not been fully resolved as debates over the Affordable Care Act, the legalization of marijuana, and immigration laws
D) have not been fully resolved because the states are increasingly unwilling to follow guidelines issued by the federal government

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The Constitution opened the door to nationalization by granting the federal government ultimate power to determine within certain bounds which of the following?

A) the extent of its authority with regard to the states
B) health care policy and funding
C) the manner in which local elections are run
D) education policy

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following is true about the states and amending the Constitution?

A) The states are never involved with amending the federal Constitution.
B) The states may amend the federal Constitution without consultation or communication with Congress.
C) Two-thirds of states may call a constitutional convention.
D) The states may amend the federal Constitution subject to presidential veto.

Question 5

In the 19th century, the Senate had both the motive and the means to defend state prerogatives against national encroachment because of which of the following?

A) The executive branch was more prominent than it is today.
B) The members of each state's delegation to the House of Representatives chose the senators.
C) State legislatures chose senators and each state had equal representation in the Senate regardless of population.
D) The Civil War had not yet happened.

Question 6

Who is the ultimate arbiter of controversies involving American federalism?

A) the President of the United States
B) the U.S. Congress
C) the U.S. Supreme Court
D) the U.S. Department of State

Question 7

The Seventeenth Amendment, which came about amid persistent and widespread charges of bribery, mandated which of the following?

A) the creation of the Electoral College
B) prohibition of alcohol
C) the direct and popular election of senators
D) a two-term limitation for presidents

Question 8

In unitary systems, which of the following is TRUE?

A) All governmental authority always rests with one person such as an emperor.
B) Local governments dictate policy to the national government.
C) Various ethnic groups are proportionally represented in a "united" parliament.
D) The national government monopolizes constitutional authority.

Question 9

American federalism is which of the following?

A) a three-tiered system comprising the national government, the state governments, and the local governments
B) a four-tiered system comprising the national government, the state governments, the local county governments, and the local municipal governments
C) a two-tiered system comprising the national government and the state governments
D) a unitary form of government

Question 10

Supporters of states' rights argue that ______.

A) decentralization of authority leads to greater government innovation and policies that better suit the preferences of the residents of each state
B) greater centralization is essential because it is hard to govern a nation like the United States, and problems often extend across state borders
C) the federal government should have the ability to veto policies that have negative effects on neighboring states
D) the only solution for fixing the problems in the United States is returning to a confederation

Question 11

Special districts, such as school districts, water boards, and port authorities are established by ______.

A) municipalities
B) states
C) the federal government
D) tribal governments

Question 12

Which of the following made it clear that local governments are mere "creatures of the state"?

A) the Supremacy Clause
B) Dillon's Rule
C) the Necessary and Proper Clause
D) judicial review

Question 13

Why did efforts to partition federal and state responsibilities into separate and self-contained spheres fail?

A) Maintaining a balance proved difficult, so it was easier to allow the national government to handle all policies.
B) Perceptions of inequality generated by different policies resulted in a move to more national policies.
C) The existing federalism was the only way to redistribute funds collected from the states.
D) Deciding government should provide more services and solve more problems undermined those efforts.

Question 14

Article IV of the Constitution requires that the national government ensure which of the following?

A) that all states adhere to a republican form of government
B) that all states adhere to a form of government that is best described as direct democracy
C) that all states have an elected governor
D) that all states have a bicameral system

Question 15

Under what circumstances could Congress modify an established state by, for example, cutting it in half to create a new state?

A) by a two-thirds vote
B) only with the consent of the established state
C) only if all existing states agree to the establishment of the new state
D) as long as the Supreme Court concurs

Question 16

Local governments in the United States ______.

A) do not exercise independent, constitutional authority because they are not mentioned in the Constitution
B) were protected in the Constitution because of arguments the Antifederalists made about democracy working best at the local level
C) have little actual policy-making responsibility in the United States and are merely ceremonial
D) were abolished in the Constitution to create consistent policies across the country

Question 17

______ occurs when national and state governments jointly supply services to the citizenry.

A) Shared federalism
B) Consociationalism
C) Unitary government
D) Nullification

Question 18

Which of the following is one of the general conditions of a federal system?

A) The national government is supreme in matters of importance.
B) Everyone gets a vote at both levels of government.
C) Each level of government must have identical powers to foster the greatest possible competition.
D) The Constitution protects units at each level of government from encroachment by the other units.

Question 19

Dual federalism leaves the states and the national government to preside over which of the following?

A) nonexclusive spheres of sovereignty
B) mutually exclusive spheres of sovereignty
D) identical spheres of sovereignty
D) one sphere of sovereignty

Question 20

In a federal system, the constitution divides authority between which of the following?

A) the parliament and the king
B) an executive, a legislative, and a judicial branch
C) two or more distinct levels of government
D) a unitary government and a confederation

Question 21

The problems of pollution and conserving natural resources are examples of ______.

A) free riding
B) agency loss
C) shirking
D) tragedies of the commons

Question 22

The so-called elastic clause of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution provides that Congress can "make all Laws which shall be ______.

A) necessary and proper for carrying into Execution" the foregoing enumerated powers
B) supreme over the laws of the several States"
C) necessary to enact the enumerated powers, the propriety of said laws shall be determined by the several States"
D) necessary so long as they are based on the common law of England or of the Colonies"

Question 23

The New Deal was innovative primarily because of which of the following?

A) it opened free trade with North American neighbors
B) its size and scope
C) its reliance on the gold standard
D) its restructuring of some state geographical boundaries

Question 24

The grant money provided through programs created under the Great Society ______.

A) allowed the states to spend the money as they saw fit
B) gave the states latitude on spending money but required the submission of annual reports documenting program successes
C) required state and local authorities to follow detailed programmatic guidelines prescribing how the funds were supposed to be spent
D) allowed the state to decide whether they would administer the programs or allow the national government to take responsibility

Question 25

Which of the following best describes scholars who argue that the Tenth Amendment-which provides that the powers not taken by the national government belong to the states-is little more than a truism?

A) They are originalists.
B) They point to the powerful combination of the supremacy clause and the elastic clause to support their argument.
C) They rely on the Declaration of Independence to maintain their argument.
D) They fundamentally misconstrue state constitutions and their reliance on the Tenth Amendment.

Question 26

Although state officials may frequently complain about the policies of the Environmental Protection Agency, which of the following is true?

A) Governors, in fact, can override any action by the Environmental Protection Agency with which they disagree.
B) These policies are little more than suggestions for voluntary constraints on pollution.
C) The employees of the Environmental Protection Agency actually work for the states.
D) The presence of national standards insulates environmental protection from cutthroat competition among the states.

Question 27

In the case of McCulloch v. Maryland, the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice John Marshall upheld the right of the national government to create a bank based on which of the following?

A) The authority to create the bank was expressly enumerated as a governmental power in the Constitution.
B) the elastic clause in the Constitution
C) his hostility to the Federalist view of government relations
D) Maryland's previous waiver of its sovereign right to prohibit the bank's establishment

Question 28

The original intent of the supremacy clause was to ensure which of the following?

A) The national government would prevail over states when both governments were acting in a constitutionally correct manner.
B) The state governments would prevail over the traditional areas of state concern such as crime and education.
C) The Supreme Court had the final say on what is or is not constitutionally permitted.
D) The President was the supreme commander of the military.

Question 29

Many of the enumerated powers of Congress deal with federalism because ______.

A) the powers created divisions within the government and that protected state governments
B) these powers were specifically reserved to the states to protect the rights of the states
C) these powers enable the national government to address problems the states had not grappled with effectively under the Articles of Confederation
D) they impose strict limitations on exactly what activities the national government can pursue to a greater degree than was true under the Articles of Confederation

Question 30

The passage of the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act, which standardized state driver's licenses for interstate truckers, is an example of the federal government doing which of the following?

A) continuing to import legal solutions from the United Kingdom
B) rewriting regulations to satisfy special interest groups at the expense of good policy for the people as a whole
C) dictating local law enforcement
D) solving a coordination problem among the states

Question 31

Under the Articles of Confederation, each state was free to conduct its own international trade policy. This meant which of the following?

A) Foreign governments and merchants could exploit competition among the states to negotiate profitable trade agreements.
B) States could exploit competition among themselves to negotiate profitable trade agreements with other states.
C) Foreign governments rarely traded with the states.
D) Foreign governments and merchants could not exploit competition among the states or easily negotiate profitable trade agreements.

Question 32

What was Roosevelt's New Deal?

A) a restructuring of the distribution of authority between the Senate and the House of Representatives
B) a comprehensive set of economic regulations and relief programs intended to fight the Great Depression
C) a restructuring of the Constitution similar to the Philadelphia Convention
D) the institutional reformation that allowed him to be elected President more than twice

Question 33

Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty are both examples of ______.

A) election platform slogans that did not result in policy changes
B) sudden bursts of national policymaking in which the federal government assumed jurisdiction over public policy once reserved to the states
C) federal responses to foreign policy decisions by state executives
D) Republican Party initiatives undertaken after Hoover left office

Question 34

What was the largest program within President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty?

A) Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program
B) Medicaid
C) Social Security
D) Temporary Assistance for Needy Families

Question 35

When modern state governments have encountered the same dilemmas of collective action that prompted their 18th-century counterparts to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, they have solved the dilemmas by shifting responsibility from which of the following?

A) from the state to local authorities
B) from the federal to state authorities
C) from the state to federal authorities
D) from the local to state authorities

Question 36

One of the consequences in the Supreme Court's decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012) was ______.

A) upholding the requirement of the Affordable Care Act that the states expand their Medicaid programs
B) it gave state leaders new policy discretion on expanding Medicaid as they could accept the money from the federal government if they wanted, but the federal government could not force an expansion of the program
C) the Court ruled that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, but the states had to offer affordable health insurance to all residents
D) striking down the minimal requirements for health plans because it violated the commerce clause of the Constitution

Question 37

To justify the New Deal's unprecedented intervention in the economy, the Roosevelt administration invoked which of the following?

A) the commerce clause
B) the equal protection clause
C) the free exercise clause
D) the Tenth Amendment

Question 38

Which clause has the federal government utilized to expand its jurisdiction over policy making as the scope of economic transactions has increased?

A) commerce
B) supremacy
C) advice and consent
D) necessary and proper

Question 39

The net effect of the Supreme Court decisions in McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden was ______.

A) reversing its ruling in Marbury v. Madison
B) protecting the policy responsibilities of the states via the Tenth Amendment
C) restructuring the meaning of the Seventeenth Amendment
D) creating a powerful precedent that allowed future national policy to develop free of the constraints of state prerogatives

Question 40

Which amendment provides the most explicit endorsement of federalism found in the Constitution?

A) First
B) Fourth
C) Fifth
D) Tenth

Question 41

National campaigns for legislation banning automatic weapons, regulating hazardous waste disposal, and mandating special education, are all examples of which of the following?

A) instances in which national issues have been strategically shifted to the states by their advocates
B) instances in which state issues have been strategically shifted to Washington, D.C., by their advocates
C) instances in which Madison's conception of pluralism is clearly shown to be wrong
D) instances in which the House of Representatives' role in lawmaking has been irrelevant

Question 42

Requirements that can be enforced by legal and civil penalties are referred to as ______.

A) crossover sanctions
B) direct orders
C) partial preemption
D) crosscutting requirements

Question 43

The use by the national government of crosscutting requirements, crossover sanctions, direct orders, and partial preemption are all examples of which of the following?

A) unfunded mandates
B) grants-in-aid
C) home rule
D) categorical imperatives

Question 44

Federal laws that assert the national government's prerogative to control public policy in a particular field are referred to as ______.

A) constitutional laws
B) race to the top laws
C) externalities
D) preemption legislation

Question 45

______ are stipulations that a state, to remain eligible for full finding for one program, must adhere to the guidelines of an unrelated program.

A) Crossover sanctions
B) Direct orders
C) Partial preemption
D) Crosscutting requirements

Question 46

Statutes that apply certain rules and guidelines to a broad array of federally subsidized state programs are referred to as ______.

A) crossover sanctions
B) direct orders
C) partial preemption
D) crosscutting requirements

Question 47

Matching grants can create a moral hazard because ______.

A) the states will only receive a fixed amount of money and must find their own dollars if they want to expand programs
B) the people responsible for managing the program will be tempted to redirect to favored activities instead of the specified activities
C) the federal government must raise taxes to pay for the long-term commitments embodied in these programs
D) people may behave differently or take more risks because they do not have to pay all of the costs of their actions

Question 48

Which of the following is true about the Supreme Court case United States v. Lopez and the Court's overturning of the Violence Against Women Act?

A) They have not seriously undermined the extensive authority nationalization has thrust on the federal government.
B) They continue the Supreme Court's long history of stripping away state prerogatives.
C) They directly conflict with the Supreme Court's rulings regarding the Gun Free School Zones Act.
D) They suggest that the Supreme Court is seeking to remove the last semblance of state independence in federal-state relations.

Question 49

As Madison points out in Federalist No. 10, since the states and the national government combine the citizenry's preferences into different groupings, the two levels of government do which of the following?

A) They usually adopt almost identical policies to address the same problem.
B) They are always responsive to the same coalitions of people.
C) They may adopt different, even opposite, policies to address the same problem.
D) They operate in an unequal way; the states can leave all of the difficult decision-making about policy to the federal government.

Question 50

When the federal government makes a block grant, ______.

A) it will match whatever the state will spend on a specific purpose
B) it gives an exact amount of money to spend for some purpose
C) it can only be used at the local level
D) it is tied to prison reform

Question 51

Which of the following is a compelling strategic reason for a group to prefer national policy to state policy?

A) The costs of the policy are always better hidden from the public at the national level.
B) The national arena may be the only place in which it can hope to prevail.
C) The costs of the policy are always more obvious to the public at the national level.
D) Congress makes laws very quickly.

Question 52

Federalism presents opportunities for two kinds of majorities to pursue their interests in competition with each other. These majorities are which of the following?

A) consociational and bicameral
B) state and national
C) local and regional
D) state and regional

Question 53

Which of the following statements regarding matching grants is true?

A) States all receive the same amount of funds.
B) Matching grants treat each state the same.
C) Matching grants allow the federal government to create disparities across unequal economies.
D) Richer states receive smaller federal matches and poorer states receive larger matches.

Question 54

The size of state and local governments ______.

A) has remained the same over time because they perform a limited number of functions
B) only increased in the most populous states to account for the increased demand for services
C) is bigger than it ever has been as a result of the nationalizing thrust of the New Deal
D) have shrunk dramatically as the federal government provides many more services than state and local governments

Question 55

Certain federal laws allow the state to administer joint federal-state programs as long as they conform to federal guidelines. This is known as ______.

A) full preemption
B) crossover
C) crosscutting
D) partial preemption

Question 56

The experience surrounding the creation and adoption of Common Core standards illustrates which of the following?

A) The national government has the ability to implement a single set of educational standards in order to provide benefits for the country.
B) The administration can offer grant money to the states if they adopt common learning goals.
C) Policies change, and the standards outlined in Common Core have been replaced by those contained in the No Child Left Behind program.
D) The federal government has few incentives to encourage the states to adopt the new standards.

Question 57

Which of the following consists of financial inducements, usually in the form of grants to states?

A) the carrot
B) the stick
C) the rock
D) the paper

Question 58

Medicaid, the state health insurance program, is funded through ______.

A) unfunded mandates
B) categorical grants
C) block grants
D) matching grants

Question 59

Which of the following statements about preemption legislation is accurate?

A) Congress has passed few laws extending its power and preferred to rely on Supreme Court decisions to extend the sphere of sovereignty for the national government.
B) While Congress has steadily increased the number of laws substituting federal policy for the states, the federal government is also more likely to join with the states in formulating policy.
C) It allows the states to pass bills creating a sphere of sovereignty immune from any interference by the federal government.
D) These are bills the President writes that must be approved by the Supreme Court to limit congressional activities.

Question 60

Today's constitutional litigation over federalism typically concerns which of the following direct efforts?

A) efforts by state governments to impose policy on the federal government
B) efforts by citizens to control the actions of other citizens
C) efforts by local governments to force state compliance with state law
D) efforts by the federal government to regulate the activities of state and local governments and their employees

Question 61

How do the states compete with each other and what are the consequences?

Question 62

Efforts have been made in the past two decades to increase state control over federal policies.

Question 63

The states often engage in cutthroat competition by offering companies tax breaks and other benefits to relocate.

Question 64

Compare and contrast block grants and matching grants.

Question 65

The central government establishes national policies, raises money, and distributes it to the local units to carry these policies out.

Question 66

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal was the first effort to expand the scope of federal authority.

Question 67

The United States has moved from a system of shared federalism to a system of dual federalism.

Question 68

Discuss the differences and similarities among a federal system of government, a confederation, and a unitary system of government.

Question 69

The Tenth Amendment to the Constitution provides the strongest protections to the states against the expansion of federal authority.

Question 70

Give an example of an unfunded mandate and discuss the political logic that underlies it.

Question 71

How do the recent rulings regarding state sanctuary laws fit with the concept of federalism?

Question 72

Explain the political logic of nationalization.

Question 73

The United States has experienced both a unitary system of government and a confederation in its history.

Question 74

The Supreme Court has begun to take a more circumspect view of federal authority and tried to preserve some semblance of state independence.

Question 75

Discuss the constitutional provisions that provide for and govern the U.S. federalism.

Question 76

Discuss the assertion that "paradoxically, state governments have grown because of, rather than despite, nationalization."

Question 77

The elastic clause undermines the restrictive purpose of the carefully worded list of enumerated powers.

Question 78

What are the contours of modern federalism?

Question 79

Briefly discuss the impact of McCulloch v. Maryland and Gibbons v. Ogden on the development of the relationship between the federal and state governments.

Question 80

With block grants, the federal government provides the states with funds that must be used following programmatic guidelines.