American Government Practice Questions
American Government practice questions with answers: 12 questions on the Constitution, rights, Congress and the courts, each explained, from Encodr's free deck.
These are 12 practice questions from Encodr's free American Government deck, drawn from 12 of the course's 17 units. They mix the question styles an intro government exam uses: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and true or false. Each one comes with the answer and the reason behind it.
How to use this set
Answer each question before reading the answer, even when you think you do not know it. A wrong guess followed by the correct answer sticks better than reading the answer cold, which is the testing effect. For the true or false questions, try to say what would make the statement true before you check, since exam writers usually change one detail.
The case-law questions here are a small sample. For the full list of cases, with what each decided, see landmark Supreme Court cases to know.
The questions
1. American Government and civic engagement
Which scholar wrote The Power Elite (1956), arguing business, military and political leaders control government?
- A. Robert Dahl
- B. Robert Putnam
- C. C. Wright Mills
- D. Richard Neustadt
Answer: C. C. Wright Mills
Why: Mills is the foremost supporter of elite theory.
2. The Constitution and its origins
Which plan proposed a one-house Congress with one vote per state?
- A. The Virginia Plan
- B. The Three-Fifths Compromise
- C. The New Jersey Plan
- D. The Great Compromise
Answer: C. The New Jersey Plan
Why: Small states backed it to keep equal voting power, though it would add some national powers.
3. American federalism
In _____ federalism, each level of government has exclusive authority in its own sphere, the layer cake model.
Answer: dual
Why: It prevailed from the late 1870s to the 1930s.
4. Civil liberties
The case-by-case process of applying Bill of Rights guarantees to the states is called _____.
Answer: selective incorporation
Why: Incorporation applies Bill of Rights protections to state governments through the Fourteenth Amendment, and it has been done selectively, case by case.
5. Civil rights
Which kind of classification is reviewed under intermediate scrutiny?
- A. Race
- B. Sex or gender
- C. Age
- D. National origin
Answer: B. Sex or gender
Why: The government must show the classification is substantially related to an important governmental objective.
6. Landmark Supreme Court cases
Which 1965 case first clearly recognized a constitutional right to privacy, striking down a ban on contraceptives for married couples?
- A. Lawrence v. Texas
- B. Griswold v. Connecticut
- C. Bowers v. Hardwick
- D. Eisenstadt v. Baird
Answer: B. Griswold v. Connecticut
Why: Griswold began the modern privacy line, read from several amendments.
7. The Constitution and its amendments
Under Article V, an amendment proposed by Congress becomes part of the Constitution when ratified by
- A. a majority of the states
- B. two thirds of the states
- C. all thirteen original states
- D. three fourths of the states
Answer: D. three fourths of the states
Why: Ratification needs three fourths of the states, through legislatures or conventions.
8. Voting and elections
Which voting approach judges a candidate on past actions and the past performance of the economy?
- A. Retrospective voting
- B. Prospective voting
- C. Strategic voting
- D. Straight-ticket voting
Answer: A. Retrospective voting
Why: Retrospective voters look backward and reward or punish the record.
9. Interest groups and lobbying
True or false? Interest groups differ from political parties mainly because interest groups run candidates under their own label.
Answer: False
Why: Parties run candidates under a label and aim to control government; interest groups press on specific issues without doing so.
10. Congress
The House and Senate pass different versions of a tax bill. Which temporary panel works out a single text?
- A. Joint committee of both chambers
- B. House Rules Committee
- C. Senate select committee
- D. Conference committee
Answer: D. Conference committee
Why: A conference committee is appointed ad hoc to reconcile differences between chambers' versions.
11. The presidency
There are _____ electoral votes in all, and 270 are needed to win the presidency.
Answer: 538
Why: A state's electors equal its senators plus its representatives.
12. The courts
True or false? The Constitution sets the number of Supreme Court justices at nine.
Answer: False
Why: Congress fixed the number at nine by statute in 1869; the Constitution is silent.
Where to go from here
Count your misses by unit. Government exams lean on precise terms and numbers, so a miss is usually a detail you can fix with a few more spaced reviews, not a gap in understanding.
- Review the whole course in the free American Government deck, which brings missed cards back sooner.
- What's in American Government lists all 17 units in order, and How to study for American Government covers how to drill the Constitution and the cases.
- Core vocabulary is collected unit by unit in American Government key terms.
- Plan your review with how to build a study schedule before an exam.
Encodr turns this into a habit: study anything in a feed, and it schedules the rest.
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