1.2 True/False Questions
1) Government has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force to keep order.
2) Government is sometimes defined as ʺwho gets what, when, and how.ʺ
3) Creation of the Department of Homeland Security demonstrates governmentʹs function to helpensure domestic tranquility.
4) One way government promotes the general welfare is through Social Security.
5) An oligarchy occurs when a few people run the government in their own interests.
6) Isaac Newton argued that government should make decisions in strict adherence to moral andreligious teachings.
7) The Enlightenment and Reformation encouraged people to seek alternatives to absolutemonarchy and to ponder new ways of governing.
8) According to Thomas Hobbes, life without government would be ʺnasty, brutish, and short.ʺ
9) Thomas Hobbes argued in favor of a plural executive, where the responsibilities of governingwere separated between several coequal leaders.
10) According to John Locke, people create governments to ensure social justice, human rights,and economic equality.
11) Thomas Jefferson based some ideas found in the Declaration of Independence on John Lockeʹsbeliefs about government.
12) American exceptionalism is the belief that the United States is unique and serves as a rolemodel for the world.
13) Due to the superiority of the American health care system, the United States has the highestlife expectancy at birth and the lowest infant mortality rate of any country in the world.
14) One reason that direct democracy is not used more often in the United States is because ourpopulation is too large.
15) Individualism is emphasized in American political culture.
16) Deficiencies in minority rights fueled the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
17) Popular consent is the idea that people derive their liberty from government.
18) A belief in popular sovereignty is evident in the Declaration of Independence and in theConstitution.
19) The belief that society should be governed by a set of ethical principles that are part of natureand can be understood by reason is known as civil society.
20) Majority rule is the principle that government decisions should be based on the preferences ofmore than half of the citizens.
21) The fall of the Soviet Union exposed the inherent flaws in democracy.
22) George W. Bush has argued that democracy is an inappropriate form of government for theMiddle East.
23) Americans express strong preferences for presidents who have strong religious beliefs.
24) When the Constitution was ratified, voting in the U.S. was largely limited to white maleproperty owners.
25) Due to declining birth rates, the population of the United States has been decreasing in recentdecades.
26) The number of African Americans in the United States is higher than the number of Hispanics.
27) Whites are a majority of the population in the United States.
28) Due to the extraordinary influx of illegal immigrants in recent years, the American populationis becoming younger.
29) The economic boom of the 1990s caused the average size of the American family to increase.
30) Most Americans believe that illegal immigration is a serious problem.
31) African Americans were less satisfied with the governmentʹs response to Hurricane Katrinathan were whites.
32) Samuel Huntington favors increased immigration from Latin America.
33) Libertarianism is a political philosophy based on individual freedom and the curtailment ofstate power.
34) Conservatives favor less government regulation of the economy.
35) In the United States there are currently about twice as many conservatives as liberals.
36) Social conservatives favor increased government regulation of sexual behavior.
37) Social conservatives believe that government should promote traditional moral teachings.
38) Negative perceptions of the United States have been increasing in some parts of the world.
39) More than half of Americans report that they trust government.
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