Exam 1 Study Guide

PLS 101
Fall 2019

The exam will cover the lectures and the assigned readings through Tuesday, September
17. It will also cover Part 1 of “Eyes on the Prize,” the film on the civil rights movement.
There will be 50 multiple-choice questions, worth 2 points each, for a total of 100 points.
Most of the questions will offer 3-4 possible answers. There will also be three extra-credit
questions, also multiple-choice, referring to current events we have discussed in class.
The questions listed below will help guide you in studying the class notes and the
textbook. You will need both of those sources to correctly answer the questions. In
addition, you should definitely study the “Key Terms” at the end of each textbook chapter
(many, but not all, of which we have also discussed in class). Make sure to bring a bubble
sheet to class, as well as a #2 pencil.

1. What are the two requirements a political system must satisfy to be considered a
democracy? Approximately what percentage of countries today are democracies?
2. What two key characteristics distinguish US democracy from the political systems
of other rich, democratic countries? Does the design of US political institutions
tend to make change easy or difficult?
3. When was the US constitution written? What document did it replace? Compared
to other countries, has the United States experienced much change in its
constitution? What is judicialization?
4. What key conflicts of interest had to be dealt with in writing the Constitution and
what major compromises did they result in? What conflicts of principle had to be
dealt with?
5. What are checks and balances? In what major ways do the different branches of
the US government check and balance each other?
6. In what ways did the US Constitution originally favor indirect representation? In
what ways has representation become more direct since then?
7. What were the Federalist Papers? What were they intended to do? What is the Bill
of Rights? When was it included in the Constitution? What Supreme Court
decision was the foundation for judicial review?
8. What is federalism? How does it differ from a confederation and a unitary system,
respectively?
9. What early Supreme Court decision favored national government authority? What
other early Supreme Court case intensified the dispute between the north and the
south over states’ rights?
10. How did the balance of authority between the federal and state governments
change during the 1930s? What event contributed to the change? What role did
the Supreme Court play? What political party has tended to favor states’ rights?
11. What are civil liberties? What are the major sources of our civil liberties?
12. In what sense was the Bill of Rights nationalized? What constitutional amendment
contributed? How did the Supreme Court contribute?
13. What were the key Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s and 1970s that
influenced civil liberties in the areas of free speech, press freedom and libel,
respectively? What was the significance of each?
14. What two clauses of the Constitution that deal with freedom of religion? What is
the Supreme Court’s position on the constitutionality of prayer in public schools?
What is its position on teaching creationism in public schools? Under what
circumstances can laws restrict the exercise of a religion?
15. What is “procedural due process”? What were the three key Supreme Court
decisions in the 1960s that broadened the rights of criminal suspects and/or
extended them to the states? How have Supreme Court decisions since the 1980s
affected the exclusionary rule?
16. How has the United States’ geographical location affected our civil liberties?
What key tradeoff do the USA Patriot Act and the controversy regarding NSA
surveillance illustrate? What is the USA Freedom Act?
17. In what decision did the Supreme Court first assert that there is a constitutional
right of privacy? With regard to what major issues has the court invoked that
right? What controversial decision of the 1970s was based on that right?
18. What two Supreme Court decisions played pivotal roles in the rise and fall,
respectively, of racial segregation? Who was Emmett Till? What did the 1964
Civil Rights Act do? What did the 1965 Voting Rights Act do?
19. What is the difference between de jure and de facto discrimination? What position
did the Supreme Court take on affirmative action in college admissions in Grutter
v. Bollinger and Fischer v. University of Texas?
20. What Supreme Court ruling of the 1990s favored gay rights? What constitutional
clause was the basis for this ruling and in what amendment is that clause found?
What did the Court rule in Obergefell v. Hodges?