The logical place to begin the study of how power is distributed in U.S. politics is

The logical place to begin the study of how power is distributed in U.S. politics is

a. the Constitutional Convention and events leading up to it.
b. your local town hall or courthouse.
c. the day-to-day lives of Americans.
d. the pages of this morning's newspaper.
e. the Civil War.









Answer: A

According to the text, before making judgments about institutions and interests, we must first observe them

According to the text, before making judgments about institutions and interests, we must first observe them

a. from a disinterested vantage point.
b. as manifestations of underlying economic relationships.
c. firsthand.
d. on a variety of different issues.
e. through the lenses of bureaucrats.









Answer: D

The kinds of answers that political scientists usually give to the fundamental political questions tend to be

The kinds of answers that political scientists usually give to the fundamental political questions tend to be

a. highly abstract and speculative.
b. clear, concrete, and consistent.
c. partial, contingent, and controversial.
d. qualified to the point of unintelligibility.
e. empirical and void of theory.








Answer: C

The fact that people have been willing to die over competing views of the public interest suggests that

The fact that people have been willing to die over competing views of the public interest suggests that

a. such views are more than mere window dressing.
b. politics concerns who gets what, when, where, and how.
c. delusions are central to the political process.
d. human nature is fundamentally inconsistent.
e. political issues are rarely understood.





Answer: A

American foreign policy, according to the text, tends to alternate between

American foreign policy, according to the text, tends to alternate between

a. cold wars and hot wars.
b. idealism and realism.
c. bipolarism and multilateralism.
d. interventions and isolationism.
e. realism and existentialism.









Answer: D

Ronald Reagan's policy initiatives on social and economic problems sought to

Ronald Reagan's policy initiatives on social and economic problems sought to

a. return citizens' assumptions to what they had been during World War II.
b. make the government more efficient and capable of addressing social problems.
c. broaden government's social net for the truly needy.
d. move the United States into the front rank of nations involved in forward social planning.
e. return citizens' assumptions to what they had been before the 1930s.








Answer: E