Week 7 Quiz

At a state legislature, a committee calls in the head of the transportation department to explain a contract that ran over budget. Which of a legislature's three jobs is the committee doing?

Select one.

• Representing the voters of one district
• Legislating by passing a new law
• Overseeing the people who run the government
• Judging whether the contract broke a court ruling

The Inter-Parliamentary Union reports that of 188 national parliaments, 81 are bicameral and 107 unicameral. What does this count show?

Select one.

• That most of the world's national parliaments have two chambers
• That a second chamber is a common choice held by a large minority, not by most
• That bicameral legislatures pass better laws than unicameral ones
• That every federation in the world has two chambers

Which statement assigns the head of state and the head of government correctly, by office?

Select one.

• In Germany, the chancellor is head of state and the federal president is head of government
• In the United Kingdom, the monarch is head of government and directs policy
• In the United States, the head of state and the head of government are two different offices
• In Germany, the federal president is head of state and the chancellor is head of government

In Pelandia, a made-up country, the 120-seat legislature chooses the prime minister, who governs while the legislature supports the cabinet and can be removed by a vote of no confidence. The legislature also elects a ceremonial president. Which design is Pelandia?

Select one.

• Parliamentary, because its government falls to a vote of no confidence
• Presidential, because it has a president
• Semi-presidential, because it has both a president and a prime minister
• Presidential, because its president serves a fixed term

A cabinet loses a confidence vote in the legislature, and no one has accused any minister of wrongdoing. Which description fits what happened?

Select one.

• The prime minister was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors
• The cabinet's term ended on its fixed date
• The government was removed by a vote of no confidence, a political judgment
• The head of state dismissed the cabinet for misconduct

True or false: Germany, India, Israel, and Italy each have a president, so each of them is a presidential system.

True or false.

• True
• False

Which sentence appears in Bagehot's The English Constitution (1867), in the chapter "The Cabinet", exactly as this course quotes it from the Project Gutenberg edition?

Select one.

• The efficient secret of the English Constitution may be described as the complete separation of the executive and legislative powers.
• The efficient secret of the English Constitution may be described as the close union, the nearly complete fusion, of the executive and legislative powers.
• The dignified secret of the English Constitution may be described as the close union of the monarch and the courts.
• The efficient secret of the English Constitution may be described as the balance of the executive, legislative, and judicial powers.

Article I, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution reads "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States", and Article II, Section 1 reads "The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." What design do these two sentences show?

Select one.

• Fusion of powers, because one body holds both powers
• A semi-presidential design, because Congress chooses a prime minister
• A design in which the president is drawn from the legislature
• A separate design, because two articles vest two powers in two bodies

Defenders of presidentialism answer Linz's (1990) worries with identifiability. What does the identifiability reply claim?

Select one.

• Voters can see who is responsible for the executive and choose that person directly at the next election
• A president can be removed at any time by a vote of no confidence
• Presidential systems never produce clashes between the president and the legislature
• Coalitions make it easier for voters to know whom to blame

Select every statement that matches this week's course definitions.

Select every option that applies.

• A coalition government forms when two or more parties share a program and the cabinet because no single party holds a majority
• Needing a coalition shows that a parliamentary system has failed
• Semi-presidential means the president and the prime minister split power 50/50
• In a semi-presidential system, the cabinet can fall to a no-confidence vote while the separately elected president does not