PLS 100 FINAL STUDY
GUIDE TEST QUESTIONS
AND CORRECT ANSWERS
GRADED A+ 2025-2026
Collective Action Problem
1. What is it?
2. Ways they are solved in small groups?
3. Ways they are solved in large groups? - ANS-1. A situation in which the members of
a group would benefit by working together to produce some outcome, but each
individual is better off refusing to cooperate and reaping benefits from those who do
the work.
2. Usually by vote or general consensus
3. When someone like the U.S government steps in
Public versus private goods - ANS-public - everyone gets to enjoy its benefits
private - only those that pay for a benefit get to receive it.
free rider problem and voting - ANS-Party get-out-the-vote efforts are critical for
overcoming
1. what does a representative democracy do differently?
2. Does it fix all of the problems of a direct democracy?
3. Does it cause new problems? - ANS-1. vote for elites who then vote on legislation
2. No.
3. Yes.
, What does he mean when Professor Juenke says that the Constitution was created to
be "purposefully broken?" - ANS-it created a federal government that was intentionally
inefficient, and at times ineffective, to prevent some people/states from tyrannizing
others.
Why in the world would the framers purposefully break the federal government? -
ANS-to prevent one person or group from having too much power and causing tyranny.
Why is the Constitution so hard to change? - ANS-It requires ratification by each state
as well as a majority in Congress for it to pass.
If it's in the Constitution, it's incredibly difficult to change what the framers laid out.
Requires a lot to amend the Constitution.
1. Where do our civil rights come from?
2. Do we "have them" (get to enjoy them) just because they are written down in the
Constitution?
3. How can we "claim them" legally?
4. Why should the government listen to us when we claim them? - ANS-1. The Bill of
Rights
2. Yes and No, the anti-federalists wanted them written because they thought someone
could try to violate them one day.
3. Through the courts!
4. Because if they don't it can lead to demonstrations which will beg the federal
governments attention as it did during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s
1. Why is it that racial and ethnic minority citizens are typically associated with the
struggle for civil rights?
2. What about women?
3. How do we reconcile these struggles with the promises expressed in the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution?
4. Isn't all of this stuff in the past? - ANS-1. Because they have been the predominant
groups of struggles in society.
GUIDE TEST QUESTIONS
AND CORRECT ANSWERS
GRADED A+ 2025-2026
Collective Action Problem
1. What is it?
2. Ways they are solved in small groups?
3. Ways they are solved in large groups? - ANS-1. A situation in which the members of
a group would benefit by working together to produce some outcome, but each
individual is better off refusing to cooperate and reaping benefits from those who do
the work.
2. Usually by vote or general consensus
3. When someone like the U.S government steps in
Public versus private goods - ANS-public - everyone gets to enjoy its benefits
private - only those that pay for a benefit get to receive it.
free rider problem and voting - ANS-Party get-out-the-vote efforts are critical for
overcoming
1. what does a representative democracy do differently?
2. Does it fix all of the problems of a direct democracy?
3. Does it cause new problems? - ANS-1. vote for elites who then vote on legislation
2. No.
3. Yes.
, What does he mean when Professor Juenke says that the Constitution was created to
be "purposefully broken?" - ANS-it created a federal government that was intentionally
inefficient, and at times ineffective, to prevent some people/states from tyrannizing
others.
Why in the world would the framers purposefully break the federal government? -
ANS-to prevent one person or group from having too much power and causing tyranny.
Why is the Constitution so hard to change? - ANS-It requires ratification by each state
as well as a majority in Congress for it to pass.
If it's in the Constitution, it's incredibly difficult to change what the framers laid out.
Requires a lot to amend the Constitution.
1. Where do our civil rights come from?
2. Do we "have them" (get to enjoy them) just because they are written down in the
Constitution?
3. How can we "claim them" legally?
4. Why should the government listen to us when we claim them? - ANS-1. The Bill of
Rights
2. Yes and No, the anti-federalists wanted them written because they thought someone
could try to violate them one day.
3. Through the courts!
4. Because if they don't it can lead to demonstrations which will beg the federal
governments attention as it did during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s
1. Why is it that racial and ethnic minority citizens are typically associated with the
struggle for civil rights?
2. What about women?
3. How do we reconcile these struggles with the promises expressed in the Declaration
of Independence and the Constitution?
4. Isn't all of this stuff in the past? - ANS-1. Because they have been the predominant
groups of struggles in society.
