Chapter 40 — Quiz
Multiple Choice (12)
1. The Democracy Audit final deliverable is structured around how many sections? - a) Six - b) Nine - c) Twelve - d) Twenty
Answer: c. §40.3 specifies twelve sections, from the District itself through Civic Engagement Opportunities.
2. According to the chapter, "power flows to those who show up" is empirically strongest at which level? - a) Presidential general elections in safe states - b) Local and primary elections - c) Senate confirmation votes - d) Supreme Court oral arguments
Answer: b. §40.4 notes that the marginal vote has materially larger weight in low-turnout local and primary elections than in mass-turnout presidential generals.
3. In the constituent-contact hierarchy described in §40.4, which contact method generally carries the highest weight? - a) Form-letter email - b) Public reply on social media - c) Personal email - d) In-person contact at a town hall or district office
Answer: d. Constituent-contact research (Congressional Management Foundation studies) consistently finds in-person contact carries the highest weight, followed by handwritten letters.
4. Which Supreme Court case held that state-imposed term limits on members of Congress are unconstitutional? - a) Citizens United v. FEC (2010) - b) U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton (1995) - c) Rucho v. Common Cause (2019) - d) Shelby County v. Holder (2013)
Answer: b. U.S. Term Limits v. Thornton (1995) held the Qualifications Clauses set exhaustive qualifications for federal office; this is referenced through the chapter's broader synthesis of Chapter 38's reform menu.
5. The chapter identifies four cross-partisan civic obligations. Which of the following is NOT one of them? - a) When your party is in power, hold it accountable - b) When the other party is in power, do not catastrophize - c) When norms are violated, defend them even when your side benefits - d) When the other party wins an election, treat the result as illegitimate until proven otherwise
Answer: d. §40.6 lists the four obligations; option (d) is presented as the opposite of the civic discipline the chapter recommends.
6. The sixth recurring theme of the book, restated in this chapter, is: - a) Power is concentrated in the executive branch - b) Money determines all political outcomes - c) Institutions shape behavior - d) The Constitution is unamendable in practice
Answer: c. §40.2 restates the six themes; theme 6 is "institutions shape behavior."
7. Which author's argument that civic engagement requires "doing politics" rather than "political hobbyism" is most prominently cited in the chapter? - a) Robert Putnam - b) Eitan Hersh - c) Yuval Levin - d) Heather McGhee
Answer: b. Hersh's Politics Is for Power (2020) is cited explicitly in §40.5 as the contemporary statement of this view.
8. According to the chapter, the most reliable empirical antidote to affective polarization is: - a) Mandatory civics education in K-12 schools - b) Algorithmic deamplification of political content on social media - c) Sustained, low-stakes, cross-partisan personal contact - d) Constitutional reform to encourage multi-party democracy
Answer: c. §40.4 references the social-psychology research summarized in Chapter 25.
9. Roughly how many special-purpose districts exist across the United States? - a) 800 - b) 3,800 - c) 38,000 - d) 380,000
Answer: c. §40.4 cites "roughly 38,000 special-purpose districts" for water, sewer, fire-protection, transit, mosquito abatement, and other narrow domains.
10. The chapter argues that the point of civic engagement is: - a) Guaranteed political success - b) Personal moral expression - c) The lived practice of citizenship that, in aggregate, sustains the system - d) Career advancement in politically connected fields
Answer: c. §40.5 and §40.8 develop this view explicitly, drawing on Tocqueville, Putnam, Hersh, Levin, Allen, and McGhee.
11. The chapter argues that asymmetry between the parties on certain norm violations should be: - a) Ignored, in the interest of bipartisan civility - b) Treated as confirming the partisan position of one side - c) Reported honestly, with the data, while still acknowledging the symmetric cases that also exist - d) Resolved through judicial review
Answer: c. This restates the balance commitment from Chapter 1 and the closing chapter, consistent with the book's general approach.
12. Which of the following is the closing question with which the book ends? - a) "What is justice?" - b) "Who decides?" - c) "What will you do tomorrow?" - d) "Are we there yet?"
Answer: c. §40.9 closes the chapter and the book with this question, having pointed toward it from §40.1 onward.
Short Answer (4)
13. Restate, in your own words, the book's central argument from Chapter 1, and identify one specific empirical illustration of it from any earlier chapter.
Sample answer: The book's central argument is that there is a real and consequential gap between how the American constitutional system is supposed to function and how it actually functions. One illustration: the Senate filibuster (a procedural innovation not contemplated in the constitutional design) means a minority of senators representing as little as twenty percent of the population can block legislation supported by eighty percent of the public — a feature absent from the Federalist Papers' description of the Senate's deliberative function (Chapter 9). Other valid illustrations include modern gerrymandering with computational redistricting (Chapter 35), the Supreme Court emergency docket (Chapter 13), or congressional delegation to executive agencies (Chapter 11).
14. Explain the difference, as the chapter presents it, between what one citizen alone can do and what citizens together can do.
Sample answer: A single citizen acting alone has limited leverage: one vote in 160 million in a presidential general; one phone call among tens of thousands; one social-media post among hundreds of millions. The honest accounting starts with this structural fact. A group of organized citizens acting in coordination has substantial leverage: twenty engaged voters can flip a low-turnout primary; two hundred citizens at a school-board meeting can shape a policy decision; two thousand members of a sustained advocacy organization can shape state-level legislation. The Madisonian framework relies on diffuse civic engagement to function, which means the system depends on the aggregate of individual engagements rather than on any single citizen's heroic action. Citizenship is what citizens do together.
15. Describe the four cross-partisan civic obligations identified in §40.6, and explain why they apply across the political spectrum.
Sample answer: (1) When your party is in power, hold it accountable: apply the same standards to your own side that you apply to the other; selective accountability erodes democratic legitimacy. (2) When the other party is in power, do not catastrophize; engage on policy: most administrations are not existential threats; treat opponents as fellow citizens disagreeing on policy. (3) When norms are violated, defend them even when your side benefits: norms are vulnerable to a logic that justifies their violation by stakes or precedent; once broken, the next administration can break them in turn, weakening the system. (4) When norms protect outcomes you don't like, respect them anyway: advocate for change through proper channels rather than treating disagreeable outcomes as illegitimate. These obligations apply across the spectrum because the system runs on consistent norm-respect by all citizens; if only one side observes the discipline, the system erodes regardless of which side is in power.
16. The chapter offers both a "hopeful argument" and a "realistic argument." Summarize each in two or three sentences, and explain why the chapter argues both are necessary.
Sample answer: The hopeful argument: the U.S. system has navigated existential challenges before (Civil War, Great Depression, civil-rights struggles, contested elections) and survived through reform; each generation has produced engaged citizens; the framework remains responsive to civic engagement, as recent state-level reforms and the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 show. The realistic argument: some institutional problems are structural and will not be fixed by the next election; some reforms (filibuster change, Citizens United reversal, Electoral College reform) face high constitutional or political barriers; the point of engagement is the lived practice of citizenship, not guaranteed success in any specific cycle. Both are necessary because hope without realism becomes performative optimism that disappoints when the system fails, and realism without hope becomes cynicism that excuses disengagement; the honest civic stance is clear-eyed about dysfunction and committed to durable practice regardless of cycle outcomes.