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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When can a judge refuse to enforce a law?
(a) When they do not agree with the law.
(b) When the law in unconstitutional.
(c) When the people they are representing do not like the law.
(d) When they do not like the law.

2. What year was de Tocqueville's voyage to the United States?
(a) 1830.
(b) 1820.
(c) 1840.
(d) 1850.

3. What is one of the best safeguards against potential tyranny of the majority in America?
(a) The press.
(b) The balance of power.
(c) The media.
(d) The judicial system.

4. Because of the generally accepted principle of equality among Americans, according to de Tocqueville they are less likely to accept what?
(a) Historical evidence.
(b) Traditional ideas.
(c) Historical logic.
(d) Traditional reasoning.

5. The American historian holds individuals accountable for what?
(a) Everything.
(b) Nothing.
(c) Major events.
(d) Major choices.

Short Answer Questions

1. De Tocqueville writes that Americans tend to reject all external human authority and rely, instead, on what?

2. Because the settlers imported most of their technical knowledge, when they got to America they only had to do what?

3. De Tocqueville believes that democracy provides an authority of its own by replacing the certitudes of the intellectual with what?

4. Politically, the New World has never experienced what?

5. De Tocqueville believes that religion provides the people of America with a set of beliefs that does what?

Short Essay Questions

1. In de Tocqueville's observations, what do educated individuals in America read, and how does it relate to their lives?

2. According to de Tocqueville, why does the United States only produce journalistic literature?

3. According to de Tocqueville, what are the differences between the American and European press?

4. What does de Tocqueville believe is the logic that is followed when people adopt the authority of the majority?

5. The communities of New England set the foundation of a democratic society based on what?

6. Where does the American writer find poetry, according to de Tocqueville's observations?

7. De Tocqueville believes that religion provides what to Americans?

8. Why, in America, would it be hard for a democratic government to exercise tyrannical authority?

9. Americans want to explain everything through human intelligence and leave the rest to be explained by what, according to de Tocqueville?

10. Why does the minority recognize the decision and rights of the majority in America, according to de Tocqueville's observations?

(see the answer keys)

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