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Test your basic knowledge |
AP Government
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
civics
,
ap
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
If you are not ready to take this test, you can
study here
.
Match each statement with the correct term.
Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.
This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Powers the Constitution specifically grants to one of the branches of the national government.
Express powers
Sales tax
Constituents
Candidate appeal
2. A landmark case in United States law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States - under Article Three of the United States Constitution. The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury - who had b
Adversary system
Distributive policy
Marbury v. Madison
Devolution revolution
3. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Direct orders must be complied with under threat of criminal or civil sanction. An example is the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 - barring job discrimination by state and local gover
Rally point
The Federalist
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Direct orders
4. A form of organization that operates through impersonal - uniform rules and procedures.
Sound bites
Closed primary
Free rider
Bureaucracy
5. An explanation of the decision of the Supreme Court or any other appellate court.
Opinion of the Court
Deregulation
Race
Gerrymandering
6. The principle of a two-house legislature.
Federalists
Commerce clause
Judicial activism
Bicameralism
7. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Cross-cutting cleavages
Medical savings account
Spoils system
8. An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted.
Right of expatriation
Hatch Act
Party caucus
Safe seat
9. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Coattail effect
Majority rule
Linkage institutions
Regulation
10. Economic theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.
Statism
Permissive federalism
Keynesian economics
Monetarism
11. A policy adopted by the Bush administration in 2001 that asserts America's right to attack any nation that has weapons of mass destruction that might be used against U.S. interests at home or abroad.
Revolving door
Australian ballot
Conference committee
Bush Doctrine
12. A policy-making alliance that involves a very strong ties among a congressional committee - an interest group - and a Federal Department or agency.
Hard power
Iron triangle
National supremacy
Bill of attainder
13. Biological - chemical - or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use.
State's rights
Weapons of mass destruction
National party convention
Monopoly
14. Elections in which voters determine party nominees.
Public assistance
Closed shop
Divided government
Primary election
15. Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that freedom of expression is so essential to democracy that governments should not punish persons for what they say - only for what they do.
Independent expenditures
Primary election
Due process clause
Preferred position doctrine
16. A policy promoting cutbacks in the amount of Federal regulation in specific areas of economic activity.
State's rights
Deregulation
Open shop
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
17. Compromise between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.
Three-fifths compromise
Oversight
Judicial activism
Judicial restraint
18. Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official - the first step in removal from office.
Express powers
Impeachment
Affirmative action
Retrospective issue of voting
19. An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.
Precedent
Political predisposition
Free rider
Political party
20. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Inherent powers
Laissez-faire economics
Collective bargaining
21. The head of the White House staff.
Chief of staff
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
President pro tempore
Connecticut Compromise
22. Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.
Connecticut Compromise
National debt
National Intelligence Director
Revolving door
23. Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes - stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and the curve during booms.
Keynesian economics
Referendum
Public assistance
Take care clause
24. Presidential power to strike - or remove - specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Representative democracy
Line item veto
Closed rule
Hard money
25. People who favor national action over action at the state and local levels.
Lobbyist
Policy agenda
Rider
Centralists
26. The cluster of presidential staff agencies that help the president carry out his responsibilities. Currently the office includes the Office of Management and Budget - the Council of Economic Advisers - and several other units.
Petit jury
Bicameralism
Executive Office of the President
Initiative
27. Government by the people - both directly or indirectly - with free and frequent elections.
Democracy
Impeachment
Bush Doctrine
Medicaid
28. Quality or state of a work that taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex by depicting sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and that lacks serious literary - artistic - political - or scientific value.
Obscenity
Issue network
Democracy
Majority
29. Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.
Medical savings account
Candidate appeal
Sedition
Override
30. Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.
Three-fifths compromise
Prospective issue voting
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
Winner-take-all system
31. The number of Americans who are out of work but actively looking for a job. The number does not usually include those who are not looking.
Naturalization
Natural rights
News media
Unemployment
32. Alternative means of health care in which people or their employers are charged a set amount and the HMO provides health care and covers hospital costs.
Block grants
Incumbent
Tariff
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
33. A meeting of party delegates to vote on matters of policy and in some cases to select party candidates for public office.
Spoils system
Selective incorporation
Party convention
Hatch Act
34. The reliance on economic and military strength to solve international problems.
Hard power
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Conservatism
Gross domestic product (GDP)
35. Government regulation of property so extensive that government is deemed to have taken the property by the power of eminent domain - for which it must compensate the property owners.
Plea bargain
Independent expenditures
Regulatory taking
Ethnicity
36. Political contributions given to a party - candidate - or interest group that are limited in amounts and fully disclosed. Raising such limited funds is harder than raising unlimited funds - hence the term 'hard money.'
Hard money
Antitrust legislation
Direct democracy
Exclusionary rule
37. The residents of a congressional district or state.
Commercial speech
Constituents
Hold
Independent agency
38. A president's claim of broad public support.
Random sample
Mandate
Veto
National supremacy
39. Government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws; also called a republic.
Majority rule
Cross-cutting cleavages
Medicare
Representative democracy
40. A national meeting of delegates elected at primaries - caucuses - or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president - ratify the party platform - elect officers - and adopt rules.
Mass media
Writ of habeas corpus
National party convention
Parliamentary system
41. A convention held in September 1786 to consider problems of trade and navigation - attended by five states and important because it issued the call to Congress and the states for what became the Constitutional Convention.
Proportional representation
Annapolis Convention
National debt
Court of appeals
42. The widespread belief that the United States is a land of opportunity and that individual initiative and hard work can bring economic success.
Inflation
American dream
Redistributive policy
Spoils system
43. An international trade organization with more than 130 members - including the United States and the People's Republic of China - that seeks to encourage free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions.
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Rider
Political socialization
Decentralists
44. The idea that the rights of the nation are supreme over the rights of the individuals who make up the nation.
Ex post facto law
Mass media
Unilateralism
Statism
45. An agency of Congress that analyzes presidential budget recommendations and estimates the cost of proposed legislation.
Virginia Plan
Central clearance
Keynesian economics
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
46. A congressional district created to include a majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the main factor in redistricting.
Sound bites
Hatch Act
Majority-minority district
Natural rights
47. Segregation imposed by law.
Party registration
De jure segregation
Photo ops
Distributive policy
48. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this to forbid governmental support to any or all religions.
Establishment clause
Monetarism
Divided government
Affirmative action
49. A procedure for terminating debate - especially filibusters - in the Senate.
Cloture
Independent agency
Commerce clause
Rule
50. A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.
Inherent powers
Popular sovereignty
Lobbyist
Civil disobedience