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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. These are broad state grants to states for prescribed activities—welfare - child care - education - social services - preventive health care - and health services—with only a few strings attached. States have greater flexibility in deciding how to sp
Vouchers
Block grants
Literacy test
Keynesian economics
2. Tax required to vote; prohibited for national elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) and ruled unconstitutional for all elections in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966).
Iron triangle
Right of expatriation
Central clearance
Poll tax
3. National Health Insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Special or select committee
Discharge petition
Medicare
Interested money
4. Election in which voters choose party nominees.
Seniority rule
Movement
Minor party
Direct primary
5. A court order forbidding specific individuals or groups from performing certain acts (such as striking) that the court considers harmful to the rights and property of an employer or community.
Labor injunction
Issue advocacy
Party identification
Independent expenditure
6. The residents of a congressional district or state.
Retrospective issue of voting
Majority rule
Administrative discretion
Constituents
7. The practice of exporting U.S. jobs to lower paid employees in other nations.
Direct primary
Indictment
Offshoring
Defendant
8. State laws formerly pervasive throughout the South requiring public facilities and accommodations to be segregated by race; ruled unconstitutional.
Realism
Jim Crow laws
Implementation
Direct orders
9. Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state or local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Delegate
Winner-take-all system
Soft money
Australian ballot
10. An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood.
White primary
Preferred position doctrine
Demographics
Party identification
11. Literally - a 'friend of the court' brief - filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.
Commercial speech
Mass media
Party identification
amicus curiae brief
12. A theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.
Race
Pluralism
Cabinet
Redistributive policy
13. An electoral district in which voters choose one representative or official.
Gerrymandering
Single-member district
Defendant
Direct primary
14. Clause of the Constitution (Article 1 - Section 8 - Clause 3) setting forth the implied powers of Congress. It states that Congress - in addition to its express powers has the right to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out all powers the Co
Marbury v. Madison
Offshoring
Necessary and proper clause
Commerce clause
15. A permanent committee established in a legislature - usually focusing on a policy area.
Offshoring
Standing committee
Original jurisdiction
Multilateralism
16. An election during periods of expanded suffrage and change in the economy and society that proves to be a turning point - redefining the agenda of politics and the alignment of voters within parties.
Realigning election
Separation of powers
Libertarianism
Initiative
17. 30-second statements on the evening news shows. The media have been accused of simplifying complicated political issues by relying on sound bites to explain them to the public.
Sound bites
Australian ballot
Federal Reserve System
Primary election
18. A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.
Popular sovereignty
Regulatory taking
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Bicameralism
19. The distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue - candidate - or institution within a specific population.
Hatch Act
Public opinion
Sales tax
Double jeopardy
20. The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census - to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.
Department
Pocket veto
Redistricting
Bureaucrat
21. The convention in Philadelphia - May 25 to September 17 - 1787 - that debated and agreed upon the Constitution of the United States.
National tide
De jure segregation
Selected perception
Constitutional Convention
22. Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government.
Interstate compact
Federalists
Attentive public
Political socialization
23. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.
Political predisposition
Internationalism
Mandate
Plurality
24. A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; such committees oversee the Library of Congress and conduct investigations.
Joint committee
Ex post facto law
Capitalism
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
25. An action taken by Congress to reverse the presidential veto - requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
Federal mandate
Override
Trust
Offshoring
26. Constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and subdivisional governments - called states in the United States. The national and the subdivisional governments both exercise direct authority over individuals.
Regulation
Hold
Devolution revolution
Federalism
27. The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or a government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or - in a state court - the state constitution.
Take care clause
Horse race
Judicial review
Creative federalism
28. How voters feel about a candidate's background - personality - leadership ability - and other personal qualities.
Right of expatriation
Stare decisis
Candidate appeal
Prospective issue voting
29. 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.
Preferred position doctrine
Nongovernmental organization (NGO)
Bundling
President pro tempore
30. Presidential staff agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Regulatory taking
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
'Necessary and proper' clause
Bundling
31. A small political party that rises and falls with a charismatic candidate or - if composed of ideologies on the right or left - usually persists over time; also called a third party.
Minor party
Public assistance
Commercial speech
Fighting words
32. The study of the characteristics of populations.
Political socialization
Speaker
Environmental impact statement
Demographics
33. Aid to the poor; 'welfare.'
Earmarks
Public assistance
Open rule
Devolution revolution
34. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Independent regulatory commission
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Issue advocacy
Majority rule
35. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Total preemption rests on the national governments power under the supremacy and commerce clauses to preempt conflicting state and local activity. Building on this constitutional authority - f
Direct primary
Union shop
Total and Partial Preemption
Ethnicity
36. A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator temporarily blocks the consideration of the bill or nomination.
Environmental impact statement
Constitutionalism
Hold
Eminent domain
37. Governance divided between the parties - as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.
Central clearance
Divided government
National party convention
Soft money
38. The right to renounce one's citizenship.
Fiscal policy
Right of expatriation
Concurring opinion
Deficit
39. The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases.
Extradition
Central clearance
Selective exposure
Writ of habeas corpus
40. Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Quid pro quo
Issue advocacy
National party convention
41. A close contest; by extension - any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and by how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Midterm election
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Horse race
Democratic consensus
42. Essays promoting ratification of the Constitution - published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton - John Jay - and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.
Marbury v. Madison
The Federalist
Regulations
Cycle of decreasing influence
43. Powers that grow out of the very existence of government.
Trade deficit
Public choice
Inherent powers
Initiative
44. A law that defines crimes against the public order.
Popular consent
Criminal law
Divided government
Laissez-faire economics
45. A monopoly that controls goods and services - often in combinations that reduce competition.
Ethnocentrism
Environmental impact statement
Majority
Trust
46. A social division based on national origin - religion - language - and often race.
Regulatory taking
Medicaid
Libertarianism
Ethnicity
47. The difference between the political opinions or political behavior of men and of women.
Bill of attainder
Unilateralism
Distributive policy
Gender gap
48. The legislative leader selected by the majority party who helps plan party strategy - confers with other party leaders - and tries to keep members of the party in line.
Majority leader
Writ of mandamus
Filibuster
Nonprotected speech
49. Widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them.
President pro tempore
Natural rights
Democratic consensus
Judicial review
50. A formal agreement between a U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that acquires approval by both houses of Congress.
Congressional-executive agreement
Constitutionalism
Creative federalism
Sedition