Test your basic knowledge |

AP Government

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. The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases.






2. A rising public approval of the president that follows a crisis as Americans 'rally 'round the flag' and the chief executive.






3. Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible - mobile corps of senior career executives who worked closely with presidential appointees to manage government.






4. Programs that the Federal government requires States to implement without Federal funding.






5. Relationships among interest groups - congressional committees and subcommittees - and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.






6. A court with appellate jurisdiction that hears appeals from the decisions of lower courts.






7. Segregation imposed by law.






8. The rule of precedent - whereby a rule or law contained in a judicial decision is commonly viewed as binding on judges whenever the same question is presented.






9. 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.






10. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.






11. The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.






12. A formal decision to reject the bill passed by Congress.






13. Primary election in which only persons registered in the party holding the primary may vote.






14. The distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue - candidate - or institution within a specific population.






15. An opinion that agrees with the majority in a Supreme Court ruling but differs on the reasoning.






16. Presidential custom of submitting the names of perspective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.






17. An official document - published every weekday - which lists the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.






18. An election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.






19. Widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them.






20. Federal program that provides medical benefits for low-income persons.






21. Powers inferred from the express powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions.






22. Party leader who is the liaison between the leadership and the rank-and-file in the legislature.






23. Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling taxing and spending.






24. A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent - from the Atlantic the Pacific.






25. Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different.






26. 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.






27. Assigning police to neighborhoods where they walk the beat and work with churches and other community groups to reduce crime and improve relations with minorities.






28. Advertisements and commercials for products and services; they receive less First Amendment protection - primarily to discourage false and misleading ads.






29. Donations made to political candidates - party committees - or groups which - by law - are limited and must be declared.






30. The tendency of presidents to learn more about doing their jobs over time.






31. The powers expressly given to Congress in the Constitution.






32. 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.






33. The presiding officer in the House of Representatives - formally elected by the House but actually selected by the majority party.






34. Something given with the expectation of receiving something in return.






35. Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes - stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and the curve during booms.






36. 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.






37. An agreement among two or more states. Congress must approve most such agreements.






38. A theory that is based on creating enough military strength to convince other nations not to attack first.






39. A monopoly that controls goods and services - often in combinations that reduce competition.






40. A tax whereby people with lower incomes pay a higher fraction of their income than people with higher incomes.






41. The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court.






42. The principle of a two-house legislature.






43. A type of policy that takes benefits (usually through taxes) from one group of Americans and gives them to another (usually through spending).






44. Governance divided between the parties - especially when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.






45. The reliance on diplomacy and negotiation to solve international problems.






46. A policy promoting cutbacks in the amount of Federal regulation in specific areas of economic activity.






47. A theory of international relations that focuses on the hope the nations will act together to solve international problems and promote peace.






48. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.






49. Powers the Constitution specifically grants to one of the branches of the national government.






50. Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.