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. A jury of 6 to 12 persons that determines guilt or innocence in a civil or criminal action.






2. A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.






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






4. 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.






5. Federal statute barring Federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds.






6. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.






7. Elections in which voters determine party nominees.






8. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disaster relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.






9. A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.






10. The drawing of election districts so as to ensure that members of a certain race are a minority in the district; ruled unconstitutional in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960).






11. How voters feel about a candidate's background - personality - leadership ability - and other personal qualities.






12. Economic theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.






13. A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.






14. People who favor state or local action rather than national action.






15. A government agency that operates like a business corporation - created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.






16. Electoral system used in electing the president and vice president - in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for particular party's candidates.






17. A theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.






18. 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.






19. A type of policy that provides benefits to all Americans.






20. 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.






21. A local or judicial election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots.






22. Inherent powers of state governments to pass laws to protect the public health - safety - and welfare; the national government has no directly granted police powers but accomplishes the same goals through other delegated powers.






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






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






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






26. A secret ballot printed by the state.






27. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.






28. Implies that although federalism provides 'a sharing of power and authority between the national and state governments - the state's share rests upon the permission and permissiveness of the national government.'






29. Conceives of federalism as a marble cake in which all levels of government are involved in a variety of issues and programs - rather than a layer cake - or dual federalism - with fixed divisions between layers or levels of government.






30. A legislative practice that assigns the chair of the committee or subcommittee to the member of the majority party with the longest continuous service on the committee.






31. Consumer tax on a specific kind of merchandise - such as tobacco.






32. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.






33. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. These sanctions permit the use of federal money in one program to influence state and local policy in another. For example - a 1984 act reduced federal highway aid by up to 15 percent for any






34. The proportion of the voting age public that votes - sometimes defined as the number of registered voters that vote.






35. A policy-making alliance among loosely connected participants that comes together on a particular issue - then disbands.






36. The process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






37. A division of population based on occupation - income - and education.






38. Exemption from prosecution for a particular crime in return for testimony pertaining to the case.






39. Loss of tax revenue due to Federal laws that provide special tax incentives or benefits to individuals or businesses.






40. Power of a government to take private property for public use; the U.S. Constitution gives national and state governments this power and requires them to provide just compensation for property so taken.






41. A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.






42. Through different grant programs - slices up the marble cake into many different pieces - making it even more difficult to differentiate the functions of the levels of government.






43. Proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by William Paterson of New Jersey for a central government with a single-house legislature in which each state would be represented equally.






44. Interpretation of the First Amendment that would permit legislatures to forbid speech encouraging people to engage in illegal action.






45. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.






46. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disability relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.






47. Lawsuit brought by an individual or group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.






48. Retroactive criminal law that works to the disadvantage of a person.






49. A company with a labor agreement under which union membership is a condition of employment.






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