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






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






3. The residents of a congressional district or state.






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






5. The right to vote.






6. The first governing document of the confederated states drafted in 1777 - ratified in 1781 - and replaced by the present Constitution in 1789.






7. Government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws; also called a republic.






8. 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.






9. Censorship imposed before a speech is made or a newspaper is published; usually presumed to be unconstitutional.






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






11. Words that by their very nature inflict injury on those to whom they are addressed or insight them to acts of violence.






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






13. Deliberate refusal to obey law or comply with orders of public officials as a means of expressing opposition.






14. Period at the beginning of the new president's term during which the president enjoys generally positive relations with the press and Congress - usually lasting about six months.






15. 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.






16. A formal agreement between a U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that acquires approval by both houses of Congress.






17. Compromise agreement by states at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with a lower house in which representation would be based on population and an upper house in which each state would have two senators.






18. 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.






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






20. Promoting a particular position or an issue paid for by interest groups or individuals but not candidates. Much issue advocacy is often electioneering for or against a candidate - and until 2004 had not been subject to any regulation.






21. An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.






22. International organization derived from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that promotes it free trade around the world.






23. Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.






24. 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.






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






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






27. Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.






28. The current holder of the elected office.






29. An economic and governmental system based on public ownership of the means of production and exchange.






30. The widely shared beliefs - values - and norms about how citizens relate to governments and to one another.






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






32. A legal action conferring citizenship on an alien.






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






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






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






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






37. The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or - in a state court - the state constitution.






38. 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.






39. Money spent by individuals or groups not associated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office.






40. A tax graduated so that people with higher incomes pay larger fraction of their income than people with lower incomes.






41. 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.






42. The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending.






43. Officer of the Senate selected by the majority party to act as chair in the absence of the vice president.






44. A widely shared and consciously held view - like support for homeland security.






45. Procedure for submitting to popular vote measures passed by the legislature or proposed amendments to a state constitution.






46. The process - most notably in families and schools - by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






47. General tax on sales transactions - sometimes exempting food and drugs.






48. A minor party that believes in extremely limited government. Libertarians call for a free market system - expanded individual liberties such as drug legalization - and a foreign policy of nonintervention - free trade - and open immigration.






49. A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the floor and thereby delays proceedings and prevents a vote on a controversial issue.






50. A system of government in which the legislature selects the prime minister or president.