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 right to vote.






2. 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.






3. The tendency in elections to focus on the personal attributes of a candidate - such as his/her strengths - weaknesses - background - experience - and visibility.






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






5. A policy that emphasizes a united front and cooperation between the major political parties - especially on sensitive foreign policy issues.






6. Biological - chemical - or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use.






7. 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






8. A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.






9. Court order directing an official to perform an official duty.






10. Elections held in years when the president is on the ballot.






11. 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.






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






13. Established rules and regulations that restrain government officials.






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






15. A law that governs relationships between individuals and defines their legal rights.






16. God's or nature's law that defines right from wrong and is higher than human law.






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






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. Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.






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






21. A permanent committee established in a legislature - usually focusing on a policy area.






22. A tactic in which PACs collect contributions from like-minded individuals (each limited to $2000) and present them to a candidate or political party as a 'bundle -' thus increasing the PAC's influence.






23. Election in which voters choose party nominees.






24. The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot - especially the president.






25. An opinion disagreeing with a majority in a Supreme Court ruling.






26. A career government employee.






27. Powers expressly or implicitly reserved to the states.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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






29. Legislative act inflicting punishment - including deprivation of property - without a trial - on named individuals or members of a specific group.






30. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.






31. A requirement the federal government imposes as a condition for receiving federal funds.






32. A formal writ used to bring a case before the Supreme Court.






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






34. Remedial action designed to overcome the effects of discrimination against minorities and women.






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






36. Agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser offense to avoid having to stand trial for a more serious offense.






37. Weakening of partisan preferences that points to a rejection of both major parties and a rise in the number of independents.






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






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






40. Elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of the party's candidate is almost taken for granted.






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






42. The formal process for making regulations.






43. A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.






44. 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.






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






46. A president's claim of broad public support.






47. Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786-1787 - protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


48. Policy of erecting trade barriers to protect domestic industry.






49. 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.






50. An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government - promoting a free market economy - a noninterventionist foreign policy - and an absence of regulation in moral - economic - and social life.