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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. A belief that limited government insures order competitive markets and personal opportunity.
Opinion of the Court
Conservatism
Winner-take-all system
Tax expenditure
2. A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.
Popular sovereignty
527 organizations
Indexing
Plurality
3. 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.
Reinforcing cleavages
Concurring opinion
Civil disobedience
amicus curiae brief
4. 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.
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Plea bargain
Logrolling
Hold
5. Literacy requirements some states imposed as a condition of voting - generally used to disqualify black voters in the South; now illegal.
Literacy test
Cooperative federalism
Preemption
Race
6. An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.
Proportional representation
Jim Crow laws
Impeachment
Antifederalists
7. Political contributions given to a party - candidate - or interest group that are limited in amounts and fully disclosed. Raising such limited funds is harder than raising unlimited funds - hence the term 'hard money.'
Winner-take-all system
Prior restraint
Rule-making process
Hard money
8. A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.
Project grants
Closed shop
Realigning election
State's rights
9. 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.'
amicus curiae brief
Medicare
Permissive federalism
Prospective issue voting
10. A formal agreement between the U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that does not require Senate approval.
Political predisposition
Multilateralism
Executive agreement
Competitive federalism
11. Advisory council for the president consisting of the heads of the executive departments - the vice president - and a few other officials selected by the president.
Social capital
Laissez-faire economics
Bicameralism
Cabinet
12. Divisions within society that reinforce one another - making groups more homogenous or similar.
Restrictive covenant
Reinforcing cleavages
Stare decisis
Public opinion
13. 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.
Block grants
Police powers
Opinion of the Court
Bush Doctrine
14. 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.
Confederation
Constitutionalism
Rider
Stare decisis
15. Contributions to a state or local party for party-building purposes.
Pocket veto
Constituents
Monopoly
Soft money
16. Programs that the Federal government requires States to implement without Federal funding.
Unfunded mandates
Search warrant
Logrolling
Decentralists
17. The process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.
Manifest destiny
Race
Political socialization
Cross-cutting cleavages
18. Something given with the expectation of receiving something in return.
Labor injunction
Unemployment
Economic sanctions
Quid pro quo
19. A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent - from the Atlantic the Pacific.
Theory of deterrence
Manifest destiny
Midterm election
Rally point
20. Denial of export - import - or financial relations with the target country in an effort to change that nation's policies.
Economic sanctions
Coattail effect
Independent expenditure
Mandate
21. Formal orders issued by the president to direct action by the Federal bureaucracy.
Executive privilege
Democracy
Social insurance
Executive orders
22. The means by which individuals can express preferences regarding the development of public policy.
Discharge petition
Attentive public
National supremacy
Linkage institutions
23. Powers that the Constitution gives to both the national and state governments - such as the power to levy taxes.
Keynesian economics
Independent expenditures
Speaker
Concurrent powers
24. People who favor state or local action rather than national action.
Direct orders
Libertarianism
Decentralists
Revolving door
25. A combination of entitlement programs - paid for by employer and employee taxes - that includes retirement benefits - health insurance - and support for disabled workers and the children of deceased or disabled workers.
Constitutional Convention
Laissez-faire economics
Treaty
Social Security
26. Constitutional arrangement in which sovereign nations or states - by compact - create a central government but carefully limit its power and do not give it direct authority over individuals.
Labor injunction
Confederation
Entitlements
Take care clause
27. The assigning by Congress of congressional seats after each census. State legislatures reapportion state legislative districts.
Free exercise clause
Decentralists
Preemption
Reapportionment
28. The proportion of the voting age public that votes - sometimes defined as the number of registered voters that vote.
Turnout
Dual citizenship
Selected perception
Filibuster
29. Congress appropriates funds for a specific purpose - such as school lunches or for building airports and highways. These funds are allocated by formula and are subject to detailed federal conditions - often on a matching basis; that is - the local go
Discharge petition
Categorical-formula grants
Writ of habeas corpus
Unilateralism
30. Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official - the first step in removal from office.
Popular consent
Impeachment
amicus curiae brief
Regulatory taking
31. Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Open primary
Gerrymandering
Safe seat
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
32. The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - groups - and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual - group - or party does so - they are
Monetarism
Independent expenditure
Caucus
Naturalization
33. The practice of exporting U.S. jobs to lower paid employees in other nations.
Independent agency
Offshoring
Dissenting opinion
Devolution revolution
34. A tax graduated so that people with higher incomes pay larger fraction of their income than people with lower incomes.
Progressive tax
Executive order
Ex post facto law
Weapons of mass destruction
35. The authority of a court to review decisions made by lower courts.
Cloture
Appellate jurisdiction
Senatorial courtesy
Capitalism
36. Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government.
Tax expenditure
Direct primary
Independent expenditures
Federalists
37. Relationships among interest groups - congressional committees and subcommittees - and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Dealignment
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
Issue network
Restrictive covenant
38. A permanent committee established in a legislature - usually focusing on a policy area.
Issue network
Standing committee
Presidential ticket
Free rider
39. A theory of international relations that focuses on the hope the nations will act together to solve international problems and promote peace.
Idealism
Race
Senatorial courtesy
Justiciable dispute
40. The reliance on diplomacy and negotiation to solve international problems.
Articles of Confederation
Suffrage
Soft power
Bureaucracy
41. The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members - stockholders - or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.
White primary
Statism
Political action committee (PAC)
Political socialization
42. An official document - published every weekday - which lists the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.
Federal Register
Issue advocacy
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
Trade deficit
43. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.
Electoral college
Plurality
Reform party
Open shop
44. Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling taxing and spending.
Normal trade relations
Defendant
Amicus curiae brief
Fiscal policy
45. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.
New Jersey Plan
Decentralists
Progressive tax
Patronage
46. The cluster of presidential staff agencies that help the president carry out his responsibilities. Currently the office includes the Office of Management and Budget - the Council of Economic Advisers - and several other units.
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
Cloture
Weapons of mass destruction
Executive Office of the President
47. Petition that - if signed by majority of the House of Representatives' members - will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration.
Deficit
Rule-making process
Discharge petition
Movement
48. An organization that seeks political power by electing people to office so that its positions and philosophy become public policy.
Political party
Hard power
Public defender system
Fiscal federalism
49. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disaster relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
Retrospective issue of voting
Entitlements
Political ideology
Whip
50. In a criminal action - the person or party accused of an offense.
Trustee
Defendant
Conservatism
Voter registration