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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 minor party founded by Ross Perot in 1995. It focuses on national government reform - fiscal responsibility - and political accountability. It has recently struggled with internal strife and criticism that it lacks an identity.
Reform party
Laissez-faire economics
Rule-making process
Selective exposure
2. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.
Commerce clause
Revolving door
'Necessary and proper' clause
Patronage
3. 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.
Mass media
Revolving door
Logrolling
Preferred position doctrine
4. Lawsuit brought by an individual or group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.
Jim Crow laws
Preemption
Class action suit
Extradition
5. A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.
Liberalism
Collective bargaining
Unilateralism
Proportional representation
6. Divisions within society that reinforce one another - making groups more homogenous or similar.
State of the Union Address
Defendant
Manifest opinion
Reinforcing cleavages
7. Weakening of partisan preferences that points to a rejection of both major parties and a rise in the number of independents.
Whip
Dealignment
Bundling
Judicial review
8. The widely shared beliefs - values - and norms about how citizens relate to governments and to one another.
Popular consent
Political culture
Pluralism
Retrospective issue of voting
9. A procedure for terminating debate - especially filibusters - in the Senate.
Executive Office of the President
Cloture
Tariff
Libel
10. The system created by Congress in 1913 to establish banking practices and regulate currency in circulation and the amount of credit available. It consists of 12 regional banks supervised by the Board of Governors. Often called simply the Fed.
Federal Reserve System
Leadership PAC
Excise tax
Majority-minority district
11. Views the Constitution as giving a limited list of powers—primarily foreign policy and national defense—to the national government - leaving the rest to the sovereign states. Each level of government is dominant within its own sphere. The Supreme Cou
Political action committee (PAC)
Dual federalism (layer cake federalism)
Bush Doctrine
Commercial speech
12. Philosophy proposing that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect what the framers intended and what its words literally say.
Medical savings account
Majority rule
Judicial restraint
Crossover voting
13. Elections in which voters elect officeholders.
Hold
Sales tax
General election
Judicial review
14. 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
Tax expenditure
Administrative discretion
Hard money
Independent expenditures
15. 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.
Commercial speech
Weapons of mass destruction
Seniority rule
Lobbying
16. The convention in Philadelphia - May 25 to September 17 - 1787 - that debated and agreed upon the Constitution of the United States.
Filibuster
Search warrant
Constitutional Convention
Double jeopardy
17. The presiding officer in the House of Representatives - formally elected by the House but actually selected by the majority party.
Movement
Speaker
Government corporation
Bicameralism
18. Engaging in activities aimed at influencing public officials - especially legislators - and the policies they enact.
Constitutional democracy
Lobbying
Pluralism
Amicus curiae brief
19. A characteristic of individuals that is predictive of political behavior.
Party identification
Gender gap
Political predisposition
Checks and balances
20. Formal orders issued by the president to direct action by the Federal bureaucracy.
National party convention
Executive orders
Safe seat
Electoral college
21. A tax graduated so that people with higher incomes pay larger fraction of their income than people with lower incomes.
Independent agency
Primary election
Progressive tax
Keynesian economics
22. The tendency in elections to focus on the personal attributes of a candidate - such as his/her strengths - weaknesses - background - experience - and visibility.
Civil disobedience
Candidate appeal
Federal Register
White primary
23. 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.'
Override
Creative federalism
Hard money
Gross domestic product (GDP)
24. Established rules and regulations that restrain government officials.
Criminal law
Horse race
Due process
Eminent domain
25. Segregation imposed by law.
Cooperative federalism
Revolving door
De jure segregation
Hard power
26. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.
Plurality
Lobbying
Majority
Preferred position doctrine
27. Compromise between northern and southern states at the Constitutional Convention that three-fifths of the slave population would be counted for determining direct taxation and representation in the House of Representatives.
President pro tempore
Three-fifths compromise
Constitutionalism
Political socialization
28. Those citizens who follow public affairs carefully.
Constituents
Attentive public
Government corporation
Majority rule
29. Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.
Bureaucracy
Sedition
Australian ballot
Progressive tax
30. Clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the state governments from depriving any person of life - liberty - or property without due process of law.
Mass media
Due process clause
Demographics
Devolution revolution
31. People who favor state or local action rather than national action.
Filibuster
Prior restraint
Decentralists
Antitrust legislation
32. An official who is expected to vote independently based on his or her judgment of the circumstances; one interpretation of the role of the legislator.
Antitrust legislation
Administrative discretion
Trustee
Filibuster
33. An official who is expected to represent the views of his or her constituents even when personally holding different views; one interpretation of the role of legislator.
Spoils system
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Delegate
Closed shop
34. Donations made to political candidates - party committees - or groups which - by law - are limited and must be declared.
Hard money
Monopoly
Veto
Open rule
35. Legislative act inflicting punishment - including deprivation of property - without a trial - on named individuals or members of a specific group.
Selected perception
Lobbyist
Libel
Bill of attainder
36. The tendency of presidents to lose support over time.
Civil law
Cycle of decreasing influence
Government corporation
Search warrant
37. 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.
Plea bargain
Normal trade relations
National debt
Interest group
38. Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Attentive public
Bicameralism
Majority rule
39. The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court.
Popular sovereignty
Docket
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Caucus
40. Government in which the people elect those who govern and pass laws; also called a republic.
Representative democracy
Decentralists
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Isolationism
41. The head of the White House staff.
Rally point
Chief of staff
Public defender system
Precedent
42. Congress appropriates a certain sum - which is allocated to state and local units and sometimes to nongovernmental agencies - based on applications from those who wish to participate. Examples are grants by the National Science Foundation to universi
Demographics
Sound bites
Project grants
Due process clause
43. A law that defines crimes against the public order.
Race
Creative federalism
amicus curiae brief
Criminal law
44. The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot - especially the president.
Right of expatriation
Affirmative action
Override
Coattail effect
45. How voters feel about a candidate's background - personality - leadership ability - and other personal qualities.
Public opinion
Candidate appeal
Dual federalism (layer cake federalism)
Dual citizenship
46. 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.
Cross-cutting cleavages
Reform party
Safe seat
Police powers
47. The total output of all economic activity in the nation - including goods and services.
Marbury v. Madison
Ethnicity
Concurring opinion
Gross domestic product (GDP)
48. A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody.
Administrative discretion
Writ of habeas corpus
Incumbent
Libertarian party
49. Biological - chemical - or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use.
Reapportionment
Implied powers
Separation of powers
Weapons of mass destruction
50. An opinion disagreeing with a majority in a Supreme Court ruling.
Suffrage
Justiciable dispute
Dissenting opinion
Entitlements