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 characteristic of individuals that is predictive of political behavior.






2. A court with appellate jurisdiction that hears appeals from the decisions of lower courts.






3. Efforts by government to alter the free operation of the market to achieve social goals such as protecting workers and the environment.






4. The powers of the national government in foreign affairs that the Supreme Court has declared do not depend on constitutional grants but rather grow out of the very existence of the national government.






5. Police targeting of racial minorities as potential suspects of criminal activities.






6. Widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them.






7. The process by which provisions of the bill of rights are brought within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and so applied to state and local governments.






8. Unlimited amounts of money that political parties previously could raise for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.






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






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






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






12. 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






13. Democratic party primary in the old 'one-party South' that was limited to white people and essentially constituted an election; ruled unconstitutional in Smith v. Allwright (1944).






14. The legislative leader selected by the majority party who helps plan party strategy - confers with other party leaders - and tries to keep members of the party in line.






15. Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.






16. Programs in which eligibility is based on prior contributions to government - usually in the form of payroll taxes.






17. 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.






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






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






20. Views the national government - 50 states - and thousands of local governments as competing with each other over ways to put together packages of services and taxes. Applies the analogy of the marketplace: we have some choice about which state and ci






21. 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.






22. Requirement that evidence unconstitutionally or illegally obtained be excluded from a criminal trial.






23. A system of public employment in which selection and promotion depend on demonstrated performance rather than political patronage.






24. Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state or local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.






25. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this to forbid governmental support to any or all religions.






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






27. Interest groups organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code may advertise for or against candidates. If their source of funding is corporations or unions - they have some restrictions on broadcast advertising. 527 organizations were impo






28. An election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.






29. Formal orders issued by the president to direct action by the Federal bureaucracy.






30. A meeting of party delegates to vote on matters of policy and in some cases to select party candidates for public office.






31. Trial or punishment for the same crime by the same government; forbidden by the Constitution.






32. 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.

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






34. The principle of a two-house legislature.






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






36. The principle of a two-house legislature.






37. 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.






38. The difference between the revenues raised annually from sources of income other than borrowing and the expenditures of government - including paying the interest on past borrowing.






39. During the Great Society - the marble cake approach of intergovernmental relations.






40. The right of women to vote.

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41. A policy adopted by the Bush administration in 2001 that asserts America's right to attack any nation that has weapons of mass destruction that might be used against U.S. interests at home or abroad.






42. The right to vote.






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






44. Governance divided between the parties - as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.






45. 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.'






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






47. The clause in the Constitution (Article 1 - Section 8 - Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.






48. A veto exercised by the president after Congress has adjourned; if the president takes no action for 10 days - the bill does not become law and does not return to Congress for possible override.






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






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