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 theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.






2. 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.






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






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






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






6. 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.






7. Clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting state governments from depriving any person of life - liberty - or property without due process of law.






8. Literacy requirements some states imposed as a condition of voting - generally used to disqualify black voters in the South; now illegal.






9. 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.






10. Written defamation of another person. For public officials and public figures - the constitutional tests designed to restrict libel actions are especially rigid.






11. A term the founders used to refer to political parties and special interests or interest groups.






12. The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court.






13. Powers inferred from the express powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions.






14. A government entity that is independent of the legislative - executive - and judicial branches.






15. A writ issued by a magistrate that authorizes the police to search a particular place or person - specifying the place to be searched and the objects to be seized.






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






17. A form of organization that operates through impersonal - uniform rules and procedures.






18. The current holder of the elected office.






19. A dispute growing out of an actual case or controversy and that is capable of settlement by legal methods.






20. Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.






21. 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






22. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.






23. Presidential power to strike - or remove - specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.






24. The head of the White House staff.






25. Financial contributions by individuals or groups in the hope of influencing the outcome of the election and subsequently influencing policy.






26. 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.






27. The assigning by Congress of congressional seats after each census. State legislatures reapportion state legislative districts.






28. An election during periods of expanded suffrage and change in the economy and society that proves to be a turning point - redefining the agenda of politics and the alignment of voters within parties.






29. 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.






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






31. 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.






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






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






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






35. The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.






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






37. A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.






38. The precise legal definition of how government will implement a policy.






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






40. The legislative leader selected by the minority party as spokesperson for the opposition.






41. The act of declaring party affiliation; required by some states when one registers to vote.






42. The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census - to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.






43. A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendments to bills or provides that only members of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments.






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






45. The set of arrangements - including checks and balances - federalism - separation of powers - rule of law - due process - and a bill of rights - that requires our leaders to listen - think - bargain - and explain before they act or make laws. We then






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






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






48. 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.






49. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.






50. Government regulation of property so extensive that government is deemed to have taken the property by the power of eminent domain - for which it must compensate the property owners.