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 process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






2. Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.






3. 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.






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






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






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






7. Agency that administers civil service laws - rules - and regulations.






8. Voting by member of one party for a candidate of another party.






9. 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.






10. A judicial system in which the court of law is a neutral arena where two parties argue their differences.






11. A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator temporarily blocks the consideration of the bill or nomination.






12. An international trade organization with more than 130 members - including the United States and the People's Republic of China - that seeks to encourage free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions.






13. Through different grant programs - slices up the marble cake into many different pieces - making it even more difficult to differentiate the functions of the levels of government.






14. The process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






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






16. An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood.






17. 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.






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






19. A congressional committee created for a specific purpose - sometimes to conduct an investigation.






20. A formal decision to reject a bill passed by Congress after it adjourns






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






22. Presidential custom of submitting the names of prospective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.






23. A formal decision to reject the bill passed by Congress.






24. The constitutional requirement (in Article II - Section 3) that presidents take care that the laws are faithfully executed - even if they disagree with the purpose of those laws.






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






26. Period at the beginning of the new president's term during which the president enjoys generally positive relations with the press and Congress - usually lasting about six months.






27. The process - most notably in families and schools - by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






28. An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.






29. 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.






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






31. Domination of an industry by a single company that fixes prices and discourages competition; also - the company that dominates the industry by these means.






32. An action taken by Congress to reverse the presidential veto - requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber.






33. Government by the people - both directly or indirectly - with free and frequent elections.






34. A belief that limited government insures order competitive markets and personal opportunity.






35. 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.






36. Programs that the Federal government requires States to implement without Federal funding.






37. A government agency that operates like a business corporation - created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.






38. Electoral system used in electing the president and vice president - in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for particular party's candidates.






39. A career government employee.






40. 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






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






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






43. 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.






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






45. 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.






46. In a criminal action - the person or party accused of an offense.






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






48. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Total preemption rests on the national governments power under the supremacy and commerce clauses to preempt conflicting state and local activity. Building on this constitutional authority - f






49. 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.






50. A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that permits floor amendments within the overall time allocated to the bill.