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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. Governance divided between the parties - as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.
Photo ops
Pocket veto
Divided government
Property rights
2. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.
Logrolling
Deficit
Entitlement programs
Joint committee
3. A landmark case in United States law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States - under Article Three of the United States Constitution. The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury - who had b
Issue network
Marbury v. Madison
Recall
Libertarian party
4. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disaster relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
Revolving door
Entitlements
Majority rule
Jim Crow laws
5. Libel - obscenity - fighting words - and commercial speech - which are not entitled to constitutional protection in all circumstances.
Presidential election
Keynesian economics
Inherent powers
Nonprotected speech
6. 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.
Monopoly
Safe seat
Full faith and credit clause
Police powers
7. A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; such committees oversee the Library of Congress and conduct investigations.
Spoils system
Joint committee
De jure segregation
Equal protection clause
8. A government agency that operates like a business corporation - created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.
Economic sanctions
Government corporation
Lobbyist
Court of appeals
9. Government in which citizens vote on laws and select officials directly.
Direct democracy
Keynesian economics
Open rule
Devolution revolution
10. Formal orders issued by the president to direct action by the Federal bureaucracy.
Bicameralism
Attentive public
Virginia Plan
Executive orders
11. Procedure for submitting to popular vote the removal of officials from office before the end of their term.
Property rights
Recall
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Rider
12. Elections held in years when the president is on the ballot.
Presidential election
Midterm election
Soft power
Racial gerrymandering
13. The proportion of the voting age public that votes - sometimes defined as the number of registered voters that vote.
Mass media
Due process clause
Ex post facto law
Turnout
14. An explanation of the decision of the Supreme Court or any other appellate court.
Laissez-faire economics
National supremacy
Cabinet
Opinion of the Court
15. An election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.
Gerrymandering
Winner-take-all system
Public defender system
Literacy test
16. A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
National Intelligence Director
Restrictive covenant
Decentralists
17. 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.
Precedent
Hard power
Seniority rule
Unfunded mandates
18. Money government provides to parents to pay their children's tuition in a public or private school of their choice.
Public assistance
Affirmative action
Vouchers
Movement
19. Censorship imposed before a speech is made or a newspaper is published; usually presumed to be unconstitutional.
Direct democracy
Establishment clause
Due process clause
Prior restraint
20. In this type of sample - every individual has unknown and random chance of being selected.
Preemption
Fiscal federalism
Selected perception
Random sample
21. A theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.
Senatorial courtesy
Whip
Cabinet
Pluralism
22. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.
Patronage
Independent agency
Gerrymandering
Writ of mandamus
23. 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.
Override
Interstate compact
Mass media
Obscenity
24. Those citizens who follow public affairs carefully.
Special or select committee
'Necessary and proper' clause
Socialism
Attentive public
25. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. These sanctions permit the use of federal money in one program to influence state and local policy in another. For example - a 1984 act reduced federal highway aid by up to 15 percent for any
Inflation
Crossover sanctions
Exclusionary rule
Suffrage
26. A national meeting of delegates elected in primaries - caucuses - or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president - ratify the party platform - elect officers - and adopt rules.
National party convention
Gerrymandering
Constitutional Convention
Bureaucrat
27. A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody.
Suffrage
Commercial speech
Writ of habeas corpus
Tax expenditure
28. 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.
Amicus curiae brief
General election
Medicaid
Due process clause
29. The practice of exporting U.S. jobs to lower paid employees in other nations.
Political culture
Divided government
Special or select committee
Offshoring
30. A characteristic of individuals that is predictive of political behavior.
Trustee
Political predisposition
Environmental impact statement
Bureaucrat
31. 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.
Department
Party registration
Socialism
Federal Reserve System
32. Constitutional requirement that governments proceed by proper methods; limits how government may exercise power.
Issue network
Monopoly
Procedural due process
Civil law
33. Election in which voters choose party nominees.
Incumbent
Weapons of mass destruction
Federal Reserve System
Direct primary
34. Money spent by individuals or groups not associated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office.
Eminent domain
Unilateralism
Independent expenditures
Fiscal federalism
35. Constitutional arrangement that concentrates power in a central government.
Opinion of the Court
Establishment clause
Unitary system
Dual federalism (layer cake federalism)
36. Trade status granted as part of an international trade policy that gives a nation the same favorable trade concessions and tariffs that the best trading partners receive.
Normal trade relations
Winner-take-all system
Earmarks
Writ of habeas corpus
37. The difference between the political opinions or political behavior of men and of women.
Gender gap
Tax expenditure
Tariff
Collective action
38. 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
Progressive tax
Total and Partial Preemption
Override
Mandate
39. 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.
Justiciable dispute
Extradition
Enumerated powers
Executive Office of the President
40. The authority of a court to hear a case 'in the first instance.'
Original jurisdiction
Public assistance
Issue advocacy
Capitalism
41. A decision made by a higher court such as a circuit court of appeals or the Supreme Court that is binding on all other federal courts.
Sedition
Spoils system
Earmarks
Precedent
42. The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.
Executive orders
Procedural due process
Implementation
Devolution revolution
43. 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
Dual federalism (layer cake federalism)
Presidential ticket
Natural law
Fiscal federalism
44. Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.
Political action committee (PAC)
Majority
Prospective issue voting
National party convention
45. The authority of a court to review decisions made by lower courts.
Selective incorporation
Block grants
Appellate jurisdiction
Direct orders
46. Remedial action designed to overcome the effects of discrimination against minorities and women.
Gerrymandering
Affirmative action
Trade deficit
Regressive tax
47. Directive issued by a president or governor that has the force of law.
Connecticut Compromise
Democracy
Executive order
Representative democracy
48. God's or nature's law that defines right from wrong and is higher than human law.
Defendant
Natural law
Free rider
Block grants
49. 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).
Voter registration
Selective exposure
Mass media
White primary
50. Biological - chemical - or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use.
Weapons of mass destruction
Monopoly
Community policing
Monopoly