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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP American Government
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
civics
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. Formal approval or consent given to a constitution - constitutional amendment - or treaty before it goes into effect.
Ratification
Federal Appellate
Self-Incrimination
Budget Surplus
2. A coherent set of beliefs about politics - public policy - and public purpose. It helps give meaning to political event - personalities - and policies.
Political ideology
2
Party Column Ballot
18th Amendment
3. Communication with legislators or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Political Party
Internationalism
Royalists
Lobbying
4. Laws - rules - and government programs designed to protect individual rights and specific groups - as well as to benefit society as a whole in such areas as health - worker safety - consumer protection - and the environment.
Social Regulation
Social Contract
Party Realignment
CORE
5. Age Requirement for House of Representatives.
Lord Acton
Members of Congress
Max Weber
25
6. Compromise between the large states and small states that established the bicameral Legislature consisting of a Senate and House of Representatives. Also included 3/5 compromise on the status of slaves in representation.
Focus Groups
Non-protected Speech
Great or Connecticut Compromise
Political Party
7. Each Senate committee may have ________ subcommittees.
unlimited
Unitary System
Cruel and Unusual
Veto
8. In presidential campaigns - federal matching funds are provided to candidates who ______________.
binding
Judicial Restraint
Blacks
Pass the fundraising threshold
9. President Hoover's laissez-faire approach to the economy during the Great Depression left many poor voters disenfranchised by the Republican Party. They left to join the _______________ Party.
Random Sample
Democratic
CORE
Espionage Act
10. 1798 Act that criminalized speech that was derisive to the government. Later ruled unconstitutional - Andrew Jackson issued blanket pardon in 1801
15
Murray v. Curlett
Alien and Sedition Acts
Logrolling
11. Define US Citizenship as any person born or naturalized in the United States.
Katz. v US
New Federalism
14th Amendment
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
12. Smith v. Allwight (1994) was the first vase in which the Supreme Court upheld the voting rights of _____________ in state primary elections.
Blacks
Whistle-blowers
Intelligence
Separation of Powers
13. The term most political scientists prefer to describe the bureaucratic process
Interest groups
Public Administration
legislative and executive
7
14. An annual meeting held in the spring in many New England towns - at which the townspeople come together to elect a board of selectmen and to discuss local policy questions. It has become a symbol of participatory democracy.
Establishment Clause
Conference Committee
Concurring Opinion
Town Meeting
15. Constitutional Article that establishes the Judicial Branch.
Deviating Elections
Article III
Independent expenditures
8th Amendment
16. In the last 30 years - voter turnout among American 18- to 24-year-olds has been
Committees
Declining
Senate
Nationalism
17. The view of the majority of the Supreme Court that First Amendment rights must be weighed against the competing needs of the community to preserve order.
Espionage Act
Balancing Test
Elastic Clause
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
18. Which committee assignments would confer the most power and influence on members of the Senate?
It Failed to be Ratified
New Jersey Plan
Appropriations
Sub-government
19. Groups whose views serve as guidelines to an individual's opinion. See also primary groups and secondary groups.
Reference Group
Majority Rule
Local
House Standing Committees
20. Process by which citizens propose an amendment by petition.
Pentagon Papers
Constitutional Initiative
Plain View
Non-protected Speech
21. The principle of civilian control of the military - based on the clear constitutional power of the president as supreme commander of the armed forces.
Hatch Act
National
Civilian Supremacy
Joint Chiefs of Staff
22. A tax on voting abolished by the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964 - long used by southern states to keep blacks (and - in some cases - poor whites) from participating in elections.
Poll Tax
Articles of Confederation
Legislative Courts
Public Opinion
23. The most important committees - always assembled and delegated with the responsibility of handling all bills under their concern. Includes the Ways and Means - Appropriations - Budget - Rules and Agriculture Committees.
9
Major Political Party
Constitutional Initiative
Standing Committees
24. An economic philosophy that advocates both tax and budget cuts to increase incentives to produce in order to expand the total supply of the nation's goods and services.
Cruel and Unusual
Supply Side Economics
Enterprise Zones
Legislative
25. Makes sure that funds are used safely and wisely. They oversee the state's financial records
Good Faith Exception
State Auditor
Trustee
NY Times v. Sullivan
26. A written opinion by some of the judges of a court which agrees with the majority of the court but might arrive there in a different manner.
Self-Incrimination
Trustee
Article II
Concurring Opinion
27. A system of _______________ - as in Italy - encourages the existence of many parties by allotting seats to competing candidates according to the percentage of votes they win.
Espionage Act
Major Political Party
Rhode Island
Proportional Representation
28. Redefined Presidential succession and disability.
Adversarial
12th Amendment
25th Amendment
Maintaining Elections
29. This contraversial 2001 law allows anti-terrorism authorities to monitor e-mail and Internet traffic in order to prevent terrorist attacks. The government argues that cyberspace is public domain and that no warrants should be needed to access informa
Soft money
Mallory Rule
10th Amendment
Patriot Act
30. 1966 Act allowing citizens to inspect all government records with the exception of classified military or intelligence documents - trade secrets or private personnel files.
Exit Polls
Freedom of Information Act
Medicare
Straight Ticket Voting
31. Colonies controlled by the British king through governors appointed by him and through the king's veto power over colonial laws.
Royal Colonies
Selective exposure
Judicial Selection
Electoral Votes
32. The fundamental flaw in plural theory contends that pluralism weakens the backbone of democracy with too many common interest groups attempt to wield power - often leading to standstill because of unwillingness to compromise.
Enact a Bill of Rights
Private Bills
Executive Agreements
Hyperpluralism
33. The federal department that administers programs that provide services to farmers (including research and soil conservation and efforts to stabilize the farming economy)
Reserved Powers
Riders
Critical Election
Agriculture
34. This 1964 case established strict standards for proving slander and libel - court must prove intent of malice on the part of the publisher.
Elastic Clause
NY Times v. Sullivan
Authorizations
Closed Shop
35. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
Suburbia
Enumerated Powers
Free Exercise Clause
Soft Money
36. Lobbyists for special interest groups have found ____________________ to be the most direct and effective method to secure their objectives in Congress.
Criminal Information
Interest Groups
12
Campaign Contributions
37. The view advocated by Supreme Court Justices Hugo Black and William O. Douglas that there are provisions of the Bill of Rights that cannot be diluted by judicial decisions.
Criminal Cases
Wallace's Progressives
Procedural Due Process
Absolute Position
38. Because there is no Senate Rules Committee - Senators can debate a bill for an _________________ time.
Gitlow v. New York
Great or Connecticut Compromise
Unlimited
Political Patronage
39. Which office serves as a watchdog into waste or fraud in the bureaucracy and conducts investigations at the request of congressional committees
Proportional Representation
Democratic-Republicans
Trial Balloon
General Accounting
40. Programs are designed to give preferential access to education - employment - health care - or social welfare to groups of people - especially minorities and women - who have historically been discriminated against.
Affirmative Action
Politics
Custom
Presidential Ticket
41. First African American appointed to the Supreme Court
Bipartisanship
Thurgood Marshall
Pork-Barrel Legislation
Civil Liberties
42. Freedoms that protect the individual from the government.
Executive
Literacy Tests
Caucus
Civil Liberties
43. ____________________ define Congressional voting districts acting within constraints set down by Congress and the Supreme Court.
Enumerated Powers
Gender Gap
State Legislatures
Legislative
44. A powerful alliance of mutual benefit among an agency or unit of the government - an interest group - and a committee or subcommittee of Congress. Also called a triangle or a subgovernment.
Iron Triangle
Thomas Hobbes
Salient Agenda
31
45. In addition to the doctrine of implied powers - Chief Justice Marshall - in his decision in the Supreme Court case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) - established the key concept of:
Union Shop
Poll Tax
Separate but Equal
National Supremacy
46. In 2002 - a federal appeals court struck down the Pledge of Allegiance on the grounds that it violated ________________.
Public Opinion
state legislatures
Recommit the Bill to Committee
Freedom of Religion
47. A primary in which any registered voter is able to vote for candidates from more than one party. A voter - for example - may vote for a Democrat for U.S. senator and for a Republican for governor. In 2000 - the Supreme Court struck down the blanket p
Grand Jury Indictment
Iron Triangle
Divided Government
Blanket Primary
48. Guarantees the right to a speedy and public trial.
Katz. v US
Conservatism
6th Amendment
17th
49. Provisions tacked on to a piece of legislation that are not relevant to the bill.
Agriculture
Riders
Supreme Court
Declining
50. Cabinet department oversees nuclear reactors.Established in 1973 in response to the Energy Crisis.
Concurrent
School Desegregation
Energy
Third Parties