Test your basic knowledge |

CLEP American Government

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. The responsibility of the President to appoint federal judges when vacancies occur on the bench is referred to as






2. The term 'Reagan Democrats' has become a generic term for






3. In this case - a gay man from Georgia charged with committing sodomy in his own home with a consenting adult. The court ruled that the Constitution does not explicitly grant the right for homosexuals to practice their lifestyle and that laws against






4. Things government decides to do - example: taxation - crime control - national defense - education - etc.






5. Cabinet department responsible for collective bargaining and union activity. Established in 1913






6. Something given in exchange for something else; swap






7. He United States Constitution was opposed by which group?






8. Political leaders typically try to both lead and follow ____________.






9. Courts of original jurisdiction in federal crimes - civil suits under federal law - civil suits between citizens of different states where the amount in question exceeds $50 -000 - bankruptcy proceedings - cases involving some federal administrative






10. The pursuit and exercise of power.






11. An act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Constitutionally prohibited.






12. The state officer typically responsible for overseeing federal elections at the state level is the






13. In the Federalist Papers - James Madison proposed that the states under the new Constitution would retain ____________ sovereignty.






14. This 1st amendment clause prohibits the government from making any law prohibiting the exercise of any religion






15. A test established by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes - Jr. - in 1919 to define the point at which speech loses the protection of the First Amendment.






16. This author of Leviathon posited that government is necessary because people are generally in a state of conflict.






17. Signed the executive order banning segregation in the armed forces.






18. After a bill is assigned to a committee - the next step is typically a ______________.






19. 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.






20. In WV State BOE v Barnette (1943) - the Supreme Court ruled that compelling citizens to salute the flag violates the principles of a free society - upholding which 1st Amendment rights?






21. Powers of the national government that flow from its enumerated powers and the 'elastic clause' of the Constitution.






22. Bills that benefit legislators' home districts - or powerful corporate contributors - with sometimes wasteful or unnecessary public works or other projects.






23. Representatives serve ____ year terms






24. This 1957 judgement prohibited pornography material as utterly without redeeming social significance - later reversed in Miller v. California






25. An unwritten custom by which individual senators who belong to the same political party as the president exercise an informal veto power over presidential appointments in their states.






26. A strand of American foreign policy that was visible by the end of the 19th century; it included 'gunboat diplomacy' and other forms of military involvement by the United States in various parts of the world.






27. Control of a market by a single company.






28. Proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1754 as an attempt to form a union of the colonies. Later used to help form the Articles of Confederation.






29. The only instance in which the government can prohibit religious activities






30. This House committee is responsible for all taxes - tariffs - and other revenue raising measures in addition to social security - child support - Medicare - foster care - and unemployment.






31. The separation of people by race.






32. Law enacted in 1939 to prohibit civil servants from taking activists roles in partisan campaigns .This act prohibited federal employees from making political contributions - working for a particualr party -or campaining for a particualr canidate






33. According to this nineteenth-century British peer and historian - 'power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'






34. The sum of the goals - decisions - and actions that govern a nation's relations with the rest of the world.






35. German sociologist theorized that the engine of government needs bureaucracies to provide expertise in a way that short-term elected or appointed official cannot.






36. Process by which citizens propose an amendment by petition.






37. The FCC's equal time policy applies to _____________.






38. Proponents of limited government - unregulated free markets - national self-reliance - and conventional social values are best describes as






39. The coming to power of a new coalition - replacing an old dominant coalition of the other party






40. A policy of avoiding foreign involvement.






41. It the job of _________ committees of a political party to hold voter registration drives - recruit new party members and final candidates for city and county positions.






42. This branch of government checks Bureaucracy through its control over the creation and elimination of agencies as well as its control over budget appropriations.






43. Voters in a political district - or supporters of an elected official; or interest groups or client groups that are either directly regulated by the bureaucracy or vitally affected by its decisions.






44. When the President's own party gains power and influence - it more puts pressure on the President to conform to the will of the party - leading to________________ between the President and the party to define their public identities






45. At one time - the press generally refrained from publishing personal information that would be damaging. FDR - Eisenhower - and JFK all benefited from this reluctance to engage in _____________________. However - the American publics appetite for sen






46. The 19th Century __________ party platform was opposed to the spread of slavery - promoted preservation of the union - supported the abolition of slavery - and promoted post civil was reconstruction.






47. A declaration by the President in 1823 that warned European powers to keep out of the Western Hemisphere and pledged that the United States would not intervene in the internal affairs of Europe.






48. This influential English document refuted divine right of monarchy and made monarchs subject to laws and responsible for crimes






49. Age Requirement for House of Representatives.






50. Cabinet department responsible for regulating and promoting trade and maintaining the census Established in 1913..