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CLEP American Government
Start Test
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Subjects
:
clep
,
civics
Instructions:
Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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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 method available in most states that allows voters - in effect - to 'veto' a bill passed by the legislature or to accept or reject a proposal - such as a bond issue - made by a government agency.
Pentagon Papers
Plurality
CORE
Referendum
2. In Congress - _____________ are informal organizations of individual congressional representatives with like interests or constituencies. Members work together to promote the interests of the groups they represent through legislation - policy - and p
Party Realignment
Caucuses
Party Purists
John Locke
3. A term popularized by sociologist Floyd Hunter to describe the community leaders who he said determined policy in Atlanta - Georgia. More broadly - the term is used to describe 'power elites' generally.
Affirmative Action
Power Structure
Declining
Riders
4. According to one survey - what percentage of Americans belongs to groups that sometimes take a stand on public issues
Primary
Criminal Information
31
Hatch Act
5. A method of amending state constitutions under which proposed constitutional amendments can be placed on the ballot if enough signatures are obtained on a petition. Almost half the states also employ the initiative on the ballot to allow voters to en
October 1st
Isolationism
Initiative
House of Representatives
6. Lead by Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. Dedicated to defending federal authority and high tariffs. Gained supports of merchants - bankers - industrialists and planters.
Unitary System
15
Freedom of Information Act
Whigs
7. Cabinet department that includes the Coast Guard - Border Patrol - FEMA - Transportation Security Administration - INS and the Secret Service. Established in 2001 in response to 9/11.
District of Columbia
Homeland Security
Whistle-blowers
Commonwealth
8. Head of the Supreme Court.
2nd Amendment
Conference Committee
Writ of Certiorari
Chief Justice
9. Independent organizations - but more often the political arms of corporations - labor unions - or interest groups - established to contribute to candidates or to work for general political goals.
Establishment Clause
Interest Groups
Committees
Political Action Committees
10. Powers specifically given to the federal government by the US Constitution - for example - the authority to print money.
Cloture
Enterprise Zones
Delegated Powers
Social Security
11. Concurrent resolution - adopted by both Houses of Congress - that sets forth a Congressional budget plan for the budget year and at least four out-years.
Budget Resolution
Warrant
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Executive
12. Bills passed by Congress to pay for the spending it has authorized.
Ways and Mean Committee
Free Exercise Clause
Probable Cause
Appropriation Bills
13. This body of government has final authority on the meaning of the Constitution.
Hold
Block Grant
The Sugar Act and the Currency Act
Supreme Court
14. High School Dropouts - Blacks - Hispanics - Recent immigrants - and People under 25 or over 75 tend to have a _________ voter turnout.
Low
3
Popular Sovereignty
Government Corporations
15. Held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
General Election
The Federal Reserve Board
Government Corporations
Cruel and Unusual
16. Executive office responsible for helping the President write the federal budget and monitoring federal spending.
Warrant
Republicans
Political Party
Office of Management and Budget
17. The federal department that administers programs that provide services to farmers (including research and soil conservation and efforts to stabilize the farming economy)
Trustee
Bull Moose Progressives
Agriculture
Inputs
18. These party members are highly involved in the electoral process. Donate funds to party and candidates - demand a voice in state party agendas and tend to have a strong belief in their party's ideology.
Bipartisanship
Positive
Chief Justice
Party Activists
19. 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
Bowers v. Hardwick
2/3
Economic Interest Groups
Soft money
20. This category of interest groups has been the strongest and most effective in lobbying Washington
Inverse
Intelligence
Economic Interest Groups
Clear and Present Danger
21. Agenda that includes issues that affect the daily lives of the people.
War Powers Resolution
Enact a Bill of Rights
Salient Agenda
Violation of Law
22. 1946 Act requiring bureaucratic agencies to appeal to the affected parties before adopting new policies. Legislative check on Bureaucracy.
Interest Groups
Administrative Procedure Act
Baby Boomers
Convention Bounce
23. 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
Great or Connecticut Compromise
House Standing Committees
89
24. The relationship between the total cost of foreign goods imported to this country and sales of U.S. products overseas.
25
Selective Incorporation
Institutional
Balance of Trade
25. Laws must be administered in a fair manner.
Bundling
Closed
Separate but Equal
Procedural Due Process
26. A word that comes from two Greek roots - demos - 'the populace -' and kratia - 'rule'
House of Representatives
Democracy
Third Parties
Amicus Curiae Brief
27. International agreements between the president and foreign heads of state that - unlike treaties - do not require Senate approval.
Patriot Act
Executive Agreements
Suburbia
Budget Resolutions
28. Members of the ______________ committee of a political party work to maintain influence during non election years through congressional campaign committees.
Adversarial
National
Populous
Party Column Ballot
29. In the mid-term elections following a President's inauguration - his party tends to ___________ seats in Congress.
Lose
Party Regulars
Closed Shop
NY Times v. Sullivan
30. In this essay - James Madison recognized that reconciling the competing interests of various groups was what legislation was all about
2/3
Equality
Bowers v. Hardwick
The Federalist #10
31. Senators are re-elected every ___ years with 1/3 of the Senate being up for election every 2 years.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Authorizations
6
Mayor-Council Plan
32. Legislative branch incorporating two houses.
Bicameral
12th Amendment
National Security
Project Grant
33. What occurs when government adopts a public policy that provides - or distributes - benefits to people or groups.
Distribution
Woodrow Wilson
Writ of Mandamus
Balance of Payments
34. When the population's overall feeling of political efficacy is low - voter turnout is _______.
Federalist
Low
Ad Hoc Structure
War Powers Resolution
35. 'lame duck' amendment
Pork Barrel Spending
Third Party
20th
Unlimited
36. The framers of the Constitution created the Senate to function as a check on the ________________.
Iron Triangle
House of Representatives
Muckrakers
New Federalism
37. Polls taken as people leave voting places. In the past - television networks sometimes used these polls to predict election outcomes before the polls close. In 1992 - the television networks agreed not to project the winner in a state until the major
Exit Polls
High
Distribution
Foreign Relations and the Judiciary Committees
38. The tendency of presidents to lose support over time.
Executive
Freedom of Information Act
Cycle of Decreasing Influence
Freedom of Religion
39. The 15th Amendment - also know as _________________ - was intended to help recently freed blacks from unconstitutional state laws designed to circumvent federal laws.
President
Incorporation Doctrine
Committee of the Whole
Filibuster
40. First proposed in 1789 - this amendment passed in 1992 prohibits Congress from raising their own pay. Pay raises may not take affect until the beginning of the next term.
Delegated Powers
Writ of Assistance
Republican
27th Amendment
41. Dayton Board of Education v. Brinkman (1979) upheld that bussing programs were an acceptable way to enforce ______________________.
Popular Sovereignty
School Desegregation
Positive
External Efficacy
42. In his classic study of community power in New Haven - Connecticut - political scientist Robert A. Dahl concluded that the city was a __________ system dominated by many different sets of leaders
Pluralist
7th Amendment
Proposition 187
US v. Ballard
43. The practice under which victorious politicians reward their followers with jobs.
Spoils System
Clean bill
Scottsboro Boys Case
High
44. Committees of Congress composed of both representatives and senators.
Joint Committees
Medicaid
Internationalism
Senate
45. Committees created by Congress to conduct special investigations. Although normally temporary - some become - in effect - permanent.
Standing Committees
Popular Sovereignty
Due Process of Law
Select Committee
46. A plan to provide billions of dollars of American aid to Western Europe to speed its economic and social recovery after the Second World War.
Katz. v US
Marshall Plan
55
General Election
47. Defamation by written or printed words - pictures - or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
Gay
Libel
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Interventionism
48. The Supreme Court is the only judicial body that may hear disputes between _________________.
Legislative
States
Political Machines
17th
49. During the 1800's and early 1900's - some state and local party committees became ________________ dominating party activities. Committee members would promise new recruits money - jobs - and other benefits for joining and voting the straight party t
Ticket Splitters
Baby Boomers
Political Machines
blockbusting and redlining
50. State legislation designed to outlaw the union shop - passed by 21 states acting under Section 14B of the federal Taft-Hartley Act.
Social Contract
Unlimited
Right to Work Laws
Omaha platform
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