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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. This house committee is responsible for Supervising the authority of the federal government to borrow money - Raising the revenue required to finance the federal government by levying taxes - Overseeing Social Security and other social insurance prog
Ways and Means Committee
Federal
Tammany Hall
Bundling
2. A political candidate who is thought to have only an outside chance of gaining the nomination.
Northern and Southern
Speaker of the House
Situational
Dark Horse
3. The fundamental rights of a free society that are protected by the Bill of Rights against the power of the government - such as freedom of speech - religion - press - and assembly.
Welfare State
Policy Making Cycle
Civil Liberties
Flexible Construction
4. The expansion of cable and satellite tv has _________________ the president's power to influence public opinion.
Social Regulation
Ways and Means Committee
Confederation
Increased
5. States that arrestees must be informed of their right to remain silent - that anything they say can be held against them in a court - that they have a right to an attorney and that an attorney will be appointed to them if they cannot afford one.
Reynolds v. Sims
Criminal Information
Miranda Rights
Reverse Discrimination
6. According to one survey - what percentage of Americans belongs to groups that sometimes take a stand on public issues
Balance of Payments
Pentagon Papers
congressional oversight committee
31
7. Infamous 1735 English case established the precedent for Freedom of the Press in the US.
Zenger
Thurgood Marshall
Due Process of Law
Low
8. ____________________ define Congressional voting districts acting within constraints set down by Congress and the Supreme Court.
Take Care Clause
Caucus
15
State Legislatures
9. In California v. Avecedo (1991) - The Supreme Court established that authorities may search ____________________ without a warrant providing reasonable suspicion.
Automobiles
binding
House of Representatives
Political System
10. 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 iron triangle.
Conference Committee
Discharge Petition
Capitalism
Sub-government
11. The power to tax is an example of _______________ powers.
Felonies
Concurrent
Discharge Petition
Probable Cause
12. The framers of the Constitution created the Senate to function as a check on the ________________.
Thomas Hobbes
House of Representatives
Rhode Island
Mayor-Council Plan
13. First step in the Policy Making Cycle.
Department of State
High
Sub-government
Raise Public Awareness
14. 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.
binding
Caucus
Iron Triangle
Clear and Present Danger
15. Assistants to the Majority and Minority Leaders of both the House and Senate.
Public Policies
Whips
Executive Agencies
Exit Polls
16. Laws that were designed to segregate black and white Americans and give legal recognition to discrimination.
Jim Crow Laws
1st Amendment
14th
Appealed
17. Clause in the 14th Amendment that forbids any state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The 5th Amendment also imposes this limitation on the national government.
8 Million
Whips
Equal Protection Clause
Distribution
18. Responsible for further investigation - hearings - and amendment to a bill
Public Bills
Universe
Sub-committee
Inherent Powers
19. This amendment applied the Bill of Rights to states.
Catholics
14th
National Security Council
Virginia Plan
20. 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
Patriot Act
Majority Rule
Senate
Block Grant
21. The president - the vice president - the heads of the major executive departments of the government - and certain other senior officials who may hold 'cabinet rank.'
Northern and Southern
Majority Rule
Cabinet
House of Representatives
22. The ___________ aspects of Federalism include: conflicts between state and national government - economic and racial discrimination - uneven enforcement of law - and dominance of local governments by special interest groups
Negative
High
Homeland Security
Secondary Group
23. Decides which bills will be considered.
Caucuses
Committees
Interest Groups
Equity
24. Powerful standing committee that puts bills on the legislative calendar and establishes the processes by which the bill will be discussed on the floor.
Veto
14th
9
Rules Committee
25. In which case did the Supreme Court rule that the concept of privacy included the right to a legal abortion?
W.E.B. DuBoise
Roe v. Wade
National Political Parties
Ticket Splitters
26. The ruling in this case provided that the government must prove a threat to national security in order to impose prior restraint.
Authorizations
Blacks
Pentagon Papers
Court of Appeals
27. This branch of government checks Bureaucracy through its control over lawsuits filed against the agency.
Nationalism
Judicial
Federal
National Security Council
28. ____________ often influence political appointments in an effort to influence bureaucracy.
Affirmative Action
Lose
Interest groups
Albany Plan
29. A form of city government under which a board of city commissioners is popularly elected (often on a nonpartisan ballot). The commissioners make policy as a city council - but they also run city departments as administrators.
Executive Agencies
Commission Plan
Caucuses
Welfare State
30. Representing - characterized by - or including members from two parties or factions
The Enlightenment
Bipartisanship
Concurrent Powers
Self-Incrimination
31. Theory that a government requires the consent of the governed.
Maintaining Elections
Chief Justice
Appealed
Social Contract
32. Representatives serve ____ year terms
Felonies
2
Criminal Information
National Convention
33. The Supreme Court has ruled that Congress_________________ take away a person's citizenship unless it is freely renounced.
may not
Delegated Powers
Family
Scandal Mongering
34. 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.
Television and Radio
Criminal Cases
Appealed
Local
35. 14th Amendment is often used to support the right to ____________.
Select Committee
Creative Federalism
Commonwealth
Due Process
36. A procedure that in certain circumstances permits voters to remove elected state or local officials from office before their terms have expired.
Focus Groups
Recall
Authorizations
Substantive Due Process
37. A group of high-level administrators and managers at the top of the government bureaucracy. SES members have less job tenure but are eligible for substantial cash bonuses for merit.
Hatch Act
Executive
General Accounting
Senior Executive Service
38. The name commonly given to a private group - regardless of size - organized to elect political candidates. An organization becomes one by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1 -000 for the purpose of influencing a federal ele
Negative
Administrative Law
Political Action Committee
Majority Opinion
39. American politics is dominated by a small ___________ who is responsible for most of the important policy decisions
Elite
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Horse race
Foreign Relations and the Judiciary Committees
40. A group of writers - journalists - and critics who exposed corporate malfeasance and political corruption in the first decade of the 20th century.
Random Sample
Constitutional Initiative
Muckrakers
Royal Colonies
41. Cabinet department oversees nuclear reactors.Established in 1973 in response to the Energy Crisis.
Royalists
Free Exercise
Unlimited
Energy
42. Early civil rights leader established the Niagara Movement and helped to establish the NAACP.
Free Exercise of Religion
Pluralist
Gerrymandering
W.E.B. DuBoise
43. Several Presidents have been elected without winning the popular vote. As a result - In 1970 and 1979 - Amendments were proposed to disband the ______________ - neither passed.
Electoral College
Recorded Vote
Conference Committee
Legislative Courts
44. Laws must be reasonable. The Supreme Court has abandoned this concept in regards to business matters citing that it is the responsibility of Congress to regulate economic matters. The court has continued to apply this to matters of civil liberties an
Democratic-Republicans
Substantive Due Process
Common Law
Earl Warren
45. Includes expressive conduct/assembly/actions and symbolic behavior (ex. Picketing or burning the flag) Based on our country history of symbolic acts such as the Boston Tea Party - courts almost always uphold symbolic acts of speech unless they are cr
Standing Committees
Speech Plus
Party Activists
Criminal Cases
46. Age requirement for President
35
Caucuses
Separation of Powers
Plurality
47. The belief that all people possess certain basic rights that may not be abridged by government.
Natural Rights
Alien and Sedition Acts
Transportation
Administrative Procedure Act
48. A controversial law overwhelmingly passed by Congress in October 2001 - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It greatly expanded the power of federal law enforcement authorities to move against suspe
Popular Sovereignty
Patriot Act
Lyndon B. Johnson
Whigs
49. Lobbyists for special interest groups have found ____________________ to be the most direct and effective method to secure their objectives in Congress.
Laissez-Faire
a senior senator of the majority party
Campaign Contributions
77
50. The appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents - such as those in marginal seats or campaign contributors.
Pork Barrel Spending
Dred Scott Decision
Charter Colonies
Flexible Construction