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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. Although camera are allowed in most trial courts - they are banned from ______________.
Federal Courts
25
Trial Balloon
Primary
2. Also known as the Indiana ballot - lists the candidates of each party in a row or column - beside or under the party emblem. In most cases - the voter can make one mark at the top of the column - or pull one lever - and thus vote for all the party's
Categorical Grant
Legislative
Party Column Ballot
Conventions
3. A philosophy that Supreme Court justices and other judges should boldly apply the Constitution to social and political questions.
Political Culture
Major Political Party
Judicial Activism
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - Kansas
4. Guarantees the right to bare arms.
2nd Amendment
National Committee
State of the Union
Roe v. Wade
5. 1966 Act allowing citizens to inspect all government records with the exception of classified military or intelligence documents - trade secrets or private personnel files.
Freedom of Information Act
Project Grant
Focus Groups
Logrolling
6. Eisenhower's philosophy of being liberal in all things human and being conservative with all things fiscal. Appealed to both Republicans and Democrats.
Dynamic Conservatism
Committees
Jim Crow Laws
Affirmative Action
7. The head of a national political party
Grant Clemency
Unlimited
Selective exposure
National Chair
8. The European political philosophers whose writings influenced the concepts of liberty and government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution belonged to the intellectual and cultural movement known as
Article IV
Freedom of Information Act
Policy Making Cycle
The Enlightenment
9. A ruling by the Supreme Court in 1857
Vice President
Retrospective Voting
Ad Hoc Structure
Dred Scott Decision
10. Bills passed by Congress to pay for the spending it has authorized.
Supreme Court
Appropriation Bills
Regulatory Federalism
Social Regulation
11. Executive office responsible for helping the President write the federal budget and monitoring federal spending.
Blanket Primary
Office of Management and Budget
Union Shop
NY Times v. Sullivan
12. Number of years a President must reside in the US prior to taking office
14
State Legislatures
State of the Union
Majority and Minority Leader
13. The right of the Supreme Court - under the Constitution - to hear certain kinds of cases directly - such as cases involving foreign diplomats - or cases in which one of the 50 states is a party.
Unitary System
Original Jurisdiction
Third Parties
Campaign Finance Reform
14. Federal categorical grants in which the granting agency has less discretion over how the recipient spends the money.
Formula Grant
Good Faith Exception
Pocket Veto
Stare Decisis
15. Private groups that attempt to influence the government to respond to the shared attitudes of their members.
Interest Groups
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Demands
AARP
16. The belief that all people possess certain basic rights that may not be abridged by government.
Dred Scott Decision
Natural Rights
Lyndon B. Johnson
Civil Liberties
17. Author of The Spirit of the Laws advocating balance of power in politics with liberty is dependant upon a separation of the judicial - legislative - and executive branches of government.
Article V
Free Exercise of Religion
Baron de Montesquieu
6
18. The term most political scientists prefer to describe the bureaucratic process
Habeas Corpus
Cabinet
Public Administration
Fiscal Policy
19. 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.'
Focus Groups
Cabinet
Spoils System
Ex Post Facto
20. The action - or actions - taken by government to carry out a policy.
a senior senator of the majority party
25th Amendment
Implementation
Containment
21. Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.
Selective Incorporation
Swing Voters in the Democratic Party
Impoundment
Sub-committee
22. In states using primaries - the most common form of primary election is the ___________ primary.
Closed
Balance of Payments
Public Opinion
congressional oversight committee
23. In Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972) - the Supreme Court extended the right to counsel to those accused of misdemeanors if the defendant is _____________.
Realigning Elections
Council of Economic Advisors
Isolationism
imprisoned
24. The term 'Reagan Democrats' has become a generic term for
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Restrictive Covenant
Swing Voters in the Democratic Party
Freedom of Religion
25. Limitations on this freedom including prohibition of defamation and obscenity - limitation on commercial speech - and restriction of inciting words that may cause immediate danger.
Concurrent Powers
Commerce
Freedom of Speech
Public Policies
26. In 1998 - the Supreme Court struck down the________________ law - declaring it unconstitutional - because Congress did not have the constitutional authority to hand that power to the President.
Ways and Means Committee
Regulatory Federalism
Ticket Splitters
presidential line-item veto
27. The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 restructured the number of ______________ in both the House and Senate.
Committees
Criminal Cases
Inputs
Literacy Tests
28. The sum of the goals - decisions - and actions that govern a nation's relations with the rest of the world.
Governmental Corporations
Ad Hoc Structure
Foreign Policy
Voting
29. Impact elections by siphoning off votes from major parties spoiling a party's chance in a close race.
Union Shop
Implied
Third Parties
Democrats
30. According to the Constitution - the electors in the Electoral College shall be appointed in a manner to be determined by the
Department of Treasury
state legislatures
Pluralist Theory
Low
31. Process by which citizens propose an amendment by petition.
Retrospective Voting
Fast Track Authority
Constitutional Initiative
Bowers v. Hardwick
32. The House appropriations committee has ___ subcommittees.
Balance of Payments
12
Retrospective Voting
Clothespin vote
33. Infamous 1735 English case established the precedent for Freedom of the Press in the US.
Voting
Zenger
Proportional Representation
Demands
34. A course of action decided upon by a government
Constituencies
Policy
Periodic Registration
Independent Regulatory Agencies
35. A close contest; by extension - any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Horse race
Periodic Registration
Demands
Flexible Construction
36. ________________ of the Constitution dictates how the Constitution shall be amended.
Article V
Feedback
Concurrent
Libertarianism
37. Electoral college system and other campaign practices make it exceedingly difficult for even popular ______________ candidates to successfully run for the presidency.
Third Party
Nationalism
Conglomerates
Authorizations
38. Requires reporting of financial information by companies with publicly traded securities
Securities and Exchange Commission or Securities Act of 1933
Public Opinion
State of the Union
Freedom of Information Act
39. Requests from people or groups for health care for the aged - loans for college students - equal opportunity for minorities - and higher subsidies for farmers are examples of:
Interest groups
Cycle of Decreasing Influence
Demands
Enacted
40. The vagueness of this phrase has allowed juries to exclude specific genders or races in order to affect the outcome of the verdict.
AARP
Good Faith Exception
Jury of Peers
Public Policy
41. 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:
Legislative
Winston Churchill
Woodrow Wilson
National Supremacy
42. The way things should be by law
Rousseau
Committee of the Whole
Salient Agenda
de jure
43. A provision of law in which Congress asserts the power to nullify actions of the executive branch. In 1983 the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional - but Congress continued to pass laws containing such provisions.
Independent expenditures
Legislative Veto
Random Sample
Electoral College
44. The foreign policy of the United States during the period after the Second World War - designed to contain the expansion of Soviet power.
Containment
Categorical Grant
Decreased
Party Regulars
45. 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.
Initiative
Affirmative Action
Isolationism
Equal Protection Clause
46. A system of voter registration in which voters must register every year or at other stated intervals.
John Locke
Members of Congress
Charter Colonies
Periodic Registration
47. 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.
Hyperpluralism
Free Exercise of Religion
11th Amendment
Gitlow v. New York
48. Number of original cabinet positions under George Washington.
3
Royal Colonies
Suburbia
Political Socialization
49. The gap between the government's income and outlays.
Exit Polls
Party Purists
Delegate
Deficit
50. Included are Ways and Means - Veteran's Affairs - Transportation and Infrastructure - Standards of Official Conduct - Small Business - Science - Judiciary - Rules - Resources - Oversight of Government Reform - House Administration - Homeland Security
House Standing Committees
Katz. v US
Regulatory Agencies
National