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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. Signed the executive order banning segregation in the armed forces.
Article VI
Focus Groups
6th Amendment
Truman
2. The Supreme Court's broad interpretation of this clause has denied direct aid from the government for religious groups - but does allow religious groups to make use of government services such as police and fire.
Periodic Registration
Establishment Clause
Open Meeting Law
Proportional Representation
3. A system in which national and state governments are competitors with distinct powers. This system was prominent in the US from the during the 19th century until 1937.
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Select Committee
Criminal Cases
4. Included are Agriculture - Nutrition - and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking - Housing and Urban Affairs; Commerce - Science and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Health - Education -
Senate Standing Committees
Gerrymandering
Party Regulars
Raise Public Awareness
5. The class of independent voters who do not vote according to party affiliation - but who typically have a broader range of concerns than single-issue voters - are known colloquially as
Mugwumps
Muckrakers
School Desegregation
Monetary Policy
6. Presidential management model requiring the President to have strong leadership skills and a keen eye for detail. FDR and JFK were well known for this style of leadership.
Hub and Spoke Model
CORE
Political Machines
Conventions
7. 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.
4th Amendment
Secondary Group
Ways and Mean Committee
Republicans
8. In _______________ cases such as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) - the Supreme Court has upheld that while Affirmative action policies are legal - race and gender cannot be the only determining factors.
Baker v. Wingo
Conventions
Reverse Discrimination
Republicans
9. These courts only hear appeals on cases from lower courts.
Murray v. Curlett
Violation of Law
Federal Appellate
Clear and Present Danger
10. (1945-1991) The period after the Second World War marked by rivalry and tension between the two nuclear superpowers - the United States and the communist government of the Soviet Union. The Cold War ended when the Soviet government collapsed in 1991.
Privileges and Immunities Clause
Cold War
Block Grant
School Desegregation
11. The term most political scientists prefer to describe the bureaucratic process
Political Efficacy
Public Administration
Judicial Review
Common Law
12. 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.
Conference Committee
Civil Liberties
Press Secretary
Random Sample
13. A Latin phrase meaning 'stand by past decisions -' a principle that judges often use in deciding cases. Ruling based on precedents.
Stare Decisis
Shield Laws
Equal Time
Mugwumps
14. The concept that all people are of equal worth - even if not of equal ability.
Cluster Sampling
Freedom of Religion
Equality
blockbusting and redlining
15. According to this nineteenth-century British peer and historian - 'power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
Lord Acton
Electoral Connection
a senior senator of the majority party
NY Times v. Sullivan
16. Which historical figure described democracy as 'the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time?'
Winston Churchill
Positive
Situational
Fixed
17. While both Asian and Hispanic immigrants experience various types of discrimination - Hispanic immigrants are more likely to experience economic discrimination. This explains why most Hispanics identify with the ____________ party - while Asians do n
Democratic
Economic Interest Groups
Federal Courts
Commerce
18. There are 11 circuit ____________________ who have no original jurisdiction.
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
Increased competition
Convention Bounce
Court of Appeals
19. The 1776 pamphlet by Thomas Paine that prompted King George III's Prohibitory Act and the sending of mercenaries to the colonies.
Libel
Common Sense
Committees
Realigning Elections
20. 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
Cruel and Unusual
Party Column Ballot
presidential line-item veto
Miranda Rights
21. 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.
Negative Advertising
Presidential Ticket
Democratic
Referendum
22. ________________ of the Constitution governs the relationships of the states.
Freedom of Information Act
Article IV
Gideon v. Wainwright
Home Rule
23. The overall public has a ___________ view of PACS in terms of bought votes and adding to the cost of running for office
Negative
Joint Committees
Civil War Amendments
Committees of Correspondence
24. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was somewhat undermined by racist practices in the real estate market such as _____________ and ______________ - which continued illegally in many areas following passage of the Act.
national quotas
Television and Radio
General Election
blockbusting and redlining
25. 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
President Pro Tempore
Committees of Correspondence
Implied
26. Programs mandated by law and not subject to annual review by Congress or the president.
Popular Sovereignty
Budget Resolution
Entitlement Programs
Social Security
27. This 1967 Supreme Court case prohibited illegal eavesdropping and extending the zone of privacy to include the home - office - person - and immediate public arena.
9
High
Katz. v US
Democracy
28. Constitutional Article that establishes the Judicial Branch.
Categorical Grants
Medicaid
Caucuses
Article III
29. 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.
Affirmative Action
Budget Resolution
Low
Great Compromise
30. The House appropriations committee has ___ subcommittees.
Quota Sampling
Article VI
12
Public hearing
31. A relaxation of international tensions.
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Checks and Balances
Caucuses
Detente
32. An extraordinary writ commanding an official to perform a ministerial act that the law recognizes as an absolute duty and not a matter for the official's discretion
Writ of Mandamus
Ad Hoc Structure
General Accounting
Bill of Rights
33. Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.
Impeachment
Great Compromise
Impoundment
Elite and Class Theory
34. What principle - contained in the Fourth Amendment - protects a citizen from unwarranted search and seizure?
Bowers v. Hardwick
Affirmative Action
Probable Cause
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
35. The spread of nuclear weapons to more nations.
Senatorial Courtesy
Enterprise Zones
Nuclear Proliferation
Free Exercise of Religion
36. A system in which the power to govern is shared between national and state governments
National Security
Lafolette's Progressive s
Proprietary Colonies
Federalism
37. Urban or rural areas in which businesses are encouraged to locate because of tax breaks and other incentives.
Enterprise Zones
Party Dealignment
Medicaid
Charismatic authority
38. 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.
Bipartisanship
Electoral College
State Auditor
Vietnam War
39. A decision of the Supreme Court cannot be ___________.
Lower
Plurality
Appealed
Articles of Confederation
40. 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.'
Cabinet
Gender Gap
Politics
imprisoned
41. In Johnson v. Texas (1989) - the Supreme Court ruled that burning the flag in a manner that does not pose a threat to people or property is allowed as this type of freedom of speech.
Creative Federalism
Energy
Speech Plus
General Election
42. Plan that proposed unicameral legislature with each state having one vote.
Articles of Confederation
New Jersey Plan
School Desegregation
Mayflower Compact
43. First civil rights organization to use non-violent tactics to promote racial equality and desegregation
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
Gerrymandering
National Political Parties
CORE
44. The case of Gregg v. Georgia set the precedent for a ________________ system in which guilt and sentencing and tried separately.
Royal Colonies
Checks and Balances
Two Trial
Independent expenditures
45. This act prohibited Discrimination because of race - color - sex - religion - or national origin by employers or labor unions; The adoption by voting registrars of different standards for black and white applicants; and Racial or religious discrimina
Distribution
Random Sample
Political Machines
1964 Civil Rights Act
46. 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.
State
Parallel
Horse race
Party of Economic Protest
47. 'lame duck' amendment
20
Constituencies
20th
Committees of Correspondence
48. Form of government in which the people are sovereign but their power is exercised by their elected representatives.
Stare Decisis
Republic
Federalism
Local
49. A series of 85 articles written by Alexander Hamilton - John Jay - and James Madison under the pseudonym Publius advocating the ratification of the United States Constitution.
Gay
Take Care Clause
Federalist Papers
General Accounting
50. An economic system of free enterprise with private ownership of the means of production.
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Max Weber
Administrative Law
Capitalism