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Test your basic knowledge |
AP Government
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
civics
,
ap
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. A court order forbidding specific individuals or groups from performing certain acts (such as striking) that the court considers harmful to the rights and property of an employer or community.
Entitlement programs
Labor injunction
Antitrust legislation
Criminal law
2. The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot - especially the president.
Deregulation
Coattail effect
Closed shop
Conservatism
3. The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or - in a state court - the state constitution.
Judicial review
Impoundment
Procedural due process
Turnout
4. The drawing of election districts so as to ensure that members of a certain race are a minority in the district; ruled unconstitutional in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960).
Decentralists
Racial gerrymandering
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Adversary system
5. Elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of the party's candidate is almost taken for granted.
Manifest destiny
Due process
Safe seat
Mass media
6. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Prospective issue voting
Reinforcing cleavages
Linkage institutions
Majority rule
7. The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.
Labor injunction
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Natural rights
Shays's Rebellion
8. A permanent committee established in a legislature - usually focusing on a policy area.
Standing committee
Public assistance
Appellate jurisdiction
Take care clause
9. The principle of a two-house legislature.
Entitlement programs
Bicameralism
Speaker
Sound bites
10. Election in which voters choose party nominees.
Issue advocacy
Winner-take-all system
Party registration
Direct primary
11. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.
Political culture
Race
Crossover voting
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
12. A decision made by a higher court such as a circuit court of appeals or the Supreme Court that is binding on all other federal courts.
Referendum
Medical savings account
Precedent
Civil law
13. Synonymous with 'collective action -' it specifically studies how government officials - politicians - and voters respond to positive and negative incentives.
Public choice
Nonprotected speech
Free rider
Referendum
14. Clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibiting state governments from depriving any person of life - liberty - or property without due process of law.
Civil disobedience
Due process clause
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
Direct primary
15. Powers that grow out of the very existence of government.
Eminent domain
Inherent powers
Prior restraint
Political culture
16. A law that defines crimes against the public order.
Candidate appeal
Criminal law
Bureaucracy
Women's suffrage
17. Elections held midway between presidential elections.
Independent expenditure
Literacy test
Midterm election
Oversight
18. An imbalance in international trade in which the value of imports exceeds the value of exports.
Trade deficit
Impoundment
Incumbent
Civil disobedience
19. The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.
Devolution revolution
Coattail effect
Natural rights
Cabinet
20. The difference between the revenues raised annually from sources of income other than borrowing and the expenditures of government - including paying the interest on past borrowing.
Deficit
Monopoly
Total and Partial Preemption
Selective incorporation
21. An opinion disagreeing with a majority in a Supreme Court ruling.
Dissenting opinion
Dual citizenship
Popular sovereignty
Recall
22. Advisory council for the president consisting of the heads of the executive departments - the vice president - and a few other officials selected by the president.
Selective exposure
Soft money
Cabinet
Democratic consensus
23. The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending.
Writ of habeas corpus
Electoral college
Implementation
Direct primary
24. The number of Americans who are out of work but actively looking for a job. The number does not usually include those who are not looking.
Police powers
Party convention
Unemployment
Civil law
25. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Offshoring
Attentive public
Reform party
26. Powers the Constitution specifically grants to one of the branches of the national government.
Voter registration
De jure segregation
Express powers
Name recognition
27. The authority of a court to review decisions made by lower courts.
Bureaucrat
Appellate jurisdiction
Race
Single-member district
28. Photo opportunities set up by the candidates. The media have been accused of simplifying complicated political issues by relying on photo ops to explain them to the public.
Unilateralism
Judicial activism
Monetary policy
Photo ops
29. The residents of a congressional district or state.
Open rule
Nongovernmental organization (NGO)
Contract clause
Constituents
30. Democratic party primary in the old 'one-party South' that was limited to white people and essentially constituted an election; ruled unconstitutional in Smith v. Allwright (1944).
Rule-making process
Uncontrollable spending
Internationalism
White primary
31. Agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser offense to avoid having to stand trial for more serious offense.
Plea bargain
Presidential election
Suffrage
Antifederalists
32. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disability relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
Presidential ticket
Entitlement programs
Speaker
News media
33. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Federal grants may establish certain conditions that extend to all activities supported by federal funds - regardless of their source. The first and most famous of these is Title VI of the 196
Executive agreement
Ethnicity
Cross-cutting requirements
Race
34. An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.
Candidate appeal
Proportional representation
Block grants
Unilateralism
35. The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.
Exclusionary rule
Popular consent
Original jurisdiction
Closed primary
36. The formal instructions that government issues for implementing laws.
Regulations
Tax expenditure
Substantive due process
Political ideology
37. Voting by member of one party for a candidate of another party.
Suffrage
Executive agreement
National supremacy
Crossover voting
38. The first governing document of the confederated states drafted in 1777 - ratified in 1781 - and replaced by the present Constitution in 1789.
Dissenting opinion
National tide
Constitutionalism
Articles of Confederation
39. The process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.
Collective action
Linkage institutions
Direct primary
Political socialization
40. Inherent powers of state governments to pass laws to protect the public health - safety - and welfare; the national government has no directly granted police powers but accomplishes the same goals through other delegated powers.
Joint committee
Police powers
Australian ballot
Plurality
41. Government by religious leaders - who claim divine guidance.
Antitrust legislation
Gross domestic product (GDP)
Bundling
Theocracy
42. A requirement the federal government imposes as a condition for receiving federal funds.
Electoral college
Filibuster
Federal mandate
Divided government
43. The list of potential cases that reach the Supreme Court.
Docket
Impoundment
Means-tested entitlements
Decentralists
44. Programs that the Federal government requires States to implement without Federal funding.
Indictment
Selected perception
Unfunded mandates
Confederation
45. A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.
Vouchers
De facto segregation
Union shop
Caucus
46. Implies that although federalism provides 'a sharing of power and authority between the national and state governments - the state's share rests upon the permission and permissiveness of the national government.'
Federalists
Soft power
Full faith and credit clause
Permissive federalism
47. A national meeting of delegates elected at primaries - caucuses - or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president - ratify the party platform - elect officers - and adopt rules.
Means-tested entitlements
Reapportionment
National party convention
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
48. Statement required by Federal law from all agencies for any project using Federal funds to assess the potential affect of the new construction or development on the environment.
Theory of deterrence
Checks and balances
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Environmental impact statement
49. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.
Plurality
Express powers
Judicial review
Project grants
50. A minor party founded by Ross Perot in 1995. It focuses on national government reform - fiscal responsibility - and political accountability. It has recently struggled with internal strife and criticism that it lacks an identity.
Laissez-faire economics
Reform party
Health maintenance organization (HMO)
Majority-minority district