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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. The right to vote.
State of the Union Address
Take care clause
World Trade Organization (WTO)
Suffrage
2. Clause of the Constitution (Article I - Section 10) originally intended to prohibit state governments from modifying contracts made between individuals; for a while interpreted as prohibiting state governments from taking actions that adversely affec
Crossover voting
Medical savings account
Concurrent powers
Contract clause
3. Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.
Presidential ticket
Contract clause
Racial profiling
Virginia Plan
4. Interpretation of the First Amendment that would permit legislatures to forbid speech encouraging people to engage in illegal action.
Random sample
Bad tendency test
Contract clause
Idealism
5. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disability relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.
Party caucus
Selected perception
Creative federalism
Entitlement programs
6. An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood.
Chief of staff
Party identification
National party convention
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
7. An opinion that agrees with the majority in a Supreme Court ruling but differs on the reasoning.
Veto
Concurring opinion
Parliamentary system
Right of expatriation
8. The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - groups - and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual - group - or party does so - they are
Plea bargain
Redistricting
Independent expenditure
Writ of habeas corpus
9. An international trade organization with more than 130 members - including the United States and the People's Republic of China - that seeks to encourage free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions.
Prior restraint
Executive privilege
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Dealignment
10. Written defamation of another person. For public officials and public figures - the constitutional tests designed to restrict libel actions are especially rigid.
Single-member district
Federalism
Unfunded mandates
Libel
11. An official who is expected to represent the views of his or her constituents even when personally holding different views; one interpretation of the role of legislator.
Tax expenditure
Delegate
Establishment clause
Leadership PAC
12. The assigning by Congress of congressional seats after each census. State legislatures reapportion state legislative districts.
Racial profiling
Reapportionment
Executive privilege
Retrospective issue of voting
13. Economic theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.
Establishment clause
Take care clause
Keynesian economics
Criminal law
14. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.
Bicameralism
Substantive due process
Logrolling
Laissez-faire economics
15. The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending.
Implementation
Bureaucrat
Unilateralism
Hatch Act
16. Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different.
Immunity
Constituents
Department
Cross-cutting cleavages
17. A formal writ used to bring a case before the Supreme Court.
Writ of certiorari
Regulatory taking
Deficit
Oversight
18. The system created by Congress in 1913 to establish banking practices and regulate currency in circulation and the amount of credit available. It consists of 12 regional banks supervised by the Board of Governors. Often called simply the Fed.
Treaty
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Federal Reserve System
Multilateralism
19. Presidential power to strike - or remove - specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Political action committee (PAC)
Hatch Act
Total and Partial Preemption
Line item veto
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.
Soft money
Senatorial courtesy
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Deficit
21. 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.
Precedent
Treaty
Administrative discretion
Bicameralism
22. Money spent by individuals or groups not associated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office.
Project grants
Express powers
Executive Office of the President
Independent expenditures
23. A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.
Equal protection clause
Original jurisdiction
Leadership PAC
Confederation
24. A policy-making alliance among loosely connected participants that comes together on a particular issue - then disbands.
Safe seat
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Issue network
Monopoly
25. A system of government in which the legislature selects the prime minister or president.
Parliamentary system
Implementation
Crossover voting
Tariff
26. An imbalance in international trade in which the value of imports exceeds the value of exports.
Judicial review
Trade deficit
Stare decisis
Selective exposure
27. An opinion disagreeing with a majority in a Supreme Court ruling.
Dissenting opinion
Block grants
Patronage
Judicial review
28. An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.
National tide
Excise tax
Free rider
Nongovernmental organization (NGO)
29. A widely shared and consciously held view - like support for homeland security.
Manifest opinion
Political socialization
Fighting words
Clear and present danger test
30. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.
Laissez-faire economics
Constitutional democracy
Filibuster
Name recognition
31. The rights of an individual to own - use - rent - invest in - buy - and sell property.
Property rights
Political culture
Regulations
Prior restraint
32. The legislative leader selected by the minority party as spokesperson for the opposition.
Preferred position doctrine
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
Minority leader
Closed shop
33. A close contest; by extension - any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and by how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Horse race
National Intelligence Director
Tax expenditure
Regulation
34. The tendency of presidents to lose support over time.
Unitary system
Revolving door
Cycle of decreasing influence
Soft money
35. Petition that - if signed by majority of the House of Representatives' members - will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration.
Discharge petition
Rule
Permissive federalism
Petit jury
36. Usually the largest organization in government with the largest mission; also the highest rank in Federal hierarchy.
Department
Judicial review
Soft money
Three-fifths compromise
37. The formal instructions that government issues for implementing laws.
Statism
Constituents
Regulations
Immunity
38. A form of organization that operates through impersonal - uniform rules and procedures.
Proportional representation
Bureaucracy
Search warrant
Coattail effect
39. Relationships among interest groups - congressional committees and subcommittees - and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Issue network
Ethnicity
Monopoly
Antitrust legislation
40. Interest groups organized under section 527 of the Internal Revenue Code may advertise for or against candidates. If their source of funding is corporations or unions - they have some restrictions on broadcast advertising. 527 organizations were impo
White primary
Oversight
Referendum
527 organizations
41. The widely shared beliefs - values - and norms about how citizens relate to governments and to one another.
Representative democracy
Linkage institutions
Political culture
Judicial review
42. An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted.
Cycle of decreasing influence
Safe seat
Incumbent
Trust
43. The head of the White House staff.
Majority leader
Chief of staff
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Writ of certiorari
44. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.
Regulatory taking
Trustee
Plurality
Caucus
45. Views the national government - 50 states - and thousands of local governments as competing with each other over ways to put together packages of services and taxes. Applies the analogy of the marketplace: we have some choice about which state and ci
Inherent powers
Competitive federalism
Entitlements
Trust
46. Electoral system used in electing the president and vice president - in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for particular party's candidates.
Federal mandate
Electoral college
Bad tendency test
Gerrymandering
47. Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that the government cannot interfere with speech unless the speech presents a clear and present danger that it will lead to evil or illegal acts.
Clear and present danger test
Public policy
Department
Issue advocacy
48. A local or judicial election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots.
Nonpartisan election
527 organizations
Value-added tax (VAT)
Judicial review
49. An action taken by Congress to reverse the presidential veto - requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
Revolving door
Appellate jurisdiction
Override
Constitutional democracy
50. The powers of the national government in foreign affairs that the Supreme Court has declared do not depend on constitutional grants but rather grow out of the very existence of the national government.
Inherent powers
Indexing
Monetary policy
Independent expenditures