Test your basic knowledge |

AP Government

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. Essays promoting ratification of the Constitution - published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton - John Jay - and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.






2. Constitutional requirement that governments act reasonably and that the substance of the laws themselves be fair and reasonable; limits what the government may do.






3. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.






4. Programs in which eligibility is based on prior contributions to government - usually in the form of payroll taxes.






5. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.






6. The drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit a party - group - or incumbent.






7. An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.






8. A rising public approval of the president that follows a crisis as Americans 'rally 'round the flag' and the chief executive.






9. 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.






10. Views the Constitution as giving a limited list of powers—primarily foreign policy and national defense—to the national government - leaving the rest to the sovereign states. Each level of government is dominant within its own sphere. The Supreme Cou






11. Divisions within society that reinforce one another - making groups more homogenous or similar.






12. A court with appellate jurisdiction that hears appeals from the decisions of lower courts.






13. The right of women to vote.

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14. Congress appropriates a certain sum - which is allocated to state and local units and sometimes to nongovernmental agencies - based on applications from those who wish to participate. Examples are grants by the National Science Foundation to universi






15. A commission created by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act to administer election reform laws. It consists of six commissioners appointed by president and confirmed by the Senate. Its duties include overseeing disclosure of camp






16. Through different grant programs - slices up the marble cake into many different pieces - making it even more difficult to differentiate the functions of the levels of government.






17. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.






18. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.






19. An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government - promoting a free market economy - a noninterventionist foreign policy - and an absence of regulation in moral - economic - and social life.






20. A theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.






21. Constitutional arrangement that concentrates power in a central government.






22. Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.






23. The distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue - candidate - or institution within a specific population.






24. Agency that administers civil service laws - rules - and regulations.






25. Alternative means of health care in which individuals make tax-deductible contributions to a special account that can be used to pay medical expenses.






26. The authority of a court to hear a case 'in the first instance.'






27. Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization. Can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review.






28. Constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and subdivisional governments - called states in the United States. The national and the subdivisional governments both exercise direct authority over individuals.






29. A company in which new employees must join a union within a stated time period.






30. The means by which individuals can express preferences regarding the development of public policy.






31. The principle of a two-house legislature.






32. Philosophy proposing that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect what the framers intended and what its words literally say.






33. A provision attached to a bill






34. An individual who does not to join a group representing his or her interests yet receives the benefit of the group's influence.






35. A committee composed of members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate; such committees oversee the Library of Congress and conduct investigations.






36. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.






37. 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.






38. Constitutional division of powers among the legislative - executive - and judicial branches - with the legislative branch making law - the executive applying and enforcing the law - and the judiciary interpreting the law.






39. The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.






40. The legislative leader selected by the majority party who helps plan party strategy - confers with other party leaders - and tries to keep members of the party in line.






41. Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state or local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.






42. The total output of all economic activity in the nation - including goods and services.






43. A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator temporarily blocks the consideration of the bill or nomination.






44. A tax whereby people with lower incomes pay a higher fraction of their income than people with higher incomes.






45. 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






46. A government agency or commission with regulatory power whose independence is protected by Congress.






47. 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.






48. A veto exercised by the president after Congress has adjourned; if the president takes no action for 10 days - the bill does not become law and does not return to Congress for possible override.






49. A PAC formed by an officeholder that collects contributions from individuals and other PACs and then makes contributions to other candidates and political parties.






50. A division of population based on occupation - income - and education.