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. A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that permits floor amendments within the overall time allocated to the bill.






2. A law that governs relationships between individuals and defines their legal rights.






3. A monopoly that controls goods and services - often in combinations that reduce competition.






4. Federal laws (starting with the Sherman Act of 1890) that tried to prevent a monopoly from dominating an industry and restraining trade.






5. Directive issued by a president or governor that has the force of law.






6. Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.






7. A rise in the general price level (and decrease in dollar value) owing to an increase in the volume of money and credit in relation to available goods.






8. The proportion of the voting age public that votes - sometimes defined as the number of registered voters that vote.






9. Divisions within society that cut across demographic categories to produce groups that are more heterogeneous or different.






10. A career government employee.






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






12. 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






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






14. The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members - stockholders - or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.






15. In this type of sample - every individual has unknown and random chance of being selected.






16. Election in which voters choose party nominees.






17. A philosophy that encourages individual nations tacked together to solve international problems.






18. During the Great Society - the marble cake approach of intergovernmental relations.






19. Trade status granted as part of an international trade policy that gives a nation the same favorable trade concessions and tariffs that the best trading partners receive.






20. A policy adopted by the Bush administration in 2001 that asserts America's right to attack any nation that has weapons of mass destruction that might be used against U.S. interests at home or abroad.






21. Money government provides to parents to pay their children's tuition in a public or private school of their choice.






22. 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.






23. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Direct orders must be complied with under threat of criminal or civil sanction. An example is the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 - barring job discrimination by state and local gover






24. A tax on increased value of the product at each stage of production and distribution rather than just at the point of sale.






25. A policy-making alliance that involves a very strong ties among a congressional committee - an interest group - and a Federal Department or agency.






26. The president's annual statement to Congress and the nation.






27. The right to renounce one's citizenship.






28. Efforts by government to alter the free operation of the market to achieve social goals such as protecting workers and the environment.






29. A congressional district created to include a majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the main factor in redistricting.






30. The reliance on economic and military strength to solve international problems.






31. 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






32. A dispute growing out of an actual case or controversy and that is capable of settlement by legal methods.






33. 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.






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






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






36. Conceives of federalism as a marble cake in which all levels of government are involved in a variety of issues and programs - rather than a layer cake - or dual federalism - with fixed divisions between layers or levels of government.






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






38. A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.






39. Power of a government to take private property for public use; the U.S. Constitution gives national and state governments this power and requires them to provide just compensation for property so taken.






40. Promoting a particular position or an issue paid for by interest groups or individuals but not candidates. Much issue advocacy is often electioneering for or against a candidate - and until 2004 had not been subject to any regulation.






41. 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.






42. A meeting of party delegates to vote on matters of policy and in some cases to select party candidates for public office.






43. Clause in the Constitution (Article 4 - Section 1) requiring each state to recognize the civil judgments rendered by the courts of the other states and to accept their public records and acts as valid.






44. 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.






45. State laws formerly pervasive throughout the South requiring public facilities and accommodations to be segregated by race; ruled unconstitutional.






46. 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.






47. Rebellion led by Daniel Shays of farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786-1787 - protesting mortgage foreclosures. It highlighted the need for a strong national government just as the call for the Constitutional Convention went out.


48. The inclination to focus on national issues - rather than local issues - in an election campaign. The impact of the national tide can be reduced by the nature of the candidates on the ballot who might have differentiated themselves from their party o






49. A formal written statement from a grand jury charging an individual with an offense; also called a true bill.






50. Election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.