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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. Means of communication that are reaching the public - including newspapers and magazines - radio - television (broadcast - cable - and satellite) - films - recordings - books - and electronic communication.
Candidate appeal
Marbury v. Madison
Mass media
Joint committee
2. Legislative act inflicting punishment - including deprivation of property - without a trial - on named individuals or members of a specific group.
Bill of attainder
Social insurance
Honeymoon
Candidate appeal
3. Relationships among interest groups - congressional committees and subcommittees - and the government agencies that share a common policy concern.
Presidential ticket
Electoral college
National debt
Issue network
4. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.
Open rule
Administrative discretion
Divided government
Free exercise clause
5. 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
Political culture
Poll tax
Progressive tax
527 organizations
6. Promoting a particular position or an issue 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 regulation.
Bicameralism
Rule
Filibuster
Issue advocacy
7. A large body of people interested in a common issue - idea - or concern that is of continuing significance and who are willing to take action. Movements seek to change attitudes or institutions - not just policies.
Honeymoon
Movement
Socioeconomic status (SES)
Lobbyist
8. A meeting of the members of a party in a legislative chamber to select party leaders and to develop party policy. Called a conference by the Republicans.
Interest group
Independent expenditures
Party caucus
Theory of deterrence
9. Government by the people - both directly or indirectly - with free and frequent elections.
Political culture
Unfunded mandates
Democracy
Political party
10. Democratic and civic habits of discussion - compromise - and respect for differences - which grow out of participation in voluntary organizations.
Impoundment
Social capital
Pocket veto
Cabinet
11. Constitutional grant of powers that enables each of the three branches of government to check some acts of the others and therefore ensure that no branch can dominate.
Checks and balances
Veto
President pro tempore
Social insurance
12. 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.
Federal mandate
Fundamentalists
Safe seat
Entitlements
13. 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).
White primary
Free rider
Party convention
Value-added tax (VAT)
14. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.
Soft money
Cabinet
Race
Mass media
15. The rights of an individual to own - use - rent - invest in - buy - and sell property.
Joint committee
Property rights
Party registration
Mandate
16. An explanation of the decision of the Supreme Court or any other appellate court.
Implied powers
Faction
Opinion of the Court
Recall
17. A theory of international relations that focuses on the hope the nations will act together to solve international problems and promote peace.
Idealism
Multilateralism
Indexing
Party convention
18. Presidential power to strike - or remove - specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
Establishment clause
Line item veto
Weapons of mass destruction
Social insurance
19. 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.
News media
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
Photo ops
Majority rule
20. National Health Insurance program for the elderly and disabled.
Labor injunction
Constitutional Convention
Medicare
Excise tax
21. The residents of a congressional district or state.
Interstate compact
Constituents
Divided government
Vouchers
22. An agency of Congress that analyzes presidential budget recommendations and estimates the cost of proposed legislation.
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Block grants
Constitutional Convention
New Jersey Plan
23. 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
Direct primary
Contract clause
Implementation
Movement
24. Procedure for submitting to popular vote the removal of officials from office before the end of their term.
Senatorial courtesy
President pro tempore
Recall
Bill of attainder
25. A system of government in which the legislature selects the prime minister or president.
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Chief of staff
Parliamentary system
Block grants
26. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.
Immunity
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Linkage institutions
Political socialization
27. A requirement the federal government imposes as a condition for receiving federal funds.
Soft money
Federal mandate
Divided government
Entitlement programs
28. Arrangement whereby public officials are hired to provide legal assistance to people accused of crimes who are unable to hire their own attorneys.
Concurring opinion
Soft money
Leadership PAC
Public defender system
29. The precise legal definition of how government will implement a policy.
State of the Union Address
Search warrant
Rule
Minority leader
30. People who favor state or local action rather than national action.
Decentralists
Double jeopardy
Executive privilege
Full faith and credit clause
31. The formal process for making regulations.
Tariff
Photo ops
Rule-making process
Public policy
32. Constitutional arrangement that concentrates power in a central government.
Prior restraint
Social Security
Unitary system
Plea bargain
33. Authority given by Congress to the Federal bureaucracy to use reasonable judgment in implementing the laws.
Treaty
Distributive policy
Jim Crow laws
Administrative discretion
34. Proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by William Paterson of New Jersey for a central government with a single-house legislature in which each state would be represented equally.
Random sample
Issue advocacy
Redistricting
New Jersey Plan
35. A law that governs relationships between individuals and defines their legal rights.
Civil law
Representative democracy
Protectionism
Bush Doctrine
36. The tendency in elections to focus on the personal attributes of a candidate - such as his/her strengths - weaknesses - background - experience - and visibility.
Candidate appeal
Joint committee
Lobbyist
Three-fifths compromise
37. The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.
Discharge petition
Executive privilege
Popular consent
Due process clause
38. The principle of a two-house legislature.
Bicameralism
Whip
Popular sovereignty
Commerce clause
39. Presidential staff the agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Social insurance
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Free rider
Delegate
40. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Total preemption rests on the national governments power under the supremacy and commerce clauses to preempt conflicting state and local activity. Building on this constitutional authority - f
Linkage institutions
Total and Partial Preemption
Natural law
Normal trade relations
41. Widespread agreement on fundamental principles of democratic governance and the values that undergird them.
Regulations
Implied powers
Democratic consensus
Racial profiling
42. An agreement among two or more states. Congress must approve most such agreements.
Docket
Collective action
Interstate compact
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
43. 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.
Hard money
'Necessary and proper' clause
Presidential ticket
Federalism
44. 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.
Political party
Entitlements
Plea bargain
Trustee
45. A specific course of action taken by government to achieve a public goal.
Caucus
Enumerated powers
Public policy
Soft money
46. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.
Naturalization
Eminent domain
Reapportionment
Majority rule
47. Presidential custom of submitting the names of prospective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.
Senatorial courtesy
Winner-take-all system
Decentralists
Preemption
48. Elections held midway between presidential elections.
Midterm election
Mandate
Obscenity
Federal mandate
49. These are broad state grants to states for prescribed activities—welfare - child care - education - social services - preventive health care - and health services—with only a few strings attached. States have greater flexibility in deciding how to sp
Impoundment
Idealism
Block grants
Bicameralism
50. Elections held in years when the president is on the ballot.
Soft money
Indictment
Presidential election
Implied powers