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. Championed by Ronald Reagan - presumes that the power of the federal government is limited in favor of the broad powers reserved to the states.

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2. A term the founders used to refer to political parties and special interests or interest groups.






3. Economic theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.






4. Programs such as unemployment insurance - disability relief - or disability payments that provide benefits to all eligible citizens.






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






6. Citizenship in more than one nation.






7. Assigning police to neighborhoods where they walk the beat and work with churches and other community groups to reduce crime and improve relations with minorities.






8. A convention held in September 1786 to consider problems of trade and navigation - attended by five states and important because it issued the call to Congress and the states for what became the Constitutional Convention.






9. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.






10. The process by which individuals perceive what they want to in media messages.






11. Quality or state of a work that taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex by depicting sexual conduct in a patently offensive way and that lacks serious literary - artistic - political - or scientific value.






12. Committee appointed by the presiding officers of each chamber to adjust differences on a particular bill passed by each in different form.






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






14. 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.






15. A type of policy that takes benefits (usually through taxes) from one group of Americans and gives them to another (usually through spending).






16. Unlimited amounts of money that political parties previously could raise for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state and local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.






17. Period at the beginning of the new president's term during which the president enjoys generally positive relations with the press and Congress - usually lasting about six months.






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






19. A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.






20. Elections in which voters elect officeholders.






21. Synonymous with 'collective action -' it specifically studies how government officials - politicians - and voters respond to positive and negative incentives.






22. 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






23. The rights of all people to dignity and worth; also called human rights.






24. A career government employee.






25. Powers inferred from the express powers that allow Congress to carry out its functions.






26. 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






27. A court order requiring explanation to a judge why a prisoner is being held in custody.






28. Alternative means of health care in which people or their employers are charged a set amount and the HMO provides health care and covers hospital costs.






29. A legal action conferring citizenship on an alien.






30. 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.






31. 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.






32. Political contributions given to a party - candidate - or interest group that are limited in amounts and fully disclosed. Raising such limited funds is harder than raising unlimited funds - hence the term 'hard money.'






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






34. Primary election in which any voter - regardless of party - may vote.






35. A meeting of local party members to choose party officials or candidates for public office and to decide the platform.






36. The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.






37. Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment that forbids any state to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. By interpretation - the Fifth Amendment imposes the same limitation on the national government. This clause is t






38. Presidential custom of submitting the names of prospective appointees for approval to senators from the states in which the appointees are to work.






39. The redrawing of congressional and other legislative district lines following the census - to accommodate population shifts and keep districts as equal as possible in population.






40. An informal and subjective affiliation with a political party that most people acquire in childhood.






41. A president's claim of broad public support.






42. A consistent pattern of beliefs about political values and the role of government.






43. Incumbents have an advantage over challengers in election campaigns because voters are more familiar with them - and incumbents are more recognizable.






44. A tactic in which PACs collect contributions from like-minded individuals (each limited to $2000) and present them to a candidate or political party as a 'bundle -' thus increasing the PAC's influence.






45. Money spent by individuals or groups not associated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office.






46. 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.






47. The right of a federal law or a regulation to preclude enforcement of a state or local law or regulation.






48. A landmark case in United States law and the basis for the exercise of judicial review in the United States - under Article Three of the United States Constitution. The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury - who had b






49. Lawsuit brought by an individual or group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.






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