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. The process of putting a law into practice through bureaucratic rules or spending.






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






3. 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.






4. Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling taxing and spending.






5. Denial of export - import - or financial relations with the target country in an effort to change that nation's policies.






6. Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.






7. 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.






8. 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






9. Weakening of partisan preferences that points to a rejection of both major parties and a rise in the number of independents.






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






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






12. An official document - published every weekday - which lists the new and proposed regulations of executive departments and regulatory agencies.






13. Those citizens who follow public affairs carefully.






14. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. These sanctions permit the use of federal money in one program to influence state and local policy in another. For example - a 1984 act reduced federal highway aid by up to 15 percent for any






15. A nonprofit association or group operating outside of government that advocates and pursues policy objectives.






16. 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






17. Clause in the Fifth Amendment limiting the power of the national government; similar clause in the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the state governments from depriving any person of life - liberty - or property without due process of law.






18. Unlimited and undisclosed spending by an individual or group on communications that do not use words like 'vote for' or 'vote against -' although much of this activity is actually about electing or defeating candidates.






19. 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.






20. 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).






21. A permanent committee established in a legislature - usually focusing on a policy area.






22. 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.






23. 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.






24. Elections in which voters determine party nominees.






25. Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that freedom of expression is so essential to democracy that governments should not punish persons for what they say - only for what they do.






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






27. The principle of a two-house legislature.






28. 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.






29. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.






30. Consumer tax on a specific kind of merchandise - such as tobacco.






31. 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






32. Segregation imposed by law.






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






34. Contributions to a state or local party for party-building purposes.






35. The widely shared beliefs - values - and norms about how citizens relate to governments and to one another.






36. A policy that emphasizes a united front and cooperation between the major political parties - especially on sensitive foreign policy issues.






37. Requirement that evidence unconstitutionally or illegally obtained be excluded from a criminal trial.






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






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






40. An agency of Congress that analyzes presidential budget recommendations and estimates the cost of proposed legislation.






41. The residents of a congressional district or state.






42. A provision attached to a bill






43. 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.






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






45. 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






46. Federal statute barring Federal employees from active participation in certain kinds of politics and protecting them from being fired on partisan grounds.






47. A belief that ultimate power resides in the people.






48. 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.






49. Retroactive criminal law that works to the disadvantage of a person.






50. The drawing of election districts so as to ensure that members of a certain race are a minority in the district; ruled unconstitutional in Gomillion v. Lightfoot (1960).