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 powers expressly given to Congress in the Constitution.






2. Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official - the first step in removal from office.






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






4. 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






5. A system of public employment based on rewarding party loyalists and friends.






6. A formal agreement between the U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that does not require Senate approval.






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






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






9. 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.






10. Election in which voters choose party nominees.






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






12. Powers the Constitution specifically grants to one of the branches of the national government.






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






14. 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






15. Government regulation of property so extensive that government is deemed to have taken the property by the power of eminent domain - for which it must compensate the property owners.






16. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Federal grants may establish certain conditions that extend to all activities supported by federal funds - regardless of their source. The first and most famous of these is Title VI of the 196






17. 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.






18. Usually the largest organization in government with the largest mission; also the highest rank in Federal hierarchy.






19. Federal program that provides medical benefits for low-income persons.






20. A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendments to bills or provides that only members of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments.






21. Libel - obscenity - fighting words - and commercial speech - which are not entitled to constitutional protection in all circumstances.






22. The principle of a two-house legislature.






23. Court order directing an official to perform an official duty.






24. An action taken by Congress to reverse the presidential veto - requiring a two-thirds majority in each chamber.






25. Voting by member of one party for a candidate of another party.






26. The Federal government's primary intelligence officer - responsible for overseeing all national intelligence agencies and providing advice to the President on terrorist threats.






27. Providing automatic increases to compensate for inflation.






28. Government by religious leaders - who claim divine guidance.






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






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






31. A form of organization that operates through impersonal - uniform rules and procedures.






32. Arrangement whereby public officials are hired to provide legal assistance to people accused of crimes who are unable to hire their own attorneys.






33. 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.






34. 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.






35. A policy promoting cutbacks in the amount of Federal regulation in specific areas of economic activity.






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






37. The right to vote.






38. An economic and governmental system based on public ownership of the means of production and exchange.






39. Constitutional doctrine that whenever conflict occurs between the constitutionally authorized actions of the national government and those of a state or local government - the actions of the federal government will prevail.






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






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






42. The total amount of money the Federal government has borrowed to finance deficit spending over the years.






43. 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.






44. Presidential staff agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.






45. Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.






46. Something given with the expectation of receiving something in return.






47. Elections held in years when the president is on the ballot.






48. A policy-making alliance among loosely connected participants that comes together on a particular issue - then disbands.






49. The boost that candidates may get in an election because of the popularity of candidates above them on the ballot - especially the president.






50. A social division based on national origin - religion - language - and often race.