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. Trial or punishment for the same crime by the same government; forbidden by the Constitution.






2. A collection of people who share a common interest or attitude and seek to influence government for specific ends. Interest groups usually work within the framework of government and try to achieve their goals through tactics such as lobbying.






3. People who favor national action over action at the state and local levels.






4. 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).






5. A judicial system in which the court of law is a neutral arena where two parties argue their differences.






6. A company with a labor agreement under which union membership can be a condition of employment.






7. Supporters of ratification of the Constitution and of a strong central government.






8. Interpretation of the First Amendment that would permit legislatures to forbid speech encouraging people to engage in illegal action.






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






10. Implies that although federalism provides 'a sharing of power and authority between the national and state governments - the state's share rests upon the permission and permissiveness of the national government.'






11. 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.






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






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






14. Largely banned party soft money - restored a long-standing prohibition on corporations and labor unions for using general treasury funds for electoral purposes - and narrowed the definition of issue advocacy.






15. The process by which provisions of the bill of rights are brought within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment and so applied to state and local governments.






16. The rights of an individual to own - use - rent - invest in - buy - and sell property.






17. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.






18. Elections in which voters elect officeholders.






19. The formal process for making regulations.






20. The portion of the Federal budget that is spent on programs - such as Social Security - that the president and Congress are unwilling to cut.






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






22. Literally - a 'friend of the court' brief - filed by an individual or organization to present arguments in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case.






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






24. Essays promoting ratification of the Constitution - published anonymously by Alexander Hamilton - John Jay - and James Madison in 1787 and 1788.






25. 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.






26. Elections in which voters determine party nominees.






27. Primary election in which only persons registered in the party holding the primary may vote.






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






29. A grouping of human beings with distinctive characteristics determined by genetic inheritance.






30. An international trade organization with more than 130 members - including the United States and the People's Republic of China - that seeks to encourage free trade by lowering tariffs and other trade restrictions.






31. 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.






32. A legal action conferring citizenship on an alien.






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






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






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






36. The belief that nations must engage in international problem solving.






37. The assigning by Congress of congressional seats after each census. State legislatures reapportion state legislative districts.






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






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






40. A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent - from the Atlantic the Pacific.






41. 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.






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






43. 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.






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






45. The residents of a congressional district or state.






46. The system created by Congress in 1913 to establish banking practices and regulate currency in circulation and the amount of credit available. It consists of 12 regional banks supervised by the Board of Governors. Often called simply the Fed.






47. A theory of government that holds that open - multiple - and competing groups can check the asserted power by any one group.






48. 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.






49. The power to keep executive communications confidential - especially if they relate to national security.






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