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 rule of precedent - whereby a rule or law contained in a judicial decision is commonly viewed as binding on judges whenever the same question is presented.






2. Legislative or executive review of a particular government program or organization. Can be in response to a crisis of some kind or part of routine review.






3. The study of the characteristics of populations.






4. Holding incumbents - usually the president's party - responsible for their records on issues - such as the economy or foreign policy.






5. A widely shared and consciously held view - like support for homeland security.






6. 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.






7. The candidate or party that wins more than half the votes cast in an election.






8. The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases.






9. Agency that administers civil service laws - rules - and regulations.






10. A formal written statement from a grand jury charging an individual with an offense; also called a true bill.






11. 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.






12. 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).






13. The reliance on diplomacy and negotiation to solve international problems.






14. A company with a labor agreement under which union membership is a condition of employment.






15. The current holder of the elected office.






16. A procedural practice in the Senate whereby a senator refuses to relinquish the floor and thereby delays proceedings and prevents a vote on a controversial issue.






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






18. Compromise agreement by states at the Constitutional Convention for a bicameral legislature with a lower house in which representation would be based on population and an upper house in which each state would have two senators.






19. Established rules and regulations that restrain government officials.






20. A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.






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






22. A philosophy that encourages individual nations to act on their own when facing threats from other nations.






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






24. Engaging in activities aimed at influencing public officials - especially legislators - and the policies they enact.






25. Electoral system used in electing the president and vice president - in which voters vote for electors pledged to cast their ballots for particular party's candidates.






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






27. An organization that seeks political power by electing people to office so that its positions and philosophy become public policy.






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






29. Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.






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






31. Constitutional requirement that governments act reasonably and that the substance of the laws themselves be fair and reasonable; limits what the government may do.






32. 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.






33. Clause in the Constitution (Article 4 - Section 1) requiring each state to recognize the civil judgments rendered by the courts of the other states and to accept their public records and acts as valid.






34. Citizenship in more than one nation.






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






36. 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






37. The right to keep executive communications confidential - especially if they relate to National Security.






38. The presiding officer in the House of Representatives - formally elected by the House but actually selected by the majority party.






39. The informal list of issues that Congress and the president consider most important for action.






40. A belief that limited government insures order competitive markets and personal opportunity.






41. Employment cycle in which individuals who work for governmental agencies that regulate interests eventually end up working for interest groups or businesses with the same policy concern.






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






43. A policy-making alliance that involves a very strong ties among a congressional committee - an interest group - and a Federal Department or agency.






44. 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






45. The precise legal definition of how government will implement a policy.






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






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






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






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






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