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. Programs in which eligibility is based on prior contributions to government - usually in the form of payroll taxes.






2. The right to vote.






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






4. The tendency of presidents to learn more about doing their jobs over time.






5. The act of declaring party affiliation; required by some states when one registers to vote.






6. 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.






7. Efforts by government to alter the free operation of the market to achieve social goals such as protecting workers and the environment.






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






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






10. Elections in which voters elect officeholders.






11. Government policy that attempts to manage the economy by controlling the money supply and thus interest rates.






12. Trade status granted as part of an international trade policy that gives a nation the same favorable trade concessions and tariffs that the best trading partners receive.






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






14. Established by Congress in 1978 as a flexible - mobile corps of senior career executives who worked closely with presidential appointees to manage government.






15. Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.






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






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






18. Procedure for submitting to popular vote the removal of officials from office before the end of their term.






19. The desire to avoid international entanglement altogether.






20. A formal decision to reject the bill passed by Congress.






21. Literacy requirements some states imposed as a condition of voting - generally used to disqualify black voters in the South; now illegal.






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






23. Biological - chemical - or nuclear weapons that can cause a massive number of deaths in a single use.






24. The tendency of presidents to lose support over time.






25. An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted.






26. Party leader who is the liaison between the leadership and the rank-and-file in the legislature.






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






28. A philosophy that encourages individual nations tacked together to solve international problems.






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






30. 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.






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






32. A commission created by the 1974 amendments to the Federal Election Campaign Act to administer election reform laws. It consists of six commissioners appointed by president and confirmed by the Senate. Its duties include overseeing disclosure of camp






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






34. 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.






35. A small political party that rises and falls with a charismatic candidate or - if composed of ideologies on the right or left - usually persists over time; also called a third party.






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






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






38. The process by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






39. A national meeting of delegates elected in primaries - caucuses - or state conventions who assemble once every four years to nominate candidates for president and vice president - ratify the party platform - elect officers - and adopt rules.






40. 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.






41. Presidential power to strike - or remove - specific items from a spending bill without vetoing the entire package; declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.






42. The joint listing of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ballot as required by the Twelfth Amendment.






43. Providing automatic increases to compensate for inflation.






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






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


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






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






48. The drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit a party - group - or incumbent.






49. A person who is employed by and acts for an organized interest group or corporation to try to influence policy decisions and positions in the executive and legislative branches.






50. Tax required to vote; prohibited for national elections by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment (1964) and ruled unconstitutional for all elections in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966).