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. Formal accusation against a president or other public official - the first step in removal from office.






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






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






4. Theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes - stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and the curve during booms.






5. Governance divided between the parties - as when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.






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






7. 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.






8. Procedure for submitting to popular vote measures passed by the legislature or proposed amendments to a state constitution.






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






10. The number of Americans who are out of work but actively looking for a job. The number does not usually include those who are not looking.






11. A jury of 12 to 23 persons who - in private - hear evidence presented by the government to determine whether persons shall be required to stand trial. If the jury believes there is sufficient evidence that a crime was committed - it issues an indictm






12. 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.






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






14. A minor party dedicated to the environment - social justice - nonviolence - and the foreign policy of nonintervention. Ralph Nader ran as the Green party's nominee in 2000.






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






16. 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.






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






18. A monopoly that controls goods and services - often in combinations that reduce competition.






19. Constitutional arrangement in which power is distributed between a central government and subdivisional governments - called states in the United States. The national and the subdivisional governments both exercise direct authority over individuals.






20. The process - most notably in families and schools - by which we develop our political attitudes - values - and beliefs.






21. A requirement the federal government imposes as a condition for receiving federal funds.






22. A tax whereby people with lower incomes pay a higher fraction of their income than people with higher incomes.






23. The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.






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






25. A system of public employment in which selection and promotion depend on demonstrated performance rather than political patronage.






26. Aid to the poor; 'welfare.'






27. Policy of erecting trade barriers to protect domestic industry.






28. Incumbents have an advantage over challengers in election campaigns because voters are more familiar with them - and incumbents are more recognizable.






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






30. 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.






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






32. Clause in the First Amendment that states that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. The Supreme Court has interpreted this to forbid governmental support to any or all religions.






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. A congressional district created to include a majority of minority voters; ruled constitutional so long as race is not the main factor in redistricting.






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






36. Citizenship in more than one nation.






37. Method whereby representatives of the union and employer determine wages - hours - and other conditions of employment through direct negotiation.






38. Promoting a particular position or an issue paid for by interest groups or individuals but not candidates. Much issue advocacy is often electioneering for or against a candidate - and until 2004 had not been subject to any regulation.






39. Election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.






40. Governance divided between the parties - especially when one holds the presidency and the other controls one or both houses of Congress.






41. Divisions within society that reinforce one another - making groups more homogenous or similar.






42. 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.






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






44. A decision made by a higher court such as a circuit court of appeals or the Supreme Court that is binding on all other federal courts.






45. 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






46. Agreement signed by the United States - Canada - and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.






47. 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.






48. 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.'






49. A convention held in September 1786 to consider problems of trade and navigation - attended by five states and important because it issued the call to Congress and the states for what became the Constitutional Convention.






50. A division of population based on occupation - income - and education.