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






2. Petition that - if signed by majority of the House of Representatives' members - will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration.






3. The dispensing of government jobs to persons who belong to the winning political party.






4. Powers expressly or implicitly reserved to the states.

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5. Legislative act inflicting punishment - including deprivation of property - without a trial - on named individuals or members of a specific group.






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






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






8. 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






9. A congressional committee created for a specific purpose - sometimes to conduct an investigation.






10. The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - groups - and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual - group - or party does so - they are






11. Governance according to the expressed preferences of the majority.






12. Segregation resulting from economic or social conditions or personal choice.






13. A local or judicial election in which candidates are not selected or endorsed by political parties and party affiliation is not listed on ballots.






14. An election system in which each party running receives the proportion of legislative seats corresponding to its proportion of the vote.






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






16. Those citizens who follow public affairs closely.






17. 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






18. The Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - groups - and parties can spend unlimited amounts in campaigns for or against candidates as long as they operate independently from the candidates. When an individual - group - or party does so - they are






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






20. A procedure for terminating debate - especially filibusters - in the Senate.






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






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






23. A type of policy that takes benefits (usually through taxes) from one group of Americans and gives them to another (usually through spending).






24. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.






25. An election system in which the candidate with the most votes wins.






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






27. These are broad state grants to states for prescribed activities—welfare - child care - education - social services - preventive health care - and health services—with only a few strings attached. States have greater flexibility in deciding how to sp






28. God's or nature's law that defines right from wrong and is higher than human law.






29. Election in which voters choose party nominees.






30. 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.






31. A combination of entitlement programs - paid for by employer and employee taxes - that includes retirement benefits - health insurance - and support for disabled workers and the children of deceased or disabled workers.






32. A government agency that operates like a business corporation - created to secure greater freedom of action and flexibility for a particular program.






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






34. Remedial action designed to overcome the effects of discrimination against minorities and women.






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






36. Contributions to a state or local party for party-building purposes.






37. The effort to slow the growth of the federal government by returning many functions to the states.






38. 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.






39. A system of government in which the legislature selects the prime minister or president.






40. Established rules and regulations that restrain government officials.






41. Clause in the Constitution that states that 'Congress should have the power to make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers. . . .' This clause is also known as the elastic clause as is a major and significant p

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42. The clause in the Constitution (Article 1 - Section 8 - Clause 1) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.






43. The powers of the national government in foreign affairs that the Supreme Court has declared do not depend on constitutional grants but rather grow out of the very existence of the national government.






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






45. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. These sanctions permit the use of federal money in one program to influence state and local policy in another. For example - a 1984 act reduced federal highway aid by up to 15 percent for any






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






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






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






49. 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.






50. Aid to the poor; 'welfare.'