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. Police targeting of racial minorities as potential suspects of criminal activities.






2. The formal process for making regulations.






3. Initial proposal at the Constitutional Convention made by the Virginia delegation for a strong central government with a bicameral legislature dominated by the big states.






4. Court order directing an official to perform an official duty.






5. Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.






6. Agreement between a prosecutor and a defendant that the defendant will plead guilty to a lesser offense to avoid having to stand trial for a more serious offense.






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






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






9. The right to renounce one's citizenship.






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






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






12. A national meeting of delegates elected at 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.






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






14. The current holder of the elected office.






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






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






17. Constitutional division of powers among the legislative - executive - and judicial branches - with the legislative branch making law - the executive applying and enforcing the law - and the judiciary interpreting the law.






18. 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.






19. 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






20. Theory that opposes governmental interference in economic affairs beyond what is necessary to protect life and property.






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






22. How groups form and organize to pursue their goals or objectives - including how to get individuals and groups to participate and to cooperate. The term has many applications in the various social sciences such as political science - sociology - and






23. 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.






24. 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






25. 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.






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






27. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.






28. A writ issued by a magistrate that authorizes the police to search a particular place or person - specifying the place to be searched and the objects to be seized.






29. 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.






30. Those citizens who follow public affairs closely.






31. 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.






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






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






34. The idea that the rights of the nation are supreme over the rights of the individuals who make up the nation.






35. Providing automatic increases to compensate for inflation.






36. Conservative Christians who (as a group) have become more active in politics in the last two decades and were especially influential in the 2000 presidential election.






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






38. Democratic party primary in the old 'one-party South' that was limited to white people and essentially constituted an election; ruled unconstitutional in Smith v. Allwright (1944).






39. Candidate or party with the most votes cast in an election - not necessarily more than half.






40. 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.






41. 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.






42. The total amount of money the Federal government has borrowed to finance deficit spending over the years.






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






44. Clause of the Constitution (Article 1 - Section 8 - Clause 3) setting forth the implied powers of Congress. It states that Congress - in addition to its express powers has the right to make all laws necessary and proper to carry out all powers the Co






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






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






47. The constitutional requirement (in Article II - Section 3) that presidents take care that the laws are faithfully executed - even if they disagree with the purpose of those laws.






48. The power of a court to refuse to enforce a law or government regulation that in the opinion of the judges conflicts with the U.S. Constitution or - in a state court - the state constitution.






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






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