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Test your basic knowledge |
AP Government
Start Test
Study First
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. Mutual aid and vote trading among legislators.
Honeymoon
Logrolling
Regulations
Retrospective issue of voting
2. Congress appropriates a certain sum - which is allocated to state and local units and sometimes to nongovernmental agencies - based on applications from those who wish to participate. Examples are grants by the National Science Foundation to universi
Closed primary
Attentive public
Idealism
Project grants
3. 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.
Precedent
Bill of attainder
Party identification
Regulations
4. 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).
Reinforcing cleavages
Parliamentary system
White primary
Regulations
5. The total amount of money the Federal government has borrowed to finance deficit spending over the years.
Recall
Antifederalists
Department
National debt
6. A specific course of action taken by government to achieve a public goal.
Articles of Confederation
Concurrent powers
Public policy
National debt
7. Retroactive criminal law that works to the disadvantage of a person.
Antitrust legislation
Ex post facto law
Jim Crow laws
News media
8. 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.
Writ of habeas corpus
Take care clause
Class action suit
Electoral college
9. Belief in the superiority of one's nation or ethnic group.
Ethnocentrism
Democratic consensus
Collective action
Articles of Confederation
10. A provision attached to a bill
Party caucus
State of the Union Address
Rider
Popular consent
11. Elections in which voters elect officeholders.
General election
Keynesian economics
Social insurance
Patronage
12. Powers that the Constitution gives to both the national and state governments - such as the power to levy taxes.
Concurrent powers
Gender gap
White primary
Community policing
13. 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).
Sedition
Commerce clause
Poll tax
White primary
14. Constitutional arrangement that concentrates power in a central government.
Unitary system
Creative federalism
Crossover voting
Dealignment
15. The idea that a just government must derive its powers from the consent of the people it governs.
Retrospective issue of voting
Class action suit
Criminal law
Popular consent
16. A government entity that is independent of the legislative - executive - and judicial branches.
Writ of mandamus
Independent agency
Bureaucrat
Sound bites
17. A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement of such deeds is unconstitutional.
Crossover sanctions
American dream
Restrictive covenant
Unitary system
18. Economic theory based on the principles of John Maynard Keynes stating that government spending should increase during business slumps and be curbed during booms.
Senatorial courtesy
Keynesian economics
Full faith and credit clause
Impeachment
19. The precise legal definition of how government will implement a policy.
Majority leader
Rule
Rule-making process
Clear and present danger test
20. A tax on increased value of the product at each stage of production and distribution rather than just at the point of sale.
Hard power
Initiative
Value-added tax (VAT)
Property rights
21. Interpretation of the First Amendment that holds that the government cannot interfere with speech unless the speech presents a clear and present danger that it will lead to evil or illegal acts.
Jim Crow laws
Clear and present danger test
Fundamentalists
Senatorial courtesy
22. 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
Opinion of the Court
Majority rule
Crossover sanctions
Faction
23. 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.
Direct primary
Means-tested entitlements
Take care clause
Standing committee
24. The political arm of an interest group that is legally entitled to raise funds on a voluntary basis from members - stockholders - or employees to contribute funds to candidates or political parties.
Political action committee (PAC)
Party identification
Override
Free rider
25. Lawsuit brought by an individual or group of people on behalf of all those similarly situated.
Sound bites
Realism
Class action suit
Immunity
26. 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.
Earmarks
Political socialization
Libertarianism
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
27. A policy-making alliance that involves a very strong ties among a congressional committee - an interest group - and a Federal Department or agency.
Iron triangle
Independent expenditures
Criminal law
Constitutional Convention
28. Formal accusation by the lower house of legislature against a public official - the first step in removal from office.
Laissez-faire economics
Impeachment
Democracy
Faction
29. A social division based on national origin - religion - language - and often race.
Checks and balances
Winner-take-all system
Weapons of mass destruction
Ethnicity
30. The inclination to focus on national issues - rather than local issues - in an election campaign. The impact of the national tide can be reduced by the nature of the candidates on the ballot who might have differentiated themselves from their party o
Ethnicity
National tide
Bad tendency test
Random sample
31. A theory that is based on creating enough military strength to convince other nations not to attack first.
Judicial activism
Primary election
Theory of deterrence
Amicus curiae brief
32. A notion held by a nineteenth-century Americans that the United States was destined to rule the continent - from the Atlantic the Pacific.
Manifest destiny
Representative democracy
Bundling
Interest group
33. Voting based on what a candidate pledges to do in the future about an issue if elected.
Political socialization
Prospective issue voting
Federal mandate
Redistricting
34. Philosophy proposing that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect current conditions and values.
Project grants
Judicial activism
Federal Election Commission (FEC)
Bureaucracy
35. Views the Constitution as giving a limited list of powers—primarily foreign policy and national defense—to the national government - leaving the rest to the sovereign states. Each level of government is dominant within its own sphere. The Supreme Cou
Discharge petition
Impeachment
National debt
Dual federalism (layer cake federalism)
36. Government regulation of property so extensive that government is deemed to have taken the property by the power of eminent domain - for which it must compensate the property owners.
Distributive policy
Standing committee
Regulatory taking
Commerce clause
37. An opinion disagreeing with a majority in a Supreme Court ruling.
Dissenting opinion
Open shop
Opinion of the Court
Cycle of increasing effectiveness
38. Attempting to overthrow the government by force or use violence to interrupt its activities.
Sedition
Senatorial courtesy
Interstate compact
Creative federalism
39. 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
40. A formal agreement between a U.S. president and the leaders of other nations that acquires approval by both houses of Congress.
Theocracy
Congressional-executive agreement
Sedition
Unfunded mandates
41. The clause of the Constitution (Article I - Section 8 - Clause 3) that gives Congress the power to regulate all business activities that cross state lines or affect more than one state or other nations.
Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA)
Commerce clause
Procedural due process
Issue network
42. A technique of Congress to establish federal regulations. Total preemption rests on the national governments power under the supremacy and commerce clauses to preempt conflicting state and local activity. Building on this constitutional authority - f
Trade deficit
Total and Partial Preemption
Executive agreement
National supremacy
43. 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
Open shop
Necessary and proper clause
Weapons of mass destruction
Executive Office of the President
44. Usually the largest organization in government with the largest mission; also the highest rank in Federal hierarchy.
Monetary policy
Conference committee
Monopoly
Department
45. The tendency of presidents to lose support over time.
Cycle of decreasing influence
Nongovernmental organization (NGO)
National party convention
Filibuster
46. People who favor state or local action rather than national action.
Initiative
Selective incorporation
Gender gap
Decentralists
47. An economic and governmental system based on public ownership of the means of production and exchange.
Plea bargain
Attentive public
Public opinion
Socialism
48. Money raised in unlimited amounts by political parties for party-building purposes. Now largely illegal except for limited contributions to state or local parties for voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Incumbent
Proportional representation
Poll tax
Soft money
49. A legal action conferring citizenship on an alien.
Naturalization
Court of appeals
Monopoly
News media
50. Constitutional doctrine that whenever conflict occurs between the constitutionally authorized actions of the national government and those of a state or local government - the actions of the federal government will prevail.
Criminal law
National supremacy
Commercial speech
Chief of staff