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Test your basic knowledge |
CLEP American Government
Start Test
Study First
Subjects
:
clep
,
civics
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. This 1689 English Document made the monarch
National Debt
Senate
English Bill of Rights
Deviating Elections
2. Process by which citizens propose an amendment by petition.
Bandwagon
Constitutional Initiative
Transnational Relations
Recommit the Bill to Committee
3. Considered the most sacred right in American history. Colonists felt oppressed by the tyranny of the crown but were unable to speak up about it for fear of repercussion.
Mark Up Session
Party Purists
Freedom of Speech
5 -000
4. The appropriation of government spending for projects that are intended primarily to benefit particular constituents - such as those in marginal seats or campaign contributors.
Bundling
Establishment Clause
Swing Voters in the Democratic Party
Pork Barrel Spending
5. The philosophy that government should intervene as little as possible in economic affairs.
Filibuster
Freedom of Religion
2
Laissez-Faire
6. Political leaders typically try to both lead and follow ____________.
Democratic
Public hearing
Public Opinion
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
7. A system of voter registration in which voters must register only once in their district.
Judicial Restraint
Permanent Registration
Statutory Law
Commission Plan
8. Which powers of the national government flow from its enumerated powers and from the 'elastic clause' of the Constitution?
Cold War
Implied Powers
Filibuster
Quota Sampling
9. States that states may draw reasonable distinctions between the rights of residents and non-residents (ex. In state and out of state tuition)
Veteran's Affairs
Open rule
Privileges and Immunities Clause
Antitrust Legislation
10. Which two British Acts - passed in 1764 - caused American colonists for the first time to organize protests against the injustices of British rule - and sparked the rallying cry 'no taxation without representation'?
The Sugar Act and the Currency Act
Party Column Ballot
Party Identification
External Efficacy
11. The period of time after the election of FDR until the Vietnam War was dominated by the Democratic Party and know as the __________________ Era.
Democratic
Valence issue
New Deal Era
Primary
12. Literally meaning 'right of soil' - confers citizenship by place of birth.
Jus Soli
Original Jurisdiction
Probable Cause
Containment
13. Year of the 2nd Continental Congress.
Judicial
Tariff
1776
Jurisdiction
14. In the view of W. Lance Bennett - the people who hold and express opinions are constantly changing - as are the issues and conditions to which the public responds. As a result - Bennett suggests that public opinion is______________.
Prior Restraint
Offensive Language
Situational
Implied Powers
15. 1917 Reincarnation of the Sedition Act during WWI
89
Establishment Clause
Espionage Act
Government
16. Included are Agriculture - Nutrition - and Forestry; Appropriations; Armed Services; Banking - Housing and Urban Affairs; Commerce - Science and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Health - Education -
Article II
Rules Committee
Jurisdiction
Senate Standing Committees
17. Corporations formed by the government to act as a business to produce a product or service. Often monopolies with varying degrees of independence.
Thurgood Marshall
National Supremacy
Governmental Corporations
Self-Incrimination
18. Love of country and a desire for independence; it can also mean an excessive form of patriotism exploited by political leaders.
Bill of Rights
Nationalism
Political Action Committee
Sub-committee
19. The separation of people by race.
Segregation
Automobiles
Unlimited
Standing Committees
20. Responsibilities include: Coordinating the nation's intelligence activities and Evaluating and disseminating intelligence that affects national security
Proprietary Colonies
Power Structure
270
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
21. While these voters have traditionally supported the Democrats - some have begun to support Republicans in light of the Democrats liberal policies on abortion.
Roe v. Wade
Trial Balloon
Amicus Curiae Brief
Catholics
22. This author was highly influential on Thomas Jefferson - rejecting divine right - proposing that government is a social contract requiring the consent of the govern and establishing the concept of self-evident rights of life - liberty - and property.
John Locke
Original
Reynolds v. Sims
Stare Decisis
23. Devolutionary system in which the national government returns tax dollars to the state and local governments primarily in the form of block grants.
New Federalism
binding
Constituencies
Hold
24. A course of action decided upon by a government
Policy
Pluralist
State Legislatures
Straight Ticket Voting
25. Permitted court authorized wire-tapping and bugging by federal - state - and local authorities and use of such evidence in trial. Later reversed by the Supreme Court based on 4th Amendment rights.
Good Faith Exception
Closed
Declining
Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act
26. First governing document of the Plymouth Colony establishing freedom of religion.
Mayflower Compact
High
Establishment Clause
Medicare
27. Money spent by individuals or gorups not asociated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office
Independent expenditures
Distribution
Residual
Focus Groups
28. Spending determined by the number of qualified recipients and their legally determined need is called
Court of Appeals
Liberalism
Entitlement Spending
Spoils System
29. Petition that - if signed by a majority of the members of the House of Representatives - will pry a bill from committee and bring it to the floor for consideration
Standing Committees
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Discharge Petition
Federal
30. 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
77
Impartial
Safe seat
Custom
31. Th joint listing of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ballot as required by the twelfth amendment
Baron v. Baltimore
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Presidential Ticket
Logrolling
32. A philosophy that Supreme Court justices and other judges should boldly apply the Constitution to social and political questions.
Democratic-Republicans
Judicial Activism
Patriot Act
Custom
33. In order to win support for ratification of the Constitution - the Federalists had to promise that the first order of business under a new government would be to _______________.
Majority Whip
Enact a Bill of Rights
Establishment Clause
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
34. Number of Electoral College votes required to win the Presidency.
Clean bill
270
14
Party Identification
35. In an election with more than 2 options - the number of votes for the candidate or party receiving the greatest number - but less that half of the votes.
8 Million
Plurality
Government
Detente
36. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) - founded in 1932 by President Herbert Hoover to help combat the Great Depression - was the predecessor of which federal agencies?
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Social Security
Stare Decisis
The Enlightenment
37. A procedural rule in the House of Representatives that prohibits any amendment to bills or provides that only memebers of the committee reporting the bill may offer amendments
Closed rule
Republic
Executive
Senate
38. The case of Gregg v. Georgia set the precedent for a ________________ system in which guilt and sentencing and tried separately.
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Two Trial
Retrospective Voting
Separate but Equal
39. Limitations on this freedom including prohibition of defamation and obscenity - limitation on commercial speech - and restriction of inciting words that may cause immediate danger.
Political Action Committee
Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Information Act
Supreme Court
40. Article I of the Constitution establishes the ___________________ branch.
Legislative
Social Contract
14
Presidential Veto
41. Groups whose views serve as guidelines to an individual's opinion. See also primary groups and secondary groups.
20
Shay's Rebellion
Reference Group
Elastic Clause
42. The only court specifically outlined in the Constitution.
Diminish
435
Supreme Court
2
43. A place of work in which only union members may be hired.
Seniority System
Closed Shop
Implied
Freedom of Religion
44. Contacts - coalitions - and interactions across national boundaries
Privacy Act
Negative
Transnational Relations
Liberalism
45. Ruling by the Supreme Court in 1954 that racial segregation in public schools violates the Fourteenth Amendment's requirement of equal protection of the laws for all persons.
Conference Committee
Felonies
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - Kansas
Capitalism
46. If significant amendments are made to a bill during committee - the bill is sometimes given a new number as a _______________.
Lemon Test
Party Regulars
Clean bill
Freedom of Information Act
47. An economic system in which the factors of production are owned by the publicand operate for the welfare of all.
Welfare State
Socialism
General Accounting Office
Bundling
48. Government agencies that exercise quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative powers and are administratively independent of both the president and Congress (although politically independent of neither).
Retrospective Voting
Electoral Connection
Concurrent
Independent Regulatory Agencies
49. Communication with legislators or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Federalism
Mayflower Compact
Lobbying
Lower
50. Federal categorical grants in which the granting agency has much discretion over how the recipient spends the money.
Residual
Regulatory Federalism
Project Grant
Marshall Plan