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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. In Congress - _____________ are informal organizations of individual congressional representatives with like interests or constituencies. Members work together to promote the interests of the groups they represent through legislation - policy - and p
Caucuses
Liberalism
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Grant Clemency
2. A broad concept that may be defined in many ways - but the term is generally used to refer to the basic protection and defense of the nation.
Balancing Test
General Election
National Security
20
3. The party-column ballot - or Indiana ballot - encourages _______________.
Council of Economic Advisors
Issue Networks
Straight Ticket Voting
Scottsboro Boys Case
4. Procedure typically requiring 3/5 vote of the entire Senate to end a filibuster.
Prior Restraint
Cloture
Administrative Procedure Act
Lose
5. A group of writers - journalists - and critics who exposed corporate malfeasance and political corruption in the first decade of the 20th century.
Muckrakers
Mayor-Council Plan
Trustee
Public hearing
6. Most Americans support ______________ primarily as part of their criticism of PACs
General Purpose Grants
Television
Budget Resolution
Campaign Finance Reform
7. Today the Senate operates with ____ standing and select committees. These select committees - however - are permanent in nature and are treated as standing committees under Senate rules.
Issue network
School Desegregation
20
Energy
8. Which branch has the power to stop an executive order?
Judicial
Privacy Act
Clear and Present Danger
Conference Committee
9. Laws - rules - and government programs designed to protect individual rights and specific groups - as well as to benefit society as a whole in such areas as health - worker safety - consumer protection - and the environment.
State of the Union
6th Amendment
Social Regulation
Executive
10. In his historic decision in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) - Chief Justice Marshall established the principle of _____________.
Flexible Construction
Establishment Clause
New Federalism
Strategic Deterrence
11. Presidential refusal to allow an agency to spend funds that Congress authorized and appropriated.
Independent Expenditures
Impoundment
Seniority System
Ad Hoc Structure
12. This House committee is responsible for all taxes - tariffs - and other revenue raising measures in addition to social security - child support - Medicare - foster care - and unemployment.
14
Ways and Mean Committee
Bicameral
Riders
13. A term coined by President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe his own view of the relationship between Washington and the states.
Checks and Balances
Creative Federalism
Equal Time
Trial Balloon
14. These party members are highly involved in the electoral process. Donate funds to party and candidates - demand a voice in state party agendas and tend to have a strong belief in their party's ideology.
Swing Voters in the Democratic Party
Spoils System
Party Activists
Majority Rule
15. A writ designed to protect against illegal imprisonment by requiring that a person who is detained be brought before a judge for investigation.
Agriculture
Executive Privilege
Furman v. Georgia
Writ of Certiorari
16. (1945-1991) The period after the Second World War marked by rivalry and tension between the two nuclear superpowers - the United States and the communist government of the Soviet Union. The Cold War ended when the Soviet government collapsed in 1991.
Freedom of Speech
Cold War
Permanent Registration
Establishment Clause
17. During the period from 1976 to 1824 - This party was lead by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. They wanted a stronger national government that would rectify the pitfalls of the Articles of Confederation. Their supporters held a stronghold in New
527 Organizations
Universe
Federalist
Speech Plus
18. In 1987 - the FCC abandoned the fairness doctrine on the grounds that it unconstitutionally restricted the ______________ rights of broadcasters.
Probable Cause
1st Amendment
Article IV
Discharge Petition
19. This 1964 case established strict standards for proving slander and libel - court must prove intent of malice on the part of the publisher.
Bureaucracy
Electoral College
Military-Industrial Complex
NY Times v. Sullivan
20. In the 1962 case of Robinson v. California - the Supreme Court ruled that incarcerating a drug addict is ______________________ because drug addiction is an illness.
District of Columbia
Television
Ways and Means Committee
Cruel and Unusual
21. After hearings are complete - a congressional subcommittee will usually determine a bill's future in final deliberations known as
Little Difference
Formula Grant
It Failed to be Ratified
Mark Up Session
22. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was somewhat undermined by racist practices in the real estate market such as _____________ and ______________ - which continued illegally in many areas following passage of the Act.
Standing Committees
blockbusting and redlining
House Standing Committees
Felonies
23. A ruling by the Supreme Court in 1857
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Soft Money
Dred Scott Decision
Separation of Powers
24. PACs may donate a ______________ amount of indirect or in-kind donations to a campaign. (Ex. placing ads to support their candidate)
Selective Incorporation
11th Amendment
New Jersey Plan
Unlimited
25. The House appropriations committee has ___ subcommittees.
Senatorial Courtesy
Primary
12
Internationalism
26. Established the Federal Reserve Bank - responsible for conducting the nation's monetary policy - maintaining the stability of the financial system - supervising and regulating banking institutions - and protecting the credit rights of consumers - and
Woodrow Wilson
Committees of Correspondence
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Hold
27. The practice of victorious politicians to reward their followers with jobs. Also known as the spoils system.
Elite
Creative Federalism
Pentagon Papers
Political Patronage
28. Disapproval of a bill by a chief executive - such as the president or a governor.
Legislative Courts
Veto
English Bill of Rights
Declining
29. Included are Ways and Means - Veteran's Affairs - Transportation and Infrastructure - Standards of Official Conduct - Small Business - Science - Judiciary - Rules - Resources - Oversight of Government Reform - House Administration - Homeland Security
Independent expenditures
Senior Executive Service
Appealed
House Standing Committees
30. Programs of government - universities - and businesses designed to favor minorities and remedy past discrimination.
Public Policies
General Election
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka - Kansas
Affirmative Action
31. Responsible for determining which bills will be considered on the House floor - and when they will be considered.
New Federalism
Electoral College
Majority Whip
2/3
32. 1976 Law requiring all governmental agency meetings to be open to the public unless classified information will be discussed.
Bowers v. Hardwick
Open Meeting Law
12th Amendment
25th Amendment
33. Committees created by Congress to conduct special investigations. Although normally temporary - some become - in effect - permanent.
Vietnam War
Select Committee
Independent
Commission Plan
34. An election in which voters in a jurisdiction select candidates for a subsequent election. In other words - one means by which a political party nominate candidates for the following general election.s
Right of Expatriation
Selective Incorporation
Primary
Legislative Veto
35. This clause of the 1st amendment establishes a 'wall of separation' between church and state.
Legislative Veto
National Political Parties
Conventions
Establishment Clause
36. In Johnson v. Texas (1989) - the Supreme Court ruled that burning the flag in a manner that does not pose a threat to people or property is allowed as this type of freedom of speech.
Speech Plus
Oligopoly
Democratic
Cold War
37. _____ out of 9 justices must agree to hear an appellate case brought to them from a lower court.
Coast Guard
4
Outputs
Senate
38. Process by which citizens propose an amendment by petition.
Constitutional Initiative
Office of Management and Budget
Civil Liberties
Lafolette's Progressive s
39. Number of current cabinet positions under GW Bush.
Public Policies
School Desegregation
Unicameral
15
40. If significant amendments are made to a bill during committee - the bill is sometimes given a new number as a _______________.
Free Exercise of Religion
National Security Council
Clean bill
Custom
41. Senators have a __________ rate of re-election than Representatives primarily because of their larger constituency and lack of direct involvement with them.
Lower
Offensive Language
Whistle-blowers
Positive
42. While both Asian and Hispanic immigrants experience various types of discrimination - Hispanic immigrants are more likely to experience economic discrimination. This explains why most Hispanics identify with the ____________ party - while Asians do n
Democratic
General Purpose Grants
Focus Groups
Probable Cause
43. In states using primaries - the most common form of primary election is the ___________ primary.
Politics
Proportional Representation
Closed
2nd Amendment
44. Corporations formed by the government to act as a business to produce a product or service. Often monopolies with varying degrees of independence.
Demands
Office Column Ballot
Writ of Certiorari
Governmental Corporations
45. There are 11 circuit ____________________ who have no original jurisdiction.
Court of Appeals
Monetary Policy
Flexible Construction
Federalist
46. 1925 Supreme Court case overturned Baron v. Baltimore and applied the Bill of Rights to states.
Containment
Television
Gitlow v. New York
Public Policy
47. A philosophy that the Supreme Court should avoid constitutional questions when possible and uphold acts of Congress unless they clearly violate a specific section of the Constitution.
Public Policy
Hatch Act
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Judicial Restraint
48. Information sent out in order to observe the reaction of an audience. Used by politicians who deliberately leak information on a policy change under consideration.
Closed
Public Bills
Trial Balloon
Plurality
49. The executive office established in response to intelligence lapses during WWI. Oversees American foreign policy and includes the President - Vice President - Secretary of State - Secretary of Defense and is lead by the National Security Advisor.
Earmarks
Whigs
Federalism
National Security Council
50. Spending by the national committees of the political parties to support the election of congressional candidates is known as
Max Weber
4th Amendment
Political Culture
Coordinated Spending