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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. Legislative house whose members were intended to represent the people.
31
House of Representatives
Lobbying
6th Amendment
2. In Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) - the Supreme Court established precedents for ___________________ in schools and government institutions.
Jus Soli
2/3
Speaker of the House
Freedom of Speech
3. Communication with legislators or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Lobbying
Miranda Rights
Selective exposure
congressional oversight committee
4. Political leaders typically try to both lead and follow ____________.
Republican
Public Opinion
Fiscal Policy
Pluralist
5. The ______________________ were formed to unite the colonists against Britain.
Judicial Selection
congressional oversight committee
Committees of Correspondence
Natural Rights
6. A compulsory national insurance program - financed by taxes on employers and employees. The insurance falls into four categories: old-age and survivors insurance - disability insurance - Medicare - and unemployment insurance.
Valence issue
Select Committee
Social Security
Article VI
7. A system of voter registration in which voters must register every year or at other stated intervals.
Impartial
Secretary of State
Periodic Registration
Royalists
8. This 1st amendment clause prohibits the government from making any law prohibiting the exercise of any religion
Government Corporations
Free Exercise Clause
Writ of Assistance
Interest Groups
9. Established in 1947 as a combined Department of War and Navy.
527 Organizations
Defense
Politics
Whip
10. _____________ are expected to specialize in a few policy areas rather than claim expertise in the whole range of legislative concerns
Article II
Original Jurisdiction
Members of Congress
Interest Groups
11. A public assistance program established in 1965 to help pay hospital - doctor - and medical bills for people with low incomes.
Initiative
Gideon v. Wainwright
Medicaid
Substantive Due Process
12. The demands of and supports for a political system
Inputs
17th
Bureaucracy
Elite and Class Theory
13. Law enacted in 1939 to prohibit civil servants from taking activists roles in partisan campaigns .This act prohibited federal employees from making political contributions - working for a particualr party -or campaining for a particualr canidate
Hatch Act
General Election
Ways and Means Committee
Establishment Clause
14. An immigrant who wished to become a citizen may be naturalized after living in the US for ___ years.
Gideon v. Wainwright
5
Jurisdiction
Equity
15. These party members tend to be ideologues who put issues ahead of winning elections and withhold support from candidates who do not share their stance on issues. Very active in special interest groups and caucuses within the party. Willing to break a
Power Structure
Party Purists
Discharge Petition
English Bill of Rights
16. ______________ refers to the differences in political attitudes and voting behavior between men and women
Gender Gap
Caucus
Poll Tax
Export Taxes
17. Laws passed by state legislatures that are designed to protect reporters from being forced to reveal their news sources.
Federalist
2
Shield Laws
Monetary Policy
18. Formerly known as the Anti-Federalist - this party lead by Thomas Jefferson advocated states rights pressing the causes of the common people and agrarian interest. Dominated the political arena until the Civil War.
Democratic-Republicans
Sub-committee
Speaker of the House
Cooperative / Marble Cake Federalism
19. Which historical figure described democracy as 'the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time?'
Impartial
National Debt
Winston Churchill
Enumerated Powers
20. Author of The Spirit of the Laws advocating balance of power in politics with liberty is dependant upon a separation of the judicial - legislative - and executive branches of government.
External Efficacy
Baron de Montesquieu
Formula Grant
Muckrakers
21. These candidates win re-election to the House 80-90% of the time.
Incumbents
Concurrent
Murray v. Curlett
Stare Decisis
22. The process by which individuals screen out messages that do not conform to their own biases
Selective exposure
Democratic-Republicans
US v. Ballard
Party Realignment
23. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
Civil Cases
Nuclear Proliferation
Winston Churchill
Enumerated Powers
24. A meeting of party leaders to select candidates - elect convention delegates - etc
Cabinet
Caucus
Free Exercise of Religion
Safe seat
25. 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.
Mallory Rule
Plurality
Articles of Confederation
Writ of Certiorari
26. Type of interest group represented in Washington by another individual or organization. (Ex. Ford Motor Company pays a lobbyist in Washington to represent them.)
Institutional
Retrospective Voting
Republican
Open rule
27. The doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group
National Convention
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
31
Majority Rule
28. Most likely to board a foreign ship suspected of drug trafficking at a U.S. port
Sub-committee
Two Trial
US Trade Representatives
Coast Guard
29. Cabinet department that includes the Coast Guard - Border Patrol - FEMA - Transportation Security Administration - INS and the Secret Service. Established in 2001 in response to 9/11.
Public Opinion
Veteran's Affairs
Membership
Homeland Security
30. In the mid-term elections following a President's inauguration - his party tends to ___________ seats in Congress.
Nationalism
Pluralist Theory
Lose
Mugwumps
31. Raise Public Awareness - Create Policy Agenda - Prioritize Agenda - Enact Policy - Public Evaluation
Random Sample
Closed Shop
National Political Parties
Policy Making Cycle
32. Held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
2/3
Republicans
General Election
Rousseau
33. What principle - contained in the Fourth Amendment - protects a citizen from unwarranted search and seizure?
Agriculture
Probable Cause
Pork Barrel Spending
Dred Scott Decision
34. Requests from people or groups for health care for the aged - loans for college students - equal opportunity for minorities - and higher subsidies for farmers are examples of:
12
imprisoned
Free Exercise of Religion
Demands
35. Economists generally agree that the major responsibility for promoting prosperity and full employment falls on ________________.
Double Jeopardy
Government
Campaign Contributions
Separate but Equal
36. The fundamental rights of a free society that are protected by the Bill of Rights against the power of the government - such as freedom of speech - religion - press - and assembly.
Caucus
Veto
Patriot Act
Civil Liberties
37. This 1963 case extended the right to counsel to all felony cases.
Democratic-Republicans
October 1st
Gideon v. Wainwright
Speaker of the House
38. An opinion of one or more judges expressing disagreement with the majority opinion of the court which gives rise to its judgment.
Feedback
Dissenting Opinion
Select Committee
Freedom of Information Act
39. Total number of Representatives apportioned to the states based on population and reapportioned with the census every 10 years
2nd Amendment
435
Valence issue
Original Jurisdiction
40. In this 1972 case - the Supreme Court established four guidelines for determining if a trial was appropriately speedy and fair: cause of delay - length of delay - affect on the outcome - and the defendant's claim to a speedy trial.
Civil Liberties
Judicial Activism
Baker v. Wingo
Pyramid Model
41. Which office serves as a watchdog into waste or fraud in the bureaucracy and conducts investigations at the request of congressional committees
Interest Groups
Proposition 187
General Accounting
Budget Resolution
42. In some cases where blicity too much publicity surrounds a trial - courts have granted _______________ to help ensure a fair trial. One example is the trial of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing.
Energy
Article VI
Legislative Courts
Change of Venue
43. An economic philosophy that advocates both tax and budget cuts to increase incentives to produce in order to expand the total supply of the nation's goods and services.
Pocket Veto
John F. Kennedy
Supply Side Economics
Authorizations
44. The elected position of President pro tempore of the Senate is almost always held by
Nuclear Proliferation
Commission Plan
a senior senator of the majority party
Republicans
45. A political group organized under section 527 of the IRS code that may accept and spend unlimited amounts of money on election activities so long as they are not spent on broadcast ads run in the last 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a gene
Pentagon Papers
Lower
527 Organization
Selective Incorporation
46. Powers specifically outlined in the Constitution as assigned to one branch of government.
Enumerated Powers
Independent expenditures
Interior
Outputs
47. Committees created by Congress to conduct special investigations. Although normally temporary - some become - in effect - permanent.
Select Committee
Independent expenditures
Enumerated Powers
Affirmative Action
48. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is an example of an
9
unlimited
Electoral College
Interstate Compact
49. If 10 days remain in session and the president does not sign an act of Congress - the law is ___________.
Internationalism
Enacted
Ways and Means Committee
Absolute Position
50. The ruling in this case provided that the government must prove a threat to national security in order to impose prior restraint.
Pentagon Papers
Political Patronage
Gender Gap
Entitlement Spending