Test your basic knowledge |

CLEP American Government

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. The demands of and supports for a political system






2. A test established by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes - Jr. - in 1919 to define the point at which speech loses the protection of the First Amendment.






3. Proponents of limited government - unregulated free markets - national self-reliance - and conventional social values are best describes as






4. In the 1925 Gitlow case - the Supreme Court began a process of ______________ of the Bill of Rights to the states.






5. Gave authority over atomic energy from military to civilians.






6. To an extent - the press and the government have a relationship that is _______________ and mutually dependent.






7. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states in the covered jurisdiction to attain _________________ from the Attorney General before making changes to voting standards - practice - or procedure






8. Elections in which the majority party (according to party identification) is defeated in a temporary reversal.






9. Overall spending targets set by the Congress.






10. An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on a sharply limited government - promoting a free market economy - a non-interventionist foreign policy - and an absence of regulation in the moral and social spheres.






11. This 1967 Supreme Court case prohibited illegal eavesdropping and extending the zone of privacy to include the home - office - person - and immediate public arena.






12. These voters tend to have a high voter turnout because of their strong since of civic duty due to growing up during an era of political and civil unrest.






13. The oldest House committee still in existence.






14. This amendment includes the due process clause - the equal protection clause - and gave rights to former slaves.






15. A method of polling - considered less reliable than a random sample - in which interviewers are instructed to question members of a particular group in proportion to their percentage in the population as a whole.






16. Minor criminal offenses - such as speeding.






17. The practice of victorious politicians to reward their followers with jobs. Also known as the spoils system.






18. The Jacksonian Era marked an important change in the process used to nominate Presidential candidates with the emergence of party _________________ - eliminating caucuses.






19. Prompted by FDR's 4th election to the Presidency - the 22nd Amendment limited the number of Presidential terms to _____ terms.






20. Includes expressive conduct/assembly/actions and symbolic behavior (ex. Picketing or burning the flag) Based on our country history of symbolic acts such as the Boston Tea Party - courts almost always uphold symbolic acts of speech unless they are cr






21. Judicial Check on Legislative Branch. Not specifically outlined in the Constitution - but established in the case of Marbury v. Madison through the application of the Supremacy Clause in Article VI.






22. The total group from which poll-takers may select a random sample in order to measure public opinion.






23. The ___________ aspects of Federalism include: conflicts between state and national government - economic and racial discrimination - uneven enforcement of law - and dominance of local governments by special interest groups






24. In the Federalist Papers - James Madison proposed that the states under the new Constitution would retain ____________ sovereignty.






25. 14th Amendment is often used to support the right to ____________.






26. The sum of the goals - decisions - and actions that govern a nation's relations with the rest of the world.






27. The ______________________ were formed to unite the colonists against Britain.






28. The introductory statement of the U.S. Constitution - setting forth the general principles of American government and beginning with the words - 'We the people of the United States - in order to form a more perfect union. ...'






29. 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.






30. The Supreme Court holds _____________ jurisdiction in cases against the US - ambassadors - public ministers - and consuls.






31. President Hoover's laissez-faire approach to the economy during the Great Depression left many poor voters disenfranchised by the Republican Party. They left to join the _______________ Party.






32. Most states have ___________ legislatures.






33. Department established in 1988 by President G.H. Bush.

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34. The Supreme Court is the only judicial body that may hear disputes between _________________.






35. Practice by which voters of one party crossing over and voting in the primary of another party - effectively allowing a party to help choose its opposition's candidate.






36. Population migration patterns since the second World War have increased the power of _____________.






37. In his historic decision in the case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) - Chief Justice Marshall established the principle of _____________.






38. Th joint listing of the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same ballot as required by the twelfth amendment






39. These two Senate standing committees have existed - largely unchanged - since 1816.






40. A group of independent states or nations that come together for a common purpose and whose central authority is usually limited to defense and foreign relations.






41. After analyzing 1 -795 platform pledges over a 10-year period - Gerald M. Pomper concluded that almost ____________ of these promises were fulfilled






42. The philosophy that government should intervene as little as possible in economic affairs.






43. This branch of government checks Bureaucracy through its control over the creation and elimination of agencies as well as its control over budget appropriations.






44. The concentration of economic power in the hands of a relatively few large companies.






45. Article I of the Constitution establishes the ___________________ branch.






46. Prompted by the ____________________ - the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.






47. First step in the Policy Making Cycle.






48. This 1957 judgement prohibited pornography material as utterly without redeeming social significance - later reversed in Miller v. California






49. ____________________ define Congressional voting districts acting within constraints set down by Congress and the Supreme Court.






50. California measure designed to deny welfare and other benefits to illegal aliens. Overwhelmingly passed the popular vote - but overturned in federal court because it extending beyond the bounds of state rights to attempt to control immigration.