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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 Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) - the Supreme Court established precedents for ___________________ in schools and government institutions.
Freedom of Speech
3
Political System
State Auditor
2. The power of some municipalities to modify their charters and run their affairs without approval by the state legislature.
Home Rule
Interventionism
Writ of Certiorari
Politics
3. A legislator who automatically mirrors the will of the majority of his or her constituents.
High
Thomas Hobbes
Jurisdiction
Instructed Delegate
4. The 5th amendment protect against _____________.
Hold
Rules Committee
Social Regulation
Self-Incrimination
5. An act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Constitutionally prohibited.
Vice President
Probable Cause
Gideon v. Wainwright
Bill of Attainder
6. Devolutionary system in which the national government returns tax dollars to the state and local governments primarily in the form of block grants.
Gideon v. Wainwright
state legislatures
Majority Rule
New Federalism
7. Political commercials that strongly attack a rival candidate.
Bundling
Great Compromise
Negative Advertising
CORE
8. Independent organizations - but more often the political arms of corporations - labor unions - or interest groups - established to contribute to candidates or to work for general political goals.
Monroe Doctrine
Political Action Committees
Major Political Party
Gay
9. Cabinet department responsible for insuring mortgages and providing housing subsidies. Established in 1965
Military-Industrial Complex
Housing and Urban Development
Foreign Policy
Labor
10. Government employees who publicly expose evidence of official waste or corruption that they have learned about in the course of their duties.
Administrative Law
Whistle-blowers
Closed Shop
Executive Privilege
11. German sociologist theorized that the engine of government needs bureaucracies to provide expertise in a way that short-term elected or appointed official cannot.
Independent Regulatory Agencies
2
Max Weber
6
12. The 1803 case in which the Supreme Court - by declaring a portion of an act of Congress unconstitutional - first firmly set forth and established the power of judicial review.
Marbury v. Madison
Campaign Finance Reform
Absolute Position
Line-Item Veto
13. A White House council created under the National Security Act of 1947 to advise the president and help coordinate American military and foreign policy.
2nd Amendment
National Security Council
Caucuses
Conference Committee
14. When the population's overall feeling of political efficacy is low - voter turnout is _______.
Low
binding
17th
Office of Management and Budget
15. The pursuit and exercise of power
Politics
National Political Parties
Cabinet
4th Amendment
16. The process through which an individual acquires a set of political attitudes and forms opinions about political and social issues.
Senate
Political Socialization
Vice President
Clothespin vote
17. In the Federalist Papers - James Madison proposed that the states under the new Constitution would retain ____________ sovereignty.
2/3
Writ of Assistance
Residual
National Political Parties
18. _____________ is responsible for monetary policy.
Criminal Information
Petit Jury
Politics
The Federal Reserve Board
19. New Jersey v. TLO (1985) established that school authorities may search students without _____________ as long as they are reasonable.
House of Representatives
Homeland Security
Rhode Island
Probable Cause
20. A close contest; by extension - any contest in which the focus is on who is ahead and how much rather than on substantive differences between the candidates.
Democrats
Privacy Act
Concurrent Powers
Horse race
21. The vote cast by a person who does not like either candidate and so votes for the less objectionable of the two - putting a clothespin over his nose to keep out the unpleasant stench
Clothespin vote
Judicial
Probable Cause
Bowers v. Hardwick
22. In a 1943 case - the Supreme Court upheld the right to refuse to salute the American flag on the basis of the constitutional guarantee of _________________.
Common Sense
Party Column Ballot
Free Speech
Earmarks
23. Bills that benefit legislators' home districts - or powerful corporate contributors - with sometimes wasteful or unnecessary public works or other projects.
Dissenting Opinion
Natural Rights
Pork-Barrel Legislation
Elastic Clause
24. In the year 2000 - the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America had a constitutional right to ban _____________ members.
Gay
Federalist Papers
Republican
Low
25. The belief that all people possess certain basic rights that may not be abridged by government.
Natural Rights
Pendleton Civil Service Act
Pass the fundraising threshold
House of Representatives
26. Age requirement for President
President Pro Tempore
Free Exercise of Religion
35
31
27. Held on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
General Election
Reverse Discrimination
Patriot Act
28. A broadly based coalition that attempts to gain control of the government by winning elections in order to exercise power and reward its members.
Hub and Spoke Model
2
Major Political Party
Independent Expenditures
29. Constitutional protection of the accused to not be tried for the same crime twice.
Smith Act
Double Jeopardy
Privacy Act
Impartial
30. Freedoms that protect the individual from the government.
Civil Liberties
Democratic-Republicans
Monetary Policy
Jurisdiction
31. Defamation by written or printed words - pictures - or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
Implied
Bicameral
Speech Plus
Libel
32. The issue of slavery split the Democratic Party into what two factions?
Recommit the Bill to Committee
Northern and Southern
Electoral Votes
October 1st
33. In the area of foreign affairs - _______________ often have the advantage because
Coordinated Spending
Republicans
Export Taxes
Reynolds v. Sims
34. International agreements between the president and foreign heads of state that - unlike treaties - do not require Senate approval.
Executive Agreements
Iron Triangle
Home Rule
Referendum
35. Law intended to promote free competition in the market place by outlawing monopolies
Open
Antitrust Legislation
Veteran's Affairs
Appropriations
36. Courts of original jurisdiction in federal crimes - civil suits under federal law - civil suits between citizens of different states where the amount in question exceeds $50 -000 - bankruptcy proceedings - cases involving some federal administrative
Scandal Mongering
Permanent Registration
Seniority System
Federal District
37. Number of Federal District courts across 50 states - DC and Puerto Rico.
2nd Amendment
89
Categorical Grants
Welfare State
38. The name commonly given to a private group - regardless of size - organized to elect political candidates. An organization becomes one by receiving contributions or making expenditures in excess of $1 -000 for the purpose of influencing a federal ele
Open Meeting Law
Political Action Committee
Liberalism
Clear and Present Danger
39. Concept of government by the people in which everyone is free to vote - but normally whoever gets the most votes wins the election and represents all the people - including those who voted for the losing candidate.
Albany Plan
Retrospective Voting
Majority Rule
Referendum
40. In this essay - James Madison recognized that reconciling the competing interests of various groups was what legislation was all about
Concurrent
The Federalist #10
Small Business Administration (SBA)
Dred Scott Decision
41. These voters are registered as a party member but only participate by voting in primary and general elections. Tend to vote straight-party ticket and follow the leads of local party officials.
Attorney General
Rank and File
Liberalism
Procedural Due Process
42. Southern whites prevented blacks from ____________ through use of poll taxes - literacy tests and intimidation tactics after the Civil War.
National Debt
Voting
Baker v. Wingo
Dynamic Conservatism
43. 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.
House of Representatives
Judicial Restraint
Muckrakers
Independent
44. Direct oral or written speech directed at a specific individual or group
Entitlement Programs
Concurring Opinion
Pure Speech
Prior Restraint
45. A federal law passed by Congress in 1939 to restrict political activities by federal workers. The law prevents federal employees while on duty from taking an active part in party politics or campaigns and also bars federal employees from running for
Hatch Act
14
Export Taxes
Proportional Representation
46. This Supreme Court case infamously decided that a slave was not a citizen but property to be 'used in subservience to the interests - the convenience - or the will of his owner'
Dred Scott
Two Trial
Omaha platform
14th Amendment
47. 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
Government Corporations
Double Jeopardy
Bill of Attainder
48. Committees appointed for investigative or crisis situations.
Select Committee
Situational
Little Difference
Populous
49. A 1972 treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union limiting the number of defensive missiles each country could build. In 2001 President George W. Bush withdrew the United States from the treaty.
5
Gitlow v. New York
Article II
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
50. 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
Natural Rights
Concurrent
Export Taxes
Negative