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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. Beginning with the election of Abraham Lincoln - the period between 1860 and the Great Depression was dominated by this political party.
Republicans
Amicus Curiae Brief
Right of Expatriation
Automobiles
2. Decides which bills will be considered.
Commander in Chief
Public Administration
Committees
Regulatory Agencies
3. The pursuit and exercise of power.
Politics
House of Representatives
Jus Sanguinis
Articles of Confederation
4. Which powers of the national government flow from its enumerated powers and from the 'elastic clause' of the Constitution?
Implied Powers
Coast Guard
Hyperpluralism
Transnational Relations
5. Impact elections by siphoning off votes from major parties spoiling a party's chance in a close race.
Third Parties
19th Amendment
Right to Counsel
Legislative
6. Also known as the Indiana ballot - lists the candidates of each party in a row or column - beside or under the party emblem. In most cases - the voter can make one mark at the top of the column - or pull one lever - and thus vote for all the party's
Implied Powers
30
President Pro Tempore
Party Column Ballot
7. In Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) - the Supreme Court established precedents for ___________________ in schools and government institutions.
Freedom of Speech
Public Bills
Roe v. Wade
Public Administration
8. An ideology that advocates limits on government power to address economic and social problems - relying instead on economic markets and individual initiative to address problems like health care and education - while promoting government involvement
The Sugar Act and the Currency Act
Office Column Ballot
Supports
Conservatism
9. Legislative branch incorporating two houses.
Bicameral
Committees of Correspondence
Misdemeanors
Spoiler Candidate
10. A vote in the House of Representatives in which the position of each member is noted and published in the Congressional Record.
President Pro Tempore
State of the Union
Recorded Vote
Government
11. Prohibits conviction of a crime that occurred before the act became illegal
Ex Post Facto
Budget Resolution
Bowers v. Hardwick
Fiscal Federalism
12. Number of current cabinet positions under GW Bush.
Pluralist
Bull Moose Progressives
US v. Ballard
15
13. Total number of Representatives apportioned to the states based on population and reapportioned with the census every 10 years
435
Original Jurisdiction
Propose an Amendment
Furman v. Georgia
14. Constitutional Article that establishes the Judicial Branch.
Preamble
Majority Rule
Article III
Criminal Information
15. Formal approval or consent given to a constitution - constitutional amendment - or treaty before it goes into effect.
Reference Group
Ratification
Political Action Committees
Deficit
16. Presides over any impeachment trial.
Decreased
National Convention
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Nationalism
17. Article VI - Paragraph 2 - of the Constitution - which declares that the Constitution - and the laws and treaties of the United States made under it - are 'the supreme Law of the Land' and prevail over any conflicting state constitutions or laws.
Unlimited
President Pro Tempore
Low
Supremacy Clause
18. Congress defined the steps for the creation and admission of new states. It forbade slavery while the region remained a territory although citizens could legalize it. First congress would appoint a territorial governor and judges. Second as soon as 5
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Whips
Selective exposure
Inverse
19. Wisconsin Republican who exploited public concern for political gain during the 1950's through freewheeling investigations of alleged Communists.
Laissez-Faire
Joseph McCarthy
Legislative Courts
Cloture
20. A court decision in an earlier case with facts and legal issues similar to a dispute currently before a court.
Civil Cases
Senate
Precedent
Poll Tax
21. The possible tendency of some voters or convention delegates to support the candidate who is leading in the polls and seems likely to win.
Lafolette's Progressive s
Bandwagon
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Affirmative Action
22. In addition to a quick and speedy trial - the 6th Amendment also guarantees ________________.
Right to Work Laws
Cluster Sampling
Cold War
Right to Counsel
23. Important during the Revolution - these bodies organized by the local governments of the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolution for the purposes of coordinating written communication outside of the colony.
Magna Carta
Committees of Correspondence
Mallory Rule
Gerrymandering
24. The average voter turnout between 1960 and 2004 was __________ percent
Equity
Vice President
55
Power Structure
25. A legal principle of fair dealing - which may provide preventive measures and legal remedies that are unavailable under existing common law and statutory law.
Equity
Right of Expatriation
Soft Money
de facto
26. A form of city government under which power is divided between a mayor and an elected city council.
Fast Track Authority
Governmental Corporations
Mayor-Council Plan
Party Activists
27. Number of Senators elected at large per state -
Supports
2
Shay's Rebellion
Confederation
28. Money spent by individuals or gorups not asociated with candidates to elect or defeat candidates for office
Independent expenditures
Spoils System
National Convention
Freedom of Information Act
29. This 1957 judgement prohibited pornography material as utterly without redeeming social significance - later reversed in Miller v. California
Executive Privilege
Roth v. US
Vice President
Low
30. The issue of slavery split the Democratic Party into what two factions?
Northern and Southern
Reference Group
Entitlement Spending
Common Law
31. Political commercials that strongly attack a rival candidate.
270
Majority Whip
Detente
Negative Advertising
32. The yearly value of goods and services produced within a country.
Town Meeting
Democratic-Republicans
Gross Domestic Product
Politics
33. The estimated number of illegal aliens living in the US.
Due Process of Law
John Locke
8 Million
Pork Barrel Spending
34. In the Federalist Papers - James Madison proposed that the states under the new Constitution would retain ____________ sovereignty.
Political Patronage
2/3
Residual
Legislative Veto
35. Form of government in which the people are sovereign but their power is exercised by their elected representatives.
Republic
Demands
Inputs
national quotas
36. The body composed of electors from the 50 states who formally have the power to elect the president and vice president of the United States. Each state has a number of electors and electoral votes equal to its number of senators and representatives i
Tammany Hall
Voting
Electoral College
Charismatic authority
37. Lobbyists for special interest groups have found ____________________ to be the most direct and effective method to secure their objectives in Congress.
Hub and Spoke Model
Voting
Campaign Contributions
Budget Resolutions
38. The power of the president - struck down by the Supreme Court in 1998 - to veto parts of appropriations bills. Most state governors have this power.
Line-Item Veto
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Low
Raiding
39. German sociologist theorized that the engine of government needs bureaucracies to provide expertise in a way that short-term elected or appointed official cannot.
General Accounting
Max Weber
Impeachment
binding
40. Term limit for House of Representatives.
Party Purists
Unlimited
Rank and File
8 Million
41. A judicial opinion agreed to by a majority of the members of a court. A majority opinion sets forth the decision of the court and an explanation of the rationale behind the court's decision.
Inputs
Change of Venue
77
Majority Opinion
42. The way things actually are.
Reference Group
Vietnam War
Closed Shop
de facto
43. When neither political party is dominant.
Slander
Political Action Committees
Party Dealignment
Violation of Law
44. The attitudes and actions of people that sustain and buttress the political system at all levels and allows the political system to continue to work.
Clothespin vote
House of Representatives
Supports
Free Exercise Clause
45. After the Vietnam war - American politics entered an era of __________________ during which neither party maintained control over the government.
Social Regulation
Campaign Contributions
Divided Government
Right to Work Laws
46. A study of Bennington College students in the 1930s illustrated that the influence of the family on political attitudes tends to ______________ as they grow older and come into contact with other groups.
Recall
Dynamic Conservatism
Diminish
Arraignment
47. 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
Democrats
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Federal Register
48. Approximately 33% of American voters identify themselves as _______________ party.
Commission Plan
Grant Clemency
Independent
Felonies
49. Article I of the Constitution establishes the ___________________ branch.
Legislative
President Pro Tempore
Unitary System
Freedom of Information Act
50. Method by which federal court judges may lose their position.
Impeachment
National Security Council
8th Amendment
Blacks