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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. The term most political scientists prefer to describe the bureaucratic process
Public Administration
Committees
Dred Scott
Shay's Rebellion
2. Each Senate committee may have ________ subcommittees.
de facto
Government
Enacted
unlimited
3. The right to privacy is ___________ in the Constitution.
Foreign Relations and the Judiciary Committees
Implied
Habeas Corpus
Retrospective Voting
4. Law enacted by Congress - or by state legislatures or local legislative bodies.
presidential line-item veto
Statutory Law
Safe seat
Agriculture
5. Number of Electoral College votes required to win the Presidency.
270
Party Dealignment
States
Appealed
6. American politics is dominated by a small ___________ who is responsible for most of the important policy decisions
Supreme Court
Increased competition
Elite
Inherent Powers
7. Tips the balance between two leading candidates by attracting a minority of voters who otherwise might have voted for one of the leading candidates.
Spoiler Candidate
Collective Action
Closed
Judicial
8. Programs are designed to give preferential access to education - employment - health care - or social welfare to groups of people - especially minorities and women - who have historically been discriminated against.
Nationalism
Recommit the Bill to Committee
Affirmative Action
Electoral Connection
9. The case of Gregg v. Georgia set the precedent for a ________________ system in which guilt and sentencing and tried separately.
Bundling
Two Trial
Political Action Committee
Speaker of the House
10. This clause of the 1st amendment establishes a 'wall of separation' between church and state.
Northwest Ordinance of 1787
Energy
Establishment Clause
Electoral Connection
11. Form of government in which the people are sovereign but their power is exercised by their elected representatives.
Republic
Separate but Equal
Magna Carta
Common Sense
12. Germany - Switzerland - and India are examples of countries with a _______________ system of government.
Federal
Criminal Information
Permanent Registration
Closed
13. A pluralist theory by C. Wright Mills where a small number of wealthy elite wield most of the power. Fundamental to all governments around the world - the elite rule while they make the lower classes feel like they are involved in democracy. The elit
Supreme Court
Elite and Class Theory
Government
Two Trial
14. After a bill is assigned to a committee - the next step is typically a ______________.
Mugwumps
Politics
Thomas Hobbes
Public hearing
15. Federal grants in which the recipient has little discretion over how the money is spent. The national government sets narrowly defined rules for use of funds and often requires the states or local governments to provide matching funds. These grants a
Civil Liberties
Press Secretary
Categorical Grant
Rules Committee
16. 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.
Veto
Hub and Spoke Model
Blanket Primary
National Security Council
17. The rules and regulations made and applied by federal regulatory agencies and commissions.
Baron de Montesquieu
Reynolds v. Sims
Administrative Law
Lose
18. 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
Republican
Party Column Ballot
Collective Action
John Locke
19. 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
Nuclear Proliferation
binding
Jurisdiction
Woodrow Wilson
20. These parties often emerge as off-shoots of major parties or as single-issue parties. They typically act as critic/innovator bringing attention to issues and influencing the platforms of the major parties.
Third Parties
Procedural Due Process
Truman
Flexible Construction
21. Most modern political scientists believe there is ________________ between politics and government.
Issue Networks
Government
Little Difference
Bandwagon
22. Committees that pull members from both the house and the senate who meet to discuss major policy issues such as economy and taxation.
Joint Committee
Agriculture
Negative Advertising
Baron de Montesquieu
23. Most Americans support ______________ primarily as part of their criticism of PACs
Free Rider
Campaign Finance Reform
9
Social Regulation
24. Define US Citizenship as any person born or naturalized in the United States.
Mixed Economy
14th Amendment
Party Regulars
Vietnam War
25. A legislative leader of each party who is responsible for rounding up party members for important votes.
The Sugar Act and the Currency Act
Whip
State
Safe seat
26. Court cases that concern crimes committed against the public order.
Criminal Cases
Contract Clause
Gross Domestic Product
Executive Agencies
27. Prompted by FDR's 4th election to the Presidency - the 22nd Amendment limited the number of Presidential terms to _____ terms.
Rules Committee
Republicans
Homeland Security
2
28. The binding decisions that the government makes whether in the form of laws -regulations - or judicial decisions
Republicans
Outputs
Liberalism
Dark Horse
29. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
Positive
President Pro Tempore
Enumerated Powers
Pendleton Civil Service Act
30. The drawing of the lines of congressional districts - or of any other political district - in order to favor one political party or group over another.
Committees of Correspondence
Federal Register
Gerrymandering
High
31. A law passed by Congress in 1973 in an effort to set a time limit on the use of combat forces abroad by a president.
Deviating Elections
War Powers Resolution
Winston Churchill
Joint Committees
32. Agencies that were at one time semi-autonomous but that through legislation have been placed under presidential control since 1945.
Judicial Selection
General Accounting
Government Corporations
Criminal Cases
33. The relationship between the total cost of foreign goods imported to this country and sales of U.S. products overseas.
Bull Moose Progressives
New Federalism
Balance of Trade
Town Meeting
34. The only amendments to be ratified through the process of 'ratifying conventions -' not a vote in the state legislatures
Equity
Council-Manager Plan
Flexible Construction
Bill of Rights
35. Elects the President if no candidate receives 270 Electoral College votes.
House of Representatives
19th Amendment
Caucuses
12th Amendment
36. The vagueness of this phrase has allowed juries to exclude specific genders or races in order to affect the outcome of the verdict.
Categorical Grants
Enumerated Powers
Low
Jury of Peers
37. This 1967 Supreme Court case prohibited illegal eavesdropping and extending the zone of privacy to include the home - office - person - and immediate public arena.
89
Katz. v US
Political Culture
Freedom of Speech
38. _____________ are expected to specialize in a few policy areas rather than claim expertise in the whole range of legislative concerns
Members of Congress
Albany Plan
Magna Carta
October 1st
39. What principle - contained in the Fourth Amendment - protects a citizen from unwarranted search and seizure?
Thurgood Marshall
Probable Cause
Political Patronage
Spoiler Candidate
40. _______________ indicates a citizens' faith and trust in government and their own belief that they can understand and influence political affairs
1964 Civil Rights Act
2
Majority Rule
Political Efficacy
41. Legislative house whose members were intended to represent the people.
Office Column Ballot
Executive
Salient Agenda
House of Representatives
42. An interest group organization that represents a specific group of people (Ex. NAACP - AARP)
Right to Counsel
Speaker of the House
Membership
Commander in Chief
43. Number of Senators elected at large per state -
Separate but Equal
Automobiles
Supports
2
44. Which committee assignments would confer the most power and influence on members of the Senate?
Third Party
Appropriations
Criminal Cases
Decreased
45. 14th Amendment is often used to support the right to ____________.
Medicare
Judicial
Due Process
Max Weber
46. Groups named for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code under which they must report their expenditures. The tax-exempt groups were created to exploit a loophole in the law regulating campaign finance.
Republicans
Joint Committees
527 Organizations
Whips
47. Year of the 2nd Continental Congress.
1776
Rousseau
National Supremacy
State of the Union
48. This was amended in 1985 to prohibit vote dilution without requiring the proof of discriminatory purpose demanded by the original Act.
Free Rider
Bull Moose Progressives
Voting Rights Act of 1965
25th Amendment
49. The structure and set of regulations in place to control activity - usually in large organizations and government. it is represented by standardized procedure (rule-following) that dictates the execution of most or all processes within the body - for
Separate but Equal
Thomas Hobbes
State Treasurer
Bureaucracy
50. In Woodson v. North Carolina - the Supreme Court struck down mandatory sentencing of capital punishment as ______________________ because it does not allow for any discretion.
Alien and Sedition Acts
Lyndon B. Johnson
Cruel and Unusual
Regulatory Federalism