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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 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act - the 1965 Highway Beautification Act and the 1964 Civil Rights Act are all examples of ____________________.
Federal Courts
Regulatory Federalism
Blacks
Legislative Courts
2. Devolutionary system in which the national government returns tax dollars to the state and local governments primarily in the form of block grants.
Government
New Federalism
Bull Moose Progressives
Federal
3. A controversial law overwhelmingly passed by Congress in October 2001 - after the terrorist attacks of September 11 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. It greatly expanded the power of federal law enforcement authorities to move against suspe
Senate
Declining
Patriot Act
Republicans
4. The power of some municipalities to modify their charters and run their affairs without approval by the state legislature.
Globalization
Home Rule
Political ideology
Furman v. Georgia
5. Laws on Schools - Marriage - and owning property;Licensee Lawyers - Doctors - and Teachers.
State Government
Cloture
Committees
Policy Making Cycle
6. The concentration of economic power in the hands of a relatively few large companies.
Oligopoly
House of Representatives
Closed
Committee of the Whole
7. 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.
Voting
Thurgood Marshall
Gerrymandering
Supreme Court
8. The permanent committees of a legislature that consider bills and conduct hearings and investigations.
55
Caucuses
Federal District
Standing Committees
9. A centralized system of government - such as that of France - where most of the important policy decisions are made by a central government.
Permanent Registration
Unitary System
States
House of Representatives
10. Freedoms that protect the individual from the government.
Select Committee
a senior senator of the majority party
Republicans
Civil Liberties
11. Guarantees that any rights not explicitly outlined heretofore are reserved for the states.
Attorney General
10th Amendment
Senate
Free Exercise Clause
12. This 1932 case established that a case can be too speedy and under-counseled - providing defendants in a capital case the right to a reasonable amount of time to establish a defense.
Low
Television
Scottsboro Boys Case
Civil Liberties
13. A written opinion by some of the judges of a court which agrees with the majority of the court but might arrive there in a different manner.
Freedom of Speech
Concurring Opinion
8th Amendment
Bipartisanship
14. The only amendments to be ratified through the process of 'ratifying conventions -' not a vote in the state legislatures
Party Identification
Bill of Rights
Authorizations
Great Compromise
15. A system in which the national government sets requirements that are then implemented by state and local governments.
Gerrymandering
Lower
Regulatory Federalism
Supremacy Clause
16. The rules and regulations made and applied by federal regulatory agencies and commissions.
presidential line-item veto
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
Change of Venue
Administrative Law
17. Number of current cabinet positions under GW Bush.
15
4
Natural Rights
Vice President
18. The chair and the heads of the three armed services - and - when Marine Corps matters are under consideration - the commandant of the marines. By law - they advise the president and the secretary of defense and are the chiefs of their respective mili
Common Law
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Decreased
Appropriation Bills
19. Provisions tacked on to a piece of legislation that are not relevant to the bill.
4
Oligopoly
Riders
Democracy
20. A provision in a deed to real property prohibiting its sale to a person of a particular race or religion. Judicial enforcement is unconstitutional.
Commerce
8th Amendment
Restrictive Covenant
National
21. 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. ...'
Feedback
Preamble
Monetary Policy
Civil Cases
22. A federal tax on imports.
Delegated Powers
State Treasurer
Political Efficacy
Tariff
23. Federal laws limit the amount of ___________ that can be donated directly to campaign coffers.
Soft money
Cruel and Unusual
Contract Clause
Pendleton Civil Service Act
24. In this case - a gay man from Georgia charged with committing sodomy in his own home with a consenting adult. The court ruled that the Constitution does not explicitly grant the right for homosexuals to practice their lifestyle and that laws against
Writ of Assistance
Legislative Veto
Bowers v. Hardwick
Mayflower Compact
25. The 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act banned contributions of soft money to______________.
Grand Jury Indictment
89
Executive Agencies
National Political Parties
26. The European political philosophers whose writings influenced the concepts of liberty and government contained in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution belonged to the intellectual and cultural movement known as
Appropriation Bills
The Enlightenment
35
Judicial Restraint
27. A system - until modified and reformed in the 1970s - that automatically resulted in the selection as committee chair of those members of the majority party in Congress who had the longest continuous service on a committee.
Albany Plan
Gross Domestic Product
Seniority System
Grant Clemency
28. A system of voter registration in which voters must register only once in their district.
Permanent Registration
Bowers v. Hardwick
Ad Hoc Structure
Members of Congress
29. An elected office that is predictably won by one party or the other - so the success of that party's candidate is almost taken for granted
national quotas
Safe seat
Slander
Secondary Group
30. Legislative house whose members were intended to represent the people.
John F. Kennedy
Veteran's Affairs
Conference Committee
House of Representatives
31. Legislative house responsible for impeachment trials.
Senate
Republican
Democratic-Republicans
Contract Clause
32. The kinds of cases that a court has the authority to decide.
Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction
Due Process of Law
Swing Voters in the Democratic Party
33. Laws must be administered in a fair manner.
Fixed
Miranda Rights
Procedural Due Process
Regulatory Federalism
34. Cabinet department oversees nuclear reactors.Established in 1973 in response to the Energy Crisis.
Energy
Speaker of the House
Economic Interest Groups
Jury of Peers
35. 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
Categorical Grant
Free Exercise Clause
Primary
National
36. New Jersey v. TLO (1985) established that school authorities may search students without _____________ as long as they are reasonable.
Affirmative Action
Freedom of Information Act
Change of Venue
Probable Cause
37. This branch of government checks Bureaucracy through its control over lawsuits filed against the agency.
Party Regulars
Republican
Judicial
binding
38. While the verbiage of the 4th Amendment is vague as to what constitutes 'reasonable'. Police departments must rely on _____________; they cannot act on unfounded suspicion.
Detente
Probable Cause
de facto
Coordinated Spending
39. A government that undertakes responsibility for the welfare of its citizens through programs in public health and public housing and pensions and unemployment compensation etc.
Distribution
Interior
Felonies
Welfare State
40. Communication with legislators or other government officials to try to influence their decisions.
Cycle of Decreasing Influence
Judicial Review
Inverse
Lobbying
41. A political candidate who is thought to have only an outside chance of gaining the nomination.
Equal Protection Clause
Bipartisanship
Dark Horse
Gay
42. In the area of foreign affairs - _______________ often have the advantage because
Proportional Representation
Supreme Court
Republicans
Miranda Rights
43. The period of time after the election of FDR until the Vietnam War was dominated by the Democratic Party and know as the __________________ Era.
New Deal Era
Electoral College
Murray v. Curlett
Policy Making Cycle
44. If 10 days do not remain in session and the president does not sign an act of Congress - the bill __________.
Interest Groups
16th Amendment
7th Amendment
Dies
45. An unwritten custom by which individual senators who belong to the same political party as the president exercise an informal veto power over presidential appointments in their states.
District of Columbia
527 Organization
Blanket Primary
Senatorial Courtesy
46. The provisions of the Constitution that divide power among three constitutionally equal and independent branches of government
Checks and Balances
presidential line-item veto
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
Bicameral
47. Responsible for further investigation - hearings - and amendment to a bill
Sub-committee
Party Regulars
Committees of Correspondence
Cold War
48. Each Senate committee may have ________ subcommittees.
Open rule
unlimited
20
Weber
49. A legal principle of fair dealing - which may provide preventive measures and legal remedies that are unavailable under existing common law and statutory law.
Diminish
High
Equity
100
50. 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
Checks and Balances
Omaha platform
Monopoly