SUBJECTS
|
BROWSE
|
CAREER CENTER
|
POPULAR
|
JOIN
|
LOGIN
Business Skills
|
Soft Skills
|
Basic Literacy
|
Certifications
About
|
Help
|
Privacy
|
Terms
|
Email
Search
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 attitudes and actions of people that sustain and buttress the political system at all levels and allows the political system to continue to work.
Supports
Blacks
Ways and Mean Committee
Government
2. The Supreme Court practice of applying most of the provisions of the Bill of Rights to the states under the 14th Amendment.
Selective Incorporation
Authorizations
1964 Civil Rights Act
Royal Colonies
3. 14th Amendment is often used to support the right to ____________.
Tammany Hall
Policy Making Cycle
Executive
Due Process
4. Committees created by Congress to conduct special investigations. Although normally temporary - some become - in effect - permanent.
Federal
House of Representatives
State Auditor
Select Committee
5. A writ designed to protect against illegal imprisonment by requiring that a person who is detained be brought before a judge for investigation.
Unlimited
Energy
Conference Committee
Writ of Certiorari
6. In 1992 - the television networks agreed not to release these until a majority of polling places had closed in each state
US v. Ballard
Exit Polls
Commission Plan
Secretary of State
7. In this essay - James Madison recognized that reconciling the competing interests of various groups was what legislation was all about
The Federalist #10
The Federal Reserve Board
Royalists
Free Exercise Clause
8. This 1st amendment clause prohibits the government from making any law prohibiting the exercise of any religion
Dies
Free Exercise Clause
14th
Writ of Mandamus
9. Formed as a third party on the issue of slavery by many former Whigs in the 1850's. Anti-slavery platform. Supported by farmers - laborers - and newly-freed blacks.
General Accounting Office
Republicans
Freedom of Speech
Spoiler Candidate
10. The Supreme Court holds _____________ jurisdiction in cases against the US - ambassadors - public ministers - and consuls.
Major Political Party
Medicaid
Original
Social Contract
11. After the Vietnam war - American politics entered an era of __________________ during which neither party maintained control over the government.
Pluralist Theory
Divided Government
Safe seat
Nationalism
12. The president - the vice president - the heads of the major executive departments of the government - and certain other senior officials who may hold 'cabinet rank.'
Cabinet
Pork Barrel Spending
Inverse
Cruel and Unusual
13. The concept that all people are of equal worth - even if not of equal ability.
School Desegregation
Equality
The Federal Reserve Board
Freedom of Information Act
14. By far - the largest amount of federal aid to state and local governments comes in the form of:
Ways and Mean Committee
Logrolling
Categorical Grants
Raiding
15. A centralized system of government - such as that of France - where most of the important policy decisions are made by a central government.
Executive
Attorney General
Unitary System
Delegated Powers
16. An economy in which most economic decisions result from the interaction of buyers and sellers in markets - but in which the government plays a significant role in the allocation of resources.
Common Law
Mixed Economy
Social Regulation
Categorical Grants
17. A group of people who try to influence policy agendas and whose ultimate goal is to run the government by getting their favorite candidates elected.
Voting
Political Party
Substantive Due Process
Patriot Act
18. The federal department that administers programs that provide services to farmers (including research and soil conservation and efforts to stabilize the farming economy)
Agriculture
Senior Executive Service
NY Times v. Sullivan
Republicans
19. Presidential staff agency that serves as a clearinghouse for budgetary requests and management improvements for government agencies.
Restrictive Covenant
Earmarks
Capitalism
Office of Management and Budget
20. 1944 case established that as as long as a person accepted their beliefs in good faith that it is not the government's authority to determine whether those beliefs are valid.
Strategic Deterrence
US v. Ballard
Reverse Discrimination
1964 Civil Rights Act
21. These party members are highly involved in the electoral process. Donate funds to party and candidates - demand a voice in state party agendas and tend to have a strong belief in their party's ideology.
Presidential Ticket
Petition of Right
Vietnam War
Party Activists
22. During the period from 1976 to 1824 - This party was lead by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison. They wanted a stronger national government that would rectify the pitfalls of the Articles of Confederation. Their supporters held a stronghold in New
Federalist
Mallory Rule
CORE
Jury of Peers
23. Requires reporting of financial information by companies with publicly traded securities
Securities and Exchange Commission or Securities Act of 1933
Voting
Civil War Amendments
Issue network
24. 1976 Law requiring all governmental agency meetings to be open to the public unless classified information will be discussed.
Open Meeting Law
Propose an Amendment
Policy
Rousseau
25. Guarantees that any rights not explicitly outlined heretofore are reserved for the states.
Committees of Correspondence
12
Political Action Committee
10th Amendment
26. 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
Diminish
Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Federalist #10
Unlimited
27. A political group organized under section 527 of the IRS code that may accept and spend unlimited amounts of money on election activities so long as they are not spent on broadcast ads run in the last 30 days before a primary or 60 days before a gene
Mayor-Council Plan
Presidential Ticket
527 Organization
Public Policy
28. A powerful alliance of mutual benefit among an agency or unit of the government - an interest group - and a committee or subcommittee of Congress. Also called a triangle or a subgovernment.
Mayflower Compact
Iron Triangle
Public Opinion
527 Organizations
29. A procedure that in certain circumstances permits voters to remove elected state or local officials from office before their terms have expired.
Recall
Habeas Corpus
Senate
Self-Incrimination
30. Executive check on Legislative Branch.
Laissez-Faire
Veto
Republican
Committees
31. 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
Issue Networks
Cabinet
Clothespin vote
Executive Agencies
32. A group of high-level administrators and managers at the top of the government bureaucracy. SES members have less job tenure but are eligible for substantial cash bonuses for merit.
Senior Executive Service
30
Recorded Vote
Oligopoly
33. Its the responsibility of ___________ committees of a political party to solidify the party within each state and organize primary elections
Party Dealignment
Implied Powers
State
National Security
34. In the Federalist Papers - James Madison proposed that the states under the new Constitution would retain ____________ sovereignty.
Residual
435
2/3
Issue network
35. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
Presidential Veto
Commonwealth
Deviating Elections
Enumerated Powers
36. When the President's own party gains power and influence - it more puts pressure on the President to conform to the will of the party - leading to________________ between the President and the party to define their public identities
Unitary System
5
Major Political Party
Increased competition
37. Signed the executive order banning segregation in the armed forces.
Truman
Redistributive Policy
Local
Jus Soli
38. An economic system of free enterprise with private ownership of the means of production.
Public Administration
CORE
Capitalism
Ex Post Facto
39. A system in which national and state government have shared or overlapping powers. FDR's New Deal legislation established this system in the US.
Free Exercise of Religion
Roth v. US
Cooperative / Marble Cake Federalism
Iron Triangle
40. In charge of state's legal business. provide advice to other state official and represents the state in court if the state is involved in a lawsuit
Council-Manager Plan
Strategic Deterrence
Attorney General
Absolute Position
41. According to this nineteenth-century British peer and historian - 'power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
Home Rule
Lord Acton
Political Socialization
Fixed
42. Presidential management model in which the Chief of Staff plays a prominent role as the head of a military style chain of command. Used successfully by Reagan and Eisenhower.
Pyramid Model
Article VI
Interior
Flexible Construction
43. Limitations on this freedom including prohibition of defamation and obscenity - limitation on commercial speech - and restriction of inciting words that may cause immediate danger.
Impartial
Freedom of Speech
1776
Murray v. Curlett
44. Clause of the Constitution (Article 1 - Section 10) intended to prohibit state governments from modifying contracts made between individuals; interpreted as prohibiting state governments from taking actions that adversely affect property rights.
Committees
Article VI
Contract Clause
Poll Tax
45. Literally - a 'friend of the court' brief - filed by an individual or organization to present arguements in addition to those presented by the immediate parties to a case
Popular Sovereignty
Political ideology
Amicus Curiae Brief
Murray v. Curlett
46. Population migration patterns since the second World War have increased the power of _____________.
Government
Suburbia
Shield Laws
Members of Congress
47. Political theorist proposed the separation of church and state.
Rousseau
Speech Plus
Due Process of Law
Article IV
48. In addition to the doctrine of implied powers - Chief Justice Marshall - in his decision in the Supreme Court case of McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) - established the key concept of:
National Supremacy
Majority Opinion
Inverse
Supports
49. This body of government has final authority on the meaning of the Constitution.
The Sugar Act and the Currency Act
Supreme Court
Federal Appellate
Raiding
50. The pursuit and exercise of power.
Politics
Great Compromise
The Federal Reserve Board
Baron v. Baltimore