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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. 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
Medicaid
Party Column Ballot
Raiding
Free Speech
2. After analyzing 1 -795 platform pledges over a 10-year period - Gerald M. Pomper concluded that almost ____________ of these promises were fulfilled
2/3
25th Amendment
Rules Committee
Quota Sampling
3. Washington v. Chrisman (1982) established the _________________ - allowing police officers to seize evidence without a warrant if the evidence is in obvious sight.
Federal Appellate
War Powers Resolution
Plain View
State Government
4. In this essay - James Madison recognized that reconciling the competing interests of various groups was what legislation was all about
Jus Soli
Budget Resolutions
Pentagon Papers
The Federalist #10
5. Elections that may lead to a basic shift in the party identification of the electorate.
Two Trial
Realigning Elections
Safe seat
Privacy Act
6. Early civil rights leader established the Niagara Movement and helped to establish the NAACP.
Executive Agreements
W.E.B. DuBoise
Rousseau
Exit Polls
7. Includes expressive conduct/assembly/actions and symbolic behavior (ex. Picketing or burning the flag) Based on our country history of symbolic acts such as the Boston Tea Party - courts almost always uphold symbolic acts of speech unless they are cr
Focus Groups
Equal Time
Strategic Deterrence
Speech Plus
8. A term coined by President Lyndon B. Johnson to describe his own view of the relationship between Washington and the states.
Woodrow Wilson
Segregation
Creative Federalism
Legislative
9. Author of The Spirit of the Laws advocating balance of power in politics with liberty is dependant upon a separation of the judicial - legislative - and executive branches of government.
Riders
Supremacy Clause
Transnational Relations
Baron de Montesquieu
10. Responsible for further investigation - hearings - and amendment to a bill
14
Sub-committee
Jus Sanguinis
Roth v. US
11. Concept of the British statesman Edmund Burke that legislators should act according to their own consciences.
Caucus
Trustee
Recommit the Bill to Committee
Dual / Layer Cake Federalism
12. The foreign policy of the United States during the period after the Second World War - designed to contain the expansion of Soviet power.
Pre-clearance
Containment
National Political Parties
Adversarial
13. Powers not specifically granted to the federal government or denied to the states belong to the states and the people
Voting
Balancing Test
Propose an Amendment
Reserved Powers
14. 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.
Atomic Energy Act of 1946
Political Socialization
Entitlement Programs
Political Action Committees
15. 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.
4th Amendment
Maintaining Elections
Senior Executive Service
Securities and Exchange Commission or Securities Act of 1933
16. Responsible for determining which bills will be considered on the House floor - and when they will be considered.
Majority Whip
Straight Ticket Voting
Judicial
Pluralist Theory
17. 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.
Party Realignment
Majority Opinion
Commerce
Enact a Bill of Rights
18. Which office serves as a watchdog into waste or fraud in the bureaucracy and conducts investigations at the request of congressional committees
Contract Clause
General Accounting
Closed Shop
Public Opinion
19. The right to renounce one's citizenship.
Committee of the Whole
Enact a Bill of Rights
Contract Clause
Right of Expatriation
20. Raise Public Awareness - Create Policy Agenda - Prioritize Agenda - Enact Policy - Public Evaluation
Department of State
National Political Parties
Open
Policy Making Cycle
21. The way things actually are.
Lyndon B. Johnson
Clean bill
House of Representatives
de facto
22. Plan that proposed bicameral legislature where states were to have representation based on size in both houses.
Virginia Plan
Ratification
Open
National Committee
23. Today the Senate operates with ____ standing and select committees. These select committees - however - are permanent in nature and are treated as standing committees under Senate rules.
Scottsboro Boys Case
Winston Churchill
Speech Plus
20
24. A form of city government under which a council - usually elected on a nonpartisan ticket - hires a professional city manager - who runs the city government and has power to hire and fire officials.
Council-Manager Plan
Ad Hoc Structure
Omaha platform
Federalist Papers
25. A vote in the House of Representatives in which the position of each member is noted and published in the Congressional Record.
Recorded Vote
Statutory Law
Legislative
Habeas Corpus
26. 6 In the view of Robert L. Lineberry - policy analysts focus on the _______________.
Unicameral
presidential line-item veto
Outputs
Family
27. _____ out of 9 justices must agree to hear an appellate case brought to them from a lower court.
Pure Speech
4
Political Party
Pre-clearance
28. While the voting rights act of 1965 did direct the Attorney General to investigate the constitutionality of poll taxes and prohibit literacy tests - it did not expressly prohibit _____________.
Power Structure
Gerrymandering
Republicans
Pork Barrel Spending
29. 1925 Supreme Court case overturned Baron v. Baltimore and applied the Bill of Rights to states.
Low
Suburbia
Gitlow v. New York
Declining
30. After the Vietnam war - American politics entered an era of __________________ during which neither party maintained control over the government.
Enumerated Powers
Exclusionary Rule
Divided Government
Isolationism
31. There is an _____________ relationship between Presidential approval ratings and unemployment.
Scottsboro Boys Case
Implied Powers
Inverse
Reserved Powers
32. A group of people - chosen by poll-takers - that is representative of the universe that is being polled.
9
Bundling
Committees
Random Sample
33. Programs mandated by law and not subject to annual review by Congress or the president.
Lose
Soft money
Entitlement Programs
Spoils System
34. 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.
Political Party
Rules Committee
Implied Powers
Bicameral
35. A primary in which any registered voter is able to vote for candidates from more than one party. A voter - for example - may vote for a Democrat for U.S. senator and for a Republican for governor. In 2000 - the Supreme Court struck down the blanket p
Pentagon Papers
Raiding
Party Column Ballot
Blanket Primary
36. The belief that all people possess certain basic rights that may not be abridged by government.
Private Bills
Pyramid Model
Natural Rights
Discharge Petition
37. Decides which bills will be considered.
Shay's Rebellion
Committees
President
Governmental Corporations
38. The relationship between the total cost of foreign goods imported to this country and sales of U.S. products overseas.
School Desegregation
Balance of Trade
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Rules Committee
39. The only instance in which the government can prohibit religious activities
Violation of Law
Jim Crow Laws
Regulatory Federalism
Realigning Elections
40. The practice of victorious politicians to reward their followers with jobs. Also known as the spoils system.
Entitlement Programs
Political Patronage
Unitary System
Jus Soli
41. A legislator who automatically mirrors the will of the majority of his or her constituents.
Instructed Delegate
Ticket Splitters
Conventions
War Powers Resolution
42. A meeting of party leaders to select candidates - elect convention delegates - etc
Joint Chiefs of Staff
Caucus
Republican
Impeachment
43. Powers of government that are specifically granted to the three branches of the federal government under the Constitution.
New Deal Era
Enumerated Powers
6
Offensive Language
44. The Equal Rights Amendment was defeated in 1982 because ____________________________.
Earmarks
Family
It Failed to be Ratified
Democratic
45. Defamation by written or printed words - pictures - or in any form other than by spoken words or gestures.
Libel
Council of Economic Advisors
Political Patronage
Housing and Urban Development
46. According to the Speedy Trial Act of 1974 - federal trials must commence within _______ days of arrest with the exception of delay for mental health testing of the defendant and illness of the defendant or key witness.
100
Political Party
Valence issue
6
47. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 required states in the covered jurisdiction to attain _________________ from the Attorney General before making changes to voting standards - practice - or procedure
Whigs
7
Enterprise Zones
Pre-clearance
48. Electoral college system and other campaign practices make it exceedingly difficult for even popular ______________ candidates to successfully run for the presidency.
Magna Carta
Custom
Muckrakers
Third Party
49. The fundamental flaw in plural theory contends that pluralism weakens the backbone of democracy with too many common interest groups attempt to wield power - often leading to standstill because of unwillingness to compromise.
10th Amendment
Hyperpluralism
Tammany Hall
Pork Barrel Spending
50. Most modern political scientists believe there is ________________ between politics and government.
Selective exposure
Republican
Little Difference
6