AP US Government Exam Questions
and Answers 100% Pass
grants-in-aid - ✔✔money given by the national government to the states
Democracy - ✔✔a means of selecting policymakers and of organizing
government so that policy represents and responds to the public's
preferences.
Elite and class theory - ✔✔argues that society is divided along class lines
and that an upper-class elite rules on the basis of its wealth.
Government - ✔✔institutions that make public policy for a society.
Gross domestic product - ✔✔the total value of all goods and services
produced annually by the United States.
1
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
,Hyperpluralism - ✔✔argues that too many strong influential groups
cripple the government's ability to make coherent policy by dividing
government and its authority.
Linkage institutions - ✔✔institutions such as parties, elections, interest
groups, and the media, which provide a linkage between the preferences of
citizens and the government's policy agenda.
Majority rule - ✔✔weighing the desires of the majority in choosing among
policy alternatives.
Pluralist theory - ✔✔argues that there are many centers of influence in
which groups compete with one another for control over public policy
through bargaining and compromise.
Policy agenda - ✔✔the list of subjects or problems to which people inside
and outside government are paying serious attention at any given time.
Policymaking institutions - ✔✔institutions such as Congress, the
presidency, and the courts established by the Constitution to make policy.
2
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
,Political culture - ✔✔an overall set of values widely shared within a
society.
Political issue - ✔✔this arises when people disagree about a problem or
about public policy choices made to combat a problem.
Political participation - ✔✔the ways in which people get involved in
politics.
Politics - ✔✔determines whom we select as our government leaders and
what policies they pursue; in other words, who gets what, when, and how.
Public policy - ✔✔a choice that government makes in response to some
issue on its agenda.
Representation - ✔✔the relationship between the leaders and the followers.
Single-issue groups - ✔✔groups so concerned with one matter that their
members cast their votes on the basis of that issue only.
Anti-Federalists - ✔✔opposed the new Constitution, feared the new
Constitution would erode fundamental liberties, and argued that the new
Constitution was a class-based document serving the economic elite.
3
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
, Articles of Confederation - ✔✔the document that outlined the voluntary
agreement between states and was adopted as the first plan for a
permanent union of the United States.
Bill of Rights - ✔✔the first ten Amendments to the Constitution passed
after ratification specifically protecting individual liberties to fulfill
promises made by the Federalists to the Anti-Federalists in return for their
support.
Checks and balances - ✔✔each branch requires the consent of the others for
many of its decisions.
Connecticut Compromise - ✔✔the plan adopted at the Constitutional
Convention to provide for two chambers in Congress, one representing
states equally and the other representing states on the basis of their share of
the population.
Constitution - ✔✔a nation's basic law creating institutions, dividing power,
and providing guarantees to citizens.
4
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
and Answers 100% Pass
grants-in-aid - ✔✔money given by the national government to the states
Democracy - ✔✔a means of selecting policymakers and of organizing
government so that policy represents and responds to the public's
preferences.
Elite and class theory - ✔✔argues that society is divided along class lines
and that an upper-class elite rules on the basis of its wealth.
Government - ✔✔institutions that make public policy for a society.
Gross domestic product - ✔✔the total value of all goods and services
produced annually by the United States.
1
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
,Hyperpluralism - ✔✔argues that too many strong influential groups
cripple the government's ability to make coherent policy by dividing
government and its authority.
Linkage institutions - ✔✔institutions such as parties, elections, interest
groups, and the media, which provide a linkage between the preferences of
citizens and the government's policy agenda.
Majority rule - ✔✔weighing the desires of the majority in choosing among
policy alternatives.
Pluralist theory - ✔✔argues that there are many centers of influence in
which groups compete with one another for control over public policy
through bargaining and compromise.
Policy agenda - ✔✔the list of subjects or problems to which people inside
and outside government are paying serious attention at any given time.
Policymaking institutions - ✔✔institutions such as Congress, the
presidency, and the courts established by the Constitution to make policy.
2
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
,Political culture - ✔✔an overall set of values widely shared within a
society.
Political issue - ✔✔this arises when people disagree about a problem or
about public policy choices made to combat a problem.
Political participation - ✔✔the ways in which people get involved in
politics.
Politics - ✔✔determines whom we select as our government leaders and
what policies they pursue; in other words, who gets what, when, and how.
Public policy - ✔✔a choice that government makes in response to some
issue on its agenda.
Representation - ✔✔the relationship between the leaders and the followers.
Single-issue groups - ✔✔groups so concerned with one matter that their
members cast their votes on the basis of that issue only.
Anti-Federalists - ✔✔opposed the new Constitution, feared the new
Constitution would erode fundamental liberties, and argued that the new
Constitution was a class-based document serving the economic elite.
3
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
, Articles of Confederation - ✔✔the document that outlined the voluntary
agreement between states and was adopted as the first plan for a
permanent union of the United States.
Bill of Rights - ✔✔the first ten Amendments to the Constitution passed
after ratification specifically protecting individual liberties to fulfill
promises made by the Federalists to the Anti-Federalists in return for their
support.
Checks and balances - ✔✔each branch requires the consent of the others for
many of its decisions.
Connecticut Compromise - ✔✔the plan adopted at the Constitutional
Convention to provide for two chambers in Congress, one representing
states equally and the other representing states on the basis of their share of
the population.
Constitution - ✔✔a nation's basic law creating institutions, dividing power,
and providing guarantees to citizens.
4
100% Pass Guarantee Katelyn Whitman, All Rights
