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Introduction to Political Science

Review Questions

Introduction to Political ScienceReview Questions
Table of contents
  1. Preface
  2. Introduction to Political Science
    1. 1 What Is Politics and What Is Political Science?
      1. Introduction
      2. 1.1 Defining Politics: Who Gets What, When, Where, How, and Why?
      3. 1.2 Public Policy, Public Interest, and Power
      4. 1.3 Political Science: The Systematic Study of Politics
      5. 1.4 Normative Political Science
      6. 1.5 Empirical Political Science
      7. 1.6 Individuals, Groups, Institutions, and International Relations
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
  3. Individuals
    1. 2 Political Behavior Is Human Behavior
      1. Introduction
      2. 2.1 What Goals Should We Seek in Politics?
      3. 2.2 Why Do Humans Make the Political Choices That They Do?
      4. 2.3 Human Behavior Is Partially Predictable
      5. 2.4 The Importance of Context for Political Decisions
      6. Summary
      7. Key Terms
      8. Review Questions
      9. Suggested Readings
    2. 3 Political Ideology
      1. Introduction
      2. 3.1 The Classical Origins of Western Political Ideologies
      3. 3.2 The Laws of Nature and the Social Contract
      4. 3.3 The Development of Varieties of Liberalism
      5. 3.4 Nationalism, Communism, Fascism, and Authoritarianism
      6. 3.5 Contemporary Democratic Liberalism
      7. 3.6 Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Left
      8. 3.7 Contemporary Ideologies Further to the Political Right
      9. 3.8 Political Ideologies That Reject Political Ideology: Scientific Socialism, Burkeanism, and Religious Extremism
      10. Summary
      11. Key Terms
      12. Review Questions
      13. Suggested Readings
    3. 4 Civil Liberties
      1. Introduction
      2. 4.1 The Freedom of the Individual
      3. 4.2 Constitutions and Individual Liberties
      4. 4.3 The Right to Privacy, Self-Determination, and the Freedom of Ideas
      5. 4.4 Freedom of Movement
      6. 4.5 The Rights of the Accused
      7. 4.6 The Right to a Healthy Environment
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
    4. 5 Political Participation and Public Opinion
      1. Introduction
      2. 5.1 What Is Political Participation?
      3. 5.2 What Limits Voter Participation in the United States?
      4. 5.3 How Do Individuals Participate Other Than Voting?
      5. 5.4 What Is Public Opinion and Where Does It Come From?
      6. 5.5 How Do We Measure Public Opinion?
      7. 5.6 Why Is Public Opinion Important?
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
  4. Groups
    1. 6 The Fundamentals of Group Political Activity
      1. Introduction
      2. 6.1 Political Socialization: The Ways People Become Political
      3. 6.2 Political Culture: How People Express Their Political Identity
      4. 6.3 Collective Dilemmas: Making Group Decisions
      5. 6.4 Collective Action Problems: The Problem of Incentives
      6. 6.5 Resolving Collective Action Problems
      7. Summary
      8. Key Terms
      9. Review Questions
      10. Suggested Readings
    2. 7 Civil Rights
      1. Introduction
      2. 7.1 Civil Rights and Constitutionalism
      3. 7.2 Political Culture and Majority-Minority Relations
      4. 7.3 Civil Rights Abuses
      5. 7.4 Civil Rights Movements
      6. 7.5 How Do Governments Bring About Civil Rights Change?
      7. Summary
      8. Key Terms
      9. Review Questions
      10. Suggested Readings
    3. 8 Interest Groups, Political Parties, and Elections
      1. Introduction
      2. 8.1 What Is an Interest Group?
      3. 8.2 What Are the Pros and Cons of Interest Groups?
      4. 8.3 Political Parties
      5. 8.4 What Are the Limits of Parties?
      6. 8.5 What Are Elections and Who Participates?
      7. 8.6 How Do People Participate in Elections?
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
  5. Institutions
    1. 9 Legislatures
      1. Introduction
      2. 9.1 What Do Legislatures Do?
      3. 9.2 What Is the Difference between Parliamentary and Presidential Systems?
      4. 9.3 What Is the Difference between Unicameral and Bicameral Systems?
      5. 9.4 The Decline of Legislative Influence
      6. Summary
      7. Key Terms
      8. Review Questions
      9. Suggested Readings
    2. 10 Executives, Cabinets, and Bureaucracies
      1. Introduction
      2. 10.1 Democracies: Parliamentary, Presidential, and Semi-Presidential Regimes
      3. 10.2 The Executive in Presidential Regimes
      4. 10.3 The Executive in Parliamentary Regimes
      5. 10.4 Advantages, Disadvantages, and Challenges of Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes
      6. 10.5 Semi-Presidential Regimes
      7. 10.6 How Do Cabinets Function in Presidential and Parliamentary Regimes?
      8. 10.7 What Are the Purpose and Function of Bureaucracies?
      9. Summary
      10. Key Terms
      11. Review Questions
      12. Suggested Readings
    3. 11 Courts and Law
      1. Introduction
      2. 11.1 What Is the Judiciary?
      3. 11.2 How Does the Judiciary Take Action?
      4. 11.3 Types of Legal Systems around the World
      5. 11.4 Criminal versus Civil Laws
      6. 11.5 Due Process and Judicial Fairness
      7. 11.6 Judicial Review versus Executive Sovereignty
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
    4. 12 The Media
      1. Introduction
      2. 12.1 The Media as a Political Institution: Why Does It Matter?
      3. 12.2 Types of Media and the Changing Media Landscape
      4. 12.3 How Do Media and Elections Interact?
      5. 12.4 The Internet and Social Media
      6. 12.5 Declining Global Trust in the Media
      7. Summary
      8. Key Terms
      9. Review Questions
      10. Suggested Readings
  6. States and International Relations
    1. 13 Governing Regimes
      1. Introduction
      2. 13.1 Contemporary Government Regimes: Power, Legitimacy, and Authority
      3. 13.2 Categorizing Contemporary Regimes
      4. 13.3 Recent Trends: Illiberal Representative Regimes
      5. Summary
      6. Key Terms
      7. Review Questions
      8. Suggested Readings
    2. 14 International Relations
      1. Introduction
      2. 14.1 What Is Power, and How Do We Measure It?
      3. 14.2 Understanding the Different Types of Actors in the International System
      4. 14.3 Sovereignty and Anarchy
      5. 14.4 Using Levels of Analysis to Understand Conflict
      6. 14.5 The Realist Worldview
      7. 14.6 The Liberal and Social Worldview
      8. 14.7 Critical Worldviews
      9. Summary
      10. Key Terms
      11. Review Questions
      12. Suggested Readings
    3. 15 International Law and International Organizations
      1. Introduction
      2. 15.1 The Problem of Global Governance
      3. 15.2 International Law
      4. 15.3 The United Nations and Global Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
      5. 15.4 How Do Regional IGOs Contribute to Global Governance?
      6. 15.5 Non-state Actors: Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs)
      7. 15.6 Non-state Actors beyond NGOs
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
    4. 16 International Political Economy
      1. Introduction
      2. 16.1 The Origins of International Political Economy
      3. 16.2 The Advent of the Liberal Economy
      4. 16.3 The Bretton Woods Institutions
      5. 16.4 The Post–Cold War Period and Modernization Theory
      6. 16.5 From the 1990s to the 2020s: Current Issues in IPE
      7. 16.6 Considering Poverty, Inequality, and the Environmental Crisis
      8. Summary
      9. Key Terms
      10. Review Questions
      11. Suggested Readings
  7. References
  8. Index
1 .
Most ordinary laws require what percentage of the vote to pass?
  1. 75 percent
  2. 60 percent + 1 vote
  3. 50 percent
  4. 50 percent + 1 vote
2 .
What occurs most commonly when no party wins a majority of seats in a legislature?
  1. New elections are called.
  2. The legislature is disbanded.
  3. The largest party is given control.
  4. Parties form a coalition.
3 .
In democracies, where do ideas for new laws come from?
  1. Members of the legislature
  2. The public
  3. Groups that do work in a particular policy area
  4. All of the above
4 .
The rules that structure debate in a legislature are called:
  1. Sponsors
  2. Majority rules
  3. Parliamentary procedures
  4. Debate regulations
5 .
Which of the following is not a reason that committees are formed in legislatures?
  1. They allow legislators to specialize in certain policy areas.
  2. They allow legislators to delegate decision-making to others who are more knowledgeable.
  3. They give legislators more authority in that policy area than the executive.
  4. They give legislators an opportunity to take on leadership roles.
6 .
A legislator who uses a trustee model of representation will primarily rely on __________ to make decisions.
  1. their own knowledge and opinions
  2. their constituents’ opinions
  3. their political party’s stance on issues
  4. the opinion of the executive
7 .
Which of the following is the best example of descriptive representation?
  1. A White politician elected from an ethnically diverse district
  2. A Latino politician elected from a heavily Latina/Latino district
  3. A female politician elected from a district that is 50 percent male and 50 percent female
  4. A Republican politician elected from a district that voted strongly for the Republican candidate in the last presidential election
8 .
An electoral system in which seats are awarded based on the percentage of the vote that each party wins is called a __________ system.
  1. plurality
  2. first past the post
  3. descriptive representation
  4. proportional representation
9 .
Duverger’s law states that a __________ will result in two main political parties.
  1. plurality electoral system with single-member districts
  2. proportional representation system with multimember districts
  3. plurality electoral system with multimember districts
  4. proportional representation system with a fluctuating number of seats
10 .
A semi-presidential system has:
  1. A king and a president
  2. A premier
  3. A prime minister
  4. A president and a prime minister
11 .
What are the two primary differences between parliamentary and presidential systems?
  1. Oversight and voting rules
  2. Independence and selection
  3. Oversight and independence
  4. Independence and coalition formation
12 .
In a __________ system, the executive and the legislature are separate from each other.
  1. parliamentary
  2. semi-presidential
  3. authoritarian
  4. presidential
13 .
A legislature with only one chamber is called a(n) __________ legislature.
  1. bicameral
  2. unicameral
  3. proportional
  4. representational
14 .
Which of the following is a common reason for countries to have a bicameral legislature?
  1. Bicameral legislatures ensure a better citizen-to-elected-official ratio.
  2. Bicameral legislatures produce more thoughtful and durable legislation.
  3. Bicameral legislatures help give voice to different segments of society.
  4. Bicameral legislatures help make legislating faster and more efficient.
15 .
Which particular set of interests is represented in the German Bundesrat?
  1. The interests of the youth
  2. The interests of the members of the foreign service and the military
  3. The interests of the rural areas
  4. The interests of the states
16 .
Approximately what percentage of countries in the world have a unicameral legislature?
  1. 15 percent
  2. 25 percent
  3. 50 percent
  4. 70 percent
17 .
Which of the following is not a challenge facing legislatures today?
  1. Legislative deference
  2. Polarization
  3. Executive dominance
  4. Legislative dominion
18 .
A phenomenon in which leaders expand their powers beyond prior limits is called:
  1. Executive dominance
  2. Polarization
  3. Oversight
  4. Constituents
19 .
Executive dominance can occur:
  1. In the United States only
  2. Primarily in systems where the legislature and the executive are separately chosen
  3. Primarily in systems where the executive is a part of the legislature
  4. In Russia only
20 .
What challenge is occurring when people or groups divide between two extremes on an issue or position?
  1. Polarization
  2. Prioritization
  3. Oversight
  4. Legislative deference
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