Deck 5: Government, Economy, and Social Class

Question 1

Offshoring is a practice that usually involves unskilled, illiterate workers.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

What proportion of the Canadian regular military combat force is female?

A) 2 percent
B) 15 percent
C) 10 percent
D) 5 percent

Answer 2

2 percent

Question 3

By 2000, what proportion of China's production originated in the private business sector?

A) 50 percent
B) 15 percent
C) 35 percent
D) 25 percent

Answer 3

25 percent

Question 4

What is a Crown Corporation?

A) A foreign-owned enterprise that has paid a fee to the government of Canada to operate in this country.
B) A profit-making enterprise, operating in Canada, but owned by the Royal family.
C) An enterprise fully owned by the government of Canada, but that operates as an independent financial entity.
D) Any enterprise that received subsidies from the Canadian government.

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT an example of terrorism?

A) A political group hijacks an airplane and keeps the passengers hostage.
B) a military aircraft accidentally bombs a civilian building, killing 120 people.
C) A religious fanatic protests actions taken by a government and retaliates by planting bombs that explode in a government building.
D) A group of pro-life activists bombs an abortion clinic.

Question 6

What is offshoring?

A) a type of outsourcing
B) a type of political system
C) a type of pay scale
D) a type of affirmative action

Question 7

How is socialism defined?

A) An economic system under which all property is communally owned and no social distinctions are made on the basis of people's ability to produce.
B) An economic system in which the means of production are largely in private hands and the main incentive for economic activity is the accumulation of profits.
C) A means of production in which property is collectively owned, but the means of production and distribution remain in private hands.
D) An economic system under which the means of production and distribution are collectively owned.

Question 8

What are the purest forms of rational-legal authority?

A) monarchs
B) bureaucracies
C) families
D) written rules and regulations

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT an example of the informal economy?

A) Carlos runs a lemonade stand at his older brother's Little League game.
B) Maria babysits for the neighbours ever Saturday and is paid five dollars an hour.
C) Drake sells pot to local high school students.
D) Caroline and her sister take turns helping one another with their yard work.

Question 10

As described by C. Wright Mills, what is the power elite?

A) A small group of military, industrial, and government leaders who control the fate of the United States.
B) CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.
C) All of the mayors, governors, senators, and representatives in the United States.
D) The wealthiest 500 individuals in the United States.

Question 11

C. Wright Mills articulated the concept of the power elite-a group of decision makers who in effect rule the country and who are essentially which of the following?

A) racially and ethnically integrated
B) middle-aged immigrants
C) composed of White males
D) the wives of wealthy men

Question 12

A small dissident group is holding hostages in a government office. After negotiations fail, they execute their first hostage. The military then storms the building, killing all of the hostage takers and two more of the hostages. This scenario contains multiple examples of the use of what?

A) charisma
B) influence
C) force
D) authority

Question 13

What did Karl Marx believe?

A) Revolutions were politically destabilizing and should be rejected in favour of gradual change through the established political process.
B) Industrial societies were dominated by relatively small numbers of people who owned factories and controlled natural resources.
C) 19^th-century representative democracy would fundamentally alter the social system in a way the monarchies that preceded it would not have allowed.
D) Government officials and military leaders were servants of the working class and helped shape the political and economic agendas in their favour.

Question 14

What is the most common reason given by 18- to 24-year-olds for not voting?

A) I am not interested.
B) I was too busy.
C) I could not get to the polling station.
D) I forgot.

Question 15

The Canadian economy is considered to be a mixed economy system. Consider how your life as a Canadian citizen would change if our economic system was an ideal socialist type of system?

A) Under a laissez-faire system, citizens could compete freely to accumulate and maximize wealth, power and status with little government intervention.
B) In this economic system property is communally owned by all citizens and no social distinctions would be made on the basis of people's ability to earn and accumulate wealth.
C) The government would have ownership of all industries, and in making economic decisions on behalf of Canadians, would ensure all citizens were provided equally with necessary services such as health care, housing and education.
D) In this informal economy, citizens would have the opportunity to trade services in order to accumulate wealth, while avoiding high taxes and strict government regulations.

Question 16

The Canadian economy is considered to be a mixed economy system. Consider how your life as a Canadian citizen would change if our economic system was an ideal capitalist type of system?

A) Under a laissez-faire system, citizens could compete freely to accumulate and maximize wealth, power and status with little government intervention.
B) In this economic system property is communally owned by all citizens and no social distinctions would be made on the basis of people's ability to earn and accumulate wealth.
C) In this informal economy, citizens would have the opportunity to trade services in order to accumulate wealth, while avoiding high taxes and strict government regulations.
D) The government would have ownership of all industries, and in making economic decisions on behalf of Canadians, would ensure all citizens were provided equally with necessary services such as health care, housing and education.

Question 17

What is microfinancing?

A) Lending small amounts of money to the poor so they can work their way out of poverty.
B) Keeping meticulous and detailed records documenting the use of money that is loaned.
C) Lending large amounts of money to small enterprises.
D) Lending small amounts of money to large enterprises.

Question 18

With what is Adam Smith associated?

A) British socialism
B) laissez-faire capitalism
C) European socialism
D) Asian communism

Question 19

In the book The Jungle, Upton Sinclair describes the meatpacking industry in Chicago at the beginning of the 20^th century. The unregulated meatpacking companies had questionable health and safety standards, and they exploited their employees unmercifully. What stage of economic development was Sinclair discussing?

A) socialism
B) transnational capitalism
C) communism
D) laissez-faire capitalism

Question 20

Which of the following would NOT be considered by someone interested in the macro-level causes of war?

A) debates about boundaries
B) struggles over political ideology
C) distribution of resources
D) mental illness in national leaders

Question 21

A recent analysis of newspaper coverage of female gubernatorial candidates in the United States revealed which of the following?

A) Newspaper coverage focused more often on a female candidate's personal life, appearance, or personality than it did a male's.
B) Newspaper articles are more likely to illustrate political issues with statements made by female candidates.
C) Male and female candidates have received equal treatment by the news media in recent elections.
D) Newspapers often fail to cover the political rallies of female candidates.

Question 22

This year in your hometown a number of your friends' parents, both blue collar and white collar workers, have just lost their jobs at the local Ford plant. Management explained that the company is not closing down but that due to profit loss, it must reorganize how business gets done. Management further explained that the workers who were not laid off will face a cut in benefits and a salary freeze. This trend can be explained using which of the following concepts?

A) downsizing and deindustrialization
B) offshoring and micro financing
C) deindustrialization and ecommerce
D) contingency workforce and downsizing

Question 23

What is the term for a form of government in which a few individuals rule?

A) oligarchy
B) monarchy
C) dictatorship
D) monopoly

Question 24

Which of the following terms refers to the social institution through which goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed?

A) economic system
B) political system
C) industrialization
D) technology

Question 25

What kind of workers get jobs through offshoring?

A) poorly paid, manual labour workers
B) illiterate workers
C) skilled factory workers
D) well-educated workers

Question 26

What does the pluralist model of power relations suggest?

A) Power is held by a group of charismatic leaders.
B) Power is a social fiction.
C) Power is concentrated in the hands of a small group of military, corporate, and political leaders.
D) Power is held by many competing groups that have access to government, so that no single group is dominant.

Question 27

You are a conflict theorist and are considering the changing face of the workforce. In thinking about the work you will seek after graduation, based on Canada's mixed economy system, which of the following issues will be more important to you?

A) equality
B) job security
C) benefits
D) salary

Question 28

For many years, there was only one telephone company offering local calling services in Canada-Bell. Of what was this company an example?

A) lobby group
B) socialism
C) oligopoly
D) monopoly

Question 29

When did the Chinese Communist government first begin to make market-oriented reforms?

A) 2000
B) 1949
C) the 1960s
D) the 1980s

Question 30

How does the textbook define force?

A) The exercise of power through a process of persuasion.
B) The actual or threatened use of coercion to impose one's will on others.
C) The ability to exercise one's will over others.
D) Power that has been institutionalized and is recognized by the people over whom it is exercised.

Question 31

Which of the following is cited by supporters of the pluralist model as evidence that ordinary people are gaining more of a say in political decision making?

A) The environmental movement is gaining strength.
B) New political alternatives may attract young people to vote.
C) The Canadian government has recognized the right of Aboriginal self-government.
D) New technologies allow individuals to reach politicians by email, and write public, political blogs.

Question 32

Which of the following do sociologists believe will be true of the Canadian workforce in the future?

A) The loss of manufacturing jobs will result in the gradual replacement of women by men in the service sector.
B) Fewer available jobs and the stagnation of real wages will force most women back into the home.
C) More of the workforce will be composed of women and visible minorities, but few of them will occupy managerial or supervisory roles.
D) A more diverse workforce will mean people find themselves supervising, and being supervised, across gender, racial and ethnic lines.

Question 33

Which of the following concepts was originally articulated by C. Wright Mills in his studies of the political process?

A) submissive instrumentality
B) the power elite
C) diverse automatons
D) charismatic authority

Question 34

Which of these countries is a major recipient of jobs that have been offshored?

A) the United States
B) England
C) India
D) Australia

Question 35

Recently, what have Canadian companies begun to shift to developing countries?

A) office and professional jobs
B) factory jobs
C) their headquarters
D) their executives

Question 36

Fatma wishes to attend school without her hijab. She makes her case to her father, but he vetoes it. She continues to wear the hijab. What is her father's ability to make that decision rooted in?

A) force
B) traditional authority
C) charismatic authority
D) rational-legal authority

Question 37

In Canada, there is a federal election every few years. After the election, much of the population readily accepts the leadership of a person for whom they did not vote. Of what is this an example?

A) rational-legal authority
B) charismatic authority
C) traditional authority
D) egalitarian authority

Question 38

During a terrorist attack, the prime minister of Canada invokes the War Measures Act, which severely limits personal freedom. His ability to do so is rooted in what?

A) force
B) traditional authority
C) charismatic authority
D) rational-legal authority

Question 39

Imagine that in Canada women, not men hold the majority of elective offices. From a feminist perspective which of the following scenarios describes what society would look like?

A) charismatic authority in a mixed economy system leaning towards socialism
B) rational-legal authority in a mixed economy system leaning towards capitalism
C) traditional authority in a socialist system
D) rational authority in an informal system

Question 40

Which of the following are responsible for opening up China's economy to capitalism?

A) Communist party officials
B) young socialist revolutionaries
C) private enterprises
D) United States government officials

Question 41

Describe the various models of the power structure in Canada and give examples to support your answer.

Question 42

Discuss the similarities and differences between socialism, communism, and
capitalism. Give examples to illustrate each type of economic system.

Question 43

Discuss how deindustrialization and downsizing have changed the face of the
workforce in Canada.

Question 44

The term v arnas refers to one of the major castes in India.

Question 45

A broadly based middle class is slowly being replaced by two growing groups of rich and poor.

Question 46

The disproportionate representation of women among the poor is referred to as the feminization of poverty.

Question 47

What percentage of the total available wealth did the poorest 20 percent of people in Canada own in 2005?

A) 9.2 percent
B) .06 percent
C) 18 percent
D) 4.3 percent

Question 48

The top 20 percent of Canadian households earn what proportion of the nation's total income?

A) 47 percent
B) 24 percent
C) 32 percent
D) 64 percent

Question 49

What percentage of the total available wealth did the richest 5 percent of people in Canada own in 2005?

A) 52 percent
B) 84 percent
C) 75 percent
D) 21 percent

Question 50

What proportion of Canadian households that would be considered poor have at least one adult employed in full-time, full-year work?

A) 25 percent
B) 47 percent
C) 73 percent
D) 60 percent

Question 51

Which of the following would be the best example of absolute poverty?

A) A dual-career couple lives in a suburban community and struggles to pay their monthly bills.
B) A working class family of five struggles to afford their two bedroom apartment.
C) A family owns only two luxury automobiles, although their friends and neighbours own three such vehicles.
D) A homeless man in tattered clothes begs in the streets for money and food.

Question 52

Which of the following is NOT an example of vertical mobility?

A) A person loses her job as a corporate vice president because of downsizing and remains unemployed for 14 months.
B) An African president is overthrown in a bloodless coup and flees to a neighbouring country where he works as a farmer.
C) An electrician moves from wiring residential construction to wiring commercial construction.
D) A National Football League (NFL) star suffers a career-ending injury and gets a job as an auto mechanic.

Question 53

What is wealth?

A) A term used by Thorstein Veblen for people who have the same lifestyle, independent of their class position.
B) All of a person's material assets, including land, stocks, and other types of property.
C) A term used by Max Weber to refer to people who have a similar level of income and prestige.
D) Salaries and wages.

Question 54

Tony grew up in a lone parent family with his mother and three siblings. After high school, he apprenticed as a plumber, and by age 30, he was able to buy his mother a small condominium in a moderately nice neighbourhood. What has Tony's mother experienced?

A) an increase in her level of esteem
B) an increase in her standard of living
C) an increase in her level of prestige
D) occupational mobility

Question 55

Rahul has a PhD in economics, but works as a sessional lecturer at a university, making very little money. Max Weber would argue that Rahul has a discrepancy between two components of stratification. Which ones?

A) class and party
B) class and status
C) status and power
D) status and party

Question 56

Which of the following is suggested by recent studies on computer usage?

A) Computers have led to the creation of the "digital playground", a new form of social inequality.
B) Computers are readily available in Canada and have proved to be an effective device for integrating all ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic groups.
C) Computers have led to the emergence of an Internet gap that divides society into haves and have-nots based on financial ability to access the Internet.
D) Computers are improving the life chances of adults living in poverty

Question 57

Which of the following is not a type of resource required to move out of poverty?

A) cultural resources
B) natural resources
C) personal resources
D) social resources

Question 58

Which of the following is NOT a reason for the shrinking middle class?

A) increase in non-union workplaces
B) global competition
C) disappearing opportunities for people with low educational attainments
D) decline in the use of temporary workers

Question 59

What is one way to define Canada's 'land of opportunity'?

A) exchange mobility
B) upward intragenerational mobility
C) horizontal mobility
D) downward intergenerational mobility

Question 60

What is the primary basis of social ranking in a class system?

A) ethnic background
B) caste
C) age
D) economic position

Question 61

Which component of Weber's stratification system is exemplified by the Aboriginal rights movement in Canada?

A) party
B) class
C) status
D) esteem

Question 62

Which of the following systems is generally associated with Hinduism in India and other countries?

A) feudal system
B) caste system
C) estate system
D) class system

Question 63

The American Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 established which of the following?

A) A national welfare system to eliminate state-controlled agencies.
B) Health insurance for needy families.
C) Ten-year work restrictions on welfare recipients.
D) Lifetime limits of five years for welfare payments to eligible families.

Question 64

How would a functionalist analyze the concept of occupational prestige?

A) Prestige in one's occupation is enjoyed as a result of the reputation that person has earned within their society.
B) In one's occupation the level of prestige they hold is based largely on the cultural capital resources they possess.
C) The respect and admiration a person experiences based on their occupation is deserved as those positions are more important or require more skill than other positions.
D) Inequality based on one's occupation is inevitable yet it is necessary to investigate the degree to which positions are earned versus inherited.

Question 65

Cultural capital can be used as a form of _______ jobs, organizations, and opportunities.

A) inclusion in
B) integration with
C) exclusion from
D) control of

Question 66

Which of the following concepts would an interactionist use to analyze social
stratification in Canadian society?

A) intergenerational mobility
B) cultural capital
C) multidimensional model
D) the shrinking middle class

Question 67

Which of the following is true of cultural capital?

A) It arises out of cultural elitism, where those in dominant positions are able to define their cultural preferences as superior to those of the masses.
B) It is distributed uniformly throughout the population.
C) It is a concept developed by Max Weber at the beginning of the 20^th century.
D) It arises out of education and is relevant to mate selection, but not to employment opportunities or income.

Question 68

According to the text, which level of certification serves as less of a guarantee of upward mobility today than it did in the past?

A) PhD
B) high school diploma
C) MA/MS
D) BA/BS

Question 69

In a midterm exam, a student was asked the following question: "Briefly list and explain the1 various components of Canada's class system as discussed by Daniel Rossides". As an answer the student wrote the following:
"The class system in Canada as described by Rossides includes four social class levels. The first is the upper class, an elite group limited to the wealthy, the majority of which are white. The second is the upper-middle class, composed of less affluent professionals, owners of small businesses and many white collar workers. The third is the lower-middle class, composed of clerical workers. Most do not hold post-secondary degrees but they do share the goal of sending their children to college or university. The fourth is the working class composed of blue-collar workers such as electricians and auto-industry workers". How would you judge this student's answer?

A) Good (all components discussed, but the explanations are not as clear as they should be)
B) Mediocre (a component is missing and/or the explanations are not clear or are irrelevant)
C) Excellent (all components discussed with clear and correct explanations)
D) Unacceptable (more than one component is missing and the explanations are unclear and/or are irrelevant)

Question 70

A student was asked the following question: "Briefly list and explain the various components of Weber's multidimensional model". As an answer this student wrote the following:
"Weber identified three components of stratification. These are class, status and party. Class refers to a group of people who have a similar level of economic resources and that the actions of individuals can be understood solely in economic terms. Status refers to people who have the same prestige or lifestyle such as the kind of car one drives and it is similar to economic class standing. Party refers to the capacity to organize in order to accomplish a goal. For example a political party can be seen as a potential resource".

A) Good (all components discussed, but the explanations are not as clear as they should be)
B) Mediocre (a component is missing or the explanations are not clear or are irrelevant)
C) Excellent (all components discussed with clear and correct explanations)
D) Unacceptable (more than one component is missing and the explanations are unclear and/or are irrelevant)

Question 71

To what does the term 'status group' refer?

A) A feudal class.
B) People who share a similar level of wealth and income.
C) People who share the same prestige or lifestyle, independent of their class position.
D) Members of a class who have a subjective awareness regarding their common vested interests and need for collective political action to bring about social change.

Question 72

What is the term for an individual's salary and wages?

A) prosperity
B) wealth
C) finances
D) income

Question 73

Material, social, and cultural resources all enter into the determination of which of the following?

A) social class
B) social change
C) social control
D) social role

Question 74

What is the term for a measure of social class that is based on income, education, occupation, and related variables?

A) prestige
B) socio-economic status
C) status
D) esteem

Question 75

Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: "Upward intragenerational mobility is highly valued and promoted in Canada, considered by many as the "land of opportunity". This is a result of the degree of social mobility possible within an open stratification system".

A) The assertion is incorrect, but the reason is correct.
B) The assertion and the reason are both correct, but the reason is invalid.
C) The assertion is correct, but the reason is incorrect.
D) The assertion and the reason are both correct, and the reason is valid.

Question 76

Female lone parent households and unattached women are disproportionately likely to experience poverty. What is the term for this trend?

A) elementary poverty
B) the feminization of poverty
C) dramatic poverty
D) discriminating poverty

Question 77

To what does the term 'prestige' refer?

A) The respect and admiration that an occupation holds in a society.
B) The reputation that a particular individual has within an occupation.
C) The ability to exercise one's will over others.
D) People who have similar levels of wealth and income.

Question 78

What did Karl Marx use the term proletariat to represent?

A) the middle class
B) the working class
C) the capitalist class
D) the owners of the means of production

Question 79

Which of the following describes caste membership?

A) ascribed status
B) horizontal status
C) achieved status
D) vertical status

Question 80

Which of the following illustrates the impact of social class on life chances?

A) Most crime is committed by single men.
B) 62 percent of first class passengers, but only 25 percent of third class passengers, survived the sinking of the Titanic.
C) Women are more likely to experience poverty than men.
D) Most of the people who died in the World Trade Centre bombings were middle class.