Deck 2: National Differences in Political Economy

Question 1

In an individualist society,the welfare of society is best served by letting people pursue their own economic self-interest.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In a market economy,if demand for a product exceeds supply,prices will rise,signaling to producers to produce more.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

It is possible to have a democratic state where collective values predominate.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

It is not possible to have democratic societies that emphasize a mix of collectivism and individualism.

Question 5

In democratic states where individualism is the dominant political philosophy,states tend to enact laws that severely restrict private enterprise.

Question 6

A country's legal system can affect the attractiveness of a country as an investment site and/or market.

Question 7

Collectivist inclined totalitarian states tend to be pro-private enterprise and pro-consumer.

Question 8

The most practical form of democracy is direct democracy.

Question 9

A country's political economy and culture are independent of each other.

Question 10

The central message of collectivism is that individual economic and political freedoms are the ground rules on which a society should be based.

Question 11

Contracts under a civil law system tend to be very detailed with all contingencies spelled out.

Question 12

In a common law system,judges have the power to interpret the law.

Question 13

There is a global trend of societies shifting from individualism toward collectivism.

Question 14

Most modern democratic states practice representative democracy.

Question 15

It is possible to have a totalitarian state that is hostile to collectivism and where some degree of individualism is encouraged.

Question 16

Because international businesses are headquartered in different countries,a nation's legal system is usually of very little interest to international business managers.

Question 17

The number of command economies has fallen dramatically since the demise of communism in the late 1980s.

Question 18

A civil law system tends to be more adversarial than a common law system.

Question 19

The communists believed that socialism could be achieved by democratic means,and turned their backs on violent revolution and dictatorship.

Question 20

Judges under a civil law system have less flexibility than those under a common law system.

Question 21

High levels of corruption significantly reduce the foreign direct investment,level of international trade,and economic growth rate in a country.

Question 22

The general assertion that nations that invest more in education will have higher growth rates has been proved false.

Question 23

To facilitate international business,property rights are defined in a consistent way across countries.

Question 24

Today,global changes in the political economy are characterized by free markets and democracy,with command economies and totalitarian dictatorships having completely disappeared.

Question 25

Since the 1980s,the political economy of many nations has seen a shift away from centrally planned and mixed economies toward more free market economic models.

Question 26

According to political scientist Samuel Huntington's thesis,global terrorism is a product of the tension between civilizations and the clash of value systems and ideology.

Question 27

Thanks to the World Intellectual Property Organization,enforcement of intellectual property rights is strong across the globe.

Question 28

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act allows for grease payments.

Question 29

The United Nations CIGS establishes a uniform set of rules governing certain aspects of the making and performance of everyday commercial contracts between sellers and buyers who have their places of business in different nations.

Question 30

The rule of law minimizes corruption in all countries.

Question 31

GNI and PPP data are useful because they provide a dynamic analysis of economic development.

Question 32

The HDI is based on life expectancy at birth,educational attainment,and whether average incomes are sufficient to meet the basic needs of life in a country.

Question 33

Transformation from centrally planned command economies to market-based economies can be attributed to the fact that command and mixed economies failed to deliver the sustained economic performance achieved by countries adopting market-based systems.

Question 34

Economic freedom necessarily equates with political freedom.

Question 35

Deregulation involves removing legal restrictions to the free play of markets,the establishment of private enterprises,and the manner in which private enterprises operate.

Question 36

In a planned economy,the state owns all means of production.

Question 37

There is a strong relationship between economic freedom and economic growth.

Question 38

One of the reasons for the spread of democracy is the emergence of increasingly prosperous middle and working classes who have pushed for democratic reforms.

Question 39

All of the world's larger trading nations have ratified CIGS.

Question 40

With regard to political factors,a company may have to pay off politically powerful entities in a country before the government allows it to do business there.

Question 41

Which of the following statements about socialism is false?

A)Modern socialists' intellectual roots can be traced to Karl Marx.
B)Elements of socialist thought can be traced to Plato.
C)Socialist ideology is split into two camps-communists and individualists.
D)Socialism advocates for state ownership of the means of production.

Question 42

A state where political power is monopolized by a party,group,or individual that governs according to religious principles is best described as following:

A)theocratic totalitarianism.
B)tribal totalitarianism.
C)right-wing totalitarianism.
D)communist totalitarianism.

Question 43

Which system of government generally permits some individual economic freedom but restricts individual political freedom,frequently on the grounds that it would lead to the rise of communism?

A)Tribal totalitarianism
B)Right-wing totalitarianism
C)Left wing totalitarianism
D)Theocratic totalitarianism

Question 44

Individualism can best be described by which of the following statements?

A)It as a philosophy suggests that an individual should have freedom over his/her economic and political pursuits.
B)It is a political system in which government control over all factors of production is in entirety.
C)It is a political system that stresses the primacy of collective goals over individual goals.
D)It is a form of government in which one person or political party exercises absolute control over all spheres of human life.

Question 45

Antitrust laws in the United States are designed to:

A)encourage business practices designed to monopolize a market.
B)discourage private ownership.
C)restrict privatization.
D)outlaw monopolies.

Question 46

According to _____,socialism can only be achieved through violent revolution.

A)capitalists
B)communists
C)social democrats
D)democrats

Question 47

Interdependent political,economic,and legal systems of a country make up its:

A)administrative agenda.
B)socioeconomic fabric.
C)economic environment.
D)political economy.

Question 48

In a _____ economy,certain sectors of the economy are left to private ownership and free market mechanisms while other sectors have significant state ownership and government planning.

A)market
B)private
C)command
D)mixed

Question 49

Totalitarianism:

A)is a form of government in which one person or political party exercises absolute control over all spheres of human life.
B)refers to a political system in which government is by the people,exercised either directly or through elected representatives.
C)is based on a belief that citizens should be directly involved in decision making.
D)is based on the idea that the welfare of society is best served by letting people pursue their own economic self-interests.

Question 50

The common law system:

A)lacks the flexibility that other systems have.
B)is based on tradition,precedent,and custom.
C)gives judges the power only to apply the law.
D)is based on a detailed set of laws organized into codes.

Question 51

Social democracy:

A)as an ideology may prove to be more enduring than communism.
B)has perhaps had its greatest influence in a number of democratic Asian countries.
C)has had no influence in any democratic Western nation.
D)had greatest influence in Eastern European nations like Poland,Czechoslovakia,and Hungary.

Question 52

In a pure command economy:

A)all productive activities are owned by the state.
B)all productive activities are privately owned.
C)the goods and services that a country produces are not planned by anyone.
D)production is determined by the interaction of supply and demand.

Question 53

Which of the following statements about political systems and their interrelated dimensions is false?

A)Systems that emphasize collectivism tend toward totalitarianism.
B)Systems that place a high value on individualism tend to be democratic.
C)Democratic societies can emphasize a mix of collectivism and individualism.
D)It is impossible to have totalitarian societies that are not collectivist.

Question 54

Which of the following statements about the legal systems of countries is false?

A)They can affect the attractiveness of a country as an investment site or market.
B)They are influenced by the prevailing political system of the country.
C)They are almost the same for all countries.
D)They are of immense importance to international business.

Question 55

Identify the incorrect statement regarding individualism.

A)It advocates for a socialist political system
B)It promotes free market economics
C)It creates a pro-business environment
D)It translates into an advocacy for democratic political systems

Question 56

This refers to a political system in which government is by the people,exercised either directly or through elected representatives.

A)Totalitarianism
B)Authoritarianism
C)Democracy
D)Dictatorship

Question 57

Identify the incorrect statement pertaining to a country's political economy.

A)It is independent of the culture of a nation.
B)It is a combination of interdependent political,economic,and legal systems.
C)Its various systems interact and influence each other.
D)Its interacting systems affect the level of economic well-being.

Question 58

The Cold War was essentially a war between _____,championed by the now-defunct Soviet Union,and _____,championed by the United States.

A)collectivism; individualism
B)democracy; socialism
C)totalitarianism; socialism
D)individualism; collectivism

Question 59

In a pure market economy:

A)all productive activities are owned by the state.
B)all productive activities are privately owned.
C)the government plans the goods and services that a country produces.
D)resources are allocated for "the good of society."

Question 60

_____ is consistent with the notion that an individual's right to do something may be restricted because it runs counter to "the good of society" or "the common good."

A)Entrepreneurship
B)Collectivism
C)Free enterprise
D)Capitalism

Question 61

In all of the following scenarios,the costs of doing business in a country tend to be greater,except where:

A)political payoffs are required to gain market access.
B)supporting infrastructure is lacking.
C)adhering to local laws and regulations is costly.
D)there is a highly developed infrastructural support.

Question 62

The TRIPS agreement was designed to:

A)exclude China from all intellectual property agreements.
B)oversee a much stricter enforcement of intellectual property regulations.
C)lobby for more lax intellectual property rights for poor countries.
D)support traded software and recorded property among developed markets.

Question 63

Identify the United Nations body that establishes a uniform set of rules governing certain aspects of the making and performance of everyday commercial contracts between sellers and buyers who have their places of business in different nations.

A)IMF
B)GATT
C)WTO
D)CIGS

Question 64

The HDI is based on all of the following measures except:

A)political freedom.
B)life expectancy at birth.
C)educational attainment.
D)whether average incomes are sufficient to meet the basic needs of life.

Question 65

All of the following are reasons that would account for the spread of democracy except:

A)totalitarian regimes failing to deliver economic progress to the vast bulk of their populations.
B)the unchallenged pressure of entrepreneurs and other business leaders for less accountable and closed governments.
C)the economic advances of the past quarter century leading to the emergence of increasingly prosperous middle and working classes pushing for democratic reforms.
D)new information and communication technologies reducing the state's ability to control access to uncensored information.

Question 66

Which of the following provides exclusive legal rights to authors,composers,playwrights,artists,and publishers to publish and disperse their work as they see fit?

A)Patents
B)Copyrights
C)Trademarks
D)Licenses

Question 67

The law that makes it illegal to bribe a foreign government official in order to maintain business over which that foreign official has authority,and requires all publicly traded companies to keep detailed records that would allow determining whether a violation of the act has occurred is the:

A)CIGS.
B)Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
C)Economic Cooperation Anti Corruption Act.
D)Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Officials in International Transactions.

Question 68

_____ involves removing legal restrictions to the free play of markets,the establishment of private enterprises,and the manner in which private enterprises operate.

A)A product law
B)Trade certification
C)Deregulation
D)A liability law

Question 69

Which of the following refers to the legal rights over the use to which a resource is put and over the use made of any income that may be derived from that resource?

A)Theocratic right
B)Property right
C)Trade right
D)Financial right

Question 70

Safety standards to which a product must adhere are set by:

A)safety certifications.
B)the government standards department.
C)product safety laws.
D)product liability laws.

Question 71

The benefits of doing business in a country are a function of all of the following except:

A)the size of the market.
B)its past growth.
C)its present wealth.
D)its future growth prospects.

Question 72

Design and names by which merchants or manufacturers designate and differentiate their products are known as:

A)patents.
B)copyrights.
C)trademarks.
D)licenses.

Question 73

Identify the incorrect statement pertaining to innovation and entrepreneurship.

A)They are the engines of growth
B)They require state ownership of all means of production
C)They require a market economy
D)They require strong property rights

Question 74

Identify the incorrect statement pertaining to intellectual property rights.

A)Its violation cost personal computer software firms revenues equal to $48 billion in 2007.
B)The protection of intellectual property rights is more or less the same in all countries.
C)The enforcement of its regulations has often been lax.
D)Its violation has been very bad in China,where the piracy rate in 2007 ran at 82 percent.

Question 75

Which of the following statements about the trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights agreement is false?

A)It was designed to oversee enforcement of much stricter intellectual property regulations,beginning in 1995.
B)It obliged WTO members to grant and enforce patents lasting at least 20 years and copyrights lasting 50 years.
C)It directed rich countries to comply with its rules of intellectual property protection within five years.
D)It provided the very poorest countries 10 years to comply with its rules of intellectual property protection.

Question 76

The political economy of many of the world's nation-states has changed radically since the late 1980s.All of the following are trends that have been evident except:

A)a wave of democratic revolutions has swept the world.
B)totalitarian governments collapsed and have been replaced by democratically elected governments.
C)there has been a strong move away from centrally planned economies toward free market economic models.
D)mixed economies are fast replacing market economies.

Question 77

A document that specifies the conditions under which an exchange is to occur and details the rights and obligations of the parties involved is BEST known as a:

A)contract.
B)business letter.
C)memorandum.
D)civil code.

Question 78

A _____ grants the inventor of a new product or process exclusive rights for a defined period of time to the manufacture,use,or sale of that invention.

A)copyright
B)trademark
C)contract
D)patent

Question 79

A _____ system is based on a very detailed set of laws organized into codes.

A)democratic law
B)theocratic law
C)civil law
D)common law

Question 80

A theocratic law system is:

A)one in which the law is based on religious teachings.
B)based on tradition,precedent,and custom.
C)based on a detailed set of laws organized into codes.
D)the body of law that governs contract enforcement.