Deck 5: Political Violence

Question 1

Which of the following could be categorized as an individual explanation for political violence?

A)nationalism
B)humiliation
C)fundamentalism
D)ideology

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In which of the following ways does a coup d'état differ from a revolution?

A)Elites are the agent of change.
B)Higher levels of political violence are involved.
C)People are the target of the violence,not the regime.
D)Ideology plays a bigger part in a coup.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

War crimes and human rights abuses can be defined as the use of violence by

A)nonstate actors against civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
B)states against civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
C)nonstate actors against states in order to achieve a political goal.
D)civilians against states in order to achieve a political goal.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

What type of explanation for political violence is best understood as finding a "root source" for violence?

A)ideational
B)individual
C)institutional
D)ideological

Question 5

When looking at terrorists' backgrounds,we find that they

A)usually have an extensive criminal background.
B)almost always have religion as their primary motivating force.
C)are almost always illiterate.
D)often come from educated backgrounds.

Question 6

Nihilism is in large part a belief that all institutions and values

A)should embrace pacifism.
B)are equally valid.
C)are essentially meaningless.
D)are a gift from God.

Question 7

In terms of achieving their stated long-term outcomes,terrorists

A)are typically more successful in rich countries than in poor ones.
B)have shown more strategic than tactical success.
C)are usually successful.
D)are usually unsuccessful.

Question 8

Which of the following statements is true of differing explanations for political violence?

A)Ideational and institutional factors are more useful in explaining terrorist violence than revolutionary violence.
B)Most political scientists attempt to form a unified theory of political violence that incorporates different explanations equally.
C)Most scholars now agree that individual factors are the root of political violence.
D)Ideational factors are most important for providing a context in which particular preconditions,problems,and conflicts may emerge.

Question 9

The statement "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"

A)demonstrates that political scientists must consider multiple points of view when studying real-world cases.
B)seeks to demonstrate the mutability of political science terminology depending on context.
C)runs against a core aspiration of political science,which is to define terms objectively rather than subjectively.
D)is often used to demonstrate cultural differences in the application of political science.

Question 10

It has been argued that the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the 2011 Egyptian Revolution are examples of which model of revolution?

A)incipient mobilization model
B)religious-social model
C)relative deprivation model
D)Islamist rebellion model

Question 11

In which of the following ways do institutional explanations of political violence differ from ideational explanations?

A)They tend to be less deterministic.
B)They tend to be less well supported by research.
C)They tend to be more interested in the content of ideas.
D)They tend to be more particularistic.

Question 12

Terrorism can be defined as the use of violence by

A)nonstate actors against states in order to achieve a political goal.
B)states against civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
C)nonstate actors against civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
D)civilians against states in order to achieve a political goal.

Question 13

Revolution is most accurately defined as

A)a spontaneous outburst of widespread violence in a state due to ideational reasons.
B)a public seizure of the state in order to overturn the existing government and regime.
C)the replacement of a regime's existing repressive policies with more inclusive or democratic ones.
D)any wide-ranging and rapid change in a society that produces beneficial social results.

Question 14

Which of the following statements best characterizes the relationship between revolution and violence?

A)Revolutions are typically more violent when the government chooses to freely give up its monopoly on violence.
B)In the past,most revolutions were nonviolent,but they have become more violent since the end of the Cold War.
C)Revolutions are most often violent,though some argue that nonviolent revolutions have occurred.
D)Revolutions are most likely to involve violence when ethnicity is at the core of the disagreement with the regime.

Question 15

States most often engage in state-sponsored terrorism as a means of

A)engaging in cosmic war.
B)encouraging domestic social unrest.
C)influencing foreign policy.
D)silencing political dissent.

Question 16

Guerrilla war can be defined as the use of

A)violence by nonstate actors who reject traditional rules of war and target civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
B)violence by nonstate actors who accept the traditional rules of war and target the state in order to achieve a political goal.
C)traditional violence by states against civilians in order to achieve a political goal.
D)asymmetric violence by civilians against states in order to achieve a political goal.

Question 17

Political violence is defined as

A)politically motivated violence conducted by the state.
B)politically motivated violence outside of state control.
C)violence conducted against civilians for political purposes.
D)violence between military forces.

Question 18

Studies of the relationship between economic conditions and terrorism find that

A)terrorists almost always come from the poorest countries in the world.
B)terrorists almost always come from well-off families.
C)terrorists almost always come from the working class.
D)there is not a strong correlation between economic deprivation and terrorism.

Question 19

Which of the following statements about revolutions and their results is accurate?

A)Revolutions often result in less freedom and equality.
B)The historical results of revolutions have led us to generally think of them as negative events.
C)Resulting revolutionary regimes rarely institutionalize new forms of politics.
D)Ideational factors typically play little to no role in the successful institutionalization of revolutionary regimes.

Question 20

In the third phase of their evolution,such as in the work of Theda Skocpol,studies of revolutions have

A)shifted their emphasis from the public to the state.
B)shifted their emphasis to the role of the army in defending the state.
C)shifted their emphasis to the importance of elite planning.
D)shifted from a more theoretical approach to becoming largely descriptive.

Question 21

How have the use of institutional,ideational,and individual explanations for political violence evolved in the work of political scientists?

Question 22

Which of the following statements best represents the relationship between fundamentalism and political violence?

A)Political ideologies can be categorized as fundamentalist more easily than as religious.
B)Fundamentalists tend to target civilians instead of state institutions when using violence.
C)Fundamentalists who seek change in the political status quo almost always resort to violence.
D)Extreme forms of fundamentalism may use violence,but it is a mistake to associate fundamentalism directly with violence.

Question 23

What distinguishes a terrorist,a guerrilla,and a revolutionary? How do these terms relate to one another? Can there be overlap,or are they very different categories?

Question 24

The modern concepts of revolution and terrorism can be first traced back to which important modern event?

A)American Revolution
B)French Revolution
C)English Revolution
D)Russian Revolution

Question 25

The 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe,with the exception of Romania,are examples of revolutions

A)with very limited or no violence.
B)that failed to overthrow the state.
C)that did little to change the basic institutions of the state.
D)that ultimately reduced personal and political freedom.

Question 26

How and under what conditions does religion become a source for political violence?

Question 27

Which of the following statements about the concept of "cosmic war" is accurate?

A)It is often bound up with political conspiracy theories.
B)It represents religious fundamentalists' end goal of bringing about the apocalypse.
C)It largely rejects concepts of good and evil in favor of "believers" and "nonbelievers."
D)It is sometimes bound up with religious belief but is often espoused by secular terrorist groups.

Question 28

The attacks by Dylan Roof and Timothy McVeigh are most accurately described as

A)revolutionary violence.
B)terrorism.
C)hate crimes.
D)anarchism.

Question 29

Some warn that too much centralized power to fight terrorism could lead to

A)unitary government.
B)illiberalism.
C)hyperdemocracy.
D)a surveillance state.

Question 30

In which of the following ways must the study of terrorism necessarily differ from the study of revolutions?

A)There is less focus on outcomes.
B)Ideational explanations are less emphasized.
C)There is greater focus on institutional causes.
D)There is less concentration on individual actors.

Question 31

Individual-focused studies of terrorism,noting in part the emphasis on community and purity of cause,have drawn comparisons between terrorist groups and

A)folk customs.
B)political campaigns.
C)religious cults.
D)sports teams.

Question 32

Which of the following events is widely believed to involve (or have involved)state-sponsored terrorism?

A)fighting over the Indian province of Kashmir
B)the 1979 Iranian Revolution
C)the 2011 Egyptian uprising
D)the French Revolution

Question 33

Over the course of the last decade,the people of Country X experienced a slight expansion of their rights and economic conditions-women's suffrage was expanded,more political parties were allowed to organize and compete,and per capita income increased slightly.A large middle class began to desire a continuation of this trend toward full democracy,yet the illiberal regime in power refused to enact additional reforms at the pace the people desired.Opposition groups formed and a popular,violent revolution began against the state.What category of explanation best represents this overall process?

A)institutional
B)elite preservation
C)ideational
D)relative deprivation

Question 34

Which of the following statements about the differences between the social revolutions in Russia and China is accurate?

A)Foreign conflict and domestic rebellions weakened the Romanov monarchy in Russia but not the Qing dynasty in China.
B)Charismatic communist leaders emerged in Russia but not in China.
C)Reactionary political forces thwarted reform in China and reasserted absolutist rule;in Russia,the powers of the monarch were incrementally curtailed leading to the revolution.
D)Russia experienced civil war after the revolution,while China experienced revolution after its civil war.

Question 35

What do terrorists want? What do guerrillas want? How does the difference in the goals of each change how the state seeks to address one or the other?

Question 36

Which of the following statements about the relationships between regime type,terrorism,and revolution is accurate?

A)Terrorism is most common under authoritarian regimes,but revolution occurs equally across different regime types.
B)The level of revolution and terrorism do not correlate with regime type.
C)Both revolution and terrorism are less likely under democratic regimes.
D)Terrorism is more likely to occur under regimes with strong ideological leanings,but the incidence of revolution is not influenced by ideology.

Question 37

What are some commonalities in the backgrounds of those who commit terrorist acts? Why are the more common explanations of religious fundamentalism and lack of education problematic?