Deck 9: Political Economy

Question 1

Meritocratic individualism is an ideology of American:

A) working people
B) upper class
C) middle class
D) aristocrats
E) ruling class

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Newman argues that where working people blame faulty systems, middle class people blame:

A) management
B) workers
C) government
D) immigrants
E) themselves

Answer 2

E

Question 3

In the prisoner's dilemma, the best solution for everyone is:

A) everyone confess everything
B) you confess but your friend doesn't
C) you don't confess but your friend does
D) no one confess anything
E) it's not possible to decide

Answer 3

D

Question 4

If both people in the prisoner's dilemma do what economists say would be best for them, then:

A) the worst thing happens to both of them
B) the best happens to both of them
C) nothing happens to either one
D) something in the middle happens to both of them
E) it's not possible to decide

Question 5

In the prisoner's dilemma, you can be sure that the other person will:

A) really want to help you, but not know how to
B) not care much about helping you at all
C) not want to confess, but do it to help herself
D) really want to confess, but not do it
E) it's not possible to decide

Question 6

What happens to you depends:

A) only on what you do
B) on your intentions
C) on the intentions of others
D) on the intention of the government
E) on what other people do

Question 7

When we identify problems in systems, we have to:

A) find and identify the person who is at fault
B) understand how the system works
C) get legislation passed to correct the problem
D) get laws enforced so the problem won't be so bad
E) be sure to understand the intentions of everyone involved

Question 8

Cultural codes:

A) provide people with ways to think
B) let people disguise their true meanings from anthropologists
C) allow people to communicate across different cultures
D) are enforced by governments to assure the quality of their culture
E) are similar to movie rating codes

Question 9

The cultural core is:

A) the most talented young people in any area
B) the most important cultural works of any culture
C) the parts of a culture most closely involved with making a living
D) what any college student is obliged to serve in after graduation
E) volunteers who help make good relations in foreign countries

Question 10

In Iceland the skipper effect is:

A) a neurological disorder that causes people to not walk normally
B) a speech impediment that causes people to leave out words
C) a skill people can develop so they can skim flat rocks or shells across the surface of water at least four times in a single skip
D) the contribution of the skipper to the catch of a fishing boat
E) the amount your grade goes down because you didn't attend all classes

Question 11

In Iceland, the idea of a skipper effect has been:

A) emic
B) historical
C) not permanent
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 12

ITQ stands for:

A) Intermittent Transmitting Quantum
B) International Transfer Quota
C) Islamic Terrorist Question
D) Individual Transferrable Quota
E) Interracial Tolerance Quotient

Question 13

What undermines the price shrimpers on the Gulf of Mexico get for shrimp?

A) imports of frozen pond-raised shrimp
B) competition from other shrimpers
C) market processes
D) their own union
E) immigrants

Question 14

For shrimpers to think of themselves as independent mainly benefits:

A) the shrimpers themselves
B) processors and bureaucrats
C) market processes
D) consumers
E) retailers

Question 15

A triads test is to:

A) test the power of Chinese gangs known as Triads
B) to learn about the Trilateral Commission
C) to learn about musical chords
D) find out how people think about similarities
E) to see if bad things really come in threes

Question 16

An etic grid expresses:

A) how people really think about some thing
B) peoples' culture
C) peoples' true attitudes about something
D) what's really there
E) all of your most meaningful kinship relations

Question 17

The Taft-Hartley amendments:

A) changed the Constitution of the U.S.
B) are additives that make foods unhealthy
C) gave all Americans the right to bear arms
D) deprived unions of much of their strength
E) overturned Roe v. Wade

Question 18

A paired comparison is:

A) like a true-false test
B) a question that asks which of two things is more of something
C) a way of speed dating
D) a comparison of things by twos
E) a comparison of which couple is better at something

Question 19

Collective action means:

A) a lot of people doing the same thing
B) what a group of people in a commune do when they do anything at all
C) taking up money for a good cause
D) a negative consequence that you don't know about
E) a brave thing to do

Question 20

When people learn something that contradicts their cultural code, they:

A) become uncomfortable
B) may not believe it
C) become angry
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 21

The tragedy of the commons shows that if they aren't controlled by states, people will always do the worst thing for themselves and others.

Question 22

If economists identify a problem, it is probably something everyone should take seriously.

Question 23

The market is the solution to most problems.

Question 24

If we keep track of individual feelings and identities we're likely to lose sight of the larger system we're trying to understand.

Question 25

In Iceland skippers have always been in charge of fishing boats.

Question 26

In Iceland, individual skippers make a major difference in a boat's catch.

Question 27

Icelanders never thought there was any skipper effect.

Question 28

Catching a lot of fish didn't make an Icelandic boat foreman a good foreman.

Question 29

There has always been a market for fish in Iceland.

Question 30

Icelanders never broke the law to any great extent.

Question 31

Etic realities, cultural codes, and political economies usually align pretty well.

Question 32

Even if they are suppressed, markets are always available to organize economic systems.

Question 33

Markets are natural.

Question 34

We understand culture in terms of political economy.

Question 35

We understand political economy in terms of culture.

Question 36

The economic system of any culture is independent of the political system.

Question 37

People make their own choices independent of political economies.

Question 38

The idea of the skipper effect in the Gulf of Mexico is just as strong as it is in Iceland.

Question 39

In the Gulf of Mexico, there really isn't a skipper effect.

Question 40

On the Gulf of Mexico, skippers are too independent to ever organize.

Question 41

In U.S. business as in U.S. labor organizations, there is no hierarchy.

Question 42

People always have to think in terms of etic grids or they'd be wrong.

Question 43

Anthropologists try to find out what people really think.

Question 44

Purple is more different than green or orange.

Question 45

Members of industrial unions didn't see themselves as being any closer to management or union people.

Question 46

In hospitals where the union was powerful, people thought of themselves as parts of it.

Question 47

In the U.S., class is not important because everyone belongs to the middle class.

Question 48

For much of the 20th century you couldn't tell much difference between labor leaders and bosses.

Question 49

The U.S. Air Traffic Controllers' Union supported the election of Ronald Reagan who then destroyed them.

Question 50

Ronald Reagan supported labor causes.

Question 51

In the U.S. the Republican Party has supported labor since the 1980s.

Question 52

Today in the U.S. meat packers make more than generations before did.

Question 53

In the U.S. labor leaders are appointed from above.

Question 54

In the U.S. most labor leaders are elected in free and open elections.

Question 55

In the U.S. democracy means having a one-person-one-vote election.

Question 56

Reciprocity can't work in hierarchic systems.

Question 57

In the U.S. union reps were very enthusiastic about the organizing model.

Question 58

George W. Bush and union reps mean the same thing when they say "base."

Question 59

George W. Bush and union reps mean the same people when they say "base."

Question 60

People sometimes lie to sociologists on surveys.

Question 61

People always organize things in scales of more to less.

Question 62

An idea can be a part of a culture even if people don't agree about it.

Question 63

In the U.S. union stewards are very political.

Question 64

In the U.S. management will usually help enforce union contracts.

Question 65

In the U.S. the job of union steward is often unpaid and volunteer.

Question 66

In the U.S. it's more important for union reps to keep the structures of reciprocity operating than to implement new models of organizing.

Question 67

Political economy determines culture.

Question 68

In the U.S. when the Republicans gained power, the ruling class declared war on the working class.

Question 69

Part of the American cultural code is that everything is a personal choice.

Question 70

An emic part of American culture is that everyone is in the middle class.

Question 71

In the U.S. you can choose your own class position.

Question 72

The consequences of your actions are largely determined by your class position.

Question 73

To change the system in Iceland, virtually everyone had to disobey the law.

Question 74

The ruling class of the U.S. is just as opposed to greenhouse gases as to unions.

Question 75

When we learn something that's against the grain of our culture, it makes us feel uncomfortable.

Question 76

In the U.S. Democrats and Republicans are pretty much alike.

Question 77

The skipper effect is real in Iceland as long as people think it is real.

Question 78

Choice is meaningful in the U.S. as long as Americans think it is meaningful.

Question 79

It's OK to feel uncomfortable about things that challenge your cultural code.

Question 80

Science helps sort out cultural illusion from political-economic realities.