Deck 2: Politics and Choice

Question 1

James Madison's famous argument on behalf of the "extensive republic" appears in which work?

A) the Declaration of Independence
B) the Articles of Confederation
C) The Federalist
D) Second Treatise on Civil Government

Answer 1

The Federalist

Question 2

Which of the following best describes the dilemma faced by Madison as he crafted a document to replace the Articles of Confederation?

A) how best to deal with the issue of slavery
B) how to deal with a hostile England
C) how to design a system that allowed for geographical expansion
D) how to reconcile liberty and authority in a large political community

Answer 2

how to reconcile liberty and authority in a large political community

Question 3

Who went to Socrates to convince him to flee prison?

A) Aristotle
B) Plato
C) Crito
D) Homer

Answer 3

Crito

Question 4

The German republic that formed after World War I and lasted from 1919 to 1932 was known as ______.

A) the National Socialist government
B) the Weimar Republic
C) the Catholic Center regime
D) the Communist government

Question 5

There were a number of arguments advanced against the establishment of a naval blockade to prevent the Soviet Union from placing offensive missiles in Cuba. Which of the following was not advanced?

A) The establishment of a blockade was an act of war.
B) The blockade would not bring sufficient pressure on Khrushchev to remove the missiles already in Cuba.
C) A U.S. blockade might lead to a counterblockade of Berlin.
D) The blockade would not work because the United States lacked sufficient naval forces to carry it out.

Question 6

A founder noted for advocating a strong central government and opposing federalism was ______.

A) Alexander Hamilton
B) Thomas Jefferson
C) James Madison
D) Benjamin Franklin

Question 7

The advisory body that was central to aiding President John F. Kennedy in dealing with the Cuban missile crisis was ______.

A) the Council on Foreign Relations
B) the Senate Foreign Relations Committeem
C) the National Security Council
D) the ExCo

Question 8

Which of the following was accurate in the case of the 2003 invasion of Iraq?

A) Iraq had a viable weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program in 2003.
B) The government of Saddam Hussein had consistently flouted United Nations Security Council resolutions.
C) There was a mountain of evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaida.
D) The invasion would be over quickly and American forces would be able to return home in a relatively short period of time.

Question 9

At the time of the Cuban missile crisis, the leader of the Soviet Union was ______.

A) Josef Stalin
B) Nikita Khrushchev
C) Valerian Zorin
D) Mikhail Gorbachev

Question 10

Madison's theory of extensive government ______.

A) allowed for Americans to have liberty and self-government at the local level and a powerful central government to protect the common interest of the entire country
B) provided for a powerful central government and extremely weak local governments
C) concentrated virtually all meaningful political power at the local or state level
D) was a noble experiment that ultimately failed

Question 11

To the question, "Why should we obey the political community that makes claims on our allegiances?" Socrates's answer would be ______.

A) because failure to obey may result in harsh physical punishment.
B) because of the political community's contribution to our life, growth, and fulfillment.
C) because to defy the political community is, more often than not, an exercise in futility.
D) because failure to obey will result not only in physical punishment but also in imprisonment from which escape is nearly impossible.

Question 12

What did Madison and Hamilton mean by faction?

A) a self-interested subgroup
B) a political party
C) a mob
D) those opposed to the Constitution

Question 13

Which of the following was a primary argument against air strikes on the Russian missile sites in Cuba in 1962?

A) Air strikes would do irreparable damage to the Western alliance.
B) There was no guarantee that the U.S. Air Force could destroy all the missiles, and thus air strikes could expose the United States to nuclear retaliation.
C) Kennedy and his advisers feared impeachment if air strikes failed.
D) Kennedy did not want to risk pilot casualties in an air strike.

Question 14

Which of the following was not a major argument against James Madison's notion of an "extensive republic?"

A) Self-government and liberty in a large political community are unworkable.
B) Given the nature of large or "extensive" republics, if they were not governed with a strong central government, they would have to be governed by a confederation, which is notoriously weak.
C) Madison's formulation, while it offered some sharing of power, nevertheless proposed a strong central government, which is dangerous.
D) A republic in a large country is inadvisable because it would quickly lead to military rule.

Question 15

Which of the following is false?

A) The National Security Strategy of the United States, revised and released one year after the World Trade Center attacks, put forward a new policy for checking the threat of nuclear war that relied on preemption.
B) A significant number of officials in the administration of George W. Bush felt that the United States had erred during the first Gulf War in 1991 in not pressing the operation all the way to Baghdad and ousting Saddam Hussein.
C) In the late 1990s Saddam Hussein's regime in Baghdad tested a low-yield nuclear warhead.
D) The comprehensive 9/11 Commission Report, published in 2004, offered no evidence of collaborative ties between Iraq and al-Qaida.

Question 16

The secretary of defense under President Kennedy and the architect of the blockade option during the Cuban missile crisis was ____________________________.

Question 17

________________ was the city-state that put Socrates on trial and condemned him to death.

Question 18

James Madison's theory of _________________________ helped to resolve the question of how liberty and authority could be created in a large country.

Question 19

____________________ argued in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 that only an empire or strong central government based on the British model could hold together a political community as large as the new American nation.

Question 20

The three major ethnic/religious groups in Iraq are the ___________, ___________, and ___________.

Question 21

____________________ was the terrorist group that emerged out of the chaos of the Iraq war and sought to establish an Islamic state that spanned parts of Iraq and Syria.

Question 22

Do you agree or disagree with Socrates's reasons for refusing to escape his punishment? (First please identify Socrates's reasons, then indicate your reasons for agreement or disagreement.)

Question 23

Are you persuaded by James Madison's theory that it is possible to reconcile liberty and authority in a large state? Why or why not? (First please outline Madison's solution to the problem, then set forth your position.)

Question 24

Do you believe that modern citizens can or cannot bear the burden of freedom? Explain your position.

Question 25

If you had been President John F. Kennedy at the time of the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, how would you have responded to the evidence that the Russians had offensive missiles in Cuba? Would you have made the same choices that Kennedy made? Why or why not? President Kennedy made choices that successfully resolved the crisis, but do you think his decisions were unnecessarily risky?

Question 26

In a critical essay, set forth your position on how important it is for students of political science to explore (1) political obligation, (2) creative breakthroughs in politics, (3) whether modern citizens can bear the burden of freedom, and (4) the perils of choice in the nuclear age.

Question 27

What changes in the decision-making process might have altered President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003?