Deck 1: Introduction

Question 1

Endogeneity refers to:

A)determining cause versus effect.
B)intellectual obstacles to new scholarship in social sciences.
C)the use of tools such as psychology to understand comparative politics.
D)the belief that most major political questions are close to being understood by scholars.
E)the use of new information from biology to study human political behavior.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Recent discussions of the future of comparative politics and political science have called for:

A)a greater connection to political ideas and questions of policy.
B)a greater use of social media to promote findings.
C)a greater focus on the relationship between politics and environmental change.
D)a greater distance between scholarship and real-world politics in order to remain objective.
E)making comparative politics a field of history rather than political science.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is deductive reasoning?

A)The means by which we go from a hypothesis to studying a number of cases.
B)The means by which we go from studying a single case to generating a hypothesis.
C)The means by which we test evidence using logic and mathematics.
D)The means by which we test evidence using extensive field research.
E)The means by which we use ideological assumptions to create policy.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Approaches like game theory rest on the assumption that humans are:

A)rational.
B)unpredictable.
C)not comparable across cultures.
D)only understandable through qualitative research.
E)malleable.

Question 5

Political scientists are limited in their use of the comparative method by:

A)the difficulty in controlling variables and a limited number of cases.
B)the large number of comparable cases and the difficulties in choosing between them.
C)university restrictions on carrying out field research.
D)their general reluctance to look at historical factors.
E)the decline of scholars interested in studying outside of their home country.

Question 6

A true comparative approach to politics only emerges with the work of:

A)Machiavelli.
B)Hobbes.
C)Rousseau.
D)Montesquieu.
E)Marx.

Question 7

Which of the following would be an example of selection bias?

A)Studying female literacy to see if it is correlated with nondemocratic regimes.
B)Only studying material that is consistent with your political ideology.
C)Only using statistical methods to conduct research.
D)Studying revolution by looking at case studies of revolution only.
E)Studying revolution by looking at case studies of revolution and nonrevolution.

Question 8

Critics of the behavioral revolution accused it of which of the following?

A)It had come to emphasize methods over knowledge.
B)It relied too much on Marxist assumptions regarding politics.
C)It was too focused on history.
D)It had not fully embraced mathematical innovations.
E)It was not interested in developing predictive models of politics.

Question 9

What is inductive reasoning?

A)The means by which we go from a hypothesis to studying a number of cases.
B)The means by which we go from studying a single case to generating a hypothesis.
C)The means by which we test evidence using logic and mathematics.
D)The means by which we test evidence using extensive field research.
E)The means by which we use ideological assumptions to create policy.

Question 10

One big rift within the study of comparative politics is:

A)quantitative versus didactic research.
B)epistemology versus ontology.
C)religious versus secular research.
D)quantitative versus qualitative research.
E)structural versus ideational.

Question 11

An institution can be defined as any:

A)organization or pattern of activity that is self-perpetuating and valued for its own sake.
B)large, monolithic organization that depends on a core bureaucracy and a set of standard operating procedures.
C)object or value that people support through public funds.
D)organization or action that is subject to government regulation.
E)spontaneous movement that is unable to sustain itself.

Question 12

The move toward a more scientific approach to political science and comparative politics began:

A)with the Renaissance.
B)at the start of the nineteenth century, alongside the Industrial Revolution.
C)following World War II.
D)following the Cold War.
E)around the time of the U.S.Civil War.

Question 13

Politics is defined in our text as the:

A)ability to impose your values on others.
B)struggle in any group for the power to make decisions for the larger group.
C)battle over economic resources and their use.
D)result of conflict between cultures.
E)relationship between international actors.

Question 14

Early approaches to comparative politics were eventually shaken by all of the following EXCEPT:

A)World War I.
B)the rise of fascism.
C)World War II.
D)the rise of the Cold War.
E)the Great Depression.

Question 15

The collapse of communism is important for comparative politics because:

A)scholars did not anticipate it, and it called their work to date into question.
B)many scholars using qualitative methods predicted it, while those using quantitative methods did not.
C)many scholars using quantitative methods predicted it, while those using qualitative methods did not.
D)the absence of communism as a point of comparison weakened the field.
E)it finally put an end to the use of Marxist ideas in the study of comparative politics.

Question 16

The earliest political thinker who practiced a form of comparative analysis was:

A)Plato.
B)Machiavelli.
C)Thucydides.
D)Aristotle.
E)Marx.

Question 17

The shift in political science toward seeking causality and using quantitative methods is known as the:

A)mathematical revolution.
B)behavioral revolution.
C)statistical turn.
D)analytical revolt.
E)causal transformation.

Question 18

A great criticism of comparative politics in the early twentieth century was that it:

A)focused too strongly on religious explanations.
B)was descriptive rather than explanatory.
C)was too quantitative.
D)was too focused on Asia.
E)was too focused on postrevolutionary states.

Question 19

Modernization theory can be defined as the view that:

A)few countries will ever modernize and embrace democracy.
B)as societies develop, they will become capitalist democracies.
C)each country and region will modernize in a different way, each with a different result.
D)significant change is possible only through revolution.
E)the only way to modernize is to apply scientific methods to policy problems.

Question 20

One of the problems in case study research can be in the cases that we use, or what is known as:

A)selection bias.
B)inference liability.
C)choice limiting.
D)norm bounding.
E)area studies.

Question 21

If you have to make a choice between greater individual freedom at the expense of collective equality or greater equality at the expense of freedom, which would you prefer? Why? Can you have both?

Question 22

Should comparative politics simply describe and explain politics around the world, or should it seek solutions to political problems? What might be some of the benefits or dangers of the latter approach?

Question 23

The substance of politics is inevitably bound up in the struggle between:

A)individual freedom and collective equality.
B)individual rights and collective responsibilities.
C)equality of opportunities and equality of outcomes.
D)liberty versus security.
E)revolutionary versus evolutionary change.

Question 24

A greater focus on collective equality is associated with:

A)a smaller state.
B)a larger state.
C)political violence.
D)civic responsibility.
E)political parties.

Question 25

What would a truly "scientific" study of politics look like? Is this approach possible?

Question 26

Which of the following is NOT an example of an institution found in North America and Europe?

A)The army.
B)Baseball, hockey, or soccer (football).
C)Restaurants.
D)Taxation.
E)Legislature.

Question 27

Institutions are important, in part, because they:

A)hinder democracy.
B)command authority and can influence behavior.
C)threaten personal freedom.
D)always lead to "red tape" and inferior outcomes.
E)only exist in wealthy countries.

Question 28

A greater focus on individual freedom is associated with:

A)a smaller state.
B)a larger state.
C)political violence.
D)civic responsibility.
E)political parties.

Question 29

What are the strongest institutions in your country that define politics? What are their benefits or drawbacks, and how easy would it be to change them?

Question 30

Why has it been so difficult to create a science of comparative politics? Is it simply because this area of study is relatively new, or are there fundamental obstacles that will always limit what we can know?