Deck 1: Introduction

Question 1

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

A) a greater focus on the relationship between politics and environmental change.
B) a greater use of social media to promote findings.
C) a greater connection to real-world concerns and contribution to the ideals of civic life.
D) even greater distance between scholarship and real-world politics in order to remain objective.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Which of the following could be considered a major challenge faced by political scientists in their use of the comparative method?

A) tendency of researchers to focus on too broad a geographic area
B) difficulty in choosing from among a large number of comparable cases
C) general reluctance to look at historical factors
D) difficulty in controlling variables

Answer 2

D

Question 3

In which of the following ways were behaviorialism and modernization theory similar?

A) They both constituted a set of hypotheses about how countries develop.
B) They both rejected the study of politics as a means to generate specific policy outcomes.
C) They both attempted to broaden comparative politics outside of the European model.
D) They both constituted new, more scientific attempts to study politics.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

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

A) studying revolutions by looking at cases with outcomes of revolution and nonrevolution
B) only studying evidence consistent with your political ideology
C) studying the causes of democracy by looking only at cases with outcomes of democracy
D) studying religiosity to see if it is correlated with postcolonial regimes

Question 5

The shift in comparative politics away from political institutions (such as legislatures and constitutions)and toward individual political behavior is known as the

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

Question 6

Modernization theory can be defined as the view that

A) as societies develop, they will become capitalist democracies, converging around shared values.
B) each country and region will likely take a different route to modernization.
C) significant social and economic change is possible only through revolution.
D) the only way to modernize is to apply scientific methods to social and economic problems.

Question 7

What is inductive reasoning?

A) starting from a hypothesis, then seeking out the evidence
B) starting from a single case, then generating a hypothesis
C) the process of testing evidence using extensive field research
D) using ideological assumptions to create policy

Question 8

Which of the following statements best describes the current trend in comparative politics research?

A) There is discussion of moving away from predictive models toward a more historical-cultural approach to establish trends and patterns.
B) An evolution toward models that analyze politics and compare its role in different countries-inductively, deductively, qualitatively, and quantitatively-is well under way.
C) There has been a strong trend in comparative politics toward using quantitative methodologies to the near-total exclusion of qualitative methods.
D) More comparative politics scholars are using a mixed-method approach to conducting research.

Question 9

Which of the following statements about game theory is accurate?

A) It assumes rational, predictable behavior by individuals.
B) It considers cultural factors to be a major determinant of human political choices.
C) Its primary political actor of focus is the institution.
D) It is often used in qualitative research.

Question 10

A major criticism of comparative politics at the turn of the twentieth century was that it

A) relied too heavily on predictive models.
B) was too focused on postrevolutionary states.
C) employed too many quantitative methods.
D) tended to be descriptive, atheoretical, and Eurocentric.

Question 11

In case study research,one problem that may emerge is choosing only cases that match the expected results of the research question.This is known as

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

Question 12

Endogeneity refers to the

A) problem of distinguishing cause from effect.
B) use of methods from psychology to better understand comparative politics.
C) problem that some political questions may not have answers.
D) use of research from biology or other sciences to study human behavior.

Question 13

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

A) It was too focused on history.
B) It had come to emphasize methodology over knowledge.
C) It had not fully embraced mathematical innovations.
D) It was not interested in developing predictive models of politics.

Question 14

Which of the following statements about the current institutional approach to comparative politics is accurate?

A) It rejects the value of studying how individuals shape politics.
B) It accepts the basic tenets of modernization theory but provides more empirical support.
C) It shares an emphasis on the importance of institutions with pre-1950s comparative politics research.
D) It differs from behavioralism in its rejection of cause-and-effect relationships.

Question 15

A distinct comparative approach to politics first emerges with the work of

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

Question 16

One big rift within the study of comparative politics is

A) poststructuralism versus critical realism.
B) epistemology versus ontology.
C) quantitative versus qualitative research.
D) structural versus agent-centered research.

Question 17

What is deductive reasoning?

A) starting from a hypothesis, then seeking out the evidence
B) starting from a single case, then generating a hypothesis
C) the process of testing evidence using extensive field research
D) using ideological assumptions to create policy

Question 18

Politics is defined as the

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

Question 19

Which of the following events marked a major turning point in the field of comparative politics?

A) World War I, World War II, and the Cold War
B) the Great Depression
C) the American Civil War and Reconstruction
D) the United Nations and NATO

Question 20

An institution can be defined as any

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

Question 21

Which of the following is true of the concept of political institutions?

A) Strong institutions generate good norms and values; weak institutions generate negative or destructive ones.
B) U.S. democracy is an institution in both the formal and informal sense.
C) Most countries lack common formal political institutions.
D) When taxation is "institutionalized," tax evasion often increases as a result.

Question 22

Discuss the emergence of and basic characteristics of modernization theory and behavioralism.How do the two approaches in comparative politics differ from each other,and how are they similar?

Question 23

How strongly is democracy institutionalized in your country? Has its level of institutionalization changed over time,and how difficult would it be to deinstitutionalize democracy? What formal structures support its institutionalization?

Question 24

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

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

Question 25

Which of the following forms of research or data would more likely be used by a quantitative research study than by a qualitative research study?

A) economic data
B) interview data
C) observational research
D) archival data

Question 26

In which of the following ways did behavioralism differ from modernization theory?

A) It was more of a methodology than a set of hypotheses.
B) It put less emphasis on empirical, data-driven research.
C) It demonstrated a narrower geographic range of interest.
D) It put greater emphasis on the historical evolution of political institutions.

Question 27

In which of the following ways does quantitative research differ from qualitative research?

A) It is more likely to have a specific geographic focus.
B) It is more likely to use inductive reasoning.
C) It favors a wider use of cases not restricted by area specialization.
D) Its variables tend to be less rigorously defined.

Question 28

A greater focus on individual freedom is most likely to require

A) a smaller role for the state.
B) a larger role for the state.
C) greater civic responsibility.
D) more political parties.

Question 29

A greater focus on collective equality is associated with

A) a smaller role for the state.
B) a larger role for the state.
C) less political violence.
D) fewer political parties.

Question 30

In which of the following ways can multicausality affect comparative politics research?

A) It reduces limits to information and information-gathering procedures.
B) It allows comparative politics researchers to make more accurate predictions about real-world phenomena.
C) It complicates the comparative method and makes it more difficult to develop concrete explanations about real-world phenomena.
D) It helps provide a wider number of cases for researchers to study.

Question 31

To a comparativist,which would be of more value: discovery of a correlation or discovery of a causal relationship? Why?

A) correlation, because it demonstrates empirically that two variables are related
B) causal relationship, because it describes a more concrete, specific relationship between two variables
C) correlation, because it is more valuable for quantitative research findings
D) neither, as both terms describe essentially the same relationship between two variables

Question 32

What is the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning? Why are both forms of reasoning important in determining correlations and/or causal relationships in comparative politics?

Question 33

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

Question 34

Describe the difference between qualitative and quantitative methodology in comparative politics.How has this difference evolved over time? How does a mixed-methods approach fit into this debate?

Question 35

Which of the following is true of the work of most comparativists?

A) When they expand study outside of a single country, they still tend to limit their scope to a single geographic region.
B) They seek to study countries for which the least amount of established research has been accomplished.
C) They try to choose countries with radically different political systems in order to maximize variability in cases.
D) They tend to limit their focus to a single level of economic development.