Deck 4: The Physical, Social, and Cultural Environment of Politics

Question 1

Which region of the world has the largest population?

A) Asia
B) Africa
C) North America
D) Latin America
E) the Middle East

Answer 1

Asia

Question 2

Which of the following countries is not a leading producer of metals and nonmetallic minerals?

A) China
B) Australia
C) Cuba
D) Russia

Answer 2

Cuba

Question 3

Which of the following was a primary assertion of Karl Marx?

A) Society's economic structure, especially its system of economic production, is the real foundation on which the political superstructure rests.
B) America's unique history promoted the success of its democratic experiment.
C) Revolution can best be understood as a series of historical phases through which society passes.
D) Human nature contains no specific war instinct or instinct for aggression.

Answer 3

Society's economic structure, especially its system of economic production, is the real foundation on which the political superstructure rests.

Question 4

The astute nineteenth-century observer who wrote Democracy in America was ______.

A) Crane Brinton
B) James Madison
C) James Harrington
D) Alexis de Tocqueville

Question 5

Population projections show that the world's population should reach which of the following levels by the year 2050?

A) 10.1 billion people
B) 6.5 billion people
C) 12.0 billion people
D) 9.6 billion people

Question 6

Which of the following is an incorrect statement about the political role of religion in the United States?

A) American Jews are strongly pro-Israel.
B) The Catholic Church has taken a strong stand against abortion.
C) The Christian right plays an important part in contemporary U.S. politics, particularly within the Democratic Party.
D) Protestants, especially Methodists, were instrumental in instituting Prohibition.

Question 7

Which of the following countries is not rich in oil?

A) Venezuela
B) Sudan
C) Saudi Arabia
D) Nigeria

Question 8

Which of the following statements is incorrect?

A) Because of their geography, the United Kingdom and Japan are vulnerable to a cutoff of food and raw materials.
B) Although the United States still uses significant amounts of imported crude oil, the amount imported has decreased in recent years.
C) Asian nations are among the most disadvantaged in terms of balance between population and food.
D) If a nation possesses favorable natural resources, this almost always confers political advantage.

Question 9

In his study Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville made which of the following observations?

A) He asserted that a strong religious tradition makes it very difficult for creative statesmen to advance democracy and equality in the United States.
B) He noted the significance of a unique American history relatively free of aristocracy.
C) He downplayed the value of an Anglo-Saxon inheritance of constitutional liberty.
D) He argued that there was little strategic value to the 3,000 miles of ocean separating America from Europe.

Question 10

Which of the following is not a true statement about the Enlightenment?

A) The Enlightenment emerged in the late seventeenth century in Europe.
B) The Enlightenment has shaped the political philosophy of liberal democracy, democratic socialism, and communism.
C) The Enlightenment was built on a strong commitment to freedom, reason, and progress.
D) The culture of the Enlightenment has been criticized as naive and unrealistic.

Question 11

The stated primary goal of ISIS is to ______.

A) establish a Muslim economic zone in the Persian Gulf region
B) convert large numbers of nonbelievers, specifically in China
C) establish a caliphate or Islamic state that erases state borders and eventually declares authority over the world's 1.5 billion Muslims
D) overthrow the Iraqi and Syrian governments and establish two independent Islamic states along the Iranian model

Question 12

In assessing the influence of technology on politics, which of the following is incorrect?

A) Twenty-four-hour television cable news has expanded the timeliness and breadth of both domestic and international news.
B) Social media has proven a remarkable tool for political mobilization and change.
C) One of the downsides to the enormous growth in cyber communications is the threat to privacy.
D) Surprisingly, the Internet has not had a great impact on political campaigning in the United States.

Question 13

The greatest surge in population growth between now and 2100 is projected to take place in ______.

A) Europe
B) Latin America and the Caribbean
C) Asia
D) Africa

Question 14

Which of the following is correct?

A) The Christian right delivered roughly the same percentage of votes for Donald Trump in 2016 as they had for Mitt Romney in 2012.
B) The Christian right now constitutes a major force within the Democratic Party.
C) Despite the efforts of a broad coalition of forces - U.S., NATO, Russians, the Kurdish Community, and Syria - as of mid-2018, ISIS maintained virtually all of the territory that it had seized in Iraq and Syria.
D) Religious fundamentalism is almost exclusively an American phenomenon.

Question 15

________________________ is the term used to describe a set of attitudes toward citizenship and politics that helps sustain a democratic, stable, and effective nation.

Question 16

A nation's _______________________ constitution reflects its traditional ways of conducting social, economic, and political business, and it originates in a community's history.

Question 17

The __________________________ movement emerged in the late eighteenth century and was characterized by revolution as well as by a belief in freedom, reason, and progress.

Question 18

The two South Asian countries that find much of their conflict with each other based on tension between Muslim and Hindu faiths are ______________ and ______________.

Question 19

________________________ contended that a society's economic structure, especially its system of economic production, is the foundation on which the political superstructure rests.

Question 20

In 2016, Russian hackers broke into one of the major computer servers belonging to _______________________.

Question 21

The ___________________was a Western-dominated movement committed to reason, freedom, and progress that emerged most clearly in the late eighteenth century.

Question 22

In the field of ecology, political scientists have become increasingly concerned with the concept of ________________________, the idea that biological systems must endure and remain diverse and productive over time.

Question 23

The revolution of ______________________ reflects the hope for a better way of life and is especially associated with peoples in the developing world.

Question 24

In trying to assess the importance of the key factors that shape politics and society--psychological, economic, sociological, scientific/technical, historical--which one factor, in your judgment, is the most important, and why?

Question 25

What are some of the basic beliefs of the Age of Enlightenment, how have they influenced our political systems, and what are some of the criticisms to which the beliefs are subjected?

Question 26

Discuss some of the physical attributes of the earth that influence our political life--the way we govern ourselves and the types of issues we must politically confront.

Question 27

In what ways do people's methods of earning a living crucially influence the world of politics?

Question 28

Discuss some of the ways the Christian right has affected the contemporary American political system.

Question 29

Write an essay that describes Islamic fundamentalism and its impact on world politics.

Question 30

Write an essay that discusses some of the ways science and technology have affected the political world. Consider both positive and negative influences in your essay.

Question 31

Discuss some of the ways that race, ethnicity, and class have influenced, and still do influence, politics.

Question 32

Incorporating the ideas of thinkers like Aristotle, Madison, Harrington, and Marx, discuss some of the ways economics affects politics.