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CLEP Political Science

Subjects : clep, political-science
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A civil war (...) in which one party is the state - the insurgents win - the insurgents have a lot of popular support - and the insurgents implement 'wholesale political change'






2. All voluntary associations/all secondary associations






3. monopoly over the legitimate use of force






4. An identity-based community - where the identity is strong enough that we think we should probably be sovereign...






5. The making of collectively binding decisions






6. A government with a one house legislature.






7. Monarchies - Single-party regimes - Military regimes - Oligarchies - Theocracies - Personalistic regimes






8. Comparative Politics - International Relations - American Politics - (normative) theory or Political Philosophy






9. Public vs. private goods - Non-exclusivity. The owner can't deny access - Inexhaustability. The good is never used up - Jointness of supply. Its existence depends on our combined contribution; truly 'collective' - Free riding. We generally fail to co






10. A non-meritocratic system in which jobs and contracts are distributed according to partisan support - (The U.S. 'spoils system' of the 19th century')






11. when you must get a minimum percent of votes to have your votes count or (sometimes) to retain your party registration






12. The set of relationships among parties in a country - Often categorized by the effective number of parties.






13. You see a puzzle - You come up with a potential explanation (a 'theory') - You test it with evidence (data drawn from the 5 senses) - You share the results with others and get their feedback - Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you publish






14. Process or moment of changing from one regime type to another Ex: Arab Springs (Causes: cultural or economice - or military culture) - (int'l factors: U.S. foreign policy - Soviet foreign policy - Changes to Catholic doctrine - EU accession - Globali






15. Situation of stability - no party has incentive and ability to undermine the regime (Causes: cultural or economice - or military culture) - (Int'l Factors: U.S. foreign policy - Soviet foreign policy - Changes to Catholic doctrine - EU accession - G






16. (Voluntary) allocation (production and distribution) of goods and services






17. Tactics An organization that seeks to influence government through 'contentious' or 'disruptive' politics - Currency/instrument: show of force - numbers - brinkmanship - Organization A (non-hierarchical) network of organizations and individuals worki






18. In social movements - rational choice and culture come together - Culture: the sense of a righteous - popular will that has been subverted ('framing'/'grievance') - Motivates collective action - But also determines the choice of organization and tact






19. Long-lived - Extreme lack of social pluralism - Well-defined ideology - Against capitalism - Based on Marxist arguments about class solidarity - economic determinism - Socialism run amok?






20. No or low citizen accountability ('subjects' rather than 'citizens') - Reciprocal relationship between leader and selectorate - Totalitarianism vs. authoritarianism






21. equality in political decision making: one vote per person - with all votes counted equally






22. Number of Parties 2 - Constitutional Review: Parliamentary supremacy - Number of chambers: Unicameral/weak bicameral - Federalism: Unitary






23. Utility maximization - Preferences: Comparability/Completeness - Transitivity - Probability - Incomplete information and uncertainty about future - Mathematical modeling






24. Identities are malleable - and anything can become politicized. Struggles to explain fundamental patterns in political identity or their grasp on our souls. Can't really explain which identities become politicized either






25. A formal document that sets up the basic rules of the political game






26. A subset of culture - based on our ability to attach labels to ourselves and others - or to define ourselves in terms of the groups we belong to - Some political examples: Partisan identity - Class identity - Ethnic identity - National identity






27. Basically - synonymous for statistical method - Large numbers of observational data - 'Control' for confounding factors






28. A consideration of how nations interact with each other within the frameworks of law - diplomacy - and international organizations such as the United Nations.






29. Efficiency vs. representativeness


30. Any identity that significantly shapes our political decisions






31. Hypotheses based on what has been observed.






32. Basically - density and quality of civil society






33. Shared sets of meanings






34. Hard to amass resources (money and information) - Short-lived - The dilemma of formalization






35. Energy or righteous zeal wins large numbers of participants - Nimble in framing issues and changing tactics






36. Political violence by non-state actors against civilian targets






37. About agency: we deserve freedom and need to be held meaningfully accountable






38. 19th - in the United States and Western Europe.






39. how many seats are allotted to each electoral district






40. The opportunity to choose among alternative candidates and positions






41. Situation where all fully qualified citizens have an equal say






42. Ideology An ideology that seeks the active reshaping of minds of individuals and believes this can/must be done by force - Coercive mobilization - No social or political pluralism






43. America's two ideologies (Liberal and Conservative) are two versions of classic liberalism






44. Analyzing the data that has been collected and offering plausible general principles that can be drawn from what has been observed.






45. Process tracing through case studies. Requires a well-developed theory and minute examination ('process tracing')






46. Utility: self-interest - but what constitutes self-interest? Material self-interest? Economics - Politics. Example: vote maximization - The gospel Failures of rationality - Really incomplete information & satisfaction - Intransitivity and other cogni






47. Individual rationality does not always lead to collective rationality - Walking on the grass - Policy implementation is problematic - Voting; protests; interest groups; etc. are underprovided (Olson's point)






48. Political parties - Interest groups - Social movements






49. A political organization that primarily uses lobbying - Currency/instrument: money - information - numbers






50. A consciously derived - coherent set of beliefs that offers a comprehensive political program