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






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






3. 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)






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






5. Think of this as 'gender as cause'. Gender roles change and/or mix of women in politics changes; what is the consequence? Key finding: having more women in public office changes the policy agenda - i.e. - more focus on women's issues






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






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






8. Basically - density and quality of civil society






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






10. 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






11. Describes the principal characteristics of what has been studied.






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






13. 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






14. Selective incentives - Small group size - Social (solidary) incentives - Homogeneity - Others? Duty and altruism? Love?






15. The opportunity to choose among alternative candidates and positions






16. A historical exploration of the major contributions to political thought from the ancient Greeks to the contemporary theorists. It also involves the philosophical and speculative consideration of the political world.






17. Any identity that significantly shapes our political decisions






18. 19th - in the United States and Western Europe.






19. The use of force by states or non-state actors to achieve political goals






20. A government with a one house legislature.






21. 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






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






23. Historical origins. A reaction to liberalism - Central assumption: 'The highest good of society [is] the maintenance of ordered community and of common values' (p. 28) One of the 3 big idealogies






24. 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






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






26. 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






27. An organization that seeks elective office - Currency/instrument: votes






28. State of nature (collective action problem) - Hobbes' solution: the social contract






29. Charismatic - Rational-legal - Traditional/patrimonial






30. Regime where the rulers are accountable to the ruled.






31. it works better in the long run - less risk/variability






32. 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






33. how many seats are allotted to each electoral district






34. Shorter-lived - Slightly less repressive - Ideology not so clear - In favor of capitalism - though with state involvement - Based more on Social Darwinism/racism/nationlsm - Conservatism run amok?






35. Territorial monopoly over the legitimate use of force. Refers to the government + the people + the territory ('the country')






36. The organized study of government and politics. It borrows from the related disciplines of history - philosophy - sociology - economics - and law.






37. Concentration vs. dispersal of power


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






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






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






41. The mathematical formula used to allocate the seats according to the vote - Plurality or 'first-past-the-post' - various PR formulas - such as D'Hondt - largest remainders - St. Lague - etc.






42. Traditionally measured as capacity and autonomy






43. Public administration (civil service). All (non-military) government workers not elected to their posts - but hired (United States beginning in 1880s)






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






45. monopoly over the legitimate use of force






46. The identities that can become political are those formed very early in life or perhaps vaguely racial/genetic. Struggles to explain (rapid) cultural change - or which identities become politicized






47. Compiling a body of data based on direct observation that can be utilized both to explain what has been observed and to form valid generalizations.






48. Use of method of inference to create generalizeable explanations






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






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