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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. Any identity that significantly shapes our political decisions






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






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






4. Warfare and military technology - Economic: development of trade and manufacturing and new financial/fiscal instruments - Cultural: Enlightenment - (There are also Environmental/geographic factors)






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






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






7. All voluntary associations/all secondary associations






8. 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






9. 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






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






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






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






13. Historical origins. Failure of liberalism to address shortcomings of capitalist industrialization; Marx - Central assumption: All persons are of equal value - but they cannot develop themselves alone






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






15. 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'






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






17. 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






18. 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






19. Think of this as gender as outcome; what factors - esp. political ones - lead to changes in gender roles? Key finding: politics does matter - especially who has an organized voice. Formal rules - number/identity of parties - etc.






20. Traditionally measured as capacity and autonomy






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






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






23. The rules about making the rules - often embodied in a constitution.






24. Efficiency vs. representativeness


25. A systematic study of the structures of two or more political systems (such as those of Britain and the People's Republic of China) to achieve an understanding of how different societies manage the realities of governing. Also considered are politica






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






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






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






29. Force + Legitimacy






30. A government with a one house legislature.






31. 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






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






33. Concentration vs. dispersal of power


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






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






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






37. The making of collectively binding decisions






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






39. Also known as interpersonal trust & tolerance






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






41. 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






42. Shared sets of meanings






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






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






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






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






47. 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






48. 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?






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






50. 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