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






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






3. Number of Parties 2 - Constitutional Review: Judicial Review - Number of chambers: bicameral - Federalism: Federal






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






5. 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?






6. 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






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






8. 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






9. 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






10. Force + Legitimacy






11. A government with a one house legislature.






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






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






14. A basic plan that outlines the structure and functions of the national government. Clearly rooted in Western political thought - it sets limits on government and protects both property and individual rights.






15. 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






16. Also known as interpersonal trust & tolerance






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






18. 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'






19. The opportunity to choose among alternative candidates and positions






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






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






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






23. 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






24. 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






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






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






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






28. 19th - in the United States and Western Europe.






29. 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.






30. A political system controlled by rulers who deny popular participation in government






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






32. Historical origins. A response to the old feudal order and the rise of modern capitalism - 'The highest good of society [is] the ability of the members of that society to develop their individual capacities to the fullest extent' (p. 26) One of the 3






33. 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






34. Efficiency vs. representativeness


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






36. Concentration vs. dispersal of power


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






38. Shared sets of meanings






39. 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.






40. All voluntary associations/all secondary associations






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






42. 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






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






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






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






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






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






48. 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






49. monopoly over the legitimate use of force






50. Use of method of inference to create generalizeable explanations