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






3. 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?






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






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






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






7. The opportunity to choose among alternative candidates and positions






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






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






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






11. Traditionally measured as capacity and autonomy






12. Charismatic - Rational-legal - Traditional/patrimonial






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






14. Concentration vs. dispersal of power

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






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






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






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






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






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






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






23. 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)






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






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






26. Basically - density and quality of civil society






27. 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.






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






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






30. Efficiency vs. representativeness

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






32. A government with a one house legislature.






33. 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






34. Hypotheses based on what has been observed.






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






36. 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






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






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






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






40. 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






41. 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






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






43. how many seats are allotted to each electoral district






44. 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






45. 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.






46. 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






47. 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






48. 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






49. 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'






50. Use of method of inference to create generalizeable explanations