Test your basic knowledge |

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






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






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






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






5. 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






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






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






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






9. Hypotheses based on what has been observed.






10. 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






11. Shared sets of meanings






12. 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






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






14. 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?






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






16. The opportunity to choose among alternative candidates and positions






17. 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






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






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






20. Charismatic - Rational-legal - Traditional/patrimonial






21. 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.






22. Political parties - Interest groups - Social movements






23. Force + Legitimacy






24. Efficiency vs. representativeness

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/html/basicversity.com/show_quiz.php on line 183


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






26. Also known as interpersonal trust & tolerance






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






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






29. 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






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






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






32. 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






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






34. 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






35. 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






36. All voluntary associations/all secondary associations






37. 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






38. how many seats are allotted to each electoral district






39. 19th - in the United States and Western Europe.






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






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






42. A government with a one house legislature.






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






44. Use of method of inference to create generalizeable explanations






45. 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






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






47. 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.






48. 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.






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






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