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






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






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






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






5. 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.






6. The making of collectively binding decisions






7. how many seats are allotted to each electoral district






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






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






10. Use of method of inference to create generalizeable explanations






11. 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






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






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






14. Concentration vs. dispersal of power

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15. All voluntary associations/all secondary associations






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






17. A government with a one house legislature.






18. Shared sets of meanings






19. Efficiency vs. representativeness

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






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






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






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. Situation where all fully qualified citizens have an equal say






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






26. 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






27. 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






28. Charismatic - Rational-legal - Traditional/patrimonial






29. 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






30. 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)






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






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






33. Hypotheses based on what has been observed.






34. 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






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






36. Also known as interpersonal trust & tolerance






37. monopoly over the legitimate use of force






38. 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'






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






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






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






42. Political parties - Interest groups - Social movements






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






44. 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






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






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






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






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






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






50. 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