Comparative Politics (with American component)
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Course Introduction
Comparative Politics (with American component) examines the structures, processes, and outcomes of different political systems around the world with a special emphasis on the United States. The course explores various theories and methodologies used to analyze political institutions, behavior, and policy-making across democratic and authoritarian regimes. Students will compare the United States political system with other governmental models, considering factors such as electoral systems, federalism, political parties, and public administration. Through case studies and thematic analyses, the course encourages a deeper understanding of how historical, cultural, and social contexts influence political development and governance both within and beyond the American experience.
Recommended Textbook
The American Political System 2nd full Edition with policy chapters 2014 Election Update by Ken
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17 Chapters
948 Verified Questions
948 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction
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Q1) A/an ____________________ is a stable rule that establishes a procedure or process for selecting a/an ____________________.
A) institution/public policy
B) algorithm/institution
C) political system/algorithm
D) public policy/institution
E) institution/political system
Answer: A
Q2) In the United States,important political decisions are typically made by elected representatives of the citizenry rather than directly by the people themselves.The United States' political system may,therefore,be classified as a/an
A) one-party state
B) democracy
C) monarchy
D) dictatorship
E) republic
Answer: E
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Page 3
Chapter 2: the Constitution
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Q1) When deciding what policy areas Congress is allowed to act on,twentieth-century Courts have primarily used ____________________ as a guide,because they interpret it to mean ____________________.
A) the elastic clause; that Congress has the power to make laws to provide for the general welfare of the United States
B) the supremacy clause; that the federal government has broad authority to act in spite of state policies
C) the commerce clause; that the federal government has the right to regulate most business and commercial activity in the United States
D) the Tenth Amendment; that the federal government cannot act in policy areas that are reserved for the states
E) stare decisis; that they must defer to previous jurisprudence to ensure continuity in the application of the law
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Federalism
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Q1) Which term denotes money that is distributed to lower-level governments with the purpose of funding special projects?
A) grants-in-aid
B) categorical grants
C) block grants
D) matching grants
E) revenue sharing
Answer: A
Q2) Which policy area is most clearly a reserved power of the state governments under the U.S.Constitution?
A) emissions regulation
B) national defense
C) coining money
D) taxation
E) economic regulation
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Civil Rights and Liberties
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Q1) Which institution or institutions is/are most directly responsible for enforcing the Constitution's limits on government power?
A) Congress
B) the president
C) states
D) federal courts
E) the United Nations
Q2) Which Supreme Court decision held that blacks did not possess the rights and freedoms guaranteed to citizens under the U.S.Constitution?
A) Engle v. Vitale
B) Marbury v. Madison
C) Plessy v. Fergusson
D) Roe v. Wade
E) Dred Scott v. Sandford
Q3) How does the American system of rights and liberties compare to those in other democratic countries? In what ways do Americans have more rights than citizens of other democracies? In what ways do Americans have fewer rights than citizens of other democratic countries?
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Chapter 5: Congress
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Sample Questions
Q1) How can votes on the floor of the House and Senate be utilized by interest groups?
A) Scores of closeness to the group's interest are generated through votes.
B) Senators are differentiated from representatives.
C) Interest groups use votes to push for new interest groups.
D) Representatives utilize these to grade their party leaders.
E) Interest groups judge based on individual bills.
Q2) What does the elastic clause entail?
A) the distance between Congress and the president increases and decreases when the elastic clause is exercised
B) the Supreme Court can become more activist when the need to do so arises
C) the powers given to Congress can be expanded through the authority to make laws in the national interest
D) the powers given to Congress can be expanded without limit to cover any facet of daily life
E) the powers given to the president can be expanded through the authority to make laws in the national interest
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Chapter 6: the Presidency
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Q1) Explain the concepts of formal powers and informal powers as they relate to the American presidency.Identify at least two formal powers of the presidency as well as two of its informal powers.Which set of powers is more important for presidents? Discuss a specific example or examples to support your claim.
Q2) Why does the power of the president not return to lower levels after crises?
A) Crises increase presidential popularity, and this popularity does not decrease.
B) The institutions created to respond to crises persist, and give the president power. C) Crises do not increase presidential power.
D) The Supreme Court constantly supports the president.
E) Referendums make this new power permanent.
Q3) Discuss the evolution of presidential power.Identify the major periods or phases of presidential history and how the actions of specific presidents enhanced or undermined the powers of the presidency.In particular,compare the scope of presidential authority and activity intended by the Founders with that exercised by modern American presidents.
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8
Chapter 7: the Bureaucracy
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Sample Questions
Q1) President Obama,a Democrat,wants to increase the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate and penalize private businesses.The Republicans have a majority in the House of Representatives and they believe that regulating private business is harmful and invasive.Republicans can most effectively undermine Obama's directive by ____________________.
A) withholding agency authorization
B) withholding appropriations
C) increasing fire-alarm oversight
D) increasing police-patrol oversight
E) forming an iron triangle
Q2) Suppose a federal agency created under a Democratic president and a Democratic-controlled Congress finds itself at odds with a newly elected Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress.This is an example of ____________________.
A) bureaucratic escape
B) bureaucratic capture
C) agency loss
D) coalitional drift
E) bureaucratic drift
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Page 9
Chapter 8: the Judiciary
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the Fletcher v.Peck case the Supreme Court ____________________.
A) first declared a federal law invalid under the U.S. Constitution
B) first declared a state law invalid under the U.S. Constitution
C) set precedents for defining the appropriate powers of Congress to regulate commerce
D) first asserted its supremacy over state courts
E) ruled that a Montana law banning corporate and union campaign contributions violated the interpretation of federal law given in Citizens United v. FEC (2010)
Q2) ____________________ is the official status of a litigant who is entitled to have his or her case decided by a court.
A) Certification
B) Indemnity
C) Standing
D) Privilege
E) Merit
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Chapter 9: Public Opinion
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Sample Questions
Q1) ____________________ is the collection of attitudes,opinions,and preferences of the general public.
A) An opinion poll
B) A survey sample
C) Public opinion
D) Collective judgment
E) Public mood
Q2) A ____________________ sample does not accurately represent the overall population from which it is drawn.
A) blended
B) biased
C) broken
D) bilateral
E) bifurcated
Q3) A "push poll" is ____________________.
A) the same thing as a straw poll
B) a cost-efficient form of polling used in campaigns
C) not really polling at all, but rather a form of marketing and campaigning
D) a form of polling that uses random selection to choose respondents
E) the preferred form of polling for candidates running campaigns
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Chapter 10: Political Participation
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Q1) Which is NOT currently a "cost" of voting in American national elections?
A) registering to vote
B) gathering information on candidates and parties
C) identifying and locating the correct polling place
D) time spent casting a ballot
E) payment of an actual poll tax
Q2) Socioeconomic status is a measure of the way that individuals are regarded in society by virtue of their wealth,incomes,education,and ____________________.
A) religion
B) race
C) profession
D) height
E) morality
Q3) Which region of the country tends to have lower voter turnout?
A) northeast
B) west
C) mid-atlantic
D) south
E) mid-west
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Page 12
Chapter 11: Interest Groups and Social Movements
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Sample Questions
Q1) Lobbyists tend to lobby legislators or bureaucrats who ____________________.
A) are most strongly opposed to the group's position
B) are indecisive about supporting the group's position
C) are supportive of the group's position
D) are less senior, that is, have served little time in their institution
E) are more senior, that is, have served much time in their institution
Q2) Which are activities by interest group leaders that seek to mobilize constituents and others outside the policy-making process to pressure policy makers?
A) outside lobbying
B) inside lobbying
C) pandering
D) argumentation
E) profiling
Q3) A critic of American pluralism once wrote,"The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent." Explain this critique of pluralism.In this critical view,what is problematic about the role of interest groups in making public policy in the United States? How does this problem arise? What can be done about it?
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Chapter 12: Political Parties
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Sample Questions
Q1) Identify and explain three major theories of partisan identification.How does each theory conceptualize individual identification with a political party? To what extent does each theory represent partisanship as a psychological identity versus the product of rational judgment? In your opinion,which model most clearly represents your own association (or lack thereof)with a political party?
Q2) In which model of party identification are party labels represented as a psychological bias rather than a rational response to complex political information?
A) running tally
B) gut rationality
C) information shortcut
D) Michigan model
E) party professionalism
Q3) Which group was part of the New Deal coalition?
A) business owners
B) northern Republicans
C) southern Democrats
D) legal aliens
E) latinos
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Chapter 13: Elections and Campaigns
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Q1) What was the primary effect of Citizens United v.FEC (2010)?
A) Corporations and unions were limited further in their ability to donate to political campaigns.
B) Corporations and unions may spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigns as long as the spending is independent of direct candidate donation.
C) Individuals, but not corporations or unions, can donate as much money as they would like directly to candidates.
D) All campaign finance laws have been completely overturned, and anyone can donate as much money as they would like directly to campaigns.
E) All campaigns must now be run with public funds.
Q2) How many votes must a candidate receive to win an election under a plurality rule?
A) more than half of all votes cast
B) all of the votes cast
C) more votes than any other candidate
D) more votes than all other candidates combined
E) two-thirds of the votes cast
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15
Chapter 14: Mass Media and the Press
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which term refers to a media organization's systematic tendency to emphasize certain types of stories or aspects of stories?
A) gatekeeping bias
B) elite bias
C) ideological bias
D) coverage bias
E) statement bias
Q2) In what ways might media organizations be thought of as principals in principal-agent relationships with other entities? In what ways might media organizations assume the role of an agent? How does the duality of the media's role in American politics,serving as both principal in some capacities and agent in others,shape the type of political information that Americans receive?
Q3) The Internet has drastically changed how individuals get information,as well as the messages they receive.How has the Internet and new media in general changed American politics? In particular,how have elections and campaigns been affected?
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16
Chapter 15: Economic Policy
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Sample Questions
Q1) Since World War II,the U.S.government has spent ____________________ the typical western European country on social welfare policies,nationalized health care,and public education,both on a per capita basis and as a percentage of gross domestic product.
A) about the same amount of money as B) more money than C) less money than D) substantially more money than E) less time developing strategies than
Q2) Government can promote trade by ____________________ tariffs and having few or no limits on imports,or can restrict trade by ____________________ tariffs. A) implementing; raising B) eliminating; lowering C) implementing; eliminating D) raising; lowering E) lowering; raising
Q3) Describe the federal budgetary process.When and by whom is the annual budget first proposed? How and by whom is this initial proposal changed? How and by whom is a final budget crafted and enacted?
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Page 17
Chapter 16: Social Policy
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Q1) Define the term means-tested.Identify one major federal social program that is means-tested and another that is not means-tested.Why are some social programs means-tested while others are available to qualified classes of people without regard to income?
Q2) In general,political liberals regard inequality as the result of ____________________.
A) a lack of moral virtue
B) misguided social policies
C) structural features of a capitalist economy
D) the natural distribution of talent and ability
E) failed family structures
Q3) What is a welfare state?
A) a state that allocates more than 40 percent of its budget to programs and services intended for low-income families and individuals
B) an economic crisis caused by the lack of comprehensive social policies
C) only accompanied by the reduction of social programs
D) the set of government programs devoted to social policy
E) a state that allocates more than 60 percent of its budget to programs and services intended for low-income families and individuals
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Page 18
Chapter 17: Foreign Policy
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Q1) Belief in the United Nations as an effective venue for the resolution of international conflict is consistent with ____________________.
A) conservatism
B) idealism
C) confrontationalism
D) isolationism
E) realism
Q2) Which term is associated with the observation that historically it has been very rare for democratic countries to fight wars against one another?
A) Democratic Peace
B) Pax Americana
C) New World Order
D) neorealism
E) democratization
Q3) How do domestic politics shape U.S.foreign policy? In particular,what role does electoral pressure created by various interest groups and ethnic communities play in shaping the United States' policies toward specific countries? Give at least two examples of how domestic political dynamics influence foreign policy decision making.
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