Chapter 3

Which statement best depicts China?

China has become more capitalistic economically, but has an authoritarian political structure.

George Washington retired after two terms. No other president tried to serve longer, until __________.

Franklin Roosevelt

If a "first-past-the-post" country has three viable political parties, but no one ever reaches 50 percent of the vote, what is the most likely result over time?

The two parties that share the most ideologically will merge into a single political party.

Bailouts for financial giants in the United States deemed "too big to fail" are illustrative of the fact that __________.

even laissez-faire systems adopt other elements

Another way of describing single-member districts with plurality win is to use the phrase __________.

first past the post

Most FPTP systems are also called majoritarian systems because they __________.

give a clear parliamentary majority to one party

Which of the following is often the basis for center-periphery tensions?

regionalism

The American Civil War was largely fought for reasons that involved __________.

sectionalism

A process of devolution involves __________.

shifting some powers from central government to component units

If you were interested in designing a country with moderate, centrist, and pragmatic politics, what feature would you be most likely to support?

single-member districts

What is essentially the opposite of capitalism?

socialism

Single-member districts produce winners on the basis of __________.

plurality

Francis Fukuyama would likely agree with which of the following statements regarding democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq?

America's effort to democratize these countries has been met with very limited success because it essentially skipped over the prerequisites of a strong state and rule of law.

Which of the following is true of Japan's assembly?

It is unicameral.

Why have U.S. states been called laboratories of democracy?

States can experiment with new programs, which, if successful, can be copied nationwide.

Imagine that you are looking at a country's main political institutions to find out whether they meet a standard of good, effective governance. Which of the following characteristics would signify that they fail to meet this standard?

They are inflexible and have not evolved.

Almost all countries today are republics; this includes constitutional monarchies, due to the fact that royal families in constitutional monarchies __________.

are only figureheads

Which of the following would highlight a critical downside of a federal system?

a component state unable to raise sufficient funds to provide certain government services at the local level

Which of the following policy reforms would be most indicative of a laissez-faire approach?

eliminating a state's sales tax

The components of a federal system are typically represented __________.

in the upper chamber of the national legislature

Federalism is the balancing of power between a nation's central government and __________.

its autonomous subdivisions

Which of the following would highlight a critical downside of a unitary system?

local officials unable to make basic decisions without the express consent of the central government

Gerrymandered electoral districts __________.

make seats "safe" for one party or the other

At the heart of the concept of a federal system is __________.

the existence of component states with some powers that cannot be easily overridden by the central government

State capitalism in China or Russia means that __________.

the government is essentially the number-one capitalist

Weak states are characterized by __________.

the penetration of crime into politics

If you were most concerned with what could be the best agent of modernization in your country, experts would most likely point you toward the role of __________.

the state

First-past-the-post (FPTP) countries tend to have __________ systems.

two-party

If you read reports from a particular country that indicate how easily people can bribe police officers, prosecutors, and judges to get themselves out of legal trouble, this would most likely suggest the existence of what kind of state?

weak

Political institutions involve the __________ of a government.

working structures